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Get Your “Free Lunch” @ Xacti

free, publishing, software applications, fun, games, “Live Free or Die” isn’t just the official motto for New Hampshire (adopted in 1945), this slogan also relates  to online start-ups in the information age.  Today, I am finding many services offering “Free” services, whether it be content, a software application, program, etc.  Just recently, HotorNot decided to give up $10,000 per month from their subscribers to let “Free” reign.  Charles Cooper, Executive editor for CNet writes about how “Free” has been discredited, and how free services won’t last.  Well, I recently came across one company who understands that “Free” is an internet goldmine.
“Free Stuff Provider” Xacti, a South Florida based company founded in 2000, creates & markets software applications to provide the best user experience possible.  The great thing about these applications, they build & give them away!  You may ask how this company makes money by giving away free software, what do they have to show for it.  Xacti currently has Corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, another office in Ft. Lauderdale, a R&D center in the Czech Republic, and 24/7 services with a 300 plus man-power telemarketing group in India.  With an organization and resource platform in place, and the generation of daily profits, I think they are doing something right.

Founder & CEO, Robert Oesterlund, knew what could be done online, and didn’t get bit by the dotcom bust, but took on the concept of building businesses under the helm of Xacti.  Revenues are generated through search advertising methods and click-through listings.

As Xacti has grown, they also B2B services as well as consumer services.  Some business services such as graphic design, marketing, legal & business development, office space, and strategic business services.  Just think, it all started with free.

Currently, Xacti has two platforms of services: 1.) Software Applications & 2.) Subscriptions based services.  The following are some of their software applications:

Get a myriad of free screensavers, free online games, ecards & more.  I tested out some of the games & they live up to their name.  They have flash based games that all you have to do is click play, load it up, and get your gaming action on.  Unlike some other flashbased gaming sites, the graphics are great, the gaming sounds are classic, and they definitely can appeal to the young as well as older demographic.
For parents who want to ensure their kids have a safe surfing environment, theres Crawler Parental Control software which you can download for free.  You can restrict access to folders online as well as within your computer programs folders, in addition to setting limiting the time your child spends on the computer.  The biggest piece, it also controls malware that may be on your system.

 

 

Free real-time spy protection software.  Now, Norton doesn’t offer that on a yearly basis :)

 

With this free service, you can get free traffic & weather info, and it can be delivered directly onto your desktop.

I think Xacti is definitely a company to look out for.  The key would be expanding into widgets & applications that can be shared.  These applications are for individual use, but now with community sites & portals, I think there is definitely opportunity for innovation.

 

Tycoons Quest: Day 22 - Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers

CNBC, Portfolio, Million Dollar, Stocks

 

News Trivia Answers
Question: Today the Yen hit all time lows against what major currency?
Answer: EURO

Video Trivia Answers:
Question: Citigroup unveiled a new restructuring plan this morning that will eliminate how many jobs?
Answer: $17,000

 

Imus vs. the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Chart(language warning)

It’s a sad, sad state we are in these days - Have you seen the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart this week?

read more | digg story

 

How to Start Your Own Mobile Phone Company

Sonopia, mobile, cell-phone, community, web2.0If you ever wanted to start your own mobile phone company, this is the perfect place to start.  The company just launched with Juha Christensen (formerly of Microsoft).  With Sonopia, you can create your own cell-phone network.  Individuals can sign up through your network & not only use the social networking aspects of the service but also have an opportunity to purchase a phone & a monthly subscription plan.

The company has currently $9 million in venture funding, which will allow the company to grow its other social media pieces, such as blogging & photo sharing.  I really think this type of company should incorporate a blog on its site.  I’d be inclined to keep up with it.
There is a lot that can be done w/ the service & more functionality and opportunities for its users should be provided.  With all the other platforms & community sharing widgets combined with the variety of phone services, once you become a member you automatically know its limitations without even testing the site fully.

I definitely think this service has phenomenal potential as this is more than just a “revenue-sharing opportunity.”  Sonopia should definitely partner with Bloggers/videobloggers & users in the new media movement.  If the service is that good, then influentialists can make more waves in pushing an added feature through Sonopia.

In reality, Sonopia is super mobile phone affiliate network that allows for a bit of social networking.  It’s better than any regular affiliate service becuase it’s not just a pay-per-click or CPC vehicle, but allows you to have more of a personal feeling with potential customers and it’s like you are responsible for your own acquisitions & hence you get paid per acquisition & that’s only if people sign up for your service.

