New business student idea, what do you think

steve9999

Hi all,

I wanted to get your feedback on my latest project, I set up a website called GiveMeAEuro.Ie. I set up this site so I can hopefully finish college without any massive student debt. For every Euro that gets donated I plan to give 20 cent to the Irish Cancer Society.There are a few unique features to my site, if you are a company or organization you can get you company logo displayed on every page for as little as €1
I am sure some people will be think its quite ridiculous but please check out the site before judging me.
Give Me A Euro

Pope John 11

Its very much like what this student did a few years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage

smemon

Firstly, best of luck with it, all you can do is try and keep trying. It's not completely original but it has novelty value. It most likely won't take off, but you probably will learn a lot from it.

Alex Tew, the guy behind million dollar homepage tried to reinvent the wheel with a spin off lotto type site and that didn't work out / hit it's target so the lesson to be learned is that novelty online has value, repetition doesn't. But that was 5/6 years ago... we've all become much more social creatures online so my advice would be this;

Selling ads on the site benefits nobody only you in the long run. I'll visit the site today for the craic / out of boredom but i won't be going back daily and that's a problem. You need people going back to make it work.

What i'd suggest is making it a form of entertainment for me as a user. Maybe it's a youtube channel of you promoting stuff or maybe you could go around the country meeting advertisers and getting them to give you the euro in person... you could visit small businesses, take photos / write a short reviews etc...

I don't know, i'm just thinking out loud and in reality doing all that would probably cost you more than you'd make but for this to work you need to get me, a typical user, coming back regularly & subscribing / following / liking etc...

Easier said than done but don't give up & best of luck

steve9999

smemon wrote: »

Firstly, best of luck with it, all you can do is try and keep trying. It's not completely original but it has novelty value. It most likely won't take off, but you probably will learn a lot from it.

Alex Tew, the guy behind million dollar homepage tried to reinvent the wheel with a spin off lotto type site and that didn't work out / hit it's target so the lesson to be learned is that novelty online has value, repetition doesn't. But that was 5/6 years ago... we've all become much more social creatures online so my advice would be this;

Selling ads on the site benefits nobody only you in the long run. I'll visit the site today for the craic / out of boredom but i won't be going back daily and that's a problem. You need people going back to make it work.

What i'd suggest is making it a form of entertainment for me as a user. Maybe it's a youtube channel of you promoting stuff or maybe you could go around the country meeting advertisers and getting them to give you the euro in person... you could visit small businesses, take photos / write a short reviews etc...

I don't know, i'm just thinking out loud and in reality doing all that would probably cost you more than you'd make but for this to work you need to get me, a typical user, coming back regularly & subscribing / following / liking etc...

Easier said than done but don't give up & best of luck

Wow great response! Yes I can see exactly were you are coming from. It can go one of two ways really, I will look into what you suggested its quite a good idea actually. But yes after someone donated why would they come back, well besides to see how I am doing.

Thanks for your feedback.

steve9999

Pope John 11 wrote: »

Its very much like what this student did a few years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage

True, It is similar but not identical.

Charity2020

smemon wrote: »

Firstly, best of luck with it, all you can do is try and keep trying. It's not completely original but it has novelty value. It most likely won't take off, but you probably will learn a lot from it.

Best of luck with the idea.
Probably won't work as it is not original, but you you may hit on a new angle if you persevere.
You need to get people to revisit - needs fresh / exciting content.

steve9999

iDonate wrote: »

Best of luck with the idea.
Probably won't work as it is not original, but you you may hit on a new angle if you persevere.
You need to get people to revisit - needs fresh / exciting content.

Agreed, thanks for the feedback, well I hope to add a few things as time goes on. Made back the domain price already

Chet Zar

Wow cool idea man! Nice. Like it a lot. These type of things can really take off and you can end up getting some great PR...pretty innovative.

Will be keeping an eye on this. It's the kind of thing that captures people's imagination, which is what a website needs these days! I'll be on to donate a euro or so with my own venture shortly....Best of luck.

steve9999

Chet Zar wrote: »

Wow cool idea man! Nice. Like it a lot. These type of things can really take off and you can end up getting some great PR...pretty innovative.

