$500 Contest: Crowdsourcing a Website Idea

A colleague that I (Elliot Silver) have done business with in the past, Lance Raab, approached me with an interesting crowdsourcing idea, and I would like to try it out on my blog. His article is below, and he is offering some serious prize money for the winner. Lance will select the winner of the contest and will be responsible for paying the prize. Aside from hosting this article on my blog, I am not participating in the contest.

I own the domain name IdeasOnDemand.com, and I am planning on developing it into a revenue generating website.   (I also have the matching Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn names, etc).     I have a few ideas; however, I would like to explore all possible avenues before going down a specific path.

I decided to try something different and approached Elliot with the idea of engaging his readers to help me generate ideas by holding a contest, and he has generously agreed.

To participate in the contest, please post a comment on this blog describing your idea on how to best develop this domain name into a revenue generating website.   The contest will last 10 days, at which point I will select the idea I like best.   I will pay the winner $500 (via PayPal), and I will pay a matching $500 to Elliot’s favorite charity, Ronald McDonald House.

Note: if similar ideas are submitted and the idea is chosen, the person who submitted the idea first will win.

If you have any questions or need additional info, you can leave a comment on this post, or you can email me at lance <at> JazzMedia <dot> com.

The contest starts now, and ends at 11:00pm on midnight on April 4, 2013.     I look forward to your suggestions.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

83 COMMENTS

  1. A common tool for marketing professionals that are constantly in need of ‘inspiration’ or a way to call up their ‘muse’ is the ‘swipe file’, a collection of ideas, notes, advertising and copywriting that one can refer to when the ideas are not flowing.I propose that IdeasOnDemand.com become a crowdsourced online ‘Swipe File’ with freemium and premium memberships.

    IdeasonDemand.com would feature online and crowdsourced ‘swipe files’ with perhaps a rating mechanism to encourage user generated content and community interaction. Additionally IdeasOnDemand.com would offer a platform for crowdsourcing contests for copywriting, graphics, logos, branding and business strategies with an offered prize or payment to the selected/winning content ala 99Designs and other platforms. Such a destination would become a magnet for marketers, designers, business owners,domain investors and others involved in online branding and business development.

    Resources would also be offered through partnerships with the above mentioned marketing professionals and adding IP experts, advertising sources and services, prototypers, 3D printing companies, legal services (patent, trademark, business) etc.

    Revenues will be generated through premium memberships, partner revenue sharing and contest fees.

    Good luck with this contest Lance and thank you for the opportunity to enter…Cheers!

  2. Value proposition: ideas are a dime a dozen, but great ideas are far and few in-between. Ideas on demand is the fastest growing intellectual property marketplace in the world, with a new idea submitted every 2 seconds and more than $1,000,000 paid out to our idea centric community since 2013.

    100+ ideas are submitted per contest and one winner is selected. We provide entrepreneurs with instant access to talented and forward thinking idea agents for a one time fee.

    Ideas on demand allows idea guys to do what they do best and get paid for it! We also empower entrepreneurs with the leveraged potential of crowdsourcing to maximize each and every business opportunity.

    High concept pitch: Think of us as the 99designs of ideas.

  3. @bulls… you should ask 30% and let them negotiate it down to 15%. and with the extra 5% money you could send me a case of candy cigarettes from candy.com. no… rick schwartz didn’t tell me to say that. really he didn’t. i was just thinkin’ of candy cigarettes ’cause i’d quit smokin’.

  4. How about a site where people can publish their own ideas for new products / services and get opinions from others?

    Maybe there could also be a way for two users to get in touch with each other and set up a joint venture too.

    You could have two types of users:

    1. Investors

    2. Inventors (probably a better name for that but it’s the first thing that came in to my head!)

    It could be a place where investors could find Ideas On Demand for new products / services 🙂

  5. Simple. Make a website that works exactly like this blog post. A place for people to crowdsource ideas. Selected idea wins a pre-specified prize paid for and specified by the person requesting the crowd sourced idea, just like this blog post.

  6. My idea would be an web presence development company and/or web dev lead gen site.

    My idea would feature copywriting, SEO and ORIGINAL content creation which also includes some tutorial on how these facets are done and how they help the end users business. Online business consultant/development basically. Giving consumers a head start on understanding how keyword rich, original content will dramatically help their business whilst also procuring them more traffic in the process.

    It is one thing to give a sell a fish, but teaching them to fish can be more lucrative if done the right way.

  7. A marketplace where “idea” men/women post their ideas that they don’t have time or money to develop.

    People bid to get to use the idea. The seller decides when to click “OK” to the offer.

