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Boosting InfoAfricaNow.com – Africa’s Business Directory

Guna — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:04:43 +0000

Recently I have been so busy with all the changes that my blog is going through hence I didn’t have a chance to talk about new startups that were submitted through the above site submit section.

I will try to get through all of the requests that are sitting in my inbox within the next two weeks.

Today I want to talk specifically about InfoAfricaNow.com. It is a free online directory specifically for Africa. It has listings in various sectors such as accommodation, finance, art, music, governments and organizations and many others related to Africa.

This website consists of over 15,000 listings so far in less than six months since it was launched. The vision for the founders, Akinyi Adongo and Zahra Haji, of this website is to be resourceful for the continent of Africa. Both Ms Akinyi and Ms Zahra are from Nairobi Kenya.

Their business plan aims at generating profit from advertising and through sponsor listings. Sponsored links will appear at the top of shown results. Some of the other things I would recommend for such site to consider classified advertisement system. If you are planning to go local, region by region, in Africa, you should consider adding classified advertisement option. This would bring in additional revenue.

According to the founders, “InfoAfricaNow.com came about as a result of lack of information on Africa on the internet. Less than 1 percent of the content discussed and written about on the web is about Africa. We wish to change this by providing a portal which conveys relevant and necessary information on Africa. We update our website daily, and are constantly on the lookout for what is new in Africa, unlike most other African websites which are rarely updated.” I am not too familiar with African websites, but the key to be successful with any website is to keep it current and up to date.

I’ve asked them about their plan for marketing. They are using social media, email campaigns and word of mouth. They also take advantage of local publications and advertise their website.

Although there are many directories on the internet, this seems to be headed in the right direction to be a local directory services for Africa which will allow people like you and I to find relevant information regarding Africa and the countries within it.

Visit: InfoAfricaNow.com

Google is Coming to Your Living Room – Meet Google TV

Guna — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:51:05 +0000

Google TV

Google has announced today Google TV, an Internet-based TV platform that enables you to watch Television in your living room through devices from Sony and Logitech. Everyone loves Television and hence Google is moving into your living room. Google claims on it’s blog, about four billion people across the world watch TV and the average American spends five hours per day in front of one. This is enough for a player like Google to target that market. Google TV was unveiled with Sony, Logitech and Intel as partners.

This new venture by Google is to combine the best of both worlds – the Web and the Television. Each of them have their unique advantage. Web technology still doesn’t beat the quality of the picture presented by an HDTV Television. In the mean time, the Television doesn’t provide you with the flexibility and the freedom of the Web. Google’s idea is to combine the two and provide people with the fullest satisfaction

As an Entrepreneur, who mentor others, I think this move by Google is a smart move. The number I’ve provided you above are the number of new potential audiences for Google. This is enormous and will expand their advertising revenue (which is pretty much their only source of income). Google can reach the entire globe with their unit rather than just individual jurisdictions. Your local cable television provider is bound to certain areas, limitation on their ability to reach rural areas, etc. Google is able to get anywhere there is internet.

Google also claims the Google TV will allow you to not only watch millions of new channels, it will allow your TV to be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player, etc… This means Google TV will pretty much be your entertainment system. Today, I take advantage of Entertainment Media Player, XBMC. XBMC allows me to do exactly what Google is planning to do but I am limited to my local HDTV Antenna channels. However, I can store and view as many Blu-ray quality movies and shows as I want. For this I’ve built a new PC that is acting as my entertainment unit. It also allows me to surf the internet, and everything else my personal computer will allow me to do. Hence, would I consider switching to Google? No, not at the moment.

Google brings it’s on open platforms like Android and Google Chrome to allow many of these functionalities on Google TV. All of this will be built into your Sony and Logitech televisions, Blu-ray players and companion boxes designed by Sony and Logitech. Maybe more to be added down the road. Google TV will be available this fall.

This will be a handy tool for those that doesn’t know how to bring such experience to their television today. As I said, I use my own PC and XBMC to achieve many of these features. I browse the web, watch Youtube videos, watch television and recorded movies, and use any other application as I wish.

