Need opinion on an idea

mkooo

Hey guys,

The below drivel is regarding a site that aims to help young people to build their own websites, apps, games, instead of playing them! Make money online legitimately and start web-businesses.

So we have an idea of a competition on our website whereby the winner of the competition would win mentoring over skype or msn etc.. for 3 months 1-3 hours a weekfrom an experienced entrepreneur who has experience and knowledge, now the entry method we want to use is to buy our hosting which is £1, £3, £5, per month, so they can pay monthly or for a year, now the idea behind it is to encourage young people, probably more teenagers but I guess it applies to anyone that wants to start a web-business/project, is that we want to encourage them to invest their own money as the entry method, either way they get web hosting for a website and some other extra features, and they get support in our forum if they win or not.

We will be giving away a few other bits and also some helpful resources for a runner up.

What I want to know is do you like the idea and what advice would you give as regards to getting support from people that have authority with parents/teenagers/news publications, I have had trouble in the past with news publications however I think I just did not get my message across correctly.

A main message to parents is, instead of consuming games, websites etc.. is that their children/teenagers can make the stuff themselves, and they often have the skills anyway!


The mentor is not a celebrity or anything but I don't see that as an issue.

DKLS

If think the charges may be off putting, how about arranging a Hackathon event for the youth?

mkooo

DKLS wrote: »

If think the charges may be off putting, how about arranging a Hackathon event for the youth?

Sounds good, I just need a bit more support at the moment like funding etc.. for those kind of things.

Mistral001

mkooo wrote: »

Hey guys,

The below drivel is regarding a site that aims to help young people to build their own websites, apps, games, instead of playing them! Make money online legitimately and start web-businesses.

So we have an idea of a competition on our website whereby the winner of the competition would win mentoring over skype or msn etc.. for 3 months 1-3 hours a weekfrom an experienced entrepreneur
The mentor is not a celebrity or anything but I don't see that as an issue.

OK because some well know and respected millionaire entrepeneurs have some spare time to spend in mentoring people and give something back, you think that you can cut out the boring and hard bit of becoming well-known millionaire entrepeneur and just go straight to the bit about mentoring and expect people to pay you as well.

Not a very good idea as far as I can see.

mkooo

Mistral001 wrote: »

OK because some well know and respected millionaire entrepeneurs have some spare time to spend in mentoring people and give something back, you think that you can cut out the boring and hard bit of becoming well-known millionaire entrepeneur and just go straight to the bit about mentoring and expect people to pay you as well.

Not a very good idea as far as I can see.

I don't quite get what you mean sorry.

Mistral001

mkooo wrote: »

I don't quite get what you mean sorry.

Sorry why are you sorry? Anyway apology accepted.

I mean that you do not understand the mentoring process. It is where people who have a reputation for being good at what they do and have a proven track record as well are invited to help out giving young people a leg up. They do it for no money except maybe expenses. The young people usually already have the idea, but just want help with general things you need to know in business as well as perhaps strategy and marketing etc.

You are perhaps getting confused with Dragon's Den which is for people who are already in business with some sort of track record getting mentoring along with an investment so that their business can grow.

mkooo

Mistral001 wrote: »

Sorry why are you sorry? Anyway apology accepted.

I mean that you do not understand the mentoring process. It is where people who have a reputation for being good at what they do and have a proven track record as well are invited to help out giving young people a leg up. They do it for no money except maybe expenses. The young people usually already have the idea, but just want help with general things you need to know in business as well as perhaps strategy and marketing etc.

You are perhaps getting confused with Dragon's Den which is for people who are already in business with some sort of track record getting mentoring along with an investment so that their business can grow.

Well it depends what you mean by mentoring there are all sorts of things you can mentor people in but that will be clearly displayed. It is more mentoring as regards to making a successful website then it is about the business side of things.

Mistral001

mkooo wrote: »

Well it depends what you mean by mentoring there are all sorts of things you can mentor people in but that will be clearly displayed. It is more mentoring as regards to making a successful website then it is about the business side of things.

One positive suggestion is if you leave out using the word mentoring unless you are going to get someone who is well known on board to do it. That may be a tough decision to make as you probably are an expert in what you do and would love to have some way of making money out of that by advising people in a sort of mentoring way.

Websites are notorious as well for offering prizes that never materialise a well so you might get very few takers, especially if parents have to pay.

Are there any trade shows that you could go to and maybe get a well-known gamer on board?

mkooo

Mistral001 wrote: »

One positive suggestion is if you leave out using the word mentoring unless you are going to get someone who is well known on board to do it. That may be a tough decision to make as you probably are an expert in what you do and would love to have some way of making money out of that by advising people in a sort of mentoring way.

Websites are notorious as well for offering prizes that never materialise a well so you might get very few takers, especially if parents have to pay.

Are there any trade shows that you could go to and maybe get a well-known gamer on board?

Yes maybe, it is hard because teenagers want to make websites, apps and games etc.. but they can be unreliable, however we cover 16-24 so maybe some people will be more interested then others. Just need support from the right people really to build a trust.

paddyrg

This feels confused to me - is it a sales campaign (to sell more hosting) or a competition/opportunity for youth? I see those as being at crossed purposes.

Perhaps if your model was to offer free hosting, mentor the best entrepreneurs (the rest will get bored and wither, so won't take much bandwidth/resources), and as a part of the deal have a topslice of 10% on any business the do as a 'hosting fee' or something?

mkooo

paddyrg wrote: »

This feels confused to me - is it a sales campaign (to sell more hosting) or a competition/opportunity for youth? I see those as being at crossed purposes.

Perhaps if your model was to offer free hosting, mentor the best entrepreneurs (the rest will get bored and wither, so won't take much bandwidth/resources), and as a part of the deal have a topslice of 10% on any business the do as a 'hosting fee' or something?

It is to sell hosting but they get support in our forum anyway, the competition is a bonus.