    Users use for free…you place affiliate ads on the site for business development products.

  8. Let buyers request ideas from the public.

    Buy ideas from public for $0.50 each.

    Simple admin to approve, some basic logic to weed out junk.

    Then sell them in batches of 12 for $10.

  9. I would treat it to be more of a Fivvr type of advice site. People pay a small fee ($5) and ask registered users for advice, help. Can be anything from job interview questions, dating advice, hows my hair?, is my BF cute? or much more serious, my father is abusing me etc… Registered users provide answers. Registered users also vote on the best answers (given a timeframe)those registered users can earn points/bucks based on how many votes they have received. They can use those points for goods and services offered by the website.

    To explode the usage, make the question submissions free and have sponsors for categories ie. Dating, Health, Jobs, Food etc… They pay the bills and can even fund some of the prizes.

  10. If we win, (scratch that, when we win), the $500 should be donated to RMH as well.

    Here is the big idea:

    Create a professional website. Two major categories: 1. Submit an idea 2. Search for an idea.

    The ideas submitted remain the property of the submitter. Only a teasing paragraph, or two, could be read for free. After reading the initial synopsis of an idea, any further interest on the idea, the reader is charged $29.99, of which $15 goes to the submitter of the idea, in essence pay per view article.

    Price to submit an idea $5.99
    This will limit the ideas to serious caliber.

    If you need more clarity on this suggestion, contact me, for consultation. I have suggestions on the technology to implement this.

    Domenclature.com
    wifify.com

    • Let’s Sweeten the pot:

      If our idea above wins, we will not only donate our $500 to RMH, we will transfer the following domain name, at cost of our acquisition (under $1500), to Lance Raab, if he wants it.

      The domain name is:

      PayPerIdea.com

      Just like Pay per click, or Pay per view, Pay per idea’s time has come!

  11. You can provide ideas for owners of SMEs, mom and pop to mid sized business on all aspects of business.

    So for example, a business owner needs to know how to get his business online and will write a post about it on your IdeasOnDemand site for free, you then tweet and FB link it etc. Individuals representing companies can respond to the person seeking the information and people that have been in the same position can also respond, other SME owners.

    90% of the service can be free content but you can also have VIP status where you charge the individuals $XXX per year to access the best content, you can also charge $X,XXX for the suppliers of services to access individuals in the VIP area. The premium service providers can also have webinars etc that you promote to your audience.

    In essence this would be a business forum with all aspects of social media utilized to make sure that questions are answered promptly.

  12. Wow. Who in their right mind would take $500 for an idea? If I had an idea for a site that would generate revenue I am certainly not going to let you have it for $500. What an insult to the creative class.

    • I would gladly take $500 if he liked my idea. The hard part is acting on the idea. Good ideas are a dime-a-dozen. Evey domain is essentially a good idea. I get hundereds of thousands submitted to me a month. Even a terrible idea can make you rich if properly executed. Paying $500 for inspiration isn’t so silly.

  13. I think you should build a site that crowdsources ideas from people about how to build and market and what not with an idea site.

  14. A Site where users pitch their idea with or without a proof of concept to VCs, in return VCs would fund their ideas for a small equity and you as the owner cash in through a commission for every idea funded.

  15. Good morning Lance,

    I’d like to suggest:

    IdeasOnDemand.com be used for the co-creation of ideas through, billable, brainstorming sessions between your customers and various industry experts.

    You could crowdsource thousands of ideas for a client, but that’s only one stage of actually providing true measurable value. $0.50 ideas are worth just that. The value of ideas lie in the development and implementation processes.

    This model is focused on offering your customer a pool of experts to help develop tailored solutions and fresh ideas based on a multi tiered service. As well as, offering your customers their own idea department 24/7. Customers will describe their issues or projects to a live idea coordinator. Depending on the tier of service selected, the idea coordinator will assign the client to the entire network of experts, group of selected experts or an individual expert based on their bio. The IdeasOnDemand.com platform will facilitate the brainstorming sessions between client and expert. Sessions could be short durations in real time or 24 hour sessions with multiple updates. Allowing customers and experts to brainstorm together will help better describe , elaborate and address specific customer needs to co-created ideas of high value.

    Creating a platform that co-creates is exciting and meaningful for everyone involved.

    That’s it in a nut shell… if you’d like more, I have detailed thoughts on service tiers, channels, partners, structures, price points and various revenue streams.