Why I am talking about this today on our Statups Website? Well I think this is a new startup for Google and I think from a business perspective, they are headed down the right path. Soon, if Google continues to move this way, we will all replace our operating systems with Google Chrome OS and use Google Android on all of our devices at home. This means, Google will not only know what you are searching on Google.com, they will know what time you wake up, what time you go to bed, what you store in your Refrigerator, and what you watch for entertainment.

GayCiti.com – Gay Chat Roulette and More

Guna — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:31:23 +0000

I am sure by now many of you must have heard of ChatRoulette.com and what the 17 year old Russian kid was able to do. Well in my view there wasn’t a new technology invention but it was an interesting idea put together in a matter of hours. ChatRoulette.com allows you to randomly connect through a video chat with another stranger on the internet. This has sparked up a lot of curiosity among many net users. Chat Roulette at times had over 20,000 users at any one time using the system. Recently I have been notified by a few Chat Roulette Clone sites to talk about on my blog. I find many of them are exactly the same with no creativity. However, I was informed about GayCiti, the Chat Roulette for Gays, I thought they have done something important in their website business – capture the leads and provide additional services to keep the visitors on their sites. They have asked users to register before they get to use the free chat roulette. This way GayCiti is able to gather user information as the site grows.

Here is the information for you to visit GayCiti.com.

GayCiti.com – Gay Chat Roulette. It is made for the gay community and it provides a private Chat Roulette conversations compared to others where everyone can join in.

The point of this story is to let you know that we have always had hype around the internet with this sort of websites popping up left, right and center. However, mark my words, not a lot of people will remember ChatRoulette.com in a year or so. I’ve heard CamRoulette.com, the domain name alone, was sold for $15,000 recently. Someone is really wasting their time. No one is going to go to CamRoulette.com unless it is totally different and provides additional features than ChatRoulette.com. I wish the new buyer all the best.

If you come across such new ideas, I encourage you to take them and twist them and always do your best to capture the leads so you can always build on it later. Remember with the hype comes the traffic and it doesn’t last long. So it is important to think about your next steps early on than to wait for the traffic to die out.

adflyer: A Smarter online Marketplace

Guna — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:57:57 +0000

adflyer, yet another classified advertisement system is trying to fill the gap that exists in the marketplace at the moment. They claim their goal is to fill the big gap that exists between good classified system and all the good shopping sites.

Recently, I was contacted by Ben O’Brien from UK regarding his new startup. Ben wanted me to take a look at his website and mention it to all of you. When asked why he came up with yet another classified system, the said, “we already know that there are a number of classified sites out there, but the more we researched the market, the more we realised that there was a big gap for a site which combined the best of classified ads with all the good points of shopping website.”

I had a chance to to ask Ben a few questions regarding his new venture.

What is your vision? (what are you offering to your visitors?)
adflyer offers a simple but effective classified advertising service. adflyer is not just aimed at private sellers to online retailers too.

What is your business plan or model?
adflyer is aimed at both the public and business users who want to buy and sell new as well as second hand.

Why did you start this website?
adflyer was created because of the frustration of ebay – fee’s were always increased and too many scams

How are you planning to market it?
adflyer plan to launch a major PR campaign in 2010 – to date marketing has been down to word of mouth and search engine optimisation

What is the name of the founder/creator of the site?
The two founders are Ben O’Brien (25) Sam Naylor (25)

Where is the location of the website (country, province or state) ?
adflyer are currently based in Birmingham England UK

When was the site launched?
adflyer launched September 2008

Why is your site different than your competitors?
adflyer differs in a number of ways – to name a few, merchants can sell through their own payment processing system, users can select from new and second hand items, free to list items.

Any other information that you believe is relevant to your startup?
adflyer are constantly looking to partner with high trafficked websites to offer an orange label service (similar to a white label) – this partnership is designed to be highly beneficial to both parties. adflyer has already partnered with a radio group in the West Midlands.

