Hello,

We've recently have been working on a new company called Desk3 - which will be like an online PDA.

Full details are at http://www.desk3.com/ as well as development status.

I'd like to hear your suggestions about the company, how it will do, application suggestions etc. Thanks! :)

When you launch don't forget to add it to FindApps.com
that should give you some promotion, good luck :)

Thanks, that's what I was planning on doing actually :D

Each user must have a minimum amount of "DeskPoints" to keep their account active.

They achieve those by visiting sponsor links (They can only visit 1 sponsor each 1 hour), although the sponsor can have unlimited click throughs for a 1-time fee. If anybody is interested in that, PM or E-Mail me..

I'm not a marketing expert by any means, but I have to comment on your last post...

I know internet advertising has gone down the tubes, and I know that sites are trying anything and everything to get click-thrus... but having users click on ads just for the sake of clicking on ads can't be too effective IMO.

I wouldn't think many sponsors would like this idea, because it will be very difficult to track which users clicked on the ad because it was effective, and which ones clicked because they had to click something...

Pop-ups (and -unders), huge Flash ads in the middle of an article, and other methods aren't working, and in my opinion this won't do well either...

It think the end result is that users don't want to click on ads because they aren't interested in buying the products. Some ads are okay, but with the massive amount of ads out there, the effectiveness is practically gone. Forcing users to click ads either by tricking them ("You have 1 Message Waiting"), making the link look like it's not an ad (search engines), or rewarding them (your proposal) will not make the user purchase a product or service they wouldn't have anyway.

The above are my opinions, and aren't meant personally -- just some casual observations :)

Believe it or not, a few companies are interested in this type of advertising :)

I will take any suggestions though..

I think my biggest problem is that it reminds me of warez sites. "Click the sponsor, find the 4th word in the 3rd paragraph, that's your password to get in our site". This way they can verify you clicked their banner before downloading their warez.

For the record, I only know this because I used to write Windows shareware... I've had a few warez sites shut down in the past before I just gave up on that...

Looks good! :)

Originally posted by Jm4n
I think my biggest problem is that it reminds me of warez sites. "Click the sponsor, find the 4th word in the 3rd paragraph, that's your password to get in our site". This way they can verify you clicked their banner before downloading their warez.

For the record, I only know this because I used to write Windows shareware... I've had a few warez sites shut down in the past before I just gave up on that...

You've defintely got a point there...

Reminds me of mypoints, the taxi one that died over the summer, and a bunch of the other one's I've come to despise (my mom's comp sucks so she takes over mine to do her "points"). Except those were for prizes. The idea is great, but I don't know if it'll last too long.

Since this is business oriented, make sure to explain how you're keeping the user data secure.

It reminded me of MyPoints also...

And we will defintely explain how we'll be keeping the user data secure, and we will also have backups of the whole database created twice a day and archived for a week or more.

This has been rolling around in my head a bit, and one thing that might make this work a little bit better for your sponsors is if you were paid on a per-signup (or purchase or whatever) basis, like an affiliate program. This way, you can require your users to click on ads, and rather than just racking up clicks, you are instead attempting to interest the user in purchasing something.

Of course there's still the user's point of view, which this wouldn't affect. And of course you would essentially make more money from some users than others, even with the same number of clicks, so it's not as predictable...

Maybe you could partner with other companies instead; for certain services, you would seemlessly link to partner sites, making a commission. No required banner clicks, just really try to market the partner services (good old fashion advertising).

Anyway, just some ideas popping in my head. Personally I don't see advertising-supported services are a viable business option these days like they were a few years ago, now that the market is flooded. For any pay-service (which I consider this to almost be), there will be something cheaper or free available. Everyone undercuts everyone else, regardless of whether they will actually make a profit or not; we see this in the hosting business all the time... but end users don't care about a bad business plan, they just go where it's cheaper (for the most part).