My ideas are simple, and if ever implemented will change how a lot of ecommerce works online especially via communities.
I believe all these other sites are going about monetizing communities completely wrong, its not about selling stuff to users its about users selling stuff to each other.
Idea 1. To put it simply it would be a double blind gift system.
User A wants to buy flowers for User B on my site. I send user A to flowers.com or some other site, they fill out all their info and order the flowers for user B, flowers.com sends back user A to my site with a confirmation number and I then email User B. User B then comes back fills in their address info and the order is processed.
In this example, I would pocket my $20.00 commission for selling flowers and there is a absolutely massive market for this stuff. I tried to sell that idea to the flower companies 2 years ago but they say its to hard to implement. This is of course complete BS and right now this kind of ecommerce is not possible because no one supports it. There are millions of people online that have online only friends. For flower companies to completely ignor this market is pure stupidity.
Idea 2.
Lets say that myspace.com puts a for sale sign for the person that can be first on your friends list. I come along and offer to pay $40.00 to appear as your number 1 friend for the next 3 months. Myspace can pocket $5.00 and the user gets the other $35.00 How much is Honda going to pay to become some rock stars number 1 friend ? You can bet its more then $40.
Social networking sites can be like ebay, instead of selling goods they can auction off things like peoples popularity and influence. Social networks should also allow things like the double blind gift system so they can buy things for each other like flowers, get well gifts, small Christmas gifts ETC all with complete anonymity about the recievers address.
September 8, 2006 at 7:32 am |
Idea #1 was tried a few years ago by FrogMagic.com / ZipSend.com, but they failed. You can still find them in Archive.org, though:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021128231807/www.frogmagic.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20021203021702/http://www.zipsend.com/index.html
September 8, 2006 at 8:33 am |
Some very good ideas Markus. Lead the pack rather than telling them how they are wrong
September 8, 2006 at 8:36 am |
Why don’t you implement the flower idea yourself, i.e let people send flowers to each other directly from your site and handle the shipping and handling?
September 8, 2006 at 8:42 am |
Your first idea is clearly a large market, and not just for flowers. Good thinking. Can a similar thing be achieved with amazon wishlists? I think so, but the kickback to the affiliate may not be very good, and you risk getting into the whole “camwhore” thing were saw spring up a while ago with 16yr old girls flirting on cams and living off the proceeds of their amazon lists.
Your 2nd idea reminds me (in a lateral thinking way) of the somethingawful.com forums. That site has a VERY large and VERY loyal userbase, but it is obviously expensive to run as forums can be both bandwitdh and server hungry. They have banner adverts on the pages, but we all know that these are of limited value to advertisers as regular users zone them out in a matter of days and even with a healthy pool of advertisers you’re going to have nowhere near as many adverts as pageviews per user. So it gets stale quick. The genius of somethingawful (and I think they were the first doing this) was to start selling banners to the users. They buy adverts for thier threads, for their gimick posts, to flame a fellow user. They can also buy each other “custom titles”, which are often offensive and require the target user to then re-buy the title they originally had. If you get banned by a mod you have to pay to get unbannned. The prices are low, but if you make it funny and part of the forum lore then people will happily dip into their pocket for $10 every now and again, get several thousand users doing that monthly and you have a higly profitable business. But best of all – you have also re-enforced your community. They don’t feel soiled by external commercial adverts and presures, a real problem on forums that a felt to “sell out”, they feel stronger because every closed group loves to have secret workings and quirks that outsiders don’t get. If myspace did this they’ve have massive revenues, I think there is an Asian myspace-alike that use micropayments for things like certain animated graphics and backgrounds on profile pages… can’t remember the details but apparently it is an excellent revenue stream and as long as the per-user charges are very low no one minds. The concern is that mysace would want to charge too much and alientate their users, these needs to be sub-pocketmoney per item or it won’t work. The price of a soda is probably a good place to aim.
September 8, 2006 at 9:02 am |
Great idea, Markus.
Flowers, Videos, CD’s or even movie tickets to convert a blind gift in a blind date…
September 8, 2006 at 12:40 pm |
errmmm… isn’t idea 1 already implemented as Amazon Wishlist.
