ADVICE: You Never Hit A Bulls-Eye If You Don’t Throw The Darts
February 28, 2007 | 8 Comments
Great participation / feedback going on in the comments section of the last post where readers are sharing what ideas / businesses they are working on right now.
Robert Dewey (working on own start-up Wantsy) offered up his advice:
All I have to say is that if you have an idea, go for it (within reason) … If it’s a simple concept, just go for it. You’ll be wrong more often than not, but you never hit a bulls-eye if you don’t throw the darts.
Although I don’t agree with all of it, I do agree with the part I bolded (and love that line!).
I’ve run with way too many ideas on the spur of the moment — or I marinated on them for a few days, writing all aspects of the (genius!) idea out — and then ran into development.
WHOA! STOP! Hate to break it to you — Read more
ADVICE: What Idea Are You Working On?
February 28, 2007 | 57 Comments
Or maybe it’s an actual business now. Brief summary of what it is, what problem it’s solving, who might use/need it, and a URL to more info (if you have one).
Anything you need advice on with it? From me or other readers of this blog? Marketing, development, etc.
Post in the comments.
IDEA #9 Revisit: Online Videos Archived For Life
February 28, 2007 | 3 Comments
Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee (GigaOM network) has a great article bringing up the fact that online video widgets (embeds from YouTube for example) have some short-comings — the video sometimes disappears (whether it be copyright / licensing issues; or the user that posted the video pulls it down; etc).
The original concept of my “IDEA #9 - Pay-Per-Play Videos (PPPV): The YouTube Differentiator” was this very problem. I imagined an online video archive service that would always have the video available — even if it is old and/or not very popular at all. The person that wanted to view the video, would see a series of screencaps from within the video itself and choose whether they’d like to see the full video by either viewing ads in the video, or paying a micro-payment to view the video.
But maybe that’ll never be the case — YouTube seems like they would like to host your video for forever, as long as it is truly yours (and not breaking copyrights). Maybe I’m dreaming of this perfect world as well, in which every published content (video / audio / text) is available to be seen/heard again anytime in the future.
IDEA #30 - People Meter - Who’s Who Of The World 500 Ranking List
February 28, 2007 | 8 Comments
When I read Jeremy Kandah’s comment on this last post:
I think the “Jeremy Kandah” brand just went up 500%. Thanks for the post, keep in touch.
It sparked the following idea: You know the Fortune 500 for companies? Or the Fortune Richest Man list? What about a list of who is the most popular? Where’s the Alexa daily/weekly rankings for actual people?
I’m imagining a website that tracks people’s names on the web — how often the name is mentioned on blogs, news (aggregator), myspace, and the web in general. There could be daily or weekly charts, showing names moving up or down.
Could create a ditto idea, but for music artists/bands (Hype Machine kind of does this, but isn’t storing this reporting) — or for just movies — or for just actors/actresses (celebrities) — or for products, or brand names, etc.
Example:
1. Britney Spears (+300%)
2. Jennifer Aniston (+550%)
3. Michael Arrington
4. Perez Hilton
...
There’s Social Meter, which allows you to check how “social” specific domains are. There’s VidMeter, which tracks the top videos across all the user-generated video websites (YouTube, etc).
Jeremy, I think the “Jeremy Kandah” brand name just went up another 500% today 
ADVICE: Build Your Own Name, into a Brand Name
February 28, 2007 | 10 Comments
Jeremy Kandah, MBA Candidate 2008, Mason School of Business, The College of William & Mary, writes in:
I’m very interested in startups and pretty much want to do that instead of the typical MBA internship this summer. If I can find one I like, or run with my own I definitely would. Have any advice for this web junkie?
Jeremy,
Thanks for the email. Ideas are ‘a dime a dozen’ as the old adage says. Your ideas aren’t unique — someone’s working on them somewhere. The chances of you having the next Google in your mind is as good as winning the lottery.
I’d honestly start blogging your ideas out there — possibly as guest posts on my blog (if I’m liking them). Get your name out, your insight, your knowledge — establish the ‘Jeremy Kandah’ brand on the web; in the tech industry.
Open up and share — everyone will know the originator of the idea; and I also think Read more
What Frustrates You?
February 27, 2007 | 15 Comments
Things that frustrate people are the problems that need solving. Whether it’s something online or something offline.
One of my frustrations is that I can’t speak my mind to the guys at Pitchfork [music review website] when they have the opposite view I have on an album. I’d also like to speak my mind — or hear comments from others — on news articles at CNN.
What is so frustrating to you? (Something that could be solved — not something like “I can’t get my cat potty trained”)
IDEA #29 - Your Vyous (comments) on Any Webpage
February 27, 2007 | 17 Comments
“Vyous” as mentioned before is a domain I own — it stands for ‘your views’ or ‘views by you’. The following idea might suit this domain well.
Quick Summary: I know there is commentful, co.mments and cocomment, but they aren’t what I’m suggesting here. I’m looking to create a community on a proposed website that pulls in thousands (millions?) of RSS feeds, has a webpage for every single article [headline, 100 chars], and allows users to comment on it. There’d be a browser plugin as well, to easily show users reading an article page on CNN, that there are 5 comments at this proposed website; and allow them to quickly comment; … then there’d be some social networking as well (allowing users of the site to communicate with each other; and would highlight comments on a webpage by people in your ‘network’). Even if you’re not a person that comments on things, I think a lot of people read comments if the article is of interest to them.
The Problem: One of my biggest qualms is when news articles or posts don’t allow you to comment on them. In particular, Read more
READ: Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned by Starting a Web Company
February 27, 2007 | 1 Comment
Gina Bianchini of Ning writes an excellent piece that every entrepreneur should read.
1. Build your product on your own terms.
2. Underhype your service and see how it stands up.
3. It’s a small world, but it’s filled with a lot of people.
4. Be obvious.
5. It’s about you, not us.
6. This is only the beginning.
IDEA #28 - Fan-submitted Music Video Ideas
February 26, 2007 | 5 Comments
I’m obsessed with music and marketing, so some of my ideas will be around music — plus, deep down, I really want to be a rock star (who doesn’t). I was just watching the video for Dark Blue by Jack’s Mannequin. The video is basically one of those 1950’s dance contests — “dance til you drop”. It got me thinking…
The creation of a website where fans can suggest ideas for the plots of music videos for their favorite songs. Not only could fans suggest ideas, they could implement these ideas — the website would show user-generated music videos that passionate fans created for their favorite songs/artists.
Fans could then rate these video ideas (submitted by other fans), as well as actual videos fans created. There would be forums for the kids to talk all about the artists/bands, songs, and concerts.
Also, fans would rate individual songs and Read more
FUN: List Your Domains - What Ideas Do We Get
February 25, 2007 | 26 Comments
Just a little fun for the weekend. I’m going to list out my domains that are currently not used — and feel free to leave comments on what you think they’d be good for; or if they give you any ideas.
Feel free to share your domains here too — and others will comment on any ideas they might have.
Just another exercise to brainstorm and get idea flow going.
Back in about 1996 or 1997, I convinced one of my close friends (and now professional colleague) to acquire the domain ‘didd.com’. Thus, basically ‘digg’ with the g’s mirrored upside down (but digg wasn’t around). Anyhow, ‘didd.com’ — what ideas do you have for that (given what we know these days)?
OK - here are my unused domains Read more
