Polls apart from TV's 'Greatest'

4:10pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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With almost every TV channel running shows called The 100 Greatest Something-or-other or Top Ten Tunes for Tone-deaf Toddlers, it seems we just can't get enough of lists.

But who actually votes in these polls and are they a proper barometer of the nation's tastes?

Glenn and Kirsty Cooper found themselves on the sofa arguing over just that and they realised they could come up with something better.

The couple, who both have extensive experience in the digital media sector, realised they could combine the nation's love of lists with its passion for social networking sites - and www.pollthepeople.com was born.

Now they hope their website will soon be competing with the likes of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

Members logging on to the community site can upload their favourite films, albums and books. Users can also be connected to others that share their tastes.

Celebrities have even joined in, with author Nick Hornby, who popularised the concept of top lists in his bestselling novel High Fidelity, has contributed his top five albums, films and books.

Other stars who have contributed include members of Keane and Snow Patrol, Glastonbury chief Michael Eavis and singer Newton Faulkner.

Mr Cooper, who has seven years experience of online working as head of digital at Island Records, said: "We saw an opportunity to combine the global obsession with polls and list-making with the increasingly popular world of online communities to create a truly definitive survey based wholly on public opinion."

More than 3,500 people have joined the site since it went live last month. Mr Cooper said: "There is a feature where people can invite their friends to join in a poll so it is growing all the time."

One of the couple's first challenges was making sure the site would be equally attractive to male and females.

The traditional list-maker, as outlined in Nick Hornby's book, is normally an obsessive bloke faithfully noting down his favourites from his alphabetised CD collection.

Kirsty, who has worked in music marketing and PR for more than ten years, said: "It's true that men can often get more passionate about their favourite albums and things but I have been quite surprised that the list ratio is about 52/48 in favour of women."

This is probably because the site has had good coverage on the Girls Aloud website, Kirsty added, but women are more vocal when it comes to their favourite authors.

She said: "In general terms, men get more riled about their favourite music but the literary poll has really attracted women who often want to get their point across about the books they have read. So we have the album poll appealing to men, the books poll to women and the films poll falling somewhere in between."

As well as being an interesting resource, the couple, who live in Byron Street, Hove, with their children George, five and Asmara, two, believe the site could be a money-spinner.

Mr Cooper said: "The main money we bring in is through ad sales but we also built the website using Amazon's database. So if someone sees something they like they can link to Amazon and buy it."

The site earns about 5% on these through sales and Mr Cooper has also signed a deal with iTunes. In the future the site could find sponsors for certain polls.

Another revenue stream could come from marketing firms asking for poll demographics. Mr Cooper said: "This would let Amy Winehouse's management, for example, contact the cosmetic brand most popular with her fans if they wanted to her to promote a product."

But he's quick to add: "What we will not do is give out people's email addresses."

To join and post your top five lists go to www.pollthepeople.com.