Friend A likes Friend B but both don’t know each other in REAL LIFE.
Friend B likes Flowers and add it to her Amazon Wishlist.
Friend A sees Friend B’s Wishlist and buy the flowers for Friend B.
There you go! idea 1 implemented.
September 8, 2006 at 1:44 pm |
to greg
not really. What is the interest of the comunity hoster?
September 8, 2006 at 2:25 pm |
I like the myspace idea, although I can’t imagine it getting an overwhelming amount of use from non-celebrities. Why would one IRL friend pay another friend $30, $20, or even $10 to show up #1 on their list that no one is going to see aside from their own circle of friends anyway? Your first idea somewhat exists already, but perhaps your specific twist on it could work to improve an established site’s business and a community’s revenue. IMO though calling this topic “my billion dollar idea that will redefine ecommerce” is tantamount to calling a rowboat a cruiseliner, no offense. Good brainfood nonetheless, keep up the thought provoking posts.
September 8, 2006 at 3:38 pm |
The flowers idea is something that would make massive amounts of money but not something I can impliment. It is something the merchant has to create and then release as a kind of affiliate program for third party sites.
September 8, 2006 at 4:31 pm |
lol these arent billion dollar ideas and they definately wont redefine ecommerce.
September 8, 2006 at 5:48 pm |
It sounds to me like you need to runs these ideas by Fox Interactive Media, not Flowers.com.
September 8, 2006 at 8:57 pm |
I think Idea #1 is pretty good. You should be able to leverage something along those lines and make a lot more from your user base on Plenty Of Fish.
Have you checked out NeoPets? Alexa Rank=134
They sell virtual stuff for people’s virtual pets. Seems like Double Blind virtual gifts would be interesting. Kindof like sending a hallmark virtual card… Hire a graphic designer, get some virtual cards, then sell them over, and over, and over… How about MP3 Love songs from unsigned bands?
You could also consider processing your own credit cards and then getting someone to drop ship. You would either negotiate a good affiliate deal or charge a premium for the hookup, or both…
Fun Stuff!
Jim
September 8, 2006 at 11:34 pm |
I liked the first but marketing will kill you.
September 9, 2006 at 1:41 am |
To really make some money you want to be selling virtual crap that doesn’t exist – like SecondLife and Habbo. My little brother keeps bugging me for my credit card so he can buy virtual furniture and crap for his room on Habbo Hotel. All his mates are doing it and they all want the best stuff for their rooms and they’re all competing with each other.
Habbo must be grinning ear to ear. Each week they create new virtual crap and members just ‘have to have it’.
September 9, 2006 at 2:09 am |
You sound like a dreamer. That is a GOOD thing! But take it from someone who has made other people lots of money. Grab your Idea with both hands. Look around for a script writer. Check, check and recheck your facts.
Then when you have what you need send a email to the people who are making money on the internet. Not the top people. The ones who are making a few bucks but need something to help send them into large profit.
No matter what anyone says to succeed on the internet you need your own site. Do not tell them the whole idea until they have signed a no compete contract. With a good non-disclosure rider.
There are people out there willing to partner on almost any idea.
I know mine is being put on the server right now.
My website needed something because there was no room for content.
My ranking come from strictly visitor traffic. 20,000 – 30,000 page views a day. Solution: Adwords. No not Google my own with links to other peoples sites. Good for me good for them.
Do not quit dreming. Good Luck
http://successtraffichits.com
September 9, 2006 at 4:34 am |
idea#1 is similar to dropshipping products. you pocket the difference with no inventory, minimal risks, etc.
September 9, 2006 at 6:38 am |
Myspace is a FREE social network website. People joining in Myspace because of that. People who are fanatic+crazy enough would pay only to be number 1 in their favorite artist friends list. That is truly absurd.
September 9, 2006 at 7:11 am |
James,
I’m not sure if you realise who Markus is, but he walks a lot of his talk. I’m sure his ideas are backed with a lot of thought and experience, given he makes a good living online.
September 9, 2006 at 10:40 am |
Do you really believe in those 2 ideas???
Have you think about all the problems that can come out???
Do you have a lot of time and enought money???
Are you a patience man???
If you responces to all of the above question is YES that go man, what you are waiting for, start to build you empire and don’t try to convince others bout your idea.
