AdFor.US FAQ

How far along is the project?

For the past three years, I and contracted members of my team have been hard at work getting all of the pieces in place so that when our funding does come through, we can recode, prepare marketing and launch within just a 3-4 months.

We've already built AdFor! That’s right- we have already built a demo application, so I know our platform works. I had to build it! Developers were telling me that the technology was impossible and they just couldn’t seem to grasp the big picture. I sold most everything I owned and hired a talented developer (creative technologist is what he liked to be called).

$6000 of coding later, we worked side by side on one module at a time for nearly 2 months to build a streamlined Live Virtual Marketplace and Exchange to prove that it could be done and to make it easier for further, more enriching functionality to be installed.

In addition, we are Patent Pending. $6500 well spent to protect the integrity of the AdFor endeavor and keep cloners and half measures out of what will surely be the evolution of the web.

Demo Day

A demo was scheduled, first with family and friends. My verbal introduction caused a glaze over most of my beta samplers eyes, so I just told them that AdFor is an application that is something completely different, but it is certain to save them tons of money on anything they desired.

Upon the completion of the demo, All 30 of my test users had the same question … "How am I going to let people know about AdFor!?!" I asked each of them to describe their experience and each of them grasped for words, but all compared AdFor to other popular sites like GroupOn, Amazon, Google Search, Google Offers, Twitter and others. (Note- A ten year old learned to use the demo in less 3 minutes.)

< read more @ www.NeedIn.US

Why Crowdfunding?

After all, isn’t it easier to just find some big money people who have connections in the business and have them foot the bill for a project like this?

Easier? Maybe. Better? Maybe not.

During my research for possible marketing avenues, I started going to meetups in Silicon Prairie (Omaha, Nebraska) a budding entrepreneur city. One thing became abundantly clear fairly early on. While the Prairie may be a good place to begin the journey, Omaha lacked the community zeal that AdFor would surely need. Family matters took me (and AdFor) out to Seattle, Washington where I attended meetups, conferences, incubator pitches, cofounder meetings, TIE Seattle workshops, lean start up classes, conventions, lectures and a whole bunch more. I never talked about AdFor as I wasn’t ready to let the cat out of the bag… after all, I was waiting to get my patent finalized and filed.

Obviously, Seattle had the zeal I was looking for. I constantly read blogs and surfed the internet gathering statistics regarding the entrepreneur startup and the marketing scene. I spent excessive amounts of time researching Venture Capital firms, paying particular attention to deals that they already had in place with other tech startups. I was looking for VC firms that had invested in startups that were complimentary to AdFor. Specifically technology relating to live digital customer service. Skype and Google Talk plugins just didn’t fit with the idea that AdFor had to be a free or limited cost service.

Any deal with big money people would involve making sacrifices that would ultimately end up hurting the project. Return On Investments (ROI) would be the driving force to launch AdFor. Sacrifices that we didn’t want to make, such as losing control of our own Board, APIS selections, communication negotiations, intended customizations, location preferences and in some cases, losing control of the database remunerations, updates and even user security.

We feel very strongly that this is not only a site that needs to be built to stringent specification, but that its WIN - WIN - WIN ideal deserves to be replicated in every action society performs. Losing control of the project didn't seem like a productive way to make sure that would happen.

And that’s where you come in. By going directly to the people we would love to have not only as our financiers but also as our user audience, we can be allowed to expeditiously develop the AdFor portal without compromises, and thus maintain its integrity. What that means for you is that you get a final product just as envisioned. NOT a final product that had been manipulated by people whose primary goal is to see how much money they can make off of it.

Hey, don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing wrong with making money, and our hope would be that we would make enough with AdFor to help finance many more Reciprocating Resolutions that we have in mind. But everybody on our team agrees that making money at the expense of integrity would be a pretty hard pill to swallow.

Are you guys another scrapper site or aggregator?

Absolutely not. Scrapper sites are inaccurate and perpetuate inefficiencies. Everything on AdFor is user-created and in real-time.

Can we see the AdFor.US demo?

Simple answer- Not yet. Founders will see it well before anyone else. AdFor is very simple to clone and launch everywhere. And while the template is easy to clone, the functions wouldn't be there. Our brand would be soiled and the populace would have yet another disappointing experience. Rather than expending resources defending AdFor intellectual property, I've decided to keep it need to know.

Why don't you just launch city by city?

Initially, this is all I could think about doing. Starting with Omaha, Nebraska a.k.a Silicon Prairie, where we have an established network of friends and family. After a long pedantic journey through the entrepreneurial combinator / accelerator ecosystem meeting with other founders of lean startups, bootstrappers and seeders, discussing vertical and horizontal scaling, etc. - The numbers indicate that the city to city approach is more adept for singularly distinctive products and services- more likely to generate just enough buzz and just enough revenue to barely tread water. In the world of the internet webs' exponential, a city to city approach seemed more like a door to door approach and AdFor is a big enough idea to move continent to continent. On the other hand, we fully expect to have to go parking lot to parking lot to assuage the failed promises of other local shopping apps.

Why not try and get venture capital?

We’ve explored the startup scene and what venture backing would like look, but it’s not the right choice for AdFor. Any deal with venture capitalists would involve making sacrifices that would ultimately end up hurting the project because ROI would be the driving force to launch AdFor. There were sacrifices we weren’t willing to make, such as losing control of our own board, APIS selections, communication negotiations, intended customizations, location preferences, losing control of the database remunerations, updates, and user security.

What does getting your business verified mean?

Each merchant must have an actual EIN (Employer Identification Number). Additionally, our system will perform its due diligence to verify the person creating the account and become thus titled “Account Manager.”

