End My Credit Crunch Explained

2009-11-11T23:24:00.001Z

People have been writing to me about End My Credit Crunch (http://www.endmycreditcrunch.com) and how it works, so here's a quick explanation.

There a twitter account @uncrunch, with a supporting website at the URL above hosting banner adverts and more info.

The adverts are sold at 5c per follower per month. With 220 followers, this means that an advert for a month in the twitter account and on the website would cost $11, i.e. $11 to reach 220 followers plus be seen on the site. Compare this to www.tweetvalue.com which values twitter accounts, at the time of posting it values the uncrunch account at $125 per tweet. We're less than a 10th of the cost, and you get two tweets and a substantial standard size banner advert too, surely excellent value - and you're helping others too.

We're assuming worst case scenario that overheads including corporation tax, VAT, hosting etc will be 50%, so that leaves 50% profit. Out of the profit I'm hoping to take 1/3 to help my family through the credit crunch (debts due to loss of job; 2 family members with terminal cancer; two children at sick kids as well, one due an operation next month; having to sell house) and give away 2/3 to help others. The others will be in 3 forms - 1: a proportion as a winnings pot for anyone following the twitter account - win for free and an incentive to follow. 2: A proportion for people who refer advertisers and 3:a proportion for charities.

If we get 1000 followers and sell 150 adverts then this would mean we'd be giving away around about 1000 * 0.05 * 150 * 50% * 2/3 or about $2,500 per month - as the number of followers goes up so does the amount we can give away. The cost for advertisers to reach people stays the same at 5c per follower.

This could easily scale up to much bigger numbers once the momentum builds, there's twitter accounts with millions of followers out there. Feedback from the press has been really positive we just need more people to get the word out and to reach more people via blogs, newspapers etc. Even Max Clifford's PR company thought it was a good story but unfortunately couldn't take it on just now. The account is being followed by lots of media companies, including The Irish Times, The Times (London) and the Los Angeles Times amongst others.

I'd like to give away $250,000 which would represent 10 months work if we get 10,000 followers and sell the advertising space. It would be disappointing all round if it was a lot less than this and a dream come true if it was more.

thanks

Craig

Launch press release

2009-11-04T20:09:00.000Z

Can Twitter end your credit crunch?
Twitter entrepreneur to tweet his way out of the credit crunch and give away £250,000.

11.02.2009 – Scottish entrepreneur, Craig Cockburn, is launching an innovative advertising model on twitter to help his hard hit family out of the credit crunch.

He doesn't only want to help his family though. He also aims to help individuals and charities in the run up to Christmas.

On Thursday the 5th of November, Craig and his business partner Oliver Moradov will launch endmycreditcrunch.com. The site will feature banner advertising priced according to the number of twitter followers their @uncrunch account has.

People choosing to follow @uncrunch will be in with a chance of winning part of a potential £250,000.

Already the site is in profit, has a number of advertisers and a rapidly growing following on twitter.

Craig had the idea in June whilst waiting for his plane home at Dublin airport. Forced to take permanent work away from his family to make ends meet, Craig could only afford to see them once every few weeks. In between he spent his evenings and weekends developing the endmycreditcrunch.com website and business model.

Craig explains "Back in the 1980s and early 1990s the whole thing about the Internet was that it was entirely non commercial and people did stuff entirely for free and there was a lot of community help and support. This is my ideal with endmycreditcrunch - it's as much about helping others as it is about others helping me."

full press release

End My Credit Crunch - News

End My Credit Crunch Explained

Launch press release