

Ask YC: Is this a good idea? - amarcus

I've had this idea for about 2-3 years.<p>In a single sentence: It's google adwords for the real world.<p>Let me explain:
Two types of users: Realestate Owners (RO) and Publishers.
An RO will login to a website and enter details about their physical location (where they live etc...). Based on traffic patters calculated automatically, they get assigned a score. This determines how much traffic (cars and pedestrians) go past that location everyday.<p>A publisher would then login to the website and search for locations they would like to advertise. They choose a location by any number of factors (score, street name etc..) and can put in a bid to advertise at that location.<p>The RO can then login and accept the bid. After the bid is accepted, the publisher would then send over a mini-billboard that the RO would place in his front yard for everyone to see.<p>This would not only just work for houses but will also work for cars - if a person travels long distance everyday, then they can get some money back by putting a stickers advertising a product.<p>I have done minor research on this and it looks feasable.<p>The way we make money is by takings a percentage of the agreed price between the RO and the publisher.<p>What does the HN community think?
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tlrobinson
I think it's an interesting idea, possibly even feasible as a business.

But if you do it and it becomes widespread I'll hate you for it. I don't want
my neighborhood cluttered with more ads than there already are.

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amarcus
Thats a good point. I guess we could offer a feature where people say they
dont want to receive any ads in a specific location and if enough requests
arrive, then that location would be placed on a ban-list.

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rms
Great idea, this could work. I wonder if some areas have laws on the books
that prohibit commercial sign sales in residential neighborhoods? I suspect
there are some road blocks in the law to prevent blatant commercial signage
everywhere.

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ScottWhigham
Most mid-price and up neighborhoods do have some types of statues in their
bylaws for this and I've often signs are posted at the neighborhood entrance
("No soliciting" or "No handbills").

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aneesh
You'd need some way to vet users, so that you could seem credible when selling
ads to advertisers. As an advertiser, it'd be hard to me to verify that you're
actually displaying my ad, and even harder for me to estimate my ROI.

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amarcus
you would need to hire people to go around taking photos of the ads as proof
for the advertisers. You could measure roi by simply asking your customers how
they heard about you

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Tichy
I could imagine that many people would be interested in this.

Also somewhat related, yesterday I read a news item about a monitor that
recognizes age and gender of people standing before it and shows suitable ads.

