I can’t believe it but someone actually implemented the idea I had some time ago. Sadly my friends didn’t seem to think it was a good idea when I tried to pitch them idea for a project we should work on.
So what is LinkBee all about? Basically it’s a TinyURL type service but they insert an ad on the site that you’re linking to and YOU make money off it! That’s right, they share 50% of the revenue with you. Its easy to create and manage a collection of links using their site and they also tell you how much money you have made so far. There is even the ability to refer friends and earn revenue from the links they share!
It’s easy to Sign Up for LinkBee, it literally takes 5 seconds. If you have a decent twitter following this is definitely something to check out.
Yahoo - Wireless Social Networking To Generate $2.5 Trillion By 2020
Two people forwarded this article to me yesterday saying this is where we should create a startup. But, as most of you know I’m not really a fan of social networking. Dont worry though this article isn’t another rant about that…
A recent study pridicts that wireless social networking is going to boom and generate $2.5 Trillion by 2020. With a headline like that you could be convinced that wireless social networking is THE market to enter RIGHT NOW! Well, wait just one minute. First, they are projecting the market to be that big in 12 years. Can anyone REALLY predict what mobile devices and the internet are going to look like that far into the future?! Where were we 12 years ago in technology?
Of course, you could argue that even a small slice of that market early on could be profitable now and even more so in the future. But I have one question… is this article assuming that someone has invented a good way to make money of social networking besides ads? If not, then wouldn’t you think you should be getting into mobile online advertising instead? I also think the fact that sites like YouTube and Facebook have yet to earn a profit should be somewhat of a warning to those thinking that social networking is an easy cashcow.
In conclusion I want to state that I’m not saying this is a market everyone should avoid. I just think that things grew and boomed so fast in the world of social networking that no one really knows how it is goign to evolve or how we’re really going to turn a profit. With users expecting everything to be free and with the majority of social networking users being young adults without a single dollar to spend, I would need to see a better business model before I get even a little bit excited about this market.
CNet News has reported that Twitter has recently signed for $15-$20 Million in VC funding…
“A source familiar with the negotiations tells me that Twitter signed a term sheet for “either $15 million or $20 million” last week. We’re still trying to find out who is in, but the word is that it’s largely an inside round of funding with one outsider setting the price.”
I am amazed at how companies with no business model in sight can get so much attention and so much funding while other companies that offer a real service are finding it difficult to get funded. Obviously some people think that just having a lot of people using your services makes it valuable. My guess is that Twitter will end up like YouTube. Some company will end up buying them and that company will have to take a hit and pay for whatever it costs to keep it online until they figure out some business model.
I hope you twitter fans like webpages 80% covered in Ads as well as Ads in your twitter feeds.
In other news, I have yet to figure out why people use Twitter.
And here I thought $10 Million was awesome from Android… Now Apple wants to invest $100 Million into startups to get some apps rolling out for the iPhone.
http://www.macworld.com/article/132416/2008/03/ifund.html
“The iFund will focus on areas including location based services, social networking, mCommerce, communication, and entertainment.”
Im not exactly sure how location based services are supposed to work on the iPhone. It doesnt have GPS.
So if you haven’t heard, the deadline to turn in your Android app has changed to April 14th instead of March 3rd. This is great news! Im not quite sure why Google decided to bump it back but it gives more people time to submit worthwhile apps. Perhaps they are planning on releasing some new additions to the API that they want exposed to developers before the due date… who knows.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I am actively working with the Android SDK along with some friends to create a submission to hopefully win some cash. I originally started working on one idea with some friends but most of us just got too busy and things just werent progressing fast enough. We also wasted a lot of time talking about different ideas and what to go for. This same thing has happened in the past many times though. We usually come up with an awesome idea, but then no one really takes charge and the idea and any progress dies. You’d think that you could get away without having some kind of CEO figure when you’re all good friends working towards the same goal. But, even between friends it seems you still need to apply the same principles that exist in the workplace. People get distracted, people have different opinions and ideas and without someone with a schedule and a vision nothing really gets done. Thats why its so easy to just work on stuff by yourself. Meetings are easy to arrange and your opinion is always right ;) . Even with this early fallout I was still determined to develop something new for the Android competition.
What am I working on now? Well, an Android app of course. I actually just started working on something by myself once things got too quiet with the other idea. I played with the SDK and learned a little bit of everything that I would need to get something basic working. First I went and learned how to make a REST service using .Net and WCF. I went with REST because I learned online that parsing SOAP wasnt not an ideal thing to do on a mobile phone to be doing. If youve ever used any sort of public webservice from Yahoo or Google youll notice that almost everything is in REST too. So, I wrote a whole datalayer wrapped in a service and created a small proof of concept for an idea I’ve had for some time now. I had my idea written down on a couple of Google Docs to get all my thoughts and questions down somewhere so I wouldnt forget anything. I ended up sharing this with some friends and ended up with their support.
So now we’re going for it. We’re going to try and create the next big thing. One friend mentioned to me that the new mobile frontier is our chance at making it big. We were too young to be able to do anything when the internet first came out, but the mobile net is just waiting to boom. Hopefully we’ll get our project done on time and if we’re lucky we could make off with a great prize and HUGE opportunity to be part of something big.
I’ll share details about the actual idea soon :)
If you haven’t heard already, Google wants to give me lots and lots of money! Why you ask? I’ll tell you!