NeedCube – Let Your Needs Find You

Guna — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:07:52 +0000

Have you ever had the desire to just tell someone what you need and when you need it and then expect them to fulfill all your needs rather than you do it each time? Well I believe NeedCube, a new website, has a solution to your desire.

NeedCube allows you to create a profile/identify for yourself in which you can define your needs, desires and wishes. NeedCube will then bring you what you need and when you need it. According to Gergely Nagy, the founder of this website, this website revolutionizes the way you seek information on the web.

It does sound like a buy and sell website that allows you to post for items that you are in need of and someone who has that item will contact you to sell it. However, according to Gergely, this is a different concept. It really acts as a reverse matching concept of the traditional searching for a product or a service.

We had a chance to interview Gergely earlier with a few basic questions. I believe his answers to these questions will provide you with a bit more information about the new venture.

What is your vision? (what are you offering to your visitors?)
NeedCube is a unified field for people’s needs. We offer free need submission and search among existing needs. The vision is to have a central place for all the need of people no matter what the category is. At NeedCube you don’t have to struggle with categories.

What is your business plan or model?

At the moment everything is free. Later on we can introduce premium services for premium needs.

Why did you start this website?

Because none exists at the moment. We wanted to build a unique place for people’s needs. NeedCube is centered around the demand side not the supply.
It is not a classifieds site, it is about needs. If you are a seller you can come to NeedCube and search with keywords for the stuff you have to offer and see if anyone needs it or not.

The main slogan is: find people who need your stuff or register your own!

According to Gergely, there are no other similar website. I haven’t come across any at the moment but if Gergely can really serve the need of the people, then the website will be successful.

Gergely has also created some youtube videos on the basic functions and how to effectively use them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuS3jSbYfF8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfIHbr2_cIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AWIzlSw_0o

Visit NeedCube.com for more information.

Panabee: A Faster Way to Compare Information and Products

Guna — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:25:10 +0000

Are you tired of having to open too many browser windows to search for a “keyword” or a “product”? Have you been searching for a tool where you can view search results from multiple sites such as eBay, Amazon, Flickr, Google, Bing, etc on a split screen side by side? I want to introduce you to Panabee, a new search tool that you can use to compare search results within a single browser window.

Panabee gives you the option to compare search results from multiple sites within one browser window. You can run a search query for “startupbooster” and Panabee will return a split screen window with results from Google and Bing as shown below. If you don’t like the results from Google or Bing, you can choose other search engines on Panabee and it will return results from that specific engine.

Panabee also has a tool bar on top of the split screen page. In that tool bar, you can choose to continue your search for the same keyword on another site. In order to demonstrate how useful this site could be for you, I ran a search for “camera” on eBay and Amazon at the same time. The results are shown in the image below.

This tool can really be handy for many of you so you don’t have to open and close multiple browser windows. I was contacted recently by the founder of this wonderful site. Clarence Hu asked me to review and introduce this new tool to my readers. I had a chance to ask Clarence a few questions. I’ve posted them below:

What is your vision? (what are you offering to your visitors?)

We are offering a faster way to search and compare information.

What is your business plan or model?

We will generate revenue through sponsored ads.

Why did you start this website?

We started Panabee because we often need to search multiple sites (e.g., Bing and Google, eBay and Amazon, Flickr and Google Images, Wal-Mart and Target) for the same query. We found this task annoying. Google is great 90% of the time, but it doesn’t return perfect results all the time. For these other times, we wanted a quick and simple way to search trusted sites.

How are you planning to market it?

We will target four user groups: journalists, bloggers, shoppers, and marketers. We believe these four constituencies most benefit from Panabee’s ability to search the same sites repeatedly (e.g., blogger needs to search image sites for images or reference sites for company/general information). From there, we will leverage word-of-mouth and launch sponsored ad campaigns.

When was the site launched?

July 2009

Why is your site different than your competitors?

Panabee differs from traditional search engines because we show the site directly, and because we offer a side-by-side view. With other search engines, page indexing may be outdated, but because Panabee shows the underlying site (e.g., eBay, Amazon), search results are real-time and are guaranteed to be reliable.