    Have a wonderful day

  16. Good morning,

    I’d like to suggest:

    IdeasOnDemand.com be used for the co-creation of ideas through, billable, brainstorming sessions between your customers and various industry experts.

    You could crowdsource thousands of ideas for a client, but that’s only one stage of actually providing true measurable value. $0.50 ideas are worth just that. The value of ideas lie in the development and implementation processes.

    This model is focused on offering your customer a pool of experts to help develop tailored solutions and fresh ideas based on a multi tiered service. As well as, offering your customers their own idea department 24/7. Customers will describe their issues or projects to a live idea coordinator. Depending on the tier of service selected, the idea coordinator will assign the client to the entire network of experts, group of selected experts or an individual expert based on their bio. The IdeasOnDemand.com platform will facilitate the brainstorming sessions between client and expert. Sessions could be short durations in real time or 24 hour sessions with multiple updates. Allowing customers and experts to brainstorm together will help better describe , elaborate and address specific customer needs to co-created ideas of high value.

    Creating a platform that co-creates is exciting and meaningful for everyone involved.

    That’s it in a nut shell… if you’d like more, I have detailed thoughts on service tiers, channels, partners, structures, price points and various revenue streams.

    Have a wonderful day

  17. Lance and Elliot.

    I think ‘IdeasOnDemand’ is strong. It denotes forming thoughts and the sharing or collaboration thereof. Thank you for the opportunity.

    I would like to propose networked sites that encourage the brainstorming of new ideas and also connects them to the tools necessary to develop those ideas. The initial revenue model is affiliate sales to remotely accessed or downloaded thought-leadership tools and resources as well as engineer services, software or tools. Once we connect buyers and sellers in this niche other profit centers will identify themselves as we aggregate an audience and package it for optimum monetization.

    I propose we begin with the co-development of ‘IdeasOnDemand’ as the think-tank with ‘EngineerOnDemand’ to cultivate and then build those ideas. I own ‘EngineerOnDemand’ as well as the brand ‘EngineerOD’ in .com, .net, .info, .org, .biz, and .us which provides security in fully developing a sound brand. The contest prize of $500 can be used for seed money or added to the/another charity.

    ‘Engineer’ is both a verb and noun – I engineer something and I seek the services of an engineer. This is a function of software that is leaving the desktop to become a cloud service accessed on demand. AutoDesk has stated they “will be an on-demand model within three years” and Parametric Tech says the cloud “will change the way engineers work”. Desktop Engineering says software rental is in its infancy and “there is significant potential for growth”.

    This proposal also offers the potential to scale into a comprehensive ‘On Demand’ network tapping into the global, cross-lingual, multi-Trillion (with a ‘T’ as the saying goes) -dollar cloud services on demand market. I like to say “they reside as cloud services but are accessed on demand”. The most savvy companies have begun formulating corporate logos that include and mainstream this nomenclature. Faced with minimal space on the marquee, they have all found room for the words ‘on demand’ to effectively convey their forward-thinking and clear direction. Striking visuals are displayed here:

    http://www.CloudServicesOnDemand.com

    I own a portfolio of domains that compartmentalize the entire ‘on demand’ vertical into categories like games, video, software, audio, sports, print, banking, storage, classroom, travel and more to form a consistent and comprehensive network that includes long-tail and brands. These categories represent huge, high-growth markets where vendors, products, users and advertisers abound. And, all the products are digital downloads!

    Clearly this will be an idea-centric user base.

    I get closer every day, but need to light a fire under this project. Maybe ‘IdeasOnDemand’ is the catalyst.

    Thank you.

    Paul Sherblom
    On Demand, LLC
    Paul.Sherblom@VirtualMuseumExhibit.com

  18. For the site I would just do what you did with this blog post. Domainers create contest similar to yours to get ideas from people on what they should do/how they should build out their domains. Seems like a problem a lot of domainers might have and the comments are proof that people are will to offer their ideas.

    You might even open it up the answers to people who selling their domains or putting their domains in auction to help drive up the price if the domain owner doesn’t have the resources to build out the domain.

    You can also offer other features like connecting domain owners to developers to build out the ideas that they liked the best.

  19. No to be a naysayer again and again but “ideasondemand.com” is a WEAK domain.

    There are a few basic litmus tests for brandability but the most important is the “gut check” which this domain fails.

    Besides, the premise alluded to in the words that make up this domain doesn’t make sense. Really? You can have ideas “on demand”? I thought ideas where supposed to be flashes of inspiration that are at times fleeting and unpredictable. You certainly can’t “assembly line” ideas.

