|
For Visitors... we could offer a great interactive experience that costs them
nothing to use. The opportunity to express their Ideas and
Opinions...
in order to influence
the way that Technological changes are going to be applied to their every
day lives by their Government. |
| I
|
|
For Members... we might be able to offer some 'Premium
Content'... weekly e-letter... monthly Newsletter/Magazine?? Plus... Special Offers:
Discounts: Prize Draws: Competitions: Free Downloads: Cash awards for best
Articles, or Letters: Legal Information: etc. etc. Perhaps...
arrange for some Advertisers
or Sponsors to offer our Members a reduction on goods bought via our Site...
so that their annual fee of £15.00?? [US$30.00] might actually save them
some money. |
| I
|
|
For Affiliates... we could offer a very effective means of
Advertising their
goods. As they would only pay commission on sales: no sales means it
costs them nothing: it is
therefore, risk free... which is not the case with conventional
Advertising i.e. Print Media: Radio: Television. [For some... who are just looking to generate leads
or raise their profile... rather than make instant sales... paying a click-through rate:
or per impression: might be
more cost effective.] |
| I
|
| For Society... in
general there is the opportunity to reduce the current level of Road
Accidents... which would be beneficial in many ways... see
Benefits.
In all cases we
can offer something of value to those that associate with our Website. |
I
I
|
| Expanding
the Website. |
| I
|
| At Stage 1... we
have started with just one copy of the Website. Everyone, regardless of
where they live would be looking at this one Copy. Signed up with
some affiliates... showing a range of advertisements... just to find out
what works... and what doesn't. |
| I
|
| At Stage 2... we cannot
say exactly what the situation will be... but as an example... let's say we
created 5 virtually identical copies of the Website. On the Home
Page
there might be National flags of... U.S. Canada: Australia: Britain: and one
representing 'The Rest of the World' [see below.] When a Visitor clicks on their
National flag: say... Canada:
they are taken to one of these sub-sites specifically set up to cater for
that Country. Nearly all the 'Content' would be the same... it's just the
Advertising that would be different. [Perhaps the fifth sub-site... aimed at 'The Rest of the World' would carry little or no
Advertising.] |
| I
|
|
|
| I
|
| Stage 3... from having
5 identical copies of one Website we might then have a copy translated
into another language... which would depend on where the most Visitors came
from: [example... having one copy done in Spanish would cater for quite a
few different countries.] As numbers continued to build there could be copies in many
different languages. Not only could there be separate sub-sites for different
countries but [depending on traffic levels] separate sub-sites for
individual States as well. But again... something which is becoming
almost standard practice on the Internet... visitors would just have to
click their National Flag and they would be in the right section. |
| I
|
|
| I
|
| As this Website is only a
few Megabytes it could easily be
duplicated... 10: 20: 50: even 100 times... without incurring any real
costs... each
one having its own... Chat Room: Message Boards: Forums: News Section: etc. Every
Visitor would start at the same Home page... but splitting the Website up
into lots of identical [or very similar] sub-sites would
give a lot more people the chance to Participate without feeling
swamped... to Interact with people
from their own area... their own demographic group... area of interest... etc. and provide a lot more space for targeted
affiliate Advertising.
|
| I
|
| Multiple
Clones. The
present Website... is approximately 6.0 megabytes. Lets say with more... News: Statistics: Links: Articles: its
own Guest Book: Forums: etc. it has 100 times as much content as now:
i.e. 600mb. And this was 'Cloned' and split up into 100 different
sub-sites [all entered from the same Home Page.] That's 600mb. x 100 = 60,000 mb or
60 gigabytes. It's possible to have your own 'Dedicated Server' with a
160gb hard drive for
about £70 per month... so there is no Financial restriction to
expansion...
it's just a case of replicating the site... and managing all the Files. |
|
I
I
|
| Potential. |
|
| Starting from a base line of... any person in the Industrialised world that uses the road network...
and has access to the Internet. Exactly how many Visitors could you
reasonably expect? What percentage of these Visitors could you interest in
becoming Members? What would be a realistic target? It is
virtually impossible to predict!! It is really a case of... the
numbers are there so how good a job can you do?? |
| I
|
| Potential:
medium term... if you broke the
Website up
into 30 different sub-sites: say 20 in the U.S. plus 10 others and each
sub-site
had a average of 3500 members [30 x 3500 = 105,000] you would have
something in the region of 100,000 members: each paying a Membership of
about $30 - £15 per annum: plus innumerable other visitors... any of
which could earn you a commission when they bought something online. |
| I
|
| Sub-Sites.