Many people thought Google was secretly developing a ‘GPhone’ that was going to rock the cell phone market. Well, it turns out that they weren’t doing that at all. Instead, Google joined the Open Handset Alliance and just came out with their own Smart Phone OS called Android! And more specifically, Google wants to give away lots of money to Android developers in the form of a competition. This is how it works:
In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.
I have been playing with the OS all this week and I must say that it is very easy to work with. Sadly, it’s in Java and the only phone emulator plugin is for Eclipse. But, other than that it was pretty simple to get a basic ‘Hello Android’ app up and running. They have all sorts of simple API’s to get images from the phone camera and even an API to get the phone unit’s current GPS location. Google is looking for many different kinds of applications ranging from Social Networking (ugh) to Games to Humanitarian benefits. A group of us have come up with an idea already and it will rock all the other entries… that’s assuming we actually find time to make it. Yay for free money!
I remembered hearing about a really great site that helped you manage your money a while back but I was never able to find it again until tonight. Thankfully another blog I read decided to review it just recently. Mint.com looks to be a fantastic service that I am very interested in using. I am still playing with it right now but it seems to offer quite a bit. Here’s their description of what they offer.
“It automatically pulls together your bank, credit union and credit card data, and provides up-to-date and amazingly accurate views of your financial life - from the big picture to specific details, in a friendly and intuitive way.
In addition, Mint goes beyond visibility and analysis; providing personalized money-saving and money-making suggestions. Mint provides users an average of $1,000 in savings opportunities during their first session. Plus, Mint is accessible from your desktop, laptop or cellphone.” (Mint.com - About)
The first thing I love about the site is its clean and simple design. I really don’t like using the website my bank provides but Mint’s GUI seems to be very intutive and inviting… And its Green! (Best color ever, take that Noah!) So, I am testing the site as I write this post and I will try to describe my experience.
Since the service is free I obviously went looking for how they make their money and its actually very nice how they they do it. There is a page called ‘Ways to Save’ and from here they detect things such as my cellphone bill and compare it to what other people are pay with other companies and provide a list of ‘offers’ that could help me save money. I have no problems with this kind of advertising because it’s not a banner ad, yay! What I REALLY like about this site is how I can associate each past transaction with a custom category/tag which will make the pretty charts make more sense. This was one of the areas where my current bank’s site had problems. They did an ok job at reporting what charges fell into what categories (like Housing, Food, Gas, etc) but there were a lot of things it couldnt categorize. But, it seems Mint already does a much better job at know what the right categories are because I have only found a few unknowns so far. Another feature that is very useful is the ability to search my transactions. Now I can find out when was the last time I had Del Taco. (Sept 12) I am still trying to figure out what all these graphs and trend charts represent but I am sure they are useful as well. They use many different algorithms to show change in spending such as if you are spending more or less than you normally do in many different categories such as entertainment or restaurants. In conclusion, this site rocks.
Check it out for yourself! www.Mint.com
So why am I suddenly interested in the value of my domains? Because someone just recently contacted me and is interested in http://www.mormonade.com. I have a handful of domains that I use for various projects. Vyrotek.com was my first domain and I’ve had it for years now. I could have probably bought a better domain back then that is worth quite a bit now…oh well. Today I’ve been running all my domains through a site called http://www.dnScoop.com which appraises your domain’s worth. It takes your google page rank, domain age and other random things to calculate how much yoru domain is worth.
UPDATE!
Below are the appraisals I have found so far for Vyrotek.com!
dnScoop.com : $1422
leapFIsh.com : $5,265
Make me an offer!
Last night I decided to investigate something called Micopayments a bit more. Essentially it’s the idea of making a very small purchase for a product or service online. Since we’re talking cents and dollars the biggest problem is making it worthwhile for sellers. The easiest way to make a purchase online is normally with your credit card. But, credit card companies charge per transaction and if the transaction is not sufficiently over that fee then the seller actually loses money. I think whoever comes up with the best way to do micropayments online is going to make a pretty penny.
After I was done reading about micropayments I found a link to various Business Models. It was very interesting to read about all of them.
I’ve become a fan of a new website these past weeks. www.eBizMBA.com is a great site that keeps up with all the various tech industry blogs but categorizes them into various business categories. My most favorite tab is the ‘Advertising and Affiliate Marketing’ area. I am really fascinated with where things are going with online advertising. It has been predicted that online advertising will grow by more than 21 per cent per year to reach $62bn in 2011, making it bigger than newspaper advertising, which is expected to total $60bn in 2011. ft.com
I’ve always wondered if ads were really effective or not in generating actual sales. Sure, they can bring some traffic to a site but how often to people actually purchase a product or service because of an ad? I personally can’t think of anything I have actually spent money and purchased because of an ad. I did hear a friend once tell me that the reason they got a certain burger at restaurant was because they saw a commercial for it. I guess it works for some people. I’ve always thought of advertising as an immeasurable type of investment in a product. You can’t really tell if someone who bought a broom from Wal-Mart did it because they saw a commercial or if they just needed one and found the best one at the best price. However, online advertising does enable companies to track where a user came from, from which ad and what they ended up buying. I just recently interviewed with a new company called burstabit.com and they provide such a service along with some other very unique features. My guess is that online advertising will indeed make huge leaps in the next few years and overtake traditional channels that currently exist. I would definitely love to jump into this industry somehow.