    But mostly, my rub with this is that someone would have the gall to pay $500 for an idea.

    Idea people like myself would be offended and I am. Sheeps of course will gladly fall off the cliff and seeing the responses proves my point.

    Elliot, feel free to ban me or delete my post. I am merely speaking my mind.

    • Hi Luke.

      With all due respect, ideas can be solicited ‘on demand’ perhaps coming from someone that has taken years to formulate but not act upon or has a flash of inspiration without an outlet. I can also pose a problem and spur creative thought process from crowd collaboration.

      You should feel offended if your great ideas are undervalued and you should not sell them cheap. But some thinkers need their great ideas connected with some great doers – a partnership that can benefit both.

      Domain names are not just about type-in/search but about the image/marketing they convey. Remember, most discovery still ends with search with most people querying a branded term – something they were told to search from another medium that is simple to grasp, retain and convey. Share is the new search and social is word-of-mouth meeting technology. The goal is to exactly match the content to the domain where it fulfills a need. This avoids any buyer remorse.

      Regards, Paul.

    • Your response is full of gibberish. It shows no clear train of thought. No thesis. What is the gist of your point? Yes, you can throw out mumbo jumbo and fool the sheeps but I am hardly fooled.

      Again, your offer of $500 for an idea that will result in a revenue generating website is an insult to the good people of the creative class that rely on their ideas for a living.

      Intelligent people will not be so gullible. Others will easily be. Exhibit A, B and C are right there in the responses in this thread. Most of their so called ideas will be laughed out of the boardroom.

    • Ideas are not Property. Ideas are not Currency. Ideas want to be free. An idea in itself really is not a creation and of little real world value. You can’t even patent an idea. So to have someone paying for this is great. If you are insulted by reality, then move along. Lance will still have to flesh it out and expand or limit the “idea” to make it reality.

      I do agree with others. The domain isn’t great. I also believe if you can’t think of your own business model and idea, you’re going to have a hard time getting behind someone else’s idea and making it yours and creating a company/service/product around that idea.

  20. Hi, It’s nice of you to put this out there as a contest. $500.00 isn’t too shabby! Thanx for thinking about the bigger picture contributing to the needy.

    There were some nice comments! I didn’t read them all, but they were shaping to be well-thought out contributions.

  21. Project: IdeasOnDemand.com

    Idea:
    —————————-

    Make the website a medium for people with problems or hang up to submit the problem/question/issue and get a crowd-sourced answer (or idea). After the site gains traction, open it to all types of issues and problems that need solving (i.e. start with business problems, then make it ideas for anything like programming problems, mechanical engineering problems, etc).

    You can pay people to answer the questions and charge people to ask them. For the people in need of an idea, they would pay say $15 to ask it. Then, users with a reputation of X (however you choose to rank question-answerers…much like Yahoo answers) are allowed to answer and get paid say, $5 for answering/offering an idea/solution to that problem…assuming the solution/idea was chosen as the best by the question-asker.

    Monetization Methods:
    —————————-

    1.) Charge businesses / users a small fee to submit a business problem.

    2.) Banner sales / Adsense

    3.) Build email lists of all users, people who submit questions. Also, create lists of people who answer / give ideas to solve those problems. Monetize via whatever offer applies to them.

    4.) Affiliate offers

    Traffic Generation:
    —————————

    You could create threads of common questions to problems and capture long tail traffic with relatively no work. You can also try to rank for things like business crowd sourcing, solve business problems and stuff like that.

  22. That said, here is my take:

    Ideas on Demand .com TM
    Think Big. Get Paid. (c) Louise Marketing

    “Think big. Get paid,” would be the slogan, in fine print, under the title. It could feature some online focus groups suggestions, some employment ads for high thinking, and feature ads for training and college in the sidebar in the short term.

    “Companies are vetted and agree to compensate for ideas used. Members sign up at basic level, and gage up tiers, depending on skills.” This would be like TextBroker, which divides writers based on skills.

    There should be training for pitching ideas, including:
    – paraphrasing the idea in one catchy slogan
    – describing idea in 30 seconds or less
    – how to handle buiness meetings and callbacks.

    (c) Louise Marketing 2013

    I am tossing a copyright on my idea. If it is not selected, it is not welcome to be used. I think it’s a good idea, and I can pitch it to online marketing companies/focus groups. Incidentally, I registered the dot com and the twitter/youtube channel/G+ channel/gmail address.

