I feel like sharing with everyone a business model that seems to work and gets traffic very easily.
Background: I used to work for a national company that did government web applications. The model was we would build the applications for free and then skim of the top from each transaction processed. So if the gov fee was $10 we would make $1 for every transaction. We did a mixture of free and fee based web applications. The model worked very well except that we got stuck doing lame web apps as well as cool ones. I saw that if we could just focus on money making apps not be bound to do crappy apps we would be rich. The national company I worked for was operating at the state and county level and normally got contracts with mid-level states. Never big states California for example.
First things first you need to do some research. You need to research and find out what web apps your local govt currently provides online and what electronic data do they make available to the public. If you are lucky you will find that some governemnet (state and local) agencies have electronic data but only sell it on CD/DVD. They do it this way because they are risk adverse. Another side benefit is the govt will sell data for cheap since it is consider to be really public data so they only charge for the processing of the electronic file and media that it is on.
So what are the idears (<- from OCC)?
1- Locate your local Unclaimed Property department. Unclaimed property is property that someone forgot about and that a bank or company turned into the Unclaimed Property Dept. Sometimes there are some big amounts that go unclaimed due to the sudden death of the owner.
Approach the Unclaimed property department and see if they have the data in electronic format and that they do not have an online search app. If they do have data but no web search app then great. Ask for the data.
If they do have a web search app ask them if they are able to provide you with paper records or electronic data of unclaimed property worth more than $10k. Another option is to suck it off of there web search app.
You can do a few things with this data:
A) Put it on the web and allow people to search it but not get all the needed information. You would set-up a subscription service for access to the data or just sell per record access. Subscription service is easier so people can't complain about incomplete records.
B) Put is on the web and allow people to search and see the entire record. You can sell advertising on the web app you built due to the traffic your data create.
C) This option can be done regardless of the two above. This where you need the records that have unclaimed property worth more than a few thousands. I would suggest $10k as a threshold. Get those records and research and find the individual listed on the record. Sometimes you will need to find out who the family was by looking in the obituries of the local newspaper for the individual listed on the unclaimed property record. Start looking in the obituries around the date of the unclaimed property and then work backwards to about a year. You should be able to locate the next of kin very easily. Once you locate the individual you can contact them and tell them that you have some info for them that is worth XXXX amount. And that you would love to help them get it for a small fee (typically 10%). You will need to be sure to not tell them exactly what the info is and how to get it until they sign your processing contract agreement. Once that is signed you will need to file the unclaimed property forms and get signatures/data from the next of kin or owner. You can figure out the rest as you will need to be in the loop. To help in the sale of the idea I would suggest saying that 20% of your 10% fee goes to a popular local charity. People will feel better knowing that you are doing this for a good cause and giving back to the community. Another option is to set-up a non-profit and do this stuff.
So that is idear number one. I will continue to add to this post other idears on using govt data and services.
Background: I used to work for a national company that did government web applications. The model was we would build the applications for free and then skim of the top from each transaction processed. So if the gov fee was $10 we would make $1 for every transaction. We did a mixture of free and fee based web applications. The model worked very well except that we got stuck doing lame web apps as well as cool ones. I saw that if we could just focus on money making apps not be bound to do crappy apps we would be rich. The national company I worked for was operating at the state and county level and normally got contracts with mid-level states. Never big states California for example.
First things first you need to do some research. You need to research and find out what web apps your local govt currently provides online and what electronic data do they make available to the public. If you are lucky you will find that some governemnet (state and local) agencies have electronic data but only sell it on CD/DVD. They do it this way because they are risk adverse. Another side benefit is the govt will sell data for cheap since it is consider to be really public data so they only charge for the processing of the electronic file and media that it is on.
So what are the idears (<- from OCC)?
1- Locate your local Unclaimed Property department. Unclaimed property is property that someone forgot about and that a bank or company turned into the Unclaimed Property Dept. Sometimes there are some big amounts that go unclaimed due to the sudden death of the owner.
Approach the Unclaimed property department and see if they have the data in electronic format and that they do not have an online search app. If they do have data but no web search app then great. Ask for the data.
If they do have a web search app ask them if they are able to provide you with paper records or electronic data of unclaimed property worth more than $10k. Another option is to suck it off of there web search app.
You can do a few things with this data:
A) Put it on the web and allow people to search it but not get all the needed information. You would set-up a subscription service for access to the data or just sell per record access. Subscription service is easier so people can't complain about incomplete records.
B) Put is on the web and allow people to search and see the entire record. You can sell advertising on the web app you built due to the traffic your data create.
C) This option can be done regardless of the two above. This where you need the records that have unclaimed property worth more than a few thousands. I would suggest $10k as a threshold. Get those records and research and find the individual listed on the record. Sometimes you will need to find out who the family was by looking in the obituries of the local newspaper for the individual listed on the unclaimed property record. Start looking in the obituries around the date of the unclaimed property and then work backwards to about a year. You should be able to locate the next of kin very easily. Once you locate the individual you can contact them and tell them that you have some info for them that is worth XXXX amount. And that you would love to help them get it for a small fee (typically 10%). You will need to be sure to not tell them exactly what the info is and how to get it until they sign your processing contract agreement. Once that is signed you will need to file the unclaimed property forms and get signatures/data from the next of kin or owner. You can figure out the rest as you will need to be in the loop. To help in the sale of the idea I would suggest saying that 20% of your 10% fee goes to a popular local charity. People will feel better knowing that you are doing this for a good cause and giving back to the community. Another option is to set-up a non-profit and do this stuff.
So that is idear number one. I will continue to add to this post other idears on using govt data and services.
