Tycoons Row

Do you think you are the next Web2.0 Nostradamus? Well you can test your soothsaying skills here at Seattle based MegaBuzz. CEO Ashish Pandey & his team has just launched this “social opinions” site & we got the scoop!What’s neat about MegaBuzz is that it will be an up & comer in the Participation trend of Web 2.0 online sweepstakes & games, and its all formulated & created by user generated content. This company offers a weekly drawing where you can win cash for exchange for your Buzz points that you make. So in effect, the more you use Mega Buzz, the more points you will be able to generate thus creating more value into the weekly drawing & daily challenge.

CEO Ashish Pandey noted that the vision of the company is to, “Entertain everyone everywhere interested in an outcome of an event.” Taking chances on event outcomes (aka Gambling) will always be big. Just look at MegaBuzz’s online competitors “PicksPal,” or “Yahoo Answers.” Now, compared to Yahoo Answers, this site actually not only allows you to ask & receive questions, list & receive opinions and have an opportunity to get paid for it! Your ability to earn points by asking questions & answering correctly can all lead to a windfall of cash.

I tested out creating Buzz on this site by asking a random question whereas people can vote on it. It looks like that once you create a question, the programs first choice answer is your selected answer. So automatically, you start out with a voted answer. I think the person who created the question either should not be able to vote or their vote should not be counted. I received one point for asking a question.

It’s not evident how your question can get to be the “Hot Buzz.” But it seems as questions or polls are created, you can basically get a real time look at “New Buzz.” The other thing is that the system only allows you for short-term outcomes. This means that you can only set your questions 90 days out where versus if you had a question that would result in an outcome past 30 days.

Other cool tools is an embed function, where you can actually embed your Friend/Foe rankings on your personal site. Also you have the option of embedding your actual polls or questions & see them update in real time from your own site.

The Daily Challenge is a question that has an expected outcome the next day. This question is posted by the editors of MegazBuzz.

You can earn points through your personal social networking page by numerous ways:

• Buzz Pick - Earn points by becoming Nostradamus - predict a future event. Don’t be wrong however, cause you can loose points.
• Buzz Poll - Through answering & giving your opinions you can also earn points.
• My Buzz - Through your own network or inviting friends to participate, you can earn points from friends playing your polls & picks.

Not only you can earn points with MegaBuzz, but you can also win prizes. You can earn money ($) through a Weekly Payout. This is a weekly drawing where you can win $1 per point you have. This partially is what will make the site a success, becuase everyone will want to get as many points accumulated to try & get them turned into cash.

Two other ways you can win prizes is through authoring your own polls & picks.

Currently, the company generates revenue through strategic ad-placements on the site. The goal is to generate as many new users as possible as the company aims to be “cash flow positive” in 8 quarters from launch. To do this, the initiative is to drive 500,000 unique users by the end of the year.

Branding will be a key determinant of success with this new start-up. External competitors include Publishers Clearing House & Iwon. The problem with the latter two companies is that I feel it’s extremely difficult to win anything, especially with PCH. I’m always bombarded with their an ad to sell magazine subscriptions when all I want is the $10 Million. But that’s were MegaBuzz is great, the more you use it & the more points you generate, as well as the more times you play, you have better odds of generating higher income. Additionally, I think as MegaBuzz grows, the key would be to offer higher amounts of prizes which will entice more & more users.

I think this site will take off, because its definitely fun to ask questions & see the responses. And best of all, people can win prizes is what makes it very enticing. The key is establishing a strong & large user base. The problem will be a disparate user base whereas, there will be gap of US users versus international users.

Provided by MegaBuzz.com