????College Prowler的創始人兼首席執行官盧克?斯科曼認為，互聯網上應該有更多由用戶給出的評價。出于這個原因，他拓展了已有11年歷史、由用戶提供內容的在線大學指南，將其命名為Niche網站。學生和家庭在這個網站上面可以給高校打分，最終讓用戶能夠評估學校、城市和社區的好壞。

????斯科曼說：“我們有240萬高中畢業生要升入大學，這是一個很大的市場。除了幫他們選擇大學之外，我們還能不能為他們做點什么更重要的事情？美國有12萬所學校，5500萬人在里面學習，我們想幫助學生、家長和家庭做出人生中的重大決定?！?/p>

????今年5月起，面向高中的小眾Niche網站開始運營。它擁有超過3.5萬所公立和私立高中的信息檔案，收集了超過50萬條用戶評論。他說：“Tripadvisor（旅游評論網站）花了六年時間收集100萬條用戶評論。而我們只用了不到一年的時間?！?/p>

????用戶在Niche的高中板塊可以給學校的學術水平、業余生活、伙食等學生生活的各項要素打分，然后給學校一個綜合評分。Niche還使用美國教育部的數據——比如閱讀和寫作成績——來給同一個州的高中排名。

????最后，斯科曼表示，如同College Prowler會給出大學一個整體評分一樣，用戶評論也將融入Niche的評分算法。斯科曼還希望能夠讓家庭在2014年初對K-8學校（提供從幼兒園到八年級教育的學校）進行評價，并在同年的晚些時候開始評價城市和社區。斯科曼說：“人們想知道他們的社區是否安全。那里是不是一個安家落戶的好地方？交通方便嗎？”

????斯科曼很快指出，他并沒有拋棄2002年從卡耐基梅隆大學（Carnegie Mellon University）畢業的第二天就創建的College Prowler。Prowler的總部也設在匹茲堡，它的收入自2010年至今已經增長了兩倍。2005年起，斯科曼就不再接受外部資本了。他說：“我們跟風投公司談了談我們的計劃。有人認為你可以按下一個按鈕，就得到10倍于以往的收入。我覺得對一些公司來說，這是可能的，但對另外一些公司則不現實?！?/p>

????根據斯科曼的說法，2013年，每四個高中畢業生中就有一個在Prowler上創建了賬戶。他們很大程度上依靠廣告收入，尤其是定向廣告。他說，Prowler如今有21名員工（去年是17名），其中三分之二都是工程師。這個網站的用戶參與度很高，這對廣告商而言十分誘人，斯科曼希望能夠在Niche復制這一點。他表示，Prowler每個月有120萬獨立訪客，其中35%的訪問來自注冊用戶。他們在College Prowler上平均停留12分鐘，是未注冊用戶的四倍。他說：“我們需要的是更多的流量，而我們獲取流量的途徑則是收集評論，將業務涵蓋至所有重大的人生決定。”除了這一點，還要加上找到一個避免讓人聯想到校園怪咖的名字（College Prowler直譯意為“校園徘徊者”）。不過，斯科曼也許已經用Niche一箭雙雕地找到了這兩個問題的答案。（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正??????????

????College Prowler founder and CEO Luke Skurman says he thinks the Internet needs more user-generated reviews, which is why he's expanding his 11-year-old user-curated online college guidebook and rebranding it as Niche, a site that allows students and families to grade high schools and will eventually give them the ability to evaluate grade schools, cities, and neighborhoods.

????"The 2.4 million people go to college [straight out of highschool]. That's a great market size," Skurman says, "but what can we do that's bigger than helping students choose a college? There are 120,000 schools in the country and 55 million students in them, and we want to help students, parents and families make great life decisions."

????A minimal viable "niche" has been available for high schools since May. It already features profiles of more than 35,000 private and public high schools and has generated more than 500,000 user reviews. "It took TripAdvisor six years to get 1 million user-generated reviews," he said. "It'll take Niche less than one year."

????On Niche's high school iteration, users can grade various subcategories like academics, extracurriculars, food and other sectors of student life and then give a school an overall grade. Niche also uses data from the Department of Education -- like reading and writing test scores -- to rank high schools in the same state against one another.

????Eventually, Skurman says user reviews will be incorporated into Niche's grading algorithm like they've been under College Prowler, where grades are used to give colleges an overall rating. Skurman also expects that families will be able to review K-8 schools by the beginning of 2014, and cities and neighborhoods later that same year. "People want to know if a neighborhood is safe," Skurman says. "Is it a good place to raise a family? Is it walkable?"

????Skurman is quick to point out that he's not abandoning College Prowler, which he started the day after graduating Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. Still headquartered in Pittsburgh, Prowler has tripled its revenue since 2010. Skurman hasn't accepted outside capital since 2005. "We've talked with VCs about our plan and there's a perception that you can press a button and '10x' your revenue," he says. "I think it's possible for some companies but unrealistic for others."

????Instead, Prowler, which in 2013 one-quarter of graduating high school seniors created accounts on, according to Skurman, runs largely off of ad-based revenue, especially targeted advertising. It now has 21 employees (up from 17 last year), two-thirds of whom are engineers, Skurman says. The site also boasts engagement figures that stand out to advertisers, a boon Skurman hopes to duplicate with Niche. Prowler sees 1.2 million unique visitors a month, according to Skurman. Thirty-five percent of its visits come from logged in users, who are four times more engaged than non-registered users and spend 12 minutes on College Prowler. "What we need," he says, "is more traffic, and the way we get traffic is through reviews and covering big life decisions." That, and a name that doesn't call to mind a creepy guy roaming campus. With Niche, Skurman may have found both.