Please visit Panabee.com and support our entrepreneurs. If you like this tool, please bookmark it and shre it with your friends and family.

Timelimes.com: Aggregating News and Events from Social Networking Sites

Guna — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:46:13 +0000

Timelimes.com, an aggregator for news and events, launched its public beta today. You are inundated with content from all over the internet. Aggregators are very useful to pull together information from various sites into one place. It seems like Timelimes.com will aggregate not only news but also events from your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Flickr and Digg accounts. They are also working on feeds for eBay, LinkedIn, Yahoo Mail, live sports scores and YouTube.

Today I was contacted by Cameron Price-Austin, who has kindly asked me to review his website on this blog. Cameron is from Adelaide, South Australia. He as all entrepreneurs would be, was nervous to launch this new site. He was nervous because he wanted to make sure his “baby” is successful and it works well for new users. Cameron explains in his blog the few ordeals he had to deal with when he launched his new startup.

He is already working on adding new features to his site. He would like his users be able to update Twitter or Facebook status directly from Timelimes.com.

This website seems to have some potential since it captures the broad market. The site design is nice and when I’ve tested it, the site was functioning properly.

I had a chance to ask Cameron a few questions. See below for his comments.

What is your vision?

“Timelimes wants to be your home page. It’s about bringing all your information to you so you don’t need to open a dozen browser windows when you sit down at your computer. Eventually, Timelimes will bring you news, live sports scores, stock market quotes and RSS.”

What is your business model?

“We will soon begin offering some feeds as a paid subscription service. These will be for information like live sports scores and stock market quotes. We would also like to explore acting as a content delivery network for existing paid subscription services, such as the Wall Street Journal. The core feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc) will all remain free.”

Why did you start this website?

“I had a need which remained unmet. I would sit down at my computer and launch twelve browser tabs for things like Gmail, Google Analytics, Facebook, news etc. I began wondering just how much time I spent actively checking these pages and also how much of their content I wasn’t interested in. For example, my Facebook news feed contains an awful lot of information, but most of it is friend’s taking ‘What’s your stripper name?’ quizzes. I wanted a news feed which brought all those sites together, but which could be customized to only show information I cared about.”

How are you planning to market it?

“I’m submitting the site to various start-up review sites and blogs. I’ve implemented a simple ‘Invite’ feature which allows users to send an invitation e-mail to a friend, however I hope to expand this soon to allow users to invite Facebook friends and Gmail contacts. Once the broadcast feature is live, I hope to append ’sent from Timelimes’ (with the word Timelimes as a link) to status updates and tweets.”

Why is your site different than your competitors?

“The scope of Timelimes is much broader than other aggregation sites such as FriendFeed. We incorporate feeds from other web services such as Digg and Flickr and eventually eBay, LinkedIn, YouTube, RSS etc. It also has a unique business model – we will offer paid subscription services for some information feeds, rather than relying on advertising.”

The domain name, Timelimes.com, has good potentials. It reminds me of “Time Lines”, which is pretty much the road map for all of the social networking sites.

I wish Cameron and his new startup all the best. Please visit his site and provide feedback here in the comment sections.

Visit his site Timelimes.com.

Sell Your Tweets and Get Paid Per Tweet with Sponsored Tweets

Guna — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:59:53 +0000

This new startup, SponsoredTweets.com, is an online advertising platform meant to connect Twitter community directly with Advertisers. Yes a way for Twitters to make money! Twitters can basically earn money for spreading the words. It is a service that pays Twitters per tweet. The payment for these tweets is made by the Advertisers. Advertisers can create sponsored campaigns and the network of Twitters is allowed to participate in these campaigns. Twitters can simply earn money from these sponsored campaigns by spreading words about these campaigns. It works well for both Advertisers and Twitters.

There are many similar advertising networks out there, so the concept isn’t new but the site brings a new twist to the world of Twitter – a micro-blogging platform that has gained traction among the social networking sites.