  23. have people submit their website\doman name and you would generate ideas and concepts specifically tailored to them. Since every website and domain name is different the ideas generated would be on demand. you would give them ideas and how and where to generate revenue sources et cetera specific to them

  24. It could be a site where one can ask ideas to name a site he wants to launch.
    Participants should only suggest domains available for registration and they will earn a bonus for each domain the project owner decide to register.

  25. ***The idea is in your hands already***

    Create a contest driven “Ideas” website where individuals and businesses ask for help like you are doing now.
    -Help with starting a business
    -coming up with a slogan
    -and much more
    and offer prize money(posted with the inquiry) to the person whom offers the best idea to them. Now, like airbnb.com-you take a fraction of that prize money because you do facilitate the transaction and provide the service.

    Furthermore-only members can participate and maybe for idea inquires that are over ex. $1000.. only members who upgraded from free membership to paid can participate. And free membership allows participation with any award below that($50, $100, $250, $450, $500 etc)

    You ad in ads, and marketing and this could take off…
    -This is the vision i think you should go with-because its a serious concept,profitable and limitless, especially when a reputation is built for quality.

  26. IdeasOnDemand.com could be a site where user can search for ideas, there should be some filters like:

    -Money to spent
    -Time Period
    -ROI – what % of ROI you want
    -Fields – fields you interested in investing
    (there could be some more filter like these mentioned above.)

    after entering these details user can view search results or ideas and ideas would be submitted by users, you can charge it or can find way to monetize it.

  27. Slogan/Pitch: IdeasOnDemand.com – You have an idea? We will build it. Not matter how outrageous the idea… we will build it.

    Now of course IdeasOnDemand.com cannot build all the ideas submitted, so you would have to find or team up with manufacturers, venture capitalists, programmers, coders, business people, media companies etc. to get the ‘idea’ done. The ‘idea’ could be pitched to all the above and maybe it is refined appropriately with discussion with the ‘idea’ submitter. If the product as a result of the ‘idea’ is a hit, IdeasOnDemand.com gets a cut or shares in the product.
    I do not think the ‘idea’ should be crowd sourced, only the implementation of the idea should be crowd sourced to the implementers.

  28. How about adding a little march-madness? …
    Ideas are submitted and voted on, so the best ideas float to the top.
    Every month, a new theme/topic/problem to be solved.
    Submit ideas this month to be voted on next month. Have the next 12 themes listed so people can add ideas when they have them (either ahead of the voting month or hold them until proper month).
    For example, april: Ideas for better online learning.
    may: ideas for the home
    June: ideas to improve productivity
    July: ideas for making people smile
    etc
    The archive of ideas ranked in order of preference would become a more valuable resource over time. You can offer prizes for winners or not. One vote per person per day. You can expand into categories and have more than one each month — i.e. physical product ideas, science fiction ideas, humorous ideas, web-based, retail, just for kids, politically incorrect, movie ideas, celebrities who should be spanked, etc.

  29. No offense but the string is too long. I would start all over and buy a quality Truncated version. Who is your online Marketing Strategist? You would be better off seeking council from a professional than you would from Techies.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  30. Make a website just like freelancer.com but with a twist.

    Make a website where freelancers give the ideas on demand and also create a website for the customer.

    There are tons of homeless creative freelancers on freelancer.com and everywhere else in the world who would love to join your ideasondemand.com and give ideas for customers and create a website for them … all in one!!!

    • This has happened to me on freelancer.com several times…

      I goto freelancer.com with an idea of my own…and I post it…and freelancers usually have a better idea and I go with their idea…

      So instead of me coming up with an idea…let freelancers do that and also create a website.

      All i have to do is pick which idea i like and bamm…they start creating the site!!!

  31. Interested in a particular subject? Want more knowledge/debate, facts, authority and “attention” about (any) subject? Then pay us by results, results take time obviously, but we have the means to turn financial capital into digital assets, in the current ‘Depression’ it will be hard to find a more stable investment or ROI.
    p.s. it may involve ‘bending rules’, ethically, “GreyHat SEO” if you will.

  32. Create a website where people can post their ideas on what the website they’re visiting is supposed to be for. Charge know-it-alls like us to tell you.

  33. Ideasondemand.com is created to provide you ideas on demand for a specified fee.

    When you go bank with a cheque you command or demand the bank to pay cash or credit your account and bank never fails to meet your demand. Similarly, IDEASONDEMAND will never fail to meet your demand for ideas.

    Like, cash on demand you get cash, print on demand you get to be published

    similarly ideas on demand operate to give you ideas to form NEW businesses.
    OUR GOAL IS TO FUND IDEAS TO NEW START-UPS ONLY.

    we maintain idea database category wise to help you retrieve idea on demand.