 

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Is it ‘Hot or Not” to forfeit $10,000 Per Day Business Revenue?

Hot Or Not

Jim drinks Tequila, and James drinks vodka. Yesterday, they celebrated the fact that there 6 year old company, Hot or Not was not going to make $10,000 per day anymore. If that doesn’t interest you, I’ll put it in larger terms. Hot or Not averages $5 million per year in revenues from subscription based services. Instead, they sought after another revenue model, giving up $5 million per year to start at scratch to entertain themselves with an online advertising based model.

Hot or Not is an online photo-rating personal service started by two guys who run the operation out of their living room.
There are other social networking aspects to the site, such as chat & messaging. The site was built in only a few days and today has over 12 billion votes on potentially hot or not people. Today, Hot or Not can be considered one of the top relationship building or even dating websites around, although I don’t think it was meant directly for this…..other than Jim & James to meet girls.
Some of the reasons James Hong states that they have opted for the “Free Model” for their business:

  • Free is the “Big Expansion” - Hot or Not is not small anymore, however, “FREE”
  • Their goal was to have the site free for its users
  • The online ad model is backed by actual commerce versus VC money

The founders started charing for the site as a way to maintain a living, online & off. Users were charged a fee for the Meet Me

I think overall, this is a very risky move. However, it will only make sense if the users add more content to the site & become extremely active. The key in motivating users is to incentize them to bring in additional users of the services. The goal would be to double the current membership load and create a stronger sense of community with the Hot or Not members. As for the $10,000 in daily revenue, I would not have given it up directly, but allocated those resources into other web properties. I sure could have used Hot or Not’s help as a sponsor! But, if the $10,000 in daily revenue could have been used as an incentive for other non-paying members or even paying members to bring in new users, or have some sort of revenue sharing model would probably bring more brand loyalty to the service. However, maintaining the “Free” culture is a growing trend, but the question is, will advertising dollars “always” be there?

But giving up $10,000 per day? I ask myself now, what were they drinking! :) What would you have done?

 

Who the FuckedCompany would Crunch that?

April Fools, TechCrunch, Acquisition, Acquired, tycoonsrow, web2.0

???
What a way to  spike your hits & commenters to your blog.  An interesting post over at  Mike ArringtoFuckedCompany, Techcrunchns TechCrunch pulls an early to some & on-time to many April Fool’s hoax, stating that the Crunch has acquired FuckedCompany, run by the infamous Phil Kaplan.
FuckedCompany was a blog that featured dot-com busted companies and grew to 4 million viewers per month.  However, according to Compete  the number of people going to FuckedCompany has dropped 63% for the year, their ranking has dropped 61,922, and the average stay is only 48 seconds.  Remember, this is only one statistical source as well everyone that uses Compete will be captured.  Additionally, I checked Alexa & they confirm similar stats, but noted a significant spike in traffic today on March 31st, as seen here.
At 2:52 pm PST, the crunch sends out a drafted press release, given that people already knew about it & Arrington didn’t want other sites, such as Wired or CNet. to send out the news before he did.  I guess it was too late, because Wired’s post clearly stated March 29 @ 1:14 pm & the first comment was at 2:53pm.  The interesting thing was that the 2nd comment was on March 30th.
It’s also clear that Arrington just brought over a new CEO, whereas, I’d be interested in her thoughts and input on this.  As, the idea sounds great & this could be plausible, as TechCrunch states that the reason for the merger are for the following:
  • The TechCrunch Deadpool is growing, & that 90% of start-ups fail.
  • People enjoy negative news
  • There’s no innovation anymore
Steve O’Hear over at ZDNet explains his reasoning why this is a elaborate April Fools prank.
Some people were fooled about the joke, such as Dave Winer.
Overall, allthough this was an interesting trick, I don’t see why not a merger shouldn’t take place.  Here’s why:
  • The TechCrucnh Deadpool is & can grow larger.  FuckedCompany focuses on those companies, while TechCrunch just has them tagged as “Deadpool.”
  • FuckedCompany has some great T-Shirts & book that might just need a 2007 sequel, let’s call it the “DeadPool Effect”
  • FuckedCompany states that it has over 1 million members in its “Personals” Section.  Wouldn’t it be interesting to an additional 1 million “subscribers” or love seekers interested in Startups & Crashes?
Well, the only thing that I see is that F’d Company will definitely increase its viewers some more ratings, sell some more books & become more of an interesting site to watch in the near future, as this Fool’s Day gag definitely worked.  For some reason, it’s either that trick or this picture above now wants me to at least take a look at the book!