How much will AdFor cost-

to consumers?

Our fee to consumers is free, of course.

to businesses?

Our fee to business will likely be $500 dollars per year, per business location to maintain the servers and security in house. Well below the current recommended 1-10% of gross sales revenue or industry average of $5000 per campaign serving as another barrier to entry that has left 75% of small business owners off the web far to long.

What is "Mayhem Marketing" and what do you mean and end to it?

AdFor.US will essentially remove all the 'middle men' practices causing the online display advertising barriers in the 'Local' online display advertising arena. They are: SEO, SEM, PPC, Affiliate marketing... click here for a full list.

$50,000 will suffice to get AdFor developed and positioned throughout the U.S. to an anticipated to user / operator base of 200,000 or so.

Additionally funding AdFor.US will increase our visibility nationally and expedite horizontal national scaling substantially.

This gives you the basic idea of how it works. We have plans already for our second and third phases of launching, and you’re going to love what’s up our sleeve. We’re here for the long game.

How will the money be spent?

$20,000 (new application / website development)
$16,000 (U.S. Launch, marketing)
$ 6,000 (Legal)
$ 3,500+ (financial collection fees)
$ 3,000 (living allowance)
$ 1,500 (R&D, equipment allowance)

Additionally, a full accounting of founder funds will be displayed on a special page for backers.

What is the Launch Timeline?

@ $25k we will begin product development. From there we have a tentative Alpha AdFor launch 3 months later.

What are the Risks and challenges?

The challenge AdFor faces is building a customer base of Users and Operators. We have plans in place to encourage the scaling we’ll need to be successful.

For operators, we have the task of convincing an estimated 1.5M industry professionals AdFor is the right direction despite the $40B+ revenues indicating that everybody is satisfied with online advertising.

For customers, mobile spaces have promised the capabilities AdFor delivers and have failed to meet the desires of the public. Those experiences could sour consumers on trying a new solution. This means we will need to increase exposure to those market segments to yield optimum conversions.

And finally, AdFor is about moving forward. In order to do that, we have to leave a broken system behind. We anticipate resistance - and accept the challenge.

This is a huge question that needs to be answered, but be forewarned- we are playing by their rules, which means that it takes a lot more time than it should. AdFor.US is a disruptive technology. Which is to say that it is designed to replace the old analogous systems currently in the forefront. These antiquated proprietary systems are acting as a literal 'Road Block' preventing the The Information Super Highway from being attaining full digital regale.

First let me say that we've been keeping AdFor.US a secret, because-- We are up against the giants that who profit immensely from the backwards way of doing things and although we definately need to stay off their radar for now- more importantly, we need to re-educate the populace ingrained with the notion that their very costly way is right.

In order to do this, our plan of action is to play their game. To establish a base of links and a web of content that pin points the otherwise not-so-obvious disorganization of the web.

Their way, is not easy. (THAT / THIS) is why we are fixing it.

Most companies, would try to build this link network after and during such time as they are becoming trafficked by users. Our position is to establish these links up front, so webgoers can reference the unfettered & unbiased AdFor.US differences to view just how important this evolution is.

We are almost there-- OUR WEB RING CONSISTS OF BULLETED SALES/ SHORT VERSIONS OF the following full lenght articles:

REAL TIME -- Full - Real Time & Real Relevance In the Real World - Short/ bulleted version- SaveIn.US

REAL MAYHEM -- Full -Murkting, Introduction to Mayhem Marketing - Short/ bulleted version- MarketIn.US

Real Freedom- Full- AdFor.US Summation - Short/ bulleted version- FreeIN.US

AdFor.US has been called a Live Marketplace Exchange, A Real Time Virtual Mall, An IntraNet Just For You and several more.... AdFor.US also, claims to NOT be a Directory, A Classifieds Site, a Shopping Site, An Aggregregate Site, A Booking, Ticketing & Reservations Site and in the Same sentence claims to be all of the above. What does all this mean- exactly?

Short, Short Answer. - AdFor.US is the aggregregate sum of the most effecient factors operating within the web today. To expound- We have built AdFor.US to be very familiar and intuitive for users to operate. This is why it is so difficult to nail down a definitive way to talk about our platform. Further, AdFor.US is 'Something Completely Different'. Our functionality facilitates ecommerce much in the same way we are all used to, however, AdFor.US reverses the standard marketing mechanisims claiming to bring consumer & merchants together, but in fact, segregate each of us from eachother while at the same time increasing Real World Expenses, REAL Time Search Costs & REAL and Virtual Security Threats.

What AdFor.US actually does, is narrow the 'WORLD WIDE WIDE' to form a 'COMMUNITY WIDE WEB' (Intead of Internet, AdFor.US is an Intranet). And then we add every feature that has ever been useful into our one platform. While this is hard to pinpoint without actually seeing it in action, it is imperative for us to use selective keywords when communicating AdFor.US's vast capabilities, so that we might reach the broadest of audiences needing our product.

TO BE BLUNT--- IF WE DO OUR JOB RIGHT -- Many people will be out of a job.

Upon the AdFor launch-- Alot of people will be out of a job. AdFor.US is pre-optimized, so an anticipated 3/4 reduction in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals -- ( A $25 Billion plus per year industry) must find an alternate way to make a living. AdFor.US is NOT Performanced Based, nor is it dependant on segregating audiences and content by keywords and or dividing demographics to sell 'per click' or 'per view', which captures as much as $200 million dollars a day from merchants and consumers meaning that the Online Display Advertising Market will also be impacted severely. Yet another Casualty ecosystem affected by the AdFor.US Exchange is the security, adware and anti-virus malware services industries.