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wittejoe

Entrepreneur at Work Former Captain and Veteran of OIF Featured in WSJ, Entrepreneur and Fortune Small Business Focused on Small Business Design and Marketing Services

Langhorne, PA

Question: What are your thoughts on Crowdsourcing Sites? Have you Tried them?

Posted 10/15/2009 at 08:26 AM in Marketing

We just launched a site www.Mycroburst.com which allows entrepreneurs/marketers to post a design project (typically logo, web template, brochure, stationery, etc.) and put in their price. Designers from around the world will submit designs for you to see--- THEN you pick the one you want. Very little risk.

have you tried this? What are your thoughts on this business model?

Thx,

joe

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Answers [6]Oldest | Newest
I actually think this type of business model may very well be the wave of the future.  Consider, for example, a website. based community where all of the paid subscribers get first dibs on the design project, the manufacturing of the product, the right to purchase the product at a discount, etc.  For those within the system, that is, the subscribers, they would be able to get these preferences and, for example, any surplus products could then be sold to those outside the system at a premium.  You then end up driving more and more people to the web-based community due to the perceived benefits of being within the community rather than without.  The point here is that you are essentially building an economic and political community via the world wide web that could ultiamtely rival the GNP of some countries.

That being said, how do you protect those responding to projects against theft?  In other words, say 10 people submit logo designs, and the project manager announces that none of them are to his or her satisfaction, but then uses one of the logos and refuses to pay?  Of course, the designer may have a claim against the project manager, but if they are world's apart, how can the designer enforce his or her rights?  Are funds escrowed?  Is there a dispute mechanism in place?  Just curious as I could not tell from the website.


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Bart has 62 Answers and 621 points



Good question. Funds are escrowed. Clearly, there is some integrity required on both parties. We'd expect that somone would be willing to pay a more than reasonable price to get dozens of designs and not STEAL one rather than pay. However, we'll track people posting projects and then not picking winners. After doing this more than once, they will be blacklisted. TM is very difficult to enforce. Most decent project holders with half a brain would rather pay a couple hundred dollars rather than deal with a TM infringement issue.

We also are implementing a reporting system if someone finds a design that is clipart or found from another source.

The concept, i find, is amazing. Needs find tuning, but ultimately, i think the future is here. An absolute open marketplace.

Joe Witte
Executive VP Guru Corporation
877 525 5646

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wittejoe has 2 Answers and 3 points



Congratulations on your launch!

I like the crowdsourcing model alot especially when it is used in the 'creative' space. Everybody has a different interpretation of whatever the scope of work you describe.  When you see the range of work and interpretation it really evolves the idea a lot and gives opportunity to someone who may not have otherwise had the chance.

My teens have used services like 99designs and geniusrocket.com for everything from websites to promo videos and they were telling me about another site that recently launched that actually uses the word crowd in the url. I am sure there are many others out there. In DC we have an organization called cooltownbeta.com which does creative crowdsourcing to get the creative and tech crowds out to certain events. I met the founder and the blogger behind the concept and he is having a lot of success. So I think if you go out and actively recruit some of the talent in your community your site is definitely destined for success. 

Shonika Proctor

National TV Business Commentator
Pioneer of Teen Entrepreneur Coaching
Twitter: @TeenBizCoach

Keep it real and keep it moving.....Continue to empower yourself and others by 'expressing yourself' in the community :-)
Teen Entrepreneur Blog

 


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TeenBizCoach has 120 Answers and 1136 points



Nice website.

I just sent it out via my social networks.

Shonika Proctor

National TV Business Commentator
Pioneer of Teen Entrepreneur Coaching
Twitter: @TeenBizCoach

Keep it real and keep it moving.....Continue to empower yourself and others by 'expressing yourself' in the community :-)
Teen Entrepreneur Blog

 


Ratings:

TeenBizCoach has 120 Answers and 1136 points



Thanks Shonika! Much appreciated. With little promotion, we've gotten some early traction in our beta phase, and results have been fantastic. Talking to different biz partners, there is much interest.  Let me know if you have any input.

Joe Witte
Executive VP Guru Corporation
877 525 5646

Ratings:

wittejoe has 2 Answers and 3 points



Are the various designs posted only viewable by the one requesting them, or are they viewable by the entire community?  If they can be viewed by the community, you can definately keep clip art out by peer review, but then doesn't that allow pretty much anyone to steal the ideas?  Obviously logos are only good to the one requesting them but I imagine other ideas may appeal to potential theifs and can be used by a variety of companies.

Best Regards,
Mike
Pasadena Tutor
LA Tutors 123


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LA Tutors 123 has 19 Answers and 190 points