The idea started one sleepless night when my friend Scott and I were looking for fairytales to read online. I was around 5 months pregnant and definately had baby on the brain. Being a tech-geek and being a founder of a web development company, I use the web alot for resources and information. The more that I googled and searched for bedtime stories and fairytales, the more I realized how few quality resources there were for this area. When I did find a site with some great stories, the usability would be unfriendly, the layout was unpleasing and the options to print or search would at most likely be non-existant. The sites which were current and which had kid friendly esthetics, would be heavily branded with marketing and advertisments. I hate being flooded with online ads!
At that point I made a decision. I would build a website with my baby in mind. A kid-friendly website for kids and parents - a service which would promote literacy, be community based, be large enough so that there was something for everyone and the content, stories & games would all be FREE!
So the idea was born and now we are working on Version 1 of PlanetStoryBook.com
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Project timeline and growth...
Stage 1 of the website planetstorybook.com which will include free online stories to read, literacy games and maybe an affiliate bookstore with Amazon.com. Also launching at this time will be ColorHappy, a cartoon creation site which allows visitors to create fun cartoon people or creatures. The purpose of these 2 websites is to promote literacy and art.
Stage 2 will be an upgrade of the websites to include member profiles, story creation area, auto-bookmarks, a link between the 2 websites planetstorybook.com and ColorHappy (kids can write and illustrate their own stories), introductions to the resident stars of the Planet StoryBook world and more.
Stage 3 and beyond will be the integration of star writer points system, story rating system, writing contests, publishing options, advanced search features, story templates & writing help, Planet StoryBook character guide assistance, other language options, online community messaging board and live interative games.
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Currently we are in the developing and brainstorming part. I guess you can say the fun part before all the work begins! The idea has grown organically in all directions and we are getting lots of positive feedback from people with or without kids. We have also done some secondary market research and it seems there is always a demand for kid-friendly content online and offline. We have also looked at such ideas as merchandise, custom storybooks, live TV show, children's theatre, kids music, school tour, writing contests, etc.
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My baby today is 7 months old and she is has been more than a blessing. Everyday she learns something new and everyday I am inspired just being a part of her world. My hope is that I can always find things that we can do together as she grows so that we will always be able to bond the way we do now. She grows so fast and it seems I can't hold on to her long enough.
My goal for planetstorybook.com, first and foremost, will always be to create a resource which will create together-time for me and my baby. I want to be able to explore and grow with her. I want to nurture her imagination.
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Logo Mock Up - Version 1
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