Startup Idea #93: Contextual recommendation for self publishers

Zemanta is a startup providing contextual recommendation services to bloggers. This idea of contextual recommendation is something I have thinking about last year when I receive a proposal that wants to deploy such service in travel planning. I though that was a good service but lacked a market entry point. I think Zemanta has found such an entry point by targeting bloggers.

With its API, it is now possible to leverage on what Zemanta has built and to apply in other domains. One area I am interested in is in self publishing. While Lulu provides a fantastic set of marketing tools, there are no applications that help authors, especially those writing non fricition books, with their market research, case studies, figures et al. A more focus Zemanta can help with all these.

What is more interesting is if we flip the model around. Let Zemanta propose where your content or book is likely to be valuable. Let it show you the possible sites, communities, blogs who might be interested in your work. I believe this will create more value for self publishers. In this age of abundance, knowing how and where to gather attention one of the most important thing.