I’ve been spending most of my time lately researching how to monetize my online contest, www.SmartestofUS.com . Originally I had thought I could charge and entry fee and use the entry fee to finance the prize. With 3,000 daily contestants and an entry fee of $10.00 I would be able to generate a prize purse of over a million dollars. In a conversation with my lawyer about the rules of the contest she informed me that based on her experience I would need an exit clause in the rules to get me out of the obligation of the prize money. She went on to explain that in her years or experience she had never seen an online contest produce the results I would need to make my contest successful and profitable. This was contrary to all the input that I had received from the web designers, the advertising agencies, and the programmers that I had been working with for the prior two months.
As I look back I’m not sure they were misleading me or I was just hearing what I wanted to hear. I’m thankful that my lawyer was straight with me and opened my eyes before I went through the internet minefield I was preparing to enter.
So here I am with a contest written and ready to be put on line to drive traffic to my primary site www.BestofUS.com . Google search led me to http://www.quantcast.com, a site that provides a demographic analysis of 80% of the sites on the internet. I then searched for sites that offered IQ tests on the internet and found that the top listed site, IQtest.com, had average daily traffic of over 10,000 U.S. visitors. Further research on www.alexia.com confirmed the daily traffic as well as gave me a list of all the links that tied to IQtest.com. With this information I'm armed with what I need to do to equal or exceed the traffic achieved by IQ. I’ll use Elance.com to find a firm to do my SEO putting www.SmartestofUS.com in the number one position on Google, Yahoo and MSN. I’ve brought the prize down to and Apple MaxBook thus bringing the cost of the prize down to a manageable amount. I’ll personally fund the kickoff PR and advertising campaigns. IQ doesn’t advertise and doesn’t offer a prize so with these two additional features and a better layout I should be able to exceed IQ’s traffic.
My task now is to monetize the site through advertising (pay per view, pay per click, and co registration). I’ll also build a full Personal IQ Analysis which I can sell for $10.00 and offer other Smartest of U.S. merchandise which will supplement the advertising revenue.
My next task is to get the site up and running, plug in the ad revenue and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Stop! Those are My Tax Dollars
I have been a small business man for the past 20 years. I have found myself across the desk form a banker on numerous occasions; some asking for money to grow my business and some to ask for money to keep my business afloat during hard times. Each time the banker required me to put up my wife and my accumulated assets as a condition of securing the loan.
Today we are seeing executives coming before us, the taxpayer, asking for money to carry them through rough times, in many cases of their own making. I feel we, as taxpayers, are in a no win position; we have to keep some of them alive and running to keep our economy alive and running.
As the banker required me and my wife, the senior management teams of Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Citi Group, Bank of America, AIG, American Express, Regions, and the many others should be required to put their estates on the line if they want to borrow our money. If they truly believe that their plan is achievable they will put up; on the other hand if they don’t believe they will be able to repay us they will leave the room.
It is time that we, the taxpayers, start gaining some control over our money, if we don’t our children and grandchildren will work their lives to pay for our mistakes and lack of fiscal responsibility.
Today we are seeing executives coming before us, the taxpayer, asking for money to carry them through rough times, in many cases of their own making. I feel we, as taxpayers, are in a no win position; we have to keep some of them alive and running to keep our economy alive and running.
As the banker required me and my wife, the senior management teams of Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Citi Group, Bank of America, AIG, American Express, Regions, and the many others should be required to put their estates on the line if they want to borrow our money. If they truly believe that their plan is achievable they will put up; on the other hand if they don’t believe they will be able to repay us they will leave the room.
It is time that we, the taxpayers, start gaining some control over our money, if we don’t our children and grandchildren will work their lives to pay for our mistakes and lack of fiscal responsibility.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Borrow and Give Fiscal Policy
Below is a link to a video done by Fred Thompson, ex-presidential candidate. Watch it to the end and you'll gain a better understanding of where our nation is headed if we continue our current borrow and give-away fiscal policy. This was forwarded to me from my conservative friend Mike Zimmer, we have found something that agree on.
I've been a small business man for over 20 years, I've had to go to the bank and borrow money on numerous occasions; sometimes to grow my business and sometimes to keep my business afloat through hard times. On all occasions the banker asked me and Nita to co-sign the loan. In other words put everything that we had accumulated up to secure the loan.