Will be keeping an eye on this. It's the kind of thing that captures people's imagination, which is what a website needs these days! I'll be on to donate a euro or so with my own venture shortly....Best of luck.

Great! Glad you enjoy it! Yes I hope to get any bit of press to kick it off. But I suppose worst case scenario no one donates. Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers!

Piriz

Hi Steve,

I like your idea, its cheeky, fun and the charity element gives it a bit of extra purpose..

the website is nicely designed too.. how much did the domain name registration cost?

i don't have a credit card so can't donate at the mo.. might get my girlfriend to donate for me with her card..

what are you studying out of interest...

good luck!

steve9999

Piriz wrote: »

Hi Steve,

I like your idea, its cheeky, fun and the charity element gives it a bit of extra purpose..

the website is nicely designed too.. how much did the domain name registration cost?

i don't have a credit card so can't donate at the mo.. might get my girlfriend to donate for me with her card..

what are you studying out of interest...

good luck!

Hey Piriz! Thank you very much, I got it for about €12. Glad you like the design its a work in progress so should update it as time goes on.

Studying information technology support in CIT, so helped a bit with some of the website part of it.

Also great would appreciate it if you can donate a euro Thanks!

Piriz

last comment, you need to provide proof that you are donating the money to the Irish Cancer Society.. saying you made the domain price already doesn't fill me with confidence when in fact you have not if you donated 20% of the €12... these kind of things will trip you up... you should give them your donation now and post a photo of you handing it to a staff member in ICS head office on the website..or a video clip would be better; do this once every two weeks and post it up... i'd increase the 20% to 40% as it would be better to stimulate interest and its more persuasive for people to commit to donate.. you'll generate more money if you do this i think...its a better unique selling point!

Piriz

hey again....
can you describe how you obtained the copyright? (i see it at the bottom) im thinking of coyrighting something i wrote and could do with learning a bit about the process... thanks

steve9999

Piriz wrote: »

last comment, you need to provide proof that you are donating the money to the Irish Cancer Society.. saying you made the domain price already doesn't fill me with confidence when in fact you have not if you donated 20% of the €12... these kind of things will trip you up... you should give them your donation now and post a photo of you handing it to a staff member in ICS head office on the website..or a video clip would be better; do this once every two weeks and post it up... i'd increase the 20% to 40% as it would be better to stimulate interest and its more persuasive for people to commit to donate.. you'll generate more money if you do this i think...its a better unique selling point!

Hey Piriz, Yes, don't worry I have looked into all of this before publicizing it. If you look at Why Give Me A Euro it will explain all of the questions I am sure you have. I am going to be giving it to them once every 3 months, and getting a shot of me with either the receipt or a large image of me handing over a cheque. I might change the percentage but for now I will be sticking with the 20%

Oh I had to get the site approved first by the Irish cancer society. Thanks again let me know if you have any other questions

MOH

A few things that struck me:

Maybe it's my connection at the moment, but it was quite slow to load.

There seems to have been at least one business that's donated, but there's nothing under the Company Donations section. And I don't really see the benefit for businesses - there's no point unless the site becomes popular, but if it does then you're going to have more businesses contributing, and then you're effectively paying for a random chance of your logo appearing on the sidebar. And relying on you manually uploading a logo that's been e-mailed to you isn't as appealing - I'd have more faith in it if I could just upload my logo when I donate.

There's inconsistencies - you've got 3 donations listed of 10, 1, and 1, but your total so far is 13.

Good luck with the idea!

sirreally

Piriz wrote: »

can you describe how you obtained the copyright? (i see it at the bottom) im thinking of coyrighting something i wrote and could do with learning a bit about the process... thanks

©...that's it. There's no obtaining to be done. You just need to have proof that you wrote the original content, then don't publish it somewhere where the website owners have a claim to it.

steve9999

MOH wrote: »

A few things that struck me:

Maybe it's my connection at the moment, but it was quite slow to load.