  34. If you want to stand out, you’ll need to be remarkable. Develop a platform to encourage absurd or even impossible ideas while offering incredible value to your clients.

    Things to keep in mind:

    – The term “On Demand” has been defined by the entertainment industry.
    – Ideas are just the starting point to trigger even more ideas.
    – And, everyone from industry experts to my 2 year old daughter have ideas.

    I’d suggest a cross between Match.com and YouTube with a request system.

    Everyone with an idea can submit 30 second multimedia pitches. The ideas submitted can be searched by industry, type or recently submitted. (YouTube format or actually use them as your media platform)

    Big corporations, creative agencies or small businesses looking for a continues source of ideas or creative talent, can subscribe monthly or annually. As well as, pay to request specific ideas.

    If a subscriber wants to start a discussion with an idea submitter, IdeasOnDemand.com can connect the two parties for a fee or apart of the subscription plan. (similar to the online dating model)

    Idea submitters can earn when they’re contacted by a subscriber as well as any subsequent deals made for idea rights and additional idea development.

    In addition to the subscription (and pay per request) model, revenue can be generated from the content creation side:

    Idea contributors can upgrade their account to have their own online portfolio.
    How to pitch an idea tutorials or ebooks.
    How to pitch an idea 1-on-1 consultation.

    IdeasOnDemand.com could become a kick-ass idea matchmaking service for creative thinkers and an idea on demand platform for corporations, startups, small businesses or creative firms looking for inspiration, new talent or outsourcing.

    No gimmicks needed ! Just raw searchable ideas…. IdeasOnDemand.com

    Cheers

  35. People searching for ideas and expertise agree to pay your web site $500, or another amount, to provide ideas or solutions. You in turn offer your audience a portion of this money, for example $200 for the best idea, $100 for 2nd best and $50 for third best for ideas offered on the situation or problem posed. These ideas can be taken inside, posted or posted and voted on by your audience.

    There would always be the option of later contracting between your client and the owner of a winning idea.

    You provide the forum and receive a fee, $150, in this example, but it could be any amount. The client receives the ‘best’ help $500, or whatever amount, ca buy.

    I could see this working for any number of issues ranging from solving a construction problem to gaining entry to a top school or locating the best divorce lawyer, all of which are worth real cash to many people.

  36. How about a site where the “resourceless idea guy” can post a concept and developers can review it and enter a joint-venture? A system similar to JVZoo could manage the revshare (plus make it so devs didn’t have to build a payment gateway) – any model that requires a payment from a user could be handled through this system and that payment is automatically split between the dev and idea guy as agreed.

    Ideas can be posted for free, with only a “teaser” visible to the public – something vague that doesn’t give the idea away completely, but wets the reader’s appetite enough to understand what it is and what technologies might be necessary to pull it off, plus any assets or value other than the idea itself that the idea guy brings to the table (domains, existing technology, large mailing list, marketing experience, etc.). The idea submitter could choose a revenue split – 25%, 50%, or 75% – to split any revenue generated by the finished idea between themselves and teh developer. The developers see this split up-front, so they can pick and choose what work they’re willing to do in exchange for the percentage offered.

    Revenue model could be either (1) a flat fee per submission, (2) charge developers a monthly fee ($5 or $10) to access the idea stream, or (3) Take a small percentage of the revenue on each completed joint venture.

    Once a deal is done and ready for launch, the site can promote the finished product and issue a press release, showcasing another successful venture that was completed through it.

    To protect both parties, IdeasOnDemand would have the appropriate legal documents prepared already as to ownership of the finished product, offer joint venture advice, etc. Developers would have to commit to a timeframe and agree to the revshare.

    A few details to work out, but that’s kind of what I had in mind. There are a ton of great ideas out there and often people have no means of execution, this could be a way of connecting those ideas with the right developers for the job willing to work for revshare.

    • There may be some similarities, but I wouldn’t summarize it that way. What I’m suggesting isn’t for “absurd” ideas or for companies to draw inspiration or find talent – it’s for REALISTIC ideas that could be executed by independent developers who are talented programmers but aren’t visionaries. A site like this could bring the two together and administer a joint venture, protecting both parties.

    • “REALISTIC ideas” is somewhat of an oxymoron especially if you’re trying to promote innovation. But if you’re targeting a narrow market such as programmers, then I see how your idea is different. 🙂

  37. I have to agree, it’s not the greatest domain name for this sort of thing. Sounds a bit contrived, if I may say so. And as every other poster has been stating, it’s execution that’s valuable.