 

Digital Scrapbook Making Is Live at Scrapblog

Previously, you had a demo from CEO, Carlos Garcia with Scrapblog. Today, Scrapblog relaunches its digital scrapbook maker & it is definitely impressive. Scrapblog went through a re-launch a week ago after going off line for some creative & competitive updates to its service.
Using a Flash interface, you can create a slide show with your pictures. That’s not all, you can add music, create additional graphics & imagery to your photos to make an effective photo-book presentation. Scrapblog is Flickr with photo-media attitude.

Also, with the new scrapblog, you can embed your photo-show to other websites making your creations mobile on the web. The embed function allows for public or private showing.

You can either build your scrapblog from scratch with a blank page or 1 of 19 background themes along with 1 of 3 layouts which offers a variety. Scrapblog also tracks how many times there user-friendly themes have been used so it kind of gives you a will to be more creative if you don’t want to use a theme that’s been used hundreds of times. Hopefully, they will continually to upgrade with additional themes. I think that will add some flavor to Scrapblog.

With your custom theme or a Scrapblog theme in place, you can add photos, stickers, background, text, buttons, shapes, video & frames to your digital scrapbook. Having the creative eye here is where all the magic happens. Additionally, you are able to add transition effects, duplications & set your music here all in one place.

You can also outsource media from Photobucket, Webshots, & Flickr & even Yahoo photos. The service is very easy to use, especially after your creations are made. After you create, you are easily able to embed your show on a webpage or blog, as it automatically generates the code for you.

This South Florida start-up is competing with other social-photo sites, such as Slide, Rock You & BubbleShare which are all based out west. I think that if Scrapbook connects with other social networks quickly, such as MyYearbook and target community social niches such as these along with the sleek & rich presentations that can be created through Scrapbook, users will adopt quickly as the next new thing in photo-sharing.

 

Claim Your Fame at FameSource

FameSourceLaunched this past February, L.A. based company FameSource is a new found rating service that sources the “longtail” of fame.  Famesource has targeted a specific niche in the social networking world, focusing on individuals that aspire & seek to have fame: musicians, actors, models are just a few of the categories.

Through Famesource, users can upload their pictures, video & even audio & all this can be voted on as either Fame or Shame.  Just as in Hollywood, the more exposure you get the more Fame you have.  However, if you too have a Britney Spears balding moment, you can also be put to Shame.

What I do like about Famesource is the featured talent section on the front page. To be on featured talent, all you have to do is get the highest number of votes within a separate category of fame, such as: Top Music or Top Acting, etc.  I think a very effective marketing tool for users is the Wall of Fame where you can bid on your media being promoted to the front page.
There are many ways to promote on famesource which include:

What’s unique about FameSource is that it has gone a step further to quickly monetize fame through there trademarked FameBucks.  This is cool because you can not only earn towards your fame, you can also donate & buy fame.  Famebucks is the official currency of this rating service.

You can “BUY” your fame by funding your account through a credit card or Paypal.  In a way I don’t disagree with this method of self-promotion, cause it’s just like in Hollywood, the biggest name wins.  Famebucks can also be earned through voting, inviting your friends, and commenting on individuals profiles.  Also, people can donate Famebucks to you.

This monetizing method will soon allow users to use their Famebucks to purchase merchandise.

The site definitely needs a wiki application so that users can vote off line or an embed function so that the service can be used on other sites.  I haven’t been able to find this on the site.  The group is doing some heavy marketing promoting the site through MySpace so I think it will pick up some traction.  I think it definitely should let you have the ability to vote with a wiki or plugin on other sites however.  Not a bad service for the aspiring Hollywood community.




Legacy Builders

 

Interview: Carolynn Duncann

Carolynn Duncann - Hundred Dollar Business

Thirty-Day Duncan becomes the Morgan Spurlock for businesses. Listen to our premier episode of Tycoons Talk.


Click here to read Interview: Carolynn Duncann

 

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