There seems to have been at least one business that's donated, but there's nothing under the Company Donations section. And I don't really see the benefit for businesses - there's no point unless the site becomes popular, but if it does then you're going to have more businesses contributing, and then you're effectively paying for a random chance of your logo appearing on the sidebar. And relying on you manually uploading a logo that's been e-mailed to you isn't as appealing - I'd have more faith in it if I could just upload my logo when I donate.

There's inconsistencies - you've got 3 donations listed of 10, 1, and 1, but your total so far is 13.

Good luck with the idea!

Hi there,

Good point I am waiting for that company logo to be emailed to me. I agree I was planning to add an upload button for the logo which I will add soon. Yes that was because one person send me one euro directly to the email address through pay pal as apposed to going through the paypal form. That is where the other donation comes from. I will have a look at the load time, from my connection it seems quite fast.

Great points! Thank you! Let me know if there is anything else you are unsure about.

steve9999

sirreally wrote: »

©...that's it. There's no obtaining to be done. You just need to have proof that you wrote the original content, then don't publish it somewhere where the website owners have a claim to it.

Couldn't of said it better myself!

allaboutclicks

Hey Steve - you're not afraid to put yourself out there fair. Maybe push it a little further though - what would you think of doing little vids that you'd add each week to the site. The webcam on your computer might do the job - do them like the charity ads doleful voice sad classical music (no copyright issues then I think) stuff like "This week Steve only had beans to live on..." and then you could end each vid with a serious bit about how cancer research needs more funding. You could post them on youtube - drive more traffic to the site. Might help - don't know.

Fair play to you anyway and good luck with it.

shangri la

Find out what made the million dollar homepage a success.

You will probably have to market yourself more than the homepage as companies will be investing in the story behind the page and not so much the actual website itself I would think.

Put up a few stories about how your such a poor student that you have to buy food from the discount aisle in aldi that is a about to go off and make sure you eat it before midnight. Your thinking about growing your own potatoes, ect ect.

Gambler

My suggestion is to find something you can give people who have donated that doesn't cost you. It doesn't have to be a physical item - maybe access to a section where once a week you will post a video you have made of some sort (What you covered in college this week, a review of a movie - maybe just a video of you doing a dance ala this guy: http://dailydancer.com/videos.html).

As it stands at the moment it feels like it is - you're asking people to pay for your college education and donate some money to charity. Don't get me wrong - I admire the fact you've put it out there and are doing something proactive like this but part of me does think why don't I just donate a euro to charity instead.

You said yourself on the "Why give me a euro" page: "I know people who are paying off student loans for years after they graduated. Not a nice thought!" - Most of the people who might be in a position to donate a euro will have done exactly this, spent years paying off a student debt and they may wonder why they should help you skip the debt that they had to endure.

However - if in return for a 1 euro donation they got something in return - even just some sort of a commitment from you that they can see then maybe it's worth doing.

For example - if for every 10/20/30 euro donated you would not only give 20% to charity but you would also spend 1 hour volunteering for charity as well (either the same charity or different charities on an ongoing basis) then as a donor I wouldn't feel like I am paying off 80c from your personal debt but I am also helping to support a charity in a more direct way than giving money alone.

shangri la

Gambler wrote: »

For example - if for every 10/20/30 euro donated you would not only give 20% to charity but you would also spend 1 hour volunteering for charity as well (either the same charity or different charities on an ongoing basis) then as a donor I wouldn't feel like I am paying off 80c from your personal debt but I am also helping to support a charity in a more direct way than giving money alone.

This could be a great idea and you earn a bigger hourly "wage" than you stand to earn working a student job in mcdonalds.

Show videos of your volunteering as you go would get the idea off the ground.

steve9999

shangri la wrote: »

Find out what made the million dollar homepage a success.

You will probably have to market yourself more than the homepage as companies will be investing in the story behind the page and not so much the actual website itself I would think.

Put up a few stories about how your such a poor student that you have to buy food from the discount aisle in aldi that is a about to go off and make sure you eat it before midnight. Your thinking about growing your own potatoes, ect ect.

