Smart Ideas - Paul Sammut And His Ramos Alarm Clock

Need business name ideas? Visit PickyDomains.com



http://www.paulsammut.com/ramos/

There may be a lucky few who never have trouble getting up in the morning, but for everyone else, engineer and designer Paul Sammut has a new solution. Now fully funded on Kickstarter, Sammut’s new Ramos alarm clock can’t be turned off by any ordinary means; rather, users must get up and walk to an accompanying defuse panel to punch in the clock’s preset deactivation code.

There’s no “snooze” button in easy reach on the Ramos clock, which has been in development for years, Sammut says. “Ramos is a clock I made after I got tired of constantly oversleeping,” he explains. “I needed something that would force me out of bed.” No surprise, then, that the Ramos can only be turned off when the user gets up and enters in a code on a separate wireless defuse panel, which Sammut suggests be placed in the kitchen or bathroom. “You’ll have to use your brain a bit more, which will help wake you up,” he notes. “Best of all, after you turn off the alarm you’ll find yourself in your bathroom or kitchen, away from the evil alluring bed and ready to start your day.” An optional snooze mode will be included, but users won’t be able to exceed the number of “snoozes” they preset in advance.

The Ramos can now be preordered on Kickstarter starting at USD 160, with options including either an LED or nixie tube display and a variety of hardwoods and finishes. Specialty retailers around the globe: one to get in on early?

[Via - Springwise]

Weird Startups - Hangover Bus

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http://hangoverheaven.com/

Hangover Heaven is a hangover cure on wheels. Their bus continuously make loops up and down the Las Vegas Strip. Most of the larger casinos have a “Tour Bus” pick up area, that’s where you’ll want to crawl and wait for them to pick you up. “All of the casinos have this area pretty well marked – if your eyes are too blurry to read signs, ask the concierge or just some person walking by,” explained the company.

Their treatment will cure your hangover in less than 45 minutes. Hangover Heaven involves placing a small IV in your arm to give you the necessary treatment to continue the party or just get back to your normal self. They use tiny Pediatric IVs and a numbing medicine to make the process very comfortable.

For $150, they’ll have you back at the party or on your way to bed within the hour.

[Via - Webiot.Com]

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Weird Sells - Strange Online Business Ideas That Worked.

1. MillionDollarHomepage.com

Selling pixels on a website is a ridiculous idea but when it comes to the internet, ridiculous ideas have always been the the key to getting ridiculous amounts of money. For Alex Tew selling pixels on a website was simply supposed to be something to help him pay for college. Little did he know it would do more than that and that it would in fact help him get a head start on life and now the young man is already worth over a million dollars. Interviews on major News networks and more publicity than a 21 year old would know what to do with would follow and soon enough other people even tried to piggyback on his idea. Now that is ridiculous, ridiculously successful.

2. SantaMail.org

Each year it gets harder to convince kids that there is a real Santa Claus somewhere in the North pole. But no kid would argue if they got a reply directly from Santa himself and armed with this idea Byron Reese set out to become a real live Santa Claus for kids all over the world. Through the website SantaMail.org, kids got the chance to send their letters to ‘Santa’ at the ‘North Pole’. To get a personalized reply from Santa would cost the kids parents $9.95. This may not seem like much until you multiply it by the 300 000 responses that ‘Santa’ sent last year alone.

3. ShitMyDadSays

What do you get when you put together an unemployed writer living with his parents, a father with enough sarcastic remarks to make a grown up cry and a twitter account? In Justin Halpern’s experience, you get mentioned on The Daily show, a book deal and last but not least a sitcom deal. A mere 30 days after the writer started posting his father’s ‘wisdom’ on a twitter account, Justin Halpern was well on his way to a successful life without even trying.

4. WheresGeorge.com

We are always being told to wash our hands after touching money because we don’t know where the money has been. Now possible for you to know exactly where your money has been just by logging into WheresGeorge.com. This website tracks your money by allowing users to enter their zip codes and currency serial numbers. If the person who had the bill before you had already done the same, you will get to see just where your money has been. You will also be able to see where the bill is if the next owner does the same thing. The website is currently tracking nearly 200 million bills worth over a billion U.S. dollars.

5. PickyDomains.com

At the beginning of the ‘dot com’ era you could get paid thousands of dollars for a single domain name if it caught the attention of the right people. Dmitry Davydov’s success online went something like this, except he charged a measly fifty dollars for each domain name that he came up with. The buyers liked it since it was risk free and they didn’t have to pay anything if they didn’t like the name. Dmitry liked the idea because every single domain name he sold meant fifty dollars gotten doing something that he enjoyed. Soon enough The San Francisco Chronicle got wind of his story and with the fame came more customers. Crowd sourcing became the next step for Dmitry and the rest is history.

6. FindAGrave.Com

Visiting famous people is a creepy hobby. Visiting them after they have passed on is the idea that Jim Tipton used to achieve success. When Jim’s ‘tombstone tourism’ came to a sudden halt after he ran out of dead celebrities to visit in his native Utah, he started FindAGrave.com; a site that was dedicated to locating the graves of people buried anywhere inside the U.S. More than enough people were happy to make use of the site and soon enough genealogy research and other paid services were being offered as well on the website.