    That said, here are some thoughts to consider:

    1. If you’re going to crowdsource an idea, then “croudsource” it. 99% of the posters on this forum don’t understand the definition of croudsource.
    2. Your process must both “potentially” reward the individual who propose an idea, and protect them from exploitation by the people who have the resources to execute.
    3. Push Customer Education. You’ll need to teach your customers that their ideas are worth only pennies on the dollar without solid, quality execution. To them, the value of the idea is in the eye of the beholder. You’ll need to change this.

    I’ve thought about just such a website like this for some time now. The domain name’s been my #1 concern.

    Email me if you want to discuss.

    • What do you think of my domain, ThinkBigGetPaid dot com? It’s four syllables, pretty catchy, and only 15 characters! Think Big and Get Paid are registered in almost every extension alone, and have many trademarks. If it doesn’t get selected for the contest, it will be on the market!

    • I think it perceptually suffers from the same fundamental issue that IdeasOnDemand.com does. The name sounds a bit contrived. Your name is your brand. Think about what you are telling people with a name like “Think Big Get Paid”. Names like these are only going to attract the schemers and the desperate few.

    • Thanx for your honest view of ThinkBigGetPaid dot com. It is a slick catch phrase, so had to register the dot com, instead of leave it out there. It’s like, as soon as you THINK the idea, you have to lock down the dot com, or else it’s gone!

      In this era of high unemployment, “Get Paid” would stand out. “Pay” and “loan” domains appear in sales lists often.

      I stand by the slogan. There are so many bright minds in this country that have the ideas, but not the means. Maybe they wouldn’t mind applying their reasoning to a corporate dillema to solve it for a small fee.

      In times past, employees invented the products for a 3M, for instance, but the company got the patent. Same thing!

    • I think there have been excellent comments made regarding domain name, context and execution. If Lance stays true to form and connects ‘ideas’ in some format and does so ‘on demand’ this is an exact match domain – what are the alternatives: IdeasLicketySplit, IdeasRightAway or IdeasWhenIWantOne?

      Every business that provides cloud services makes them available on demand. Why not ideas? The only questions left are whether there is a monetizable market for such and can Lance deliver the model adequately.

      It may just have to be tested.

    • Any market can be monetized, but in some markets it’s an artform. I think that’s applicable here. I think there’s only one question; what is the model? I suspect it’s why he’s offering $500, because he’s stuck on the same problem I’ve been working on for 2 years going. There’s a trove of easy solutions to this, but none have passed the litmus test. If you want to know what the litmus test is, see #2 in my post above.

      If he solves the problem I’ll be the first to offer all of my ideas to him to help get it started.

  38. Analyzing technicals for the sake of technicals will lead you to failure. You have to consider context. Combining high value words with other high value words in the hope that it will net you positive return is a failing model. There has to be meaning behind the idea. Otherwise you’re just gambling.

    • Anyone who holds high regard for the worth of his ideas will recognize the value of actually being acknowledged and paid for his ideas, however modest. IdeasonDemand is only half the story. The other half has to be getting acknowledged and paid. That’s why the slogan works with the domain Mr. Raab has.

    • We must be careful not to limit ourselves, o commit the fallacy of false choices.

      We cannot limit ‘ideas’ to opening a business, or creating a website; that will be the pond. The ocean holds more water, and fish.

      That is why, we made our suggestion. An idea is an idea. It could be about opening a business, it could be about improving the one you already have. It could be about doing nothing at all.The beauty is that it is a win-win for all. The proposer, the idea submitter wins, if his/her idea is good. The end user wins if he/she consumes the idea.

      Lance definitely wins when any idea is submitted, or consumed. Payperidea.com wins as well, whether picked by Lance or not. It will be launched either way, by him or somebody else.

  39. – Create a website where people will pubish an idea with Abtract and summary to raise money for implementing that idea.
    – Visitors interested will donate or invest for that idea.
    – IdeasOnDemand can also have an expert team to approach other potential investors.
    – On completion of the pledged fund IdeasOnDemand will charge a small amount of money to the Idea publisher or can have percent sharing in the Idea itself.

  40. – Create a website which charges NGO’s to place their campaigns asking for volunteer or donations.
    – IdeasOnDemand will charges a small amount of money to place the campaigns.

