Have you ever wondered how your email address ended up on a mailing list that you just can't get off? I have and I suspect it's because my email address is being bought and sold by numerous companies for various reasons. I don't always take the time to read the email usage policy of a site and I also don't believe that site operators are always 100% up front about what they plan on doing with my data. Enter A Better Way to Fight Spam.I suspect that we'll all be using something like the service below for SMS (Text Messaging) spam control. It would in essence be a filtering system for SMS.
Business Idea: Create a service that easily lets users set up a series of forwarding email addresses (or text message number) that will let them keep their primary email addresses (or phone numbers) confidential. The system will keep track of the privacy policies on sites when you submit your email address for example when you fill out an online form. The system would use statistical analysis to keep track of the spammers.
The system could work as follows:
- Sign up for an account and install the desktop or browser add on.
- When you fill out an online form, right click on the privacy page to capture it to store it to your account.
- The system will then generate a "forwarding" email alias that you use instead of your actual email address. The whole process takes less than a few seconds. (A very small price to pay to avoid SPAM).
- The system keeps track of how many email get sent to the newly created alias. If you get spammed and other members get spammed too, that creates evidence of spamming that can be used to sue the offender so they STOP SPAMMING.
- You can log in and manage your account. You can see all the messages that have been sent to the various aliases. You could set up various rules to forward or delete messages that meet specific criteria.
Challenges-- This model isn't without its fair of challenges but perhaps this will give someone inspiration that will lead to breakthrough services in other areas.
- The biggest challenge is that spammers are extremely resourceful. It wouldn't take them too long to figure out the domain or web addresses for the protected users. Not that this is a bad thing, in fact this may be a good idea because it accomplished the objectives in that it stops them from spamming you.
- The second challenge is that Gmail and other services are pretty good at stopping spam. In other words, this is a competitive market but this service represents a new and better way of handling spam.
- The final major objection has to do with adoption rate. Can you get enough people to sign up for the service so you can make money?
Potential revenue models: There are numerous opportunities to make money. Here are the 3 that I came up with:
- Sue and settle. If you notice that a company is not abiding by its published email usage policy, you can step in and sue on behalf of your subscribers.
- Advertising. Ah, the old standby revenue model... When users log in to manage their accounts, they may have to view ads that are related to the sites where they have filled out online forms. This would be a very productive list because if they filled out a form on one site, it's logical that they are interested in goods or services provided by a related company.
- Subscription basis. You could charge a subscription fee.
Market- B2C. I think the market would be heavy internet users or heavy text message users if you derive a model for SMS/Text Messaging. Your mother-in-law probably won't know enough about this to use it effectively. Your target demographic would be tech savvy, younger groups of people; still a very large consumer group though.
Inspiration for Idea: I needed to come up with an idea for a business contest. I had just learned of "crowd-sourcing" and wanted to enter an idea that could be built, used and marketed by the "crowd".
From a business perspective, this is a need that won't go away EVER! That means there is a huge market and more and more people are using it to find dates. The problem with the current model is that it doesn't accurately reflect one of the best ways to meet people: through introductions.
Business Idea: Start a website that is based on introductions from friends and family.
The site would allow friends of single people and even single people themselves to build profiles not for themselves but for other people. That means you and I could add pictures, catalog likes and dislikes, etc to represent our single friends. We would network, connect and communicate with other people whose goals are to help their single friends find dates.
Why this works conceptually: We do this today. We try and hook up friends with people we know when we think there might be a good fit. We emphasis the features we think are most attractive while minimizing the less attractive features in an attempt to sell someone on our single friends and family members.
Challenges: You have to convince people who may never have previously had an interest in using a formal dating site to get online and start connecting with people with the express interest of helping a friend or family member find fulfilling relationships. On some level this lets people satisfy their curiosity about dating sites in a legitimate and productive way.
Business Model: Subscription or advertising.
Market: Business to consumer. The market is EVERYBODY.
Inspiration for this idea: A year or two ago my wife and I were interested in what our friend's online profile looked like. We signed up on the dating site to find out. That sparked my curiosity and I cataloged how the site worked from their revenue model to the things you could do without paying. I thought about the above business idea but never documented it. Just recently I came across a post by Paul Graham that reminded me of it so I decided to add it to my blog. You can view his post here: How to Start a Startup.