7. Doggles.com

It may have been the world’s most worthless invention ever but to Ken and Roni di Lullo, this crazy idea turned out to be worth millions. Most dog owners would never have thought to buy sunglasses for their dogs but the moment ‘Doggles’ started to be marketed as an anti UV radiation shield, thousands of dog owners rushed to get a pair for their dogs. The result? Cool looking dogs and two new members in the millionaires club with a chain of shops in 16 countries around the world.

8. GeesePoliceInc.com

It may not be an online business but it was with the help of the internet that David Marcks managed to change a relatively simple idea into a 2 million dollar a year business. In the 1980s, David noticed two things as he worked on the golf course. First, the wild geese were proving to be quite irritating and second, his border collie was unusually effective when it came to chasing away these birds. Putting these two together, David Marcks started his very own business that now comprises 27 trucks and 32 dogs with the mission of ridding any place of wild geese.

9. BugMeNot.com

Most internet users would agree that there is nothing more irritating than having to register to access a site that is already free. However, nobody would agree more to this fact than Guy King and that is why he decided to do something about it. BugMeNot.com is a free web service that was started by King to provide instant logins to free sites (like YouTube.com or NYTimes.com) and the site was a major success since many users were tired of having to waste time on pointless registration processes and having to expose their email addresses to spamming. In an ironic twist, BugMeNot.com got publicity simply because they tried to shut it down in 2004. After a simple mention of this fact in Wired magazine, the website got even more attention and was soon expanding to other niches such as Retailmenot.com.

10. ShoppingCartAbuse.Com

Only a crazy person would fall in love with an idea such as this one. Luckily for the owner of ShoppingCartAbuse.com there are plenty of crazy people out there. According to the website description, “The Center for Prevention of Shopping Cart Abuse is an organization dedicated to preventing the pervasiveness of Shopping Cart abuse”. With T-shirts and other commercial interests, the website became an instant hit and even a few Hollywood celebrities could not resist being part of this ‘campaign’.

Weird Startups - WotWentWrong.com

Need business name ideas? PickyDomains.com, world's first risk free naming agency



http://wotwentwrong.com/

Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, as the old saying goes, and that’s surely just as true in dating as it is elsewhere. Enter WotWentWrong, an Australian site that aims to help singles learn from their failed relationships so as to improve their romantic outlook for the future.

Launched earlier this year by Melbourne-based Fruition Consulting Group, WotWentWrong is a free web app that lets anyone send a low-key, customizable feedback request to a former date who has since disappeared from their life. WotWentWrong sends the request securely on the user’s behalf via email or — in the US and Canada — via text message. Those on the receiving end of such a request can then respond quickly and easily thanks to predefined categories to explain why they lost interest; if they want, there’s also the option to add personal details. Recognizing that exes may not be inclined to participate without some extra motivation, WotWentWrong promises to share the user’s own ratings of the ex on several key features in exchange for their feedback. Only the parties involved can see ratings and feedback relating to their own past relationship, and there’s an option to offer unsolicited feedback as well.

Now in beta, WotWentWrong is planning to launch a section with aggregated and anonymized statistics summarizing various aspects of dating trivia. Time to help some lonely hearts learn from past mistakes in your part of the world with something similar?

[Via - Springwise.com]

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Adult Industry Turns to Crowdsourcing To Get Help With 'Kinky' Domain Names

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Imagine yourself running a respectable naming agency, coming up with domains for web 2.0 startups, slogans for stores and thinking of catchy names for new product lines. Then one day you get inundated with requests come up with suitable ‘MILF domain’ and name sex toys. This is the situation PickyDomains owner Dmitry Davydov has found himself.

“I don’t know if I’d call our work boring, but I believe we are the oldest crowdsourcing naming agency out there (PickyDomains has been founded in 2007). I know we’ll get this many requests to name blogs, and this many for Groupon clones and every month someone hires us to name their new search engine, because everyone wants to be Google, and there are always people who are building new Facebook killer. So when we started getting so many adult domain requests, it got my attention. Luckily, I’ve noticed that clients for these were Russian, so I was able to introduce myself, because I really wanted to know what the heck is going on.”

As it turns out, most AWMs (adult webmasters) ignored introduction of new .XXX domains that were specifically designed for this purpose. And where as regular sites can sometimes substitute .com domains with .net, .us, .info, .org and many others, AWMs pretty much want .com and .com only.

“I’ve talked to guys who run xHamster and PornHub,” says Dmitry, “and they’ve explained that there are some words, like MILF, that are very popular in their industry, because they designate a specific category that’s being searched for. Or as they say – ‘hot’. And since there are only so many word combinations, good domains in this niche are getting harder and harder to come by. So they were offering $100 for every unregistered domain they could use. And since sex industry is a closed community, after word got out about our service on one of their private forums, we started to get a lot ‘kinky’ requests.’