To start working in this platform, Advertisers needs to have a Twitter account. If they don’t have a Twitter account then they can register on Twitter website and if they already have a Twitter account then they can enter their Twitter username and password to register to Sponsored Tweets. Twitter’s O-Auth process is used by Sponsored Tweets to establish the connection between Twitter and Sponsored Tweets.

After the Advertisers are registered with Sponsored Tweets, they can create sponsored campaigns and invite Twitters to join their campaigns. After the advertisers have a number of Twitters in their campaigns, they can select and approve selected Twitters to take part in their campaigns. Advertisers have the facility to approve the tweets of the Twitters. Advertisers can monitor the specific results of each Tweet. Advertisers can also select celebrities but they should remember that the pay rate of celebrities is high because of the large number of followers they have. Any Twitter with a large number of followers will charge high price to Tweet about another product or services.

Twitter users who wish to participate and sell Tweets will also need a Twitter account to register and participate in Advertisers campaigns. This is obvious because you can’t Tweet if you got no Twitter account. After the user is registered, he/she can fix their pay rate, content rating, add a category, specify ad unit preferences, create notification settings and add keywords. They can accept or reject any offer and if they accept any offer then money will be deposited in their account within 24 hours. Twitters can withdraw their payment once their balance reaches $50.

When Twitters are selected by an Advertiser, they can post Tweets on behalf of the Advertisers according to the instructions of the Advertiser. Twitters get paid per tweet. For accepting the payment, Sponsored Tweets accept any of the major credit cards. If you are willing to pay via check, wire or paypal then you must dial their phone number.

I could see this service gain some traction as Twitter grows. However, it begs the question about the real purpose of Twitter and how people share information right now. Just like Spammers, an Advertiser can also destroy a network if it is not targeted properly. Not all of your followers want to hear about new product or services all the time. Especially when they know you are making money off of it every time they click on your links. Hence there is a chance that you may lose some of your followers if you participate and sell your Tweets. Either way it is good to keep an eye on this startup.

Image Source: http://sponsoredtweets.com/

Boosting 6rounds – An Interactive Real-Time Video Communications Platform

Guna — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:07:27 +0000

The video communications industry should be a huge industry by now but for some reason, the market hasn’t picked up yet. I believe it is because people are used to their traditional way of communicating with each other and they haven’t found a crucial need to migrate to a new form of communication. It was rather difficult to get a web cam few years ago for a decent price but now almost all of the personal computers, laptop to desktop, come with a free web cam.

Even with all of the tools at hand, video communications industry is behind every other communications industry. It could very well be due to “convenient” for the people. I still believe it is difficult and sometimes rather tedious to setup a video chat with a family member or a friend. Not everyone is familiar with the tech stuff, so it makes it even more difficult to explain to your caller how to setup the camera, etc.

However, I am hopeful that things are about to turn around soon, especially with new startups like 6rounds.com. Recently I’ve been contacted by Ilan Leibovich who is the co-founder of 6rounds. 6rounds was created by Dany Fishel and Ilan Leibovich. 6rounds is a rich, interactive and personalized video chat platform that takes shared experiences and real-time collaboration to a whole new level.

In Leibovich’s words, “by combining webcams, social activities, and interactive zones, the platform offers users an exciting variety of experiences that they enjoy and share together live and in real-time: from watching videos, playing real-time games, listening to music, co-facebooking or youtubing, to shopping together and beyond.”

6rounds vision is to allow users from all over the web to interact live and in real-time, no matter what their favorite social network or services are. It doesn’t matter if they use Facebook, MySpace, or even other traditional communications tools such as Instant Messenger, ICQ, Skype. 6rounds platform can easily be integrated into any 3^rd party website, hence the flexibility for users to interact without leaving their own comfort zone. Many people are comfortable where they are and I said earlier, it is one of the reasons why the video communications market hasn’t picked up yet. 6rounds believe they can provide the user what they need and make them feel comfortable to use video communication rather than their own traditional way of communicating with their friends and family.

