Ideas

I was thinking that if we wanted to emulate Cambrian House, instead of "Cambros" as a way to measure success and have payouts, we could instead have Pun Duck's [B]"Fun Bucks"[/B]!

This idea drives me quackers!!! This is a real feather in your cap Richex. Crazier ideas have worked - you might even say they were daffy!

FYI everyone - critical information (well, all is relative)!

A major UK website did a study on jokes. Here is one of their conclusions:

"Many of the jokes submitted contained reference to animals. We found that jokes mentioning ducks are funnier than others. Perhaps it’s because of their beaks, or webbed feet, or odd shape. Regardless, the implication is clear â€" if you are going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck."

Source: http://www.laughlab.co.uk

I don' dislike the idea, but to be honest I think some children of the age you mention are interested in other things.
You have to find a smaller range, although I'm not usre which age is best suited.
Tommy

Thanks. Yes, it (the age range) either needs to be honed down or the site will need a way to herd the kids towards their own interests.

I have been in communications with a professor at a well-known university in the UK who is and expert in comedy (I am not kidding). He has provided me with some research on children and comedy which I can use to do that. This comedy stuff is serious business!!

I like this idea. I could see it working with one of the big players, Disney etc.
They would want to target kids very precisely in age range and in the products they would advertise on the site

Great Idea, could have multiple applications !

Good enough to steal ! I would look into protecting the IP.

Good Luck

"Comedy is tragedy plus time."

You'd be surprised how few 4 year olds understand this, and rarely get The Onion's classic post 9/11 ditty...
"US military as strong as ever says spokesman at the Quadragon."

But of course if you think a duck will be funnier to children than The Onion...

I like the idea, if you can write or recruit enough writers to create the globs of content that will be required (the educational content). As far as children submitting jokes, I think it could be quite compelling. I personally first think of 6 year olds attempting short stand-up routines (encouraged by their camcorder wielding parents) would be very compelling.

I assume you need parental OK to let a kid sign up to a site, and so it'll probably be parent/child teams which would navigate the site together (at least until the parent is comfortable the site is child safe).

I think you could also set up a good market test site using static content. The duck persona might be hard to create, but a few easy-to-read bits about comedy, some kid skits/standups on YouTube, and track how many people click through to a sign-up page (even if the page just says under construction).

Thanks Gord.

Duck personae? Who thought that combination of words would ever even be used? However, we do have Donald, Daffy, and even the AFLAC duck, at least here in the US.

Just in case you haven't seen it, here is one of their many adverts:
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=SBUAYTwZw_c

Maybe AFLAC would be a sponsor, as well!

I think we actually cand do something with the personality of Groucho Marx and the duck - at least that's my first attempt at a persona. And you're right, a distinguishing feature like the duck is the key to making this site draw attention.

Again, thanks, from me AND the duck persona.

"I parked the URL"
You parked a sub-domain that is not a first level domain name. Ergo it means nothing.

"premium memberships or to rely on advertising for revenue"
Advertising is the best choice, you DO NOT want to deal with under age transactions of money. Also, typically kids do not have disposable online income. Also, you will get charge back fees from the credit card company's when parents find out there kids borrowed there credit card.

"ages 4-16" The only hard part I can see is targeting lower age groups. There are more legal issues, parental concerns, etc.. That need to be dealt with before hand. There are some rules for parental consent websites in many country's. This is not a super big deal, but thought I would bring it can be an issue.

I would also check for existing sites, because I think there are all ready comedy sites made fore kids.

I like this idea because there are quite a few people out there who obviously were robbed of a little humour in their childhood and as a result, they just don't "get it". I couldn't find any significant sites dedicated to this, just a few with some jokes and games. There are some commercial ones out there obviously but the problem being they're just pushing the content of one particular company.

Sorting out your age brackets and what you're offering them will be important. I don't think you have to assume this is something only for teenagers. If the site is clean you can easily have sections for younger children 2+. I actually think the younger kids will be a more faithful audience than teenagers. With parental supervision for the younger kids you have grown-ups helping to spend a bit of the good ol quality time which equates to people staying on the site longer.

As per Gord's suggestion a few video comps linked in here and there, along with contributed written examples would be easily put together if you were to team up with some other kid's based sites that could help to re-direct a little traffic your way. I did find a few sites that were built by stand-up comedy clubs for kids. Maybe you can partner with a few for some content.

If this were structurally like a kind of humour wiki, where each area introduces the different types of humour and allows kids to contribute / collaborate it would be a lot of fun.

I want my son to grow up with a good sense of humour and to be able to see the right side of life, so we need more of this sort of stuff in concentrated form.

For your revenue, why not base it upon commission for referral sales of kids books, videos and related toys etc? Maybe you could even take a cut out of ticket sales for referrals to the stand-up shows out there.

Good luck.

Humour is a great ice-breaker. Whether it be a social situation or business meeting, there is always a place to throw in a zinger that will defuse a lot of tension. If you can encourage kids to develop a sense of humour, they can learn to develop a sense of wit, which can be really useful later on in life. Good Luck to you, Richx!

