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I am wondering what my next step should be in implementing my idea.

Should I design a smaller step of the website (I mean script and the actual design)? I can't use SEO to get traffic. I was thinking of advertising/sponsoring with people who already have a larger following and fit my target audience (GEN Y, Z or people who are up to date with technology).

Should I approach Youtube partners and give them money or sponsor them? Tell me how you would approach this (getting numbers wise).

My main idea to encourage signups and referrals is to have a referral contest and give my users a taste of what's to come. People who refer a lot of other friends will win items like iPads, Gift cards, Video games, etc. Do you think this is a good idea? I am trying to show potential investors the value of my business.

My idea is giving people what they want when they want. It's a recession. Not a lot of teens can get a job and pay for things they want. These things could be games, clothes, electronics, anything. On my site they can do what they normally do, earn points for it, and win those items. One example of "doing what they normally do" would be watching videos.

I know that this might look like a scam but that's why I want to do this referral contest - to show people, before they invest a lot of their time, we are not scammers.

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I'm not sure if this is a question, it's not clear what you are asking. – xiaohouzi79 Nov 1 '10 at 23:52

4 Answers

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Take a look at a website called Lockerz. They are doing exactly what you are planning on doing, and they have over 17 million members. I am not saying this to discourage you, rather I am saying that "your idea" is definitely viable yet based on the amount of work already done to develop Lockerz awesome and proprietary platform - your barrier of entry is now very high.

Your question is somewhat disorganized and really lacks a lot of clarity. It seems to me that you have this an idea with a lot of little details scattered around. I would encourage you to really downsize your idea and launch it on a really small scale (maybe friends and family) to test it. Your tech only needs to be functional at this point. From their, take their feedback and gradually build and refine your platform based on your user's feedback. Rather than pay for promos that may or may not result in new members, make an incentive for your members to invite their friends.

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Thanks I am aware of Lockerz. They are doing similar stuff to what we are doing. But I had this idea years ago, only after seeing their success, I think of this as a viable idea. But to be honnest, they are not really making any money. They wanted to make lockerz a private place now there are open signups. They are running google ads now too because they don't seem to be making enough cash. Their free item prices (points) are too high. Before it was 200 points to get a game now its like 600.. because of this, they are being discouraged in my area. I am trying to do what you said thnx. – BhargavPatel Nov 3 '10 at 11:02
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Most of the text books designed to work with special websites that explain material in videos and interactive games, however, I doubt that these websites get as much traction as some "cute kittens" videos on YouTube.

Primarily, the school sites are recommended by teachers, therefor -- not cool. Links to "cute Kittens" is distributed by peers -- cool factor.

If you can figure out how to tap into psychology of that behavior, then you can spend some money to develop a beta -- until then, I'm afraid it'll be a waste of your resources (including time).

Best of luck.

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I have heard of better ideas, and seen them fail. I have also seen worse ideas (TWITTER) do amazing. The point is, you really dont know until you build ... Try to build a beta as suggested by slatecaster and do it on a shoestring budget. I think advertisers would pay if people were forced to view their messages. For example, Mercedes benz might pay you 1 cent for every video viewed. I dont expect that the revenues will be too high. Best of luck

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I know for a fact there are a few of these sites around, the downside to them is that people soon realise that you have to answer a lot of surveys, sign up to a lot of partner programs and refer your friends and yet you still don't earn that many points after you've done it all.

If you can somehow make your site work in regards to points, make it easy for users to get points by rewarding them properly for doing tasks you would consider time consuming, then you have a winner on your hands. Most sites skimp on points because they don't really want to give away cool prizes without turning over a massive profit doing so.

Points websites are considered spammy and somewhat legally fraudulent (legal but bordering fraudulent) in that they make exorbitant amounts of money from partnership programs, referrals and affiliate commissions because of their users, but it's a small minority who get cool prizes and mostly benefit off of the hard work of the other site users.

Whilst it's possible for you to change the perception of how points based websites work, it's not going to be easy. A referral program that rewards top referrers with iPad's and other goodies sounds great though, I would roll with that. I've had great success with Facebook Advertisements in regards to those types of things.

Good luck.

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