If you believe beeply in your idea and if you analized all the issues related with it you will success.
September 9, 2006 at 4:08 pm |
When you have inspired thoughts, you have to trust it and act on it. – Jack Canfield. When you believe in yourself, Markus, these ideas can work, take massive actions and you are on your way to success. CONGRATULATIONS! and celebrate.
September 9, 2006 at 5:58 pm |
I already have a couple of million users, anything i put up would make money. I just don’t have the time to deal with clowns at some of these other sites. I will probably just talk to some of the other large sites and see if we can band together and get higher cuts
September 9, 2006 at 6:56 pm |
Growers Flowers does a Private Label option for their 20% affiliate program. It isn’t quite as integrated as you want, but it is a step in the right direction. http://growersflowers.com/affiliate/options.asp They might be the ones hungry enough to hit up with your idea.
September 10, 2006 at 8:17 am |
good idea, I think both can work, idea 2 has some problems with fraud eg fake accounts and stuff like that.
September 12, 2006 at 12:13 am |
Doesn’t idea #2 completely bastardise what myspace is about?
If a rock star’s best friend is on record as being Honda, it would cheapen the whole system.
Why would people want to visit myspace pages if they were taken over by bullshit branding? Product placement is bad enough as it is. As soon as this kind of strategy starts up, the whole “market” will be flooded.
Music video clips telling the story of the rock star falling in love with the microsoft office paperclip (in all seriousness – contrast with Foo Fighters’ humorous Footos video clip) would mean either:
a) people don’t want to watch video clips any more, i.e. the art form has been chewed up and spat out; OR
b) brands have found a whole new medium for brainwashing people.
No one’s best friend is Honda – just because you can make some money saying that they are does not mean you should do it.
September 12, 2006 at 6:14 am |
My apologies: this corner of the world has already turned to crap.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060908_974400.htm?campaign_id=bier_tcs.g3a.091106a
September 13, 2006 at 3:38 pm |
Hi Markus,
i don’t know how else to get in touch with you. we are the flower company that can provide the technology you mentioned above and would love to discuss with you. we are a medium sized business with in house tech and deployment.
September 13, 2006 at 3:45 pm |
http://www.growerflowers.com
September 16, 2006 at 2:25 am |
I think the idea #1 is not bad but wouldn’t live long on the web. Simply because it’s already quite hard to get user to fill a form properly, then, getting two users to fill it plus telling to the user B “hey, give me your address, someone you know want to send you this” is likely not gonna work.
BUT this could work in a closed or linked communauty, say you want to send flowers to a given user on myspace, this is more a winner solution, because it occurs between two already existant users, a kind of “trust” as already been given the myspace, so the two users are more likely to give both their addresses.
In a perfect e-world, where a global and fiable e-identity management system that trusted site could use, your idea would seems less utopic
September 27, 2006 at 9:45 pm |
its not about selling stuff to users its about users selling stuff to each other.
Excellent point! You have some great idea’s here. You might be just a little ahead of the game. Luck=Preperation + opportunity. The right combo will certainly come along. I look forward to reading through more of your blog.
Hazel.
September 29, 2006 at 8:37 am |
You want to be a millionaire ? Its Simple
Good Idea and working 18h/Days. Look what apend whit Sabamba. (Just wooden bile).
February 23, 2007 at 7:33 am |
Marcus, good creative thinking. You need to interest a large Co. in the #1 idea. Only limitation is that it would require 2 actors to complete one sale, plus the merchant, and you. There is a lot of potential hiccup. But Ebay and Paypal have the software down to a fine art. That’s why I feel it requires a large Co. with a big programming budget. #2 idea about social networking sites is a real beauty.
July 9, 2007 at 3:18 am |
[...] Mashable reported on a new service called SocialFlowers that lets Facebook users send real flowers to their friends. Pretty cool. Markus Frind, of PlentyOfFish.com fame, actually predicted this nearly a year ago: My billion dollar idea that will redefine ecommerce. [...]
September 20, 2007 at 6:17 am |
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October 30, 2007 at 11:31 pm |
You don’t really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y’all slowly more…….Just tell him you
don’t wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.