I like ducks, ducks in pond, duck tour in Boston (sponsor?), ducks quaking, but mostly ducks on plate with a nice raspberry sauce on it. (I have good recipe from aunt Natalya from Ukraine)

Website is good idea for kids and also older peoples. We all need a joke and duck wouldn't mind it. No harm done to anyone. Good luck with your idea Richx

Thanks folks for the comments.

W/r/t "parking meaning nothing", perhaps I don't understand.

The site http://www.punduck.com' target='_blank'>http://http://www.punduck.com is already taken by me. I don't know if "parked" is the right term, but I own it, but it is not hosted yet. Does that mean it's parked? Sorry for my ignorance.

The bravenet version is just one that I can work on. I didn't want to invest any money in this yet. Yahoo wants money to allow me to edit http://www.punduck.com' target='_blank'>http://http://www.punduck.com (i.e. it has to be hosted, and hosting the duck comes with a bill).

The bravenet 'version' of the site is free and I can edit it.

In any case, thanks again, I am "down" with your comments and I'm "feathering" them in to my thinking. Keep them coming, I will let you know if they're too "fowl". "Waddle" I do without crowdsourcing?!

DimitriN,

Please to send duck recipe via carrier pigeon, as spoon as possible.

Ha!

If I hear any more awful duck puns I'll go quackers...

...or have we already had that one?

sorry but this is ahead of the carbon ticker??

good niche and easy to make... I like it...

The duck is a great source of comedy and puns...as illustrated by some of the cliches based on ducks. I would have the site built to take advantage of this phenomenon. It'll be duck soup.

duck soup
=easy.

biggest duck in the puddle
=like 'biggest fish in the pond'

if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it must be a duck
=Assume the obvious.

duck out
=leave early

it's the duck's guts
=it is great, it is wonderful

ducks in a row (ducks in order)
=organized, planned; each person knows his job

ducky
=great, fine, lovely

dead duck
=someone or something that is certain to fail

lame duck
=an elected officeholder whose term of office has not yet expired but who has failed to be re-elected and therefore cannot gather much political support for initiatives

happy as ducks in Arizona
=very unhappy

a sitting duck
=An easy mark.

like water off a duck's back
=it doesn't bother (me)

The URL you posted "punduck.bravehost.com" was a sub-domain. A second level domain it means nothing.

"http://www.punduck.com"
That is a first level domain, totally different.

"it has to be hosted, and hosting the duck comes with a bill"

(Drum-drum-cymbal!)

Siddy~
"I want my son to grow up with a good sense of humour and to be able to see the right side of life, so we need more of this sort of stuff in concentrated form."

I would like that too, for my future firstborn. Or, as I also refer to him, "Control group 1".

Sorry I meant to offer more constructive thoughts... but... looks good. I'd be curious about websites aimed at kids, legality, how often parents pull out a credit card to help sign up kids for extra features on websites, what google adword and adsense amounts are associated with ducks and comedy... but also... whatever. I like this idea.

Speaking of ducks and comedy...

http://www.thispeanu...likeaduck.com/quack/

ccozad - thanks. Nice blog...see how interested people are in ducks?

Gordon- here's an example of what comes up when you google jokes for kids: http://www.jokesbykids.com/

We can beat that! Especially with Flocksourcing. I mean Crowdsourcing.

flocksourcing... rotfl

Quick, some one register flocksourcing.com and we'll make a site with crowd sourcing jokes...

Well, so far, no one has told anyone to flock off.

Ya, but can you seriously beat Yahoo and all of the other sites?
kids.yahoo.com/jokes
http://www.ahajokes.com/kids_jokes.html
http://www.lotsofjokes.com/kids.htm
http://www.azkidsnet.com
kidhumor.glowport.com
http://www.kidsjokes.co.uk

It seems there are a LOT of sites with lots of content all ready on the subject.

Yes. We can beat them.

One of the sites you list: http://www.lotsofjokes.com/kids.htm

..has the kids jokes listed right next to a huge banner advertising "Free Blogging, Chatting, Flirting, Dating" and closes with this lovely line: "come get some lovin':. Ya, we can do better than that. We can make the site kid-safe, we can add value by taking about how to make jokes and puns... we can have contests for kids, awarding them PunDuck's FunBucks as prizes....

Yes we can.

A Flock-up...er...mock-up of the site is up on:

http://punduck.bravehost.com/

thought this was supposed to be for kids? other than being duck centric and having an area for kids how is this different from any other number of comedy sites?

tlyden, tanks for the question.

The key is "area for kids". This won't have an area for kids. It IS a website for kids.

It's like travelocity. It doesn't have an area for travelers. It IS for travelers. It's purposs-built for travelers. If you want to learn how to program in Java, you don't go to travelocity.

ANNOUNCING the QUEST for the QUACKED GOLDEN EGG !

http://www.cambrianh...ion/2375/#post-18608

(Cambros are involved)