I just wrote an article criticizing businesses based on negativity, and coincidentally this other “negative” website came to my attention: Yavoid. Except, it’s negative in a good way!
There are quite a lot of variations on “how-to” sites out there, particularly in terms of giving life advice. Some well-known how-to sites include eHow, DIY Network, and Ask Answers. However, there’s relatively few that focus upon avoiding problems to begin with.
Enter Yavoid (pronounced “why-avoid”). Yavoid is all about sidestepping problems so they won’t happen in the first place. If you don’t want home insurance nightmares, allergies, and broken hearts, financial problems — don’t work on them after the fact — instead avoid-em!
Yavoid’s execution is a little generic looking at present, but the concept behind it is not naive. I can see the site appealing to a definite demographic niche. Proactive or preventative measures for improving life have steadily been getting more attention over the past decade. I think things like the increasing popularity of organic foods and the rise in interest in frugality brought about by the economic recession show an awareness of the value of preparing for the future as opposed to constantly firefighting.
My girlfriend has become a big fan of RealAge – a site that gives users scores according to health habits and changes in lifestyle, allowing one to frequently update one’s info to get a revised score for “real age” — based on relative life expectancy according to actuarial data (such as reducing estimated lifespan for smoking or increasing it for exercise). RealAge pulls in greater audience participation by frequently emailing newsletter-like reports to participants with engaging article ideas that draw you into returning to the site to read the full piece.
I could easily see Yavoid engaging people in a similar manner by allowing people to subscribe to different topic areas.
Yavoid looks like a concept worth watching to me.
ShareThisTags: avoiding problems, how-not-to, how-to sites, prevention, Startups
Definitely looks like one to keep an eye on.
Things like this do rely on user takeup though, so I’ll expect to see them pushing the site through various social sites.