The Blog

I was just looking at the possibility of sacrificing part of our business to a venture capitalist when news came in that we have our first sale.

This is great news. We have immediately commissioned a translator to check the Spanish words in the Learn10 gadget.  We now have as many people learning Spanish with Learnit as we had registered users yesterday. It’s a bit of a shock to have 1500 Spanish learners in a single day, and only fair that we take the list out of beta by having it sorted out by a professional from www.translatorscafe.com . So far, the service has been excellent and I had an almost instant response to my request for an urgent proofread of our basic 1000 words.

I was also contacted today by a Hungarian advertising agency who are keen to be the first company to release the Learn10 gadget in Hungarian. This is a great opportunity for us because it means that our Hungarian content will be reliably translated quickly.  Our advertising system can be geographical, so we will be able to advertise specifically to Hungarian English learners. I hope that other advertising agencies from other countries follow suit.

Learn 10 words a day, get better at a foreign language

“essentially a web gadget that quizzes/flashcards you with 10 words a day in the language you would like to learn. You sign up for an account, pick your language, add it to your Google homepage (optional), and get busy memorizing. In a hundred days, doing 10 a day, you’ll have your 1000 words, and be ready to rock with the best of them.”

Learn a Language Ten Words at a Time

“making a small but committed effort every day to building your skills will likely be far more helpful than that two-language dictionary gathering dust on your bookshelf”

Learn Foreign language by 10 Words Every Day

“helps you learn foreign language by teaching you 10 new words every day. To get started, simply complete quick sign up and choose the language you want to learn.”

Startup Review: WhyGoSolo, Omeka, Learnitlists, RoomApes, escaloop

“applies what advertisers call branding exposure to the learning of a foreign language”

All day the widget has been dipping in and out of operation. Is it a local issue, or is it something with Mosso, who currently host Learn10? Here’s an example of where the rest of a page is showing up fine, but not our widget:

Luckily, we have signed up for a service called browsershots.org - this will give us screenshots of Learn10.com in 42 different browsers from different locations. If the site appears without problems on that, then we’re okay. If not, at least we’ll know.

Learnit is all one word. It is not Learn it, it isn’t LearnIt and it certainly isn’t learnIT. This is an important differentiation, not only to preserve us from stepping on the toes of other educational brands, but also to give us a standing start when we search on Google. Combine Learnit with the word lists and we have an original brand. An invented word means that you can track your web penetration easily. Now we’re up to 526 mentions on a Google search.

UPDATE: As of January 2009 we have re-branded to Learn10. Learnitlists.com was fine in written form, however in most communications we abbreviated it to just learnit.  Unfortunately, many people are using ‘learnit’ to stand for Learn I.T. and the web domain learn.it is currently in the process of  legal wrangling in which we do not want to be involved.

Learn10 was chosen because of the Ronseal effect (ie it does what it says on the tin). We also wanted a name that was easy to remember - many people struggle to recall the URL of good sites they have visited only a few times because the company name is a new word or a peculiar spelling.

In the last 48 hours we’ve had 6500 unique hits on the widget and 1400 visits to learnitlists.com. Visitors have come from 82 different countries, speaking 42 languages and 350 people have signed up for the service. If you search for “learnit lists” on Google, it now brings up 298 pages.

Not bad for a project with a standing start 24 days ago.

Learn a Language through Web “Brand” Immersion

“What if you could take the theory of brand recognition and apply it to learning a new language? You’d essentially be taking the tactic of immersion, to some degree, in order to pick up on new vocabulary words on a regular basis. A new application called LearnIt has begun to apply the theory of brand recognition to the learning of a new language, using the web as a giant billboard.”

Learnit has been written about by a journalist on a popular Social Networking News website: Mashable.com.