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Skinnyr.com weight-loss widget for sale

Just got an email from James Thomas (of JamJunky fame) that one of his other projects - skinnyr has both had a version upgrade, and been put up for sale.

Skinnyr is a simple widget allowing you to share weight gain or loss (depending on your goals) on your blog, website, MySpace page, skinnyr itself, or wherever.

James is selling the site to focus his energy on another project, and hopefully raise some seed funding for that same project. James shares the following on SkinnyR’s, success, history, and sale:

“Skinnyr has done pretty well. I haven’t advertised the site at all, and it manages a few signups per day. Traffic has been on the rise since the doors opened. So far I haven’t monetized the site, and I don’t think I’ll plan on doing it. Whoever offers to buy the site will be personally screened, so I won’t be taking the ebay route to the highest bidder. I want the site to continue to do well, either on it’s own or as part of another site. I built the site out of passion for web development, and I want that passion to live through the end result.” [James Thomas]

As a former follower of John Stone Fitness, I can attest to the fact that there’s a market for this type of tool - people who are motivated by fitness love to share their successes, and skinnyr provides a dead-easy way to do so. Its a “feature” to be sure, but a good one that could no doubt find a home in someone’s ad-driven widget stable, or be quickly rolled into a Facebook app.

In fact - I’d encourage James to not sell; instead, build the Facebook side out, and ride the hype-wave to a membership base. At the same time, work with MochiAds, who specialize in Flash-based game/widget advertising, to create & sell an ad-unit that fits.

Its easy to get over-extended, but IMHO its also easy to abandon potential on your own doorstep. Whatever you end up doing, James, best of luck with it!

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