A Crazy Idea

[ZiprHead]

People build apps that you load onto your phone and everytime the app displays an ad the app maker get paid a small amount of money.

So what if someone built an app for themselves that did nothing but display ads multiple times on a screen constantly as quickly as allowed? Run the app on all your old phones and pay no attention to them at all. And then get paid.

Am I crazy?

 

[bilby]

People build apps that you load onto your phone and everytime the app displays an ad the app maker get paid a small amount of money.

So what if someone built an app for themselves that did nothing but display ads multiple times on a screen constantly as quickly as allowed? Run the app on all your old phones and pay no attention to them at all. And then get paid.

Am I crazy?

To post your idea publically? That depends on whether you have patented it, and how good your lawyers are

 

[Elixir]

Companies do pay for impressions but they also track where they came from, what the conversion rate is and how many unique IP addresses … bottom line is cost per conversion, even though cost to the advertiser is the basis of payment.
14 unique IP addresses generating hundreds of thousands or millions of impressions and zero conversions wouldn’t pass the sniff test.

 

[steve_bank]

People build apps that you load onto your phone and everytime the app displays an ad the app maker get paid a small amount of money.

So what if someone built an app for themselves that did nothing but display ads multiple times on a screen constantly as quickly as allowed? Run the app on all your old phones and pay no attention to them at all. And then get paid.

Am I crazy?

Hmmm...you mean ilke he TV shopping channels that do nothing but sell stuff?

 

[ZiprHead]

Companies do pay for impressions but they also track where they came from, what the conversion rate is and how many unique IP addresses … bottom line is cost per conversion, even though cost to the advertiser is the basis of payment.
14 unique IP addresses generating hundreds of thousands or millions of impressions and zero conversions wouldn’t pass the sniff test.

Yeah, I figured there would be a catch somewhere. That's why it was crazy.

 

[Elixir]

Hey, you might get away with it for a day or few, if nobody check the analytics in real time. I could tell you a story about what convinced me that I should be looking at analytics morning and night, but it would be really embarrassing. Almost like the person who buys a bunch of impressions from your scam.

 

[Politesse]

Companies do pay for impressions but they also track where they came from, what the conversion rate is and how many unique IP addresses … bottom line is cost per conversion, even though cost to the advertiser is the basis of payment.
14 unique IP addresses generating hundreds of thousands or millions of impressions and zero conversions wouldn’t pass the sniff test.

Yeah, I figured there would be a catch somewhere. That's why it was crazy.

I recall that in the early days of scripted internet, there were products that would run an always-open ribbon bar across the top of your screen displaying ads, then pay the user a tuppence for running it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

People build apps that you load onto your phone and everytime the app displays an ad the app maker get paid a small amount of money.

So what if someone built an app for themselves that did nothing but display ads multiple times on a screen constantly as quickly as allowed? Run the app on all your old phones and pay no attention to them at all. And then get paid.

Am I crazy?

Yeah, we need a viable microtransaction system for the web. No, I don't want to subscribe for the small amount of your content I'm interested in. Give me a viable means of paying 10 cents for the article and you'll make more money out of me.

 

[bilby]

People build apps that you load onto your phone and everytime the app displays an ad the app maker get paid a small amount of money.

So what if someone built an app for themselves that did nothing but display ads multiple times on a screen constantly as quickly as allowed? Run the app on all your old phones and pay no attention to them at all. And then get paid.

Am I crazy?

Yeah, we need a viable microtransaction system for the web. No, I don't want to subscribe for the small amount of your content I'm interested in. Give me a viable means of paying 0.01 cents for the article and you'll make more money out of me.

FTFY.

Very little web content is worth anywhere close to 10¢ to me.

And of course, any microtransaction system should be able to handle arbitrarily small fractions of a dollar. It amazes me that banks still insist on 1¢ as the smallest possible transaction. (And bear in mind that here in Australia, the smallest possible electronic transaction has been 20% of the smallest possible cash transaction for over 30 years now; There's no need for lower value coins than those already in use, in order to implement fractional cent electronic payments).