Tuesday, September 27, 2011

needahand past, present, future

You may have heard this story before... part of it, anyway.

It was ten years ago this past summer that I registered the domain -- needahand.com.  I picked it up from the new-at-the-time John Irving novel, The Fourth Hand.  The book is about a guy whose hand is bitten off by a lion, which leads to him getting a hand transplant, and in the story there was a recurring fictional website named needahand.com, the purpose of which was to match up hands from recently deceased people with people who, well, need a hand.  I checked on it, and, even though this book was a top-ten bestseller at the time, I was surprised that the domain was somehow available, so I grabbed it.

I had had zero experience designing a website, but I cobbled together something using Microsoft Frontpage, focusing at first on the works of John Irving, and I heard from John Irving fans all over the world.  The site was a bit primitive but had a chat room and everything.  It continued and evolved until a couple years ago, when the company that hosted the site sold to another company and somehow in the transition, probably due to Frontpage issues (Frontpage has become antique in the web-developer world), my website sort of disappeared.  I maybe could have found a way to salvage it, but by then I was over it, I guess.

Now, typing in the URL needahand.com will just forward you here to this blog site, which is fine for now, but I've been thinking about doing something with needahand -- develop it, sell it, or what?  It's a good name for some kind of website, and almost all of the good names are already taken.  I'm done with the John Irving thing (after seeing him a couple years ago and disliking him), so where would I take a new site, what direction?  I need to brainstorm this... If you have some good ideas, let me know.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

10 months of unemployment had a friend and I toying with the idea of starting our own business, repairing and replacing heating and air conditioning systems, hot water heaters and the like. "Need a Hand" would be a clever name... I'll keep you posted. It's still a "Yeah, right!" idea which hasn't even been suggested to our wives yet, but if we decided to give it a shot, it would probably be February (tax return time) before we had the capital to purchase licenses, registrations, insurance, advertising, etc... Hmmmmmmmmmmm........

(this is your nephew, by the way)

Howard said...

I'm not ready to give it up yet, Michael, but I like your idea of going into business for yourself.. Go for it!

D. A. Dixon said...

Need a hand would be a good domain for cancer patients to reach out for resources. I'm just thinking out loud here.

Jon said...

Why did you dislike John Irving? It must be a good story because you like everyone. And does this mean I don't have to read the John Irving book you gave me like 10 years ago? (Yes, I still have it, and I really did intend to read it someday... maybe.)

Howard said...

@Jon -- I still like John Irving's writing -- he's still the best novelist in my opinion, but seeing and hearing him in person confirmed to me that his ego and arrogance would probably make him scornful of my feeble attempts.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a non-profit like Craig's list, but aimed at people willing to offer volunteer support to others in their community?
So - if you're willing to drive an elder to doctor appointments, you'd post. If you were willing to bring in a meal for a home bound person, you'd post. If you were willing to care for an infant while the mom took a nap, you'd post. In other words, you would post for anyone who would "need a hand."
Barb