I agree with you there. I do need add the extra factor to the site. Great idea, I am going to do something like this however I need to build up a bit of a following first. Then again it wouldn't do any harm to start doing stuff like this.
Thanks for the advice

steve9999

Gambler wrote: »

My suggestion is to find something you can give people who have donated that doesn't cost you. It doesn't have to be a physical item - maybe access to a section where once a week you will post a video you have made of some sort (What you covered in college this week, a review of a movie - maybe just a video of you doing a dance ala this guy: http://dailydancer.com/videos.html).

As it stands at the moment it feels like it is - you're asking people to pay for your college education and donate some money to charity. Don't get me wrong - I admire the fact you've put it out there and are doing something proactive like this but part of me does think why don't I just donate a euro to charity instead.

You said yourself on the "Why give me a euro" page: "I know people who are paying off student loans for years after they graduated. Not a nice thought!" - Most of the people who might be in a position to donate a euro will have done exactly this, spent years paying off a student debt and they may wonder why they should help you skip the debt that they had to endure.

However - if in return for a 1 euro donation they got something in return - even just some sort of a commitment from you that they can see then maybe it's worth doing.

For example - if for every 10/20/30 euro donated you would not only give 20% to charity but you would also spend 1 hour volunteering for charity as well (either the same charity or different charities on an ongoing basis) then as a donor I wouldn't feel like I am paying off 80c from your personal debt but I am also helping to support a charity in a more direct way than giving money alone.

Excellent points. I agree at the moment I can see how it looks like I am literally trying to clear of my debt which in some respect I am. But yes I could easily make a YouTube video saying thank you to the donator's, maybe like a rolling video so that each time I would start by saying 1 name then 2 names in the second video then 3 names etc. I do need to give something back to the people that donate.

Some great points I will take them all into consideration. Thank you

brimal

What about your webcam site? Is that making any money?

earpiece

Just a few pointers to maybe help improve income...
1. Spelling!!!!! "you can get you company" - this is fundamental.
2. You 'plan' to donate.... this should be 'WILL', a firm commitment for your doners.
3. Be active in raising money aside from the site, for your nominated charity... and report your activities...... shave your head, 48 fasting, long distance cycle, etc.

Good luck.

Nokia08

Hey not sure if this has already been pointed out, but why did you choose that layout for the website?

If I was a business, It wouldn't encourage me to donate. I Have no front page coverage except the "Company donations box" and maybe the "People who have donated".

Your business model runs off of advertising and the companies seeing it as that? but this layout doesn't encourage anything of the sort!. I hope its not sounding all negative. But i'm only suggesting change the landing page to a series of clean and defined advertisements dependent on size of donations, Or even category.
It maybe help you out but fair play on the 31€ thus far!

stepbar

Why would I want to donate to a person who by his own admission is still in college "due to lack of effort" and "one too many years repeating college exams".

Why???

The Irish Riddler

stepbar wrote: »

Why would I want to donate to a person who by his own admission is still in college "due to lack of effort" and "one too many years repeating college exams".

Why???

You definately need to delete this part of your website.






The webpage title/address " Give me a euro", reeks of junkies in Dublin looking for money for the "bus". The site does not give off a good vibe. Why would I pay for your parents to take a holiday? They have jobs, are not disadvantaged and can save for one if they want just like everyone else. My point is that you are not appealing to people in the right way at all.

Dazzler88

Agree with the above posts.I would edit the bit about giving your parents a holiday with left over money.I would stick with paying your loans and left overs to charity.

Also watch the spelling, you say " You cannot donate by laser card as Pay Pal do accept it." Should be don't accept it.

I like the idea but would recommend you give 50c to charity.ATM you seem like your debts are priority,if everything was 50/50, you would have more chance of getting donations and draw more publicity.

If a newspaper done a piece on the site at present,they would portray you as some sort of scam,taking 75% of people's money.

Also think you may have problems with the name Give Me a Euro,it sounds like begging.Do not mean to be negative,just a few pointers.Best of luck with it and your definitely gaining momentum with the more people who see it on here.

The Irish Riddler

It appears you completely copied the blog/faq, even the is this a joke section from the million dollar homepage.

People are not foolish enough to fall for that when money is involved especially when there are probably a thousand sites just like it.