Many countries would
just have one sub-site because all driving issues are dealt with at the
National level...
while other countries like the U.S. Canada, Australia, might have a number of
different sub-sites because these matters are dealt with at a State
level. Large States like California and Texas might have their own
sub-site while others might have one sub-site for a whole region... like New
England. As numbers increased more and more States could be
allocated their
own section or sub-site. |
|
I
I
|
| Potential:
long term... we have absolutely no idea
what the full potential of this system might be... so, let's be very
Optimistic and say there were
enough Visitors for every U.S. State [50] to have its own sub-site... plus another 50
sub-sites Worldwide... giving a
total of 100... and each had an average membership of about 10,000. [100 x
10,000 = 1,000,000] each paying an annual subscription... plus an additional income from
affiliate Advertising. Even if
traffic numbers were to increase ten-fold... employee numbers and other
associated costs might only double. After all... with the Internet there is no fixed correlation
between... your costs: turnover: the amount of work that you do: the income you can
generate: and profitability. |
| I
|
| Obviously,
getting to this level would not be easy. It would take a whole range
of technical skills... a large financial commitment... some expert
marketing and PR... all brought together in a way that was popular with a
lot of people. In Britain, 2007... 1.8 million people signed an
online petition against the introduction of road pricing... [who were then
promptly ignored!] These
issues do have a major effect on peoples' lives... the interest is
there... but you still need the expertise to tap into it.
|
| I
|
| Targeted
Advertising. There is little
point having something like an insurance company advertising to people all
over the world if they only sell in Britain... but this system would make it
possible to earn commission from Advertisers in other countries selling to
their 'Local' populations. In theory there is no reason why
you couldn't be earning commission from a multitude of different Advertisers on
a hundred different 'cloned' sub-sites within one main Website: i.e. Car Insurance: Finance: Legal Services: based
in
Britain: targeted at the British: on the 'Britain' sub-site. As
affiliate Advertisers only pay commission based on results, there is
little reason for them not
to Advertise... it is totally risk free. |
|
I
I
|
| Possible Income
Streams... for the Future. |
| I
|
|
This section just takes a quick look at the possible Income Streams
to be explored in the future... and
why these different groups might support this Project. |
| I
|
| Donations... if we decided
against going down the Membership route... then we could end up relying on
the support and goodwill of those that agreed with our objectives.
This will probably not be that easy as... we are not a charity case... and the
objectives are fairly long term... so, no instant remedies for peoples'
frustrations. |
| I
|
|
Members or Subscribers... that want to
participate in the more interesting 'Interactive' elements of the Website: i.e. Chat: Message Boards: Newsgroups: Discussion Lists: Forums:
writing their own Blog: etc. to receive an e-mailed Newsletter/Magazine once a
month. Or... perhaps, just access to some Premium Content... or be eligible
for various... Discounts: Free Downloads: Special offers: Competitions: Prize draws?? and a
Membership
fee which could easily save them money. |
| I
|
| Advertisers... paying
commission: a set fee: per impression: or a click-through rate. Building a loyal support base would
help... could ask
Supporters to make a point of coming via our Site to buy something as a way of
supporting us. Direct sales... could have an exclusive, long term arrangement with some
small companies... for a larger
commission. Companies are likely to advertise if it is risk free:
i.e. pay by results only... [+ that your site is somehow relevant to their
product... and your site does not damage their image in some way.] |
| I
|
| Affiliates.
It is possible to sign up with online affiliate companies which already has lists of
potential Advertisers. You apply for a specific programme... the
advertiser then decide if your website is suitable for their
products... the affiliate company monitors the transactions... and
pays the commissions. All you need to do set aside some space for the
Advertisements... and do a bit of 'cut and paste' work. [This does not
prevent you from making alternative arrangement with any small companies which you
might have contacted directly.] |
|
| I
|
| Commercial Supporters... who make a
Donation... or pay a set Membership fee for a commercial enterprise:
[because they support the objectives??] same benefits as other Members but could include a reciprocal link to/from their
Website... which may be commercially
beneficial to them... or may not be. [Or, for instance... you write
an article about Speed Cameras... mention Radar Detectors... and then
offer to insert a link to a commercial supporter who sells Radar
Detectors.] Or an Article about new drivers... with a 'Special
Offer' link to a Driving School. |
| I
|
| Sponsors... those who
make
a major Financial contribution and have a very high profile
connection. It is very difficult to put a value on something like
this. It depends on the numbers of Visitors/Members... when the deal is
made... how high a profile the Sponsor wants... the degree of active
support...