  41. IdeasonDemand.com is a great domain and I wish someone use the monetary resources they have to create a medicine based site. I had worked on a concept – still on the drawing board due to lack of funds and time needed for such a site, but would love to share the basic concept with you.
    Under this users could share their ideas regarding medicine for treatment and it could be an interactive site where in companies could get results and effects of medicines and take preventive action and modify the medicine accordingly. Users could suggest ideas on improving the medicine and thus try to reduce side effects of medicine. Medicine companies are one of the biggest spenders when it comes to getting feedback for their medicine and this could be made into a great platform to share ideas regarding medicine and make healthcare safer and cheaper by getting results directly from end users.

  42. Hi Everybody,

    I have been reading Elliot’s blog long enough to know that this post would receive a lot of ideas ….. and a lot of opinions 🙂

    I would like to thank those of you who shared your opinion. While I may not necessarily agree with everything some of you said, I do value and respect your opinion.

    For those of you who shared your ideas, THANK YOU. There are some really good ideas here, and I will be devoting a lot of time this week to evaluating and researching them. As promised, I will select the idea I like best and will pay the winner $500 (via PayPal), along with a matching $500 to Elliot’s favorite charity, Ronald McDonald House

    The contest is still open until 11:00pm Thursday, so any additional ideas or suggestions are welcome.

    Lance

    • Do you think domains are ideas? Look at Rick King’s domain, jointventurescom. The keywords of the domain are an idea he is cultivating. Many registrations represent ideas which only need developing. To that extent, I can see why you posted your contest on Elliotsblog! Many domains are really ideas of the registrant for a business he thinks someone will appreciate the keyword dot com for one day, myself included! If domains are ideas, then the concept of IdeasonDemand apply to domainers, who seek to satisfy every end user’s particular needs! 🙂

  43. Lance,

    Don’t waste your time with this domain name crowd sourcing idea.

    Global economy will continue to appear sluggish… Ideas and solutions will be needed for many with cash on hand.

    Similar to the toll-free vanity business, let your domain “do what it says” and “says what it does”

    BROKER: Since you are in the domain business, charge to showcase TIER ONE type domain names with three sample business models.

    Domain owner will pay $250 to submit his/her TIER ONE domain name and three business models. ( If the domain is truely TIER ONE, then it should sustain three models )

    Seekers of “Business Opportunities” will buy these domains at a premium quicker due to your ability to provide the “ideas” and the domain fulfills the “on demand” part

    As the broker you get your cut of sale.

    I run a bilingual small business resource center… When I run test for Biz Opp… the callers have the cash…. but need a credible idea… and its most correlated domain name

  44. Most of the suggestions so far have dealt with new ideas looking for development money or end-users looking for solutions.

    How about all of the ideas that have been developed (already have sales)… But, their creators lack the knowledge, experience or resources to make a dent in the market.

    If you’re looking for a less “platform heavy” business model, I’d suggest developing a website that showcases small businesses that need help taking their ideas to the next level.

    IdeasOnDemand.com could give small business owners the exposure they need to help grow or rescue their ideas by getting their ideas in front of investors and other entrepreneurs that have what they lack.

    Businesses with a developed idea, that seems to have stalled, can pay to feature their business idea on IdeasOnDemand.com

    Investors and entrepreneurs can sign-up and search for investable ideas that fit their passion or portfolio. (You could offer a monthly or annual subscription)

    You could also monetize by offering a wide range of business consulting services to the small business owners.

    As you prove this business model, you could get directly involved with the deals & acquisitions by developing a complex platform, as well as setting up a legal department.

    “Nearly every person who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then they get discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.” – Thomas Edison

    On a side note, I believe this domain name has tremendous mass appeal.

    • It’s a grand design but what prevents an investor from simply taking the idea without paying? Further, how do you prove that he/she ripped the idea from the website?

    • My suggestion is based on ideas that small businesses are already marketing and struggling to get to the next level.

      You see ideas everyday on TV, the Internet and walking around. You could steal/use any of those ideas to start a business, but small business owners usually have special knowledge in their specific fields and raw passion… both aren’t easy to duplicate.

      It’s more about helping small businesses with great ideas find Investors and entrepreneurs that can help grow them grow.

      As well as, offering investors and entrepreneurs an amazing On Demand source of ideas with sales.

      Investors and entrepreneurs should always exercise due diligence before making a deal.

      IdeasOnDemand.com could make it easier for Investors and entrepreneurs to search for investable ideas as well as offering profiles of the creators.

  45. The contest is now closed. Thanks again for sharing your ideas and opinions. There are some really good ideas here. I will be going through your submissions over the next several days and then announcing the winner. I may contact you with additional questions during this time.

    Lance

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