Tuesday, July 17, 2007

New Business Opportunities "Virtual Real Estate"

Weblo is a virtual world and virtual market place for you to buy and sell whatever you like. The catch is that nothing is for real, it is all pretend.

Three popular virtual items are property (real estated), celebrity fan sites, and domains. While the items are pretend they mimic real world entites or individuals. You may purchased property by being the first to register the exact address. Once it is purchased you may sell it to others.

Interesting virtual world and market place. Take a look at Weblo.
They raised:Weblo raised $3.3 Million from VantagePoint Venture Partners.
More at:http://weblo.com/

Build Start Up In Just72-Hours

Last weekend in Boulder, Colo., home of InformationWeek's Rocky Mountain Bureau, a group of about 70 or so entrepeneurs, investors, software developers, Web designers and marketing geniuses, plus at least one massage therapist, got together with an audacious goal: create and launch a new online business in 72 hours. Conceived by 23-year-old graphic designer Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend was an experiment in company creation and an attempt to set the land-speed record for entrepreneurialism.

In marathon small-group sessions punctuated by hourly meetings (and 90-second yoga breaks), the flash entrepeneurs winnowed a group of 10 business ideas down to the three and then chose one: VoSnap, an online voting tool that "facilitates group decision making quickly and easily" by allowing boards of directors, business colleagues, knitting clubs to cast votes and share opinions immediately using a laptop computer, a mobile phone, or any other connected device.

Exhausting just to read, the Startup Weekend minute-by-minute blog is a look inside the sausage factory, from the early consensus on the initial group of business ideas, to "Legal has incorporated the company—it's real now" at 1:50 a.m. on Sunday, to boos and applause from the punch-drunk crowd, to business-building decisions made in minutes instead of weeks. The launch of VoSnap.com was supposed to happen by midnight Sunday evening; unfortunately at 3 a.m. on Monday, the small core of developers still at their screens "were ready to launch *something*" reports David Cohen, one of the instigators of the weekend, "but were crippled by the timing and the disbanding of the group. Nobody had the right passwords to the production servers, or whatever. It didn’t get done."

Oh well, every fledgling business has glitches – even one conceived and (nearly) launched in two-and-a-half days. Cohen has some very candid thoughts on what went wrong ("development is hard") and the many things that went right, including the following lessons for next time: make the goals clear both inside and outside the room; choose the "most experienced and respected folks," not just the Big Dog personalities, as team leaders; don't be laid back about milestone decisions; and make the Sunday midnight deadline completely firm. "Launch something at that time, no matter what."

Sounds like good advice for any startup, not just a weekend job. Cohen says 5 other cities have already contacted the Startup Weekend principals to ask about setting up their own versions.
More at:http://www.vosnap.com/
Via-Information Week

OblinQ can get you money through the internet without really selling anything.

OblinQ can get you money through the internet without really selling anything. OblinQ will help you make a website where you recommend products through any merchants and if someone decides to buy through your site you are given a referall fee for the hit from participating merchants. The basis behind OblinQ is that they believe that the consumer moreso than anyone else knows exactly what other consumers want. So by someone creating a virtual boutique store they can zero in on exactly what it is that the customers desire. And they think that the makers of these virtual boutiques deserve to be paid for their efforts.
Become a BRAND. Start recommending products with your very own store. You did the research, you bought stuff you love. Why not share and recommend your ideas to others? Earn commissions from participating merchants. "Even if you don't have your own e-commerce capabilities, you can create a website through OblinQ and get in on the new monetization strategies available in today's web economy through services such as OblinQ. " - Beti Cung, Manager, Microsoft Emerging Business ...
More at:http://www.oblinq.com/Home/Home.aspx

Make Videos And Earn Cash

VIDSZoo.com has developed and created the most unique online video sharing competition available on the internet today. VIDSZoo.com “Where Where Creativity…PAYS!” the next generation of online video sharing is here and it’s called VIDSZoo.com. Navigate through the site and find out what being a part of the “Zoo” is all about. art of the “Zoo” is all about. VIDSZoo.com believes that we are in partnership with our members and as such, we have made the commitment to provide an easy, fun win/win situation enviornment that is sure to please.

In VIDSZoo’s case, you charge for membership, host contests, and share the revenue. Members upload their home made flicks and submit them in the appropriate category; there’s no submission limit, however, each video can be placed in only one category. If within 30 days your video is voted to the top, you’ll get cool merch (iPods, cell phones, etc.) or cash; there’s also a possibility of attending the (prestigious?)Blue Monkey Video awards. Even if you’re not a winner you’ll still enjoy unlimited uploads, a personal profile page and video library, and more. Sign up now for a free trial period; after that it’s $35 a year.
More at:http://www.vidszoo.com/

Analystsedge.com is like reddit or digg for finance news

Analystsedge.com is like reddit or digg for finance news. Users can post and rate their favorite stories on all things finance. And, like Digg, the stories with the highest ratings get to the top of the site. The site offers three main categories of private equity, hedge fund, venture capital fund news. The site has a forum, and also lists the all-time most popular stories and the most recent news. The site also has a job board, which you can post for $150/30 days. The only obvious missing component that is a social networking angle to create individual profiles, which they may be hoping to add as the site gains momentum .
Creating a niche site for the financial world seems smart and will probably make some financial institutions and insider traders nervous.
More at:http://www.analystsedge.com/