who they are... and their expectations. This is a similar
category to those mentioned under 'Investors' in that... there are many reasons why
someone might want to Sponsor such a Project. |
| I
|
| Commercial Interests... those
who made a financial contribution but do not have a close association
simply because they have some kind of commercial interest in the
outcome: i.e. producers of high
performance cars and motorbikes whose sales could be seriously hit by
blanket coverage of Speed Cameras... or the compulsory fitting of electronic
speed limiters which are controlled by Satellite... [as planned by the
EU.] |
| I
|
|
MySpace was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in 2005
for $580million when it had about 20 million members. By 2007 it had
nearly 200 million members. The site is free to use... but because
of the vast number of members there is great potential for
Advertisers. [Google recently agreed to pay $900million to Advertise
on MySpace.] |
|
| FaceBook,
meanwhile, are reported to have turned down a $1billion offer from
Yahoo. So... clearly there is potential in the area... and a number of
possible business models to be
explored. |
|
|
| I
|
| Back-end Products. This
is where you sell things to those who are already Members. This
could be traditional 'Goods'... something related to driving, like...
breakdown cover: Insurance: Finance: Driving Lessons... some kind of e-products... like
e-books: courses: software... or virtually anything that was clearly a
quality product at a good price. |
I
I
|
| The
Franchise Option. |
| I
|
| Expansion... in the
longer term it might not be very effective trying to control everything from a
central Hub... in which case the Website could be broken up so that some
[or all] of
the sub-sites were operated by an individual/group who were more local...
living
in the area concerned. This could be set up a bit like
a Franchise where the local operator was fairly autonomous... paid an
initial fee for a designated Country or State... and then
split any revenues with the parent organisation on a pre-arranged
percentage basis... [as an example: say the operator kept 75% of all
revenues... and the parent organisation got the remaining 25%.] |
| I
|
| There are some obvious advantages to going down a Franchise
route. Dealing with a large subject... writing for specific
Countries about local issues... translating articles into different
languages... could all become very difficult and unwieldy. On the other
hand... if you 'sold off' a particular area... [price would obviously
depend on the potential of the area being allotted] you would get an immediate
injection of funds... it would reduce the amount of work you needed to do... and
you would get a lot of well motivated individuals all working to build their own
little enterprise... and further the aims of the Project. |
| I
|
| Franchisees...
What would be in it for them? If you're trying to start up from
scratch... it can be a very long, laborious process, getting together
enough Content to start your own Site... especially if you intend
producing your own original Articles. For anyone who was considering
setting up a 'Subscription Website'... this would instantly give them a
great 'Subject'... access to new Content... and exclusive Area... and on-going Support.
|
| I
|
| Assuming you could produce
one very good website... they could quickly download a template to
their computer... and customise it into their own unique version. Add their own... Graphics:
Local News: Links: Statistics: Chat rooms: Forums: Blogs: etc. Sort
out a few things like... a Web Host: a Domain Name: a PSP: Search Engines:
a Bank Account... etc. Have it Linked to our Home Page... and in no
time at all they could be
up and running... their own Business... with low start-up costs... low
overheads... exclusive area... and great potential.
|
| I
|
| In the longer term a website could be set up for 'Franchisees' which would provide them with
website templates... technical support... new Content... information about
Marketing and Promoting their site... how to tap into various Income
Streams in their area... and the chance to Interact with
other sub-site operators. |
|
I
I
|
| The
Bottom Line. |
| I
|
| In a way this could be
compared to making a low cost television programme: much of the work is
done before anyone gets to see it... and many of the costs are incurred
upfront. Once it goes online it doesn't really matter whether it is
seen by 10 people: a 1,000 people: or 1,000,000 people: it's just a
matter of eyeballs on screens. With the Internet there is no fixed
correlation between the amount of work you do: turnover: and
profitability...
traffic could increase ten-fold while overheads remain virtually
unchanged. |
| I
|
| The Questions... any
"Interested Parties" have to ask themselves is... what do they stand to gain? what do
they stand to lose? what is the worst case scenario if everything goes
wrong? what is the best case scenario if everything goes right? and
looking at all the factors... what is their most realistic assessment of
them succeeding with the skills and resources that they have available to
them?
We cannot do this kind of assessment by ourselves... for one thing... the definition of
success can vary enormously depending on whether an "Interested
Party" is
motivated for altruistic reasons... looking
at it from a purely financial perspective... or are seeking to protect some
other long-term commercial interest. |
I
I
I |