This definitely has great potential and it could become live meeting point for friends, family members and even for your co-workers to collaborate on projects, etc. A wonderful tool that can be used in various ways to make you feel like your caller is in the same room as you are when talking to them.

Sharing the experience with the caller seems to be a great feature with 6rounds because it allows you to watch a Youtube clip together, play a game together and or do other stuff at the same time.

We’ve had a chance to ask Leibovich a few questions:

Why did you start this website?

“As heavy Internet users for many years, we’ve always searched for new services that bridges the online and the offline world, but other than 3D worlds, the multi-player games and the various IMs, there were no real answers for creating a live meeting point online, no real place which truly connects the physical space with the virtual one. We started the website in order to bring this idea to the world and to change the way people interact and engage online.”

What is your business plan or model?

Our business model is based on the activities and interactions users perform during the video experience using micro-payments transactions and one-time fees. The main revenue streams will be from Virtual and Real Gifts (users can purchase gifts and send them to other users during the video experience), Personalized Modes and Applications (users will personalize their video experience by purchasing customized skins and choosing different applications for private arenas), E-commerce Affiliation (from offering various goods through the user’s personal profile to a dedicated co-shopping experience for various online retailer stores) and Product Placements and Advertisements (on a later stage, we’ll offer licensing to brands and ads will appear in the video experience as sponsored gifts, targeted activities, and promoted themes).

How are you planning to market it?

“Raising awareness and acquiring new members, will be achieved through a combination of a few channels such as: social media optimization (covered on blogs, engagement in social networks such as Myspace and facebook, submission to user generated news sites such as digg, reddit and StumbleUpon and personal website blogs which will publish link-baits and industry news), press releases distribution, invite friends promotions on the website, search engine optimization, viral widgets, partnerships (with existing social networks and niche websites), b-level celebrities hosts and on a later stage media buying and affiliation (depends on the fund raising amount of the next round).”

“The two founders (Dany and Ilan) have extensive background in online marketing and advertising from our previous work in companies such as 888.com, PLYmedia, aniBOOM, KwaKwa and Jinni.”

Why is your site different than your competitors?

6rounds is a totally new way for people to meet and spend time online. We are inspired by offline interactions between people and our innovative platform mimics various elements from these interactions and for the first time, people online can really feel close to one another.

We live in a thriving space – we have social communities, such as facebook and myspace from one hand and instant messaging services and dating sites on the other hand. These websites and services are a great partner for integrating, cooperating or using as marketing channels for our website. By offering users to install our application in facebook, embed our widget on their blog, or download a plugin for their favorite IM application, we will leverage this space to our own advantage, which is just one thing none of our competitors could accomplish.

Another great advantage is our open API video platform, which allows developers and designers to enrich the interaction and collaboration between users, by creating dedicated real-time flash applications and theme designs. This will allow us to grow quickly the number of activities and games we offer our users and gain a momentum from any of our potential competitors.

6rounds is currently in private beta. They’ve prepared a dedicated code for my readers. The first 250 readers to register using this link will have the chance to be one of the first to enjoy their platform.

Boosting Startup Neyous.com A Social News Aggregator

Guna — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:50:02 +0000

Neyous.com is a news aggregator that is mainly powered by citizen journalists – a social media.

In today’s environment with people powered social media and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, citizen journalists is also beginning to pickup momentum over traditional behind the counter journalists. Twitter, a micro-blogging tool has gained attention from top celebrities to large scale humanitarian groups because it is powered by people like you and me. This is the social media; this is the future.

This is what Neyous is trying to take advantage of and is trying to bring voices that are mainly unheard of to the forefront – the citizen journalists. Neyous is a simple blog alike site but it is fueled not only by the site admin but by other citizens that can contribute news content to the site.

In their own words, “we believe citizen journalisim and social media will rival the tradiotional news agencies and news companies and we want to be part of this movement. We are aiming to create a center for all citizen journalists to submit their news.”

We want to wish Neyous.com and their founder all the best to succeed.

Click here to visit neyous.com.

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