is this a good business model or a scam?
 

this was posted on another website, wanted to get GFYs thoughts


5 years ago when we were planning to have our first child I came up with a interesting idea for a website. The basic concept was this:

There is a time from when you get pregnant until you can find out the sex of your baby. I forget what the exact time was but look it up if you feel the need. Anyway there are a ton of people out there who just got pregnant and are caught up in baby fever and want to know if they are having a boy or a girl. So I thought it would be cool to make a website that would predict the sex of your baby. You would answer all kinds of questions (it didn?t really matter what you said) then at the end it would charge you $49.95 to get the results mailed to you. For a extra $10 you could get a 100% money back guarantee.

So the model works out that you would be right about 50% of the time just based on the law of averages and you could even develop a algorithm over time based on reader response to tweak your percentage (or at least attempt it). Your refund policy (for those who bought the insurance) would state that you have to get a copy of the birth certificate mailed to you within 5 days of the birth of the child. Do you really think the biggest thing on peoples minds after they have a kid is getting their $59.95 refunded cause you got the sex wrong? Maybe?. but I doubt it?

Now I never built this service but think it would be VERY profitable. Would it be a scam or a REALLY good business model?

its a sucker scam :winkwink:

sucker scam = technically not a scam because if you have above a room temperature IQ you would walk away. almost like a "stupid tax" or paying for under coating on your car :1orglaugh

dont know how many people are going to fall for it for $50, thats pretty steep. I would do it for $10 and its 100% guaranteed. then make a friend in one of those baby magizines and get them to print an article about it.

you should have some science around it or some board prego lawyer who has a hard-on for fake websites would come after you

Whoever thought of that idea was high, whoever would pay $49.95 thinking a bunch of questions could possibly answer such a question is even higher.

Of course it's a scam. Duh!

Honestly, I don't like it.

There are many fools out there bit 50 bucks is steep.

It's akin to GoDaddy selling access to their "cash parking" or as someone called already a sucker scam. If you want to make your money that way, go ahead. $50 is way too high though.

Always buy insurance in Blackjack. DUH!

I like the idea, just not the pricing. I think $20-$25 would work. There's an ancient Chinese equation that predicts the birth gender based on parents birthdates and a few other things.

I can imagine people sending a premium SMS worth $5 to get the answer, but not paying $50 with a CC.

The extra $10 "insurance" for a 100% money back guarantee makes it sound super scammy.

"Stupid tax" type of payments are often highly successful, for the simple reason that there's a lot of stupid people out there.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm so doing this! :1orglaugh

Sounds like a post I remember reading at ShoeBitch.

But I could be mistaken.

Its a scam but how many woman would actually pay do do this .. My guess is A lot just like people go to tarrot reading or fortune tellers :2 cents:

Post the site here when one of you guys from GFY put it up :)

Main problem is there are already plenty of sites where you can do this for free.

Think I should have an affiliate program for it too? :Graucho

There are plenty of sites where you can rub one out for free as well, yet people still buy porn. How's that for stupid tax? :1orglaugh

willmybabybeamutant.com

That was the baby calendar - it'd email them w/ events that were coming up in the gestation.

lol ....It would make bank

i seem to recall the same post

There's a website out there somewhere that will pay you 1 million dollars, if you can predict accurately the exact time and place Jesus will return. I was looking for it, but I can't remember the url and can't find it on the search.