This isn’t the first time PickyDomains encountered unusual naming requests. In November 2011 Yahoo!News wrote about Canadian couple Jon Peters and Brittany Gardner, who hired PickyDomains.com to name their ‘transhuman’ baby boy. And before that PickyDomains.com has been involved in naming pit bull puppy for a local Michigan rap star.

PickyDomains.Com is world’s first risk-free naming service, founded in 2007. When a person or a company are unable to come up with a suitable domain, they place an order with PickyDomains, specifying how long domain should be and what extension is desired. PickyDomains contributors (over 55000 have registered) then start suggesting domain names that aren’t currently registered. If client picks one of the suggestions, he or she pays $50 for the work (half of which goes to the contributor who made the suggestion). If no suggestions are deemed suitable, client does not pay anything. A typical order receives over 300 suggestions within a seven day period.

[Via - Yahoo!News]

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FashionPlaytes Story

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http://www.fashionplaytes.com

When Sarah McIlroy's oldest daughter turned five, she asked if she could design her own clothes.

McIlroy liked the idea, but there was one problem: She lacked the time to help her and the skill to stitch the clothes up.

So she found a way for moms and daughters everywhere to get their designs made into real clothing.

Armed with a gaming background from Atari, which included working with Hasbro Interactive, McIlroy co-founded FashionPlaytes in Beverly, Mass., in 2009, giving tween girls online tools to create one-of-a-kind clothing.

She had learned from her Hasbro experience that the market for tween girls -- ages five to 12 -- is lucrative.

At FashionPlaytes, most garments cost under $30, although some can run up to $60. Girls choose from 13 silhouettes, ranging from long-sleeve shirts to shorts-and-tank sets. They select a size, and deck their creations out with rhinestones and other adornments. Base garments are produced overseas and then customized at a factory in a Boston suburb.

"It's close enough that we can get right over there if need be," said McIlroy.

Last autumn, FashionPlaytes crossed over the $1 million in revenues mark. "We're delighted about making the million-dollar mark. The feedback we get from girls and moms is phenomenal," said McIlroy. "We like to think we're on the cusp of something big."

McIlroy's mission is to build the website into a big lifestyle brand. She wants to see the company hit the hundred-million-dollar mark someday.

About 800,000 designs have been created through FashionPlaytes -- 200,000 within the last two weeks. To date, 50,000 tween designers have used the site.

Indeed, the tween population is growing, and they are spending a lot of time online, experts said.

Massachusetts resident Heidi Vaughan's eight-year-old daughter has used FashionPlaytes many times and spends about 45 to 60 minutes creating an outfit. "My daughter wore one of her dresses recently, and her friends were all asking where she got it," she said. "When she told them she made it, they thought that was the coolest thing." Vaughan said her daughter also creates matching outfits for her Build-A-Bear.

"The average time on the site is an hour for repeat users," said McIlroy.

McIlroy's largest challenge was getting potential partners to believe she could turn a profit while still selling the clothes at affordable prices. She interviewed 50 factories. "A lot of folks would say, 'You're a crazy lady. There's no way you can do it at this price point," recalled McIlroy.

She eventually was able to partner with a factory.

To start the company, McIlroy threw in $20,000 of her own money. "For the first nine months it was really a bootstrap operation," she said. And in March 2009, she got her first round of venture capital. The additional money allowed FashionPlaytes to create proprietary, custom software and bring her tech team in-house last year, as well as add marketing and gaming departments. There are now 18 full-time employees.

In November, the company partnered with Hasbro to create a Littlest Pet Shop clothing line, its first foray into integrated licensing.

Last year, FashionPlaytes added gaming aspects to the site, including the ability to pick an avatar and create a stylebook to e-mail out to family and friends. The girls can also vote on each other's designs.

Juggling family time -- she has two daughters and a son -- with her company is exhausting, she said. "Having the opportunity to work with my kids on the business helps that guilt factor," she said.

[Via - CNN Money]

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http://brandjournalists.com/

When former journalist Thomas Scott started blogging about his home-staging business in 2007, he discovered that his industry-related content radically improved how business prospects perceived his company's brand. Scott realized there was an untapped market for providing other businesses with content that's well-written and entertaining, while helping consumers relate to them on a personal level.

Soon after, he launched Brand Journalists, a Nashville, Tenn.-based firm that specializes in corporate storytelling. Scott says that because today's consumers don't like being "sold" with heavy-handed marketing messages, successful branding is more about crafting interesting and consumer-relevant narratives. "The marketing materials and the logo don't become the brand," he says. "It's the company's story and how it's expressed."

Brand Journalists offers blog and web content, ghostwriting services and reporting on the human stories that make companies relatable for consumers. For example, for an insurance broker, Scott's team blogs about issues related to city life, such as what to do if the tub in the apartment upstairs overflows through your ceiling. "If you try to sell renter's insurance as an agent, people tune out," he says. "But when you talk about the coffee they drink and neighborhoods they like, and how important it is to have renter's insurance as part of that story, it connects with people."

Brand Journalists saw its income double in 2011, an achievement Scott expects to repeat in 2012.

[Via - Entrepreneur.com]

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