Mixing gaming with money making

Discussion in 'General Business' started by calande, Jul 10, 2007.

  1. #1
    I'm thinking about creating an online game where the web site would offer products and services with rebates (ie: cheap web hosting, 50% off iPods, 50% off iPhones, etc...) and each time some one buys, the web site gets a commission. In the end of the month, we would pick some one of the community at random, and give him 90% of the accumulated commissions, taking into account that if you buy some of the stuff advertised, you're tracked and you weigh more in the end of the month, you have more chance to win than people who don't buy anything.

    But there is something missing in this concept. I need to generate more money, and a whole lot more. If you win less than 100,000 dollars, I guess the concept is not *that* attractive for the casual joe. Imagine this month we make $500, that would be ridiculous, compared to a million dollars that you can make on the national lotery, right? :rolleyes:

    Another problem is that there will be many people joining, even registering with tens of idle accounts just to take advantage of the system. People have to generate the whole amount of money. Do you have in mind another way of making lots of money, not just peanuts like Adsense? :)

    What do you think about the idea? How to improve it?
     
    calande, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  2. webmasterlabor.com

    webmasterlabor.com Peon

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    #2
    Looks great. I think an idealab company came up with something similar back in 2000/1999 but it didn't pan out. It was fairly flat.

    I think to make this thing take off you make need to employ some tricks from the Web2.0 (user-generated content strategies) playbook.
     
    webmasterlabor.com, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  3. AvarianParakeet

    AvarianParakeet Peon

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    #3
    For the idle accounts, just have them have to post in forums, or click a link in an email. Do some form of an activity check.

    The site would be a bit of a niche, and I don't know if it could exist as a stand-alone project. You should try and piggyback the concept with something else.
     
    AvarianParakeet, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  4. w3bmaster

    w3bmaster Notable Member

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    #4
    It's been done i think
     
    w3bmaster, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  5. calande

    calande Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Ok, I found out Moola is similar to this. Moola is frustrating if you think about it, eh eh :)
     
    calande, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  6. AvarianParakeet

    AvarianParakeet Peon

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    #6
    Moola really didn't take off like it needed to. There's hardly anyone playing, and now they are forcing you to verify through a text message. In the end, this would really just be a new twist on the old standard cashback site.
     
    AvarianParakeet, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  7. Geoffrey

    Geoffrey Banned

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    #7
    Sounds great, although it also sounds that you're not gonna be making huge profit. Maybe don't give them as much as 90%, yet still something reasonable.
    Ohh and a $500 competition is fine...$100,000 is crazy to do. Can you imagine if all the webmasters done that to their forum?
    Hope your concept works out ;)
     
    Geoffrey, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  8. AstarothSolutions

    AstarothSolutions Peon

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    #8
    Does sound a nice idea but will be a legal minefield to do properly (as any gambling/ gaming site is) especially when you are having to define the actual monies available in terms of how earned in month 1 but not paid til month 3 and then charged back in month 4 type situations are dealt with
     
    AstarothSolutions, Jul 11, 2007 IP
  9. calande

    calande Well-Known Member

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    #9
    I'm not interested anymore. Other than that, I tried Moola, but I won't play anymore. I'm still at 1 cent, and it's just frustrating. I understand why so many people left Moola, I mean if you don't climp into upper levels, you go away. The problem is that you can't train, as games don't depend on your expertise, it's gambling, just like the lottery, except that on the lottery you only have to win once; here you have to win tens of times :s
     
    calande, Jul 11, 2007 IP