Afraid of what lies under the link – Spam or virus?

Are you missing out on some awesome websites?  Are there other startup ideas you might be missing out on too?

There are many.  Chances are you’re focusing on startup ideas that appeal to “modern hipster”.

Usually, white, middle-class, male, nerdy, tech savvy, 20-35, easily whipped into a frenzy.

The founders of these startups, being of the same demographic, have a high visual appeal to their prospective customer base.  They’re photogenic and in some ways, aspirational.  Hence, they make popular blog posts possible.  Giving them high marketability and value to news organisations who are also targeting this demographic.

For example, notice on kickstarter, who gets the most funding?

PROTIP if you’re looking for kickstarter funding – wear black rimmed glasses, be white, have a clean, neutral tone video with guitar music in the background.  You’ll be doing the Duck Tales Money Swan Dive in no time.

On the other hand, other profitable startup ideas that do not appeal to the demographic of the blogs and websites you visit are missed.  When’s the last time you visited a traditional forum of any kind?  or any site other than your top 10 bookmarks and links you got from them?

Sometimes I go to Google and keyboard mash just to see what comes up.  See the adverts, see the links, visit a few.

Use a live CD if you’re afraid of Virii.

Don’t be afraid, because that’s what is keeping you from exploring alternatives websites right this second isn’t it.  It can take days to remove a virus, and sometimes you just can’t be sure it’s ever gone.  How do I know this?  Because I did some focus groups with just this demographic last month.  When offered a new website link, they were reluctant to visit for 2 reasons:

  1. I might get a virus.
  2. It’s probably spam.

For spam, they meant anything with ads.  Yes, ANYTHING with ads.  No matter how useful the content, if it appeared to have be a money maker, they balked.

For virus, this was a truly crippling fear they had.  They wouldn’t click.  Unless they knew or had heard of the site beforehand.

Both of these factors meant that no matter what the value proposition, well saying it had hot pics got them clicking, but nothing else, they would not check out the contents of the site.

Maybe they’re actually afraid of finding something valuable?

As someone who tends to focus on websites that are genuinely useful.  Something which is an easy sell in the real world, especially in B2B.  But with internet, tech savvy “consumers”, not a chance.

They wouldn’t even give it a try.

What do you think?  Leave a comment


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