Why aren't we, the taxpayers, demanding that the senior management team of Ford, GM, Chrysler, AIG, Citi Group, American Express, Bank of America and the many others put their estates on the line to save their companies? If they are not willing to risk their assets why should we be willing to mortgage our children's and grandchildren futures to bail them out? Put UP of Close Down!
Fred on the Economy:
http://blip.tv/file/1528079
I've been a small business man for over 20 years, I've had to go to the bank and borrow money on numerous occasions; sometimes to grow my business and sometimes to keep my business afloat through hard times. On all occasions the banker asked me and Nita to co-sign the loan. In other words put everything that we had accumulated up to secure the loan.
Why aren't we, the taxpayers, demanding that the senior management team of Ford, GM, Chrysler, AIG, Citi Group, American Express, Bank of America and the many others put their estates on the line to save their companies? If they are not willing to risk their assets why should we be willing to mortgage our children's and grandchildren futures to bail them out? Put UP of Close Down!
Fred on the Economy:
http://blip.tv/file/1528079
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Designing a Contest to Build Website Traffic
My website is www.BestofUS.com; its theme is built around the recognition of the “Best of the US”. I started in 2006 by building a database of the best doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial advisors by searching the internet for those professionals that have displayed their commitment to their profession through furthering their education in their field, received peer group recognition or have been singled out for their work. Over the past two years our listings have grown to over 65,000 listings in 10 professions. Last year we added The Best High School Students in the US. We currently have 3,600 students listed in 8 fields of study. If your interested in my motivation for this read Shannons Story on www.BestofUS.com.
In an effort to build site traffic I have designed and built an online contest, “Searching for the Smartest of the US”. The contest program will administer a 50 question 15 minute IQ test. The questions will be randomly drawn from a data base of over 3000 questions thus guaranteeing that repeating contestants will not receive the same questions and thus gain an advantage.
Initially I wanted to offer a sizable cash prize and charge a $10 entry fee. I hired Tsan Abrahamson to write my Official Rules that would comply with the 50 state laws that deal with online contests. I hired Solar Velocity to design the landing page and the contest look as well as act as host of the contest. I learned that I could run a pay per click advertising program with a $25,000 monthly budget that would drive 2000 potential daily contestants to the site. Under this scenario the contest would generate a $1,000,000 prize purse, a sizable profit to The Best of the US, and increased BestofUS.com site traffic.
This is when I learned about conversion rate and started seriously asking, “Will 2000 people per day pay $10 to find out if they are one of the Smartest of the US?” My decision, after three weeks of investigation and research, was; “No they wouldn’t put up $10.” The risk was just too high.
Thus I have to devise a new business plan that offers the contest with no entry fee, some form of a prize (like a Smart Car), and a sponsor who will pay for the leads that I will generate. That sponsor would be someone like Phoenix University.
The motivation to participate in the contest will be a long shot at the prize and to find out “Where do you rank among the Smartest of the US?” We might even award a wall plaque to the “100 Smartest of the US”.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress.
In an effort to build site traffic I have designed and built an online contest, “Searching for the Smartest of the US”. The contest program will administer a 50 question 15 minute IQ test. The questions will be randomly drawn from a data base of over 3000 questions thus guaranteeing that repeating contestants will not receive the same questions and thus gain an advantage.
Initially I wanted to offer a sizable cash prize and charge a $10 entry fee. I hired Tsan Abrahamson to write my Official Rules that would comply with the 50 state laws that deal with online contests. I hired Solar Velocity to design the landing page and the contest look as well as act as host of the contest. I learned that I could run a pay per click advertising program with a $25,000 monthly budget that would drive 2000 potential daily contestants to the site. Under this scenario the contest would generate a $1,000,000 prize purse, a sizable profit to The Best of the US, and increased BestofUS.com site traffic.
This is when I learned about conversion rate and started seriously asking, “Will 2000 people per day pay $10 to find out if they are one of the Smartest of the US?” My decision, after three weeks of investigation and research, was; “No they wouldn’t put up $10.” The risk was just too high.
Thus I have to devise a new business plan that offers the contest with no entry fee, some form of a prize (like a Smart Car), and a sponsor who will pay for the leads that I will generate. That sponsor would be someone like Phoenix University.
The motivation to participate in the contest will be a long shot at the prize and to find out “Where do you rank among the Smartest of the US?” We might even award a wall plaque to the “100 Smartest of the US”.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress.
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