[Advice Needed] - Should I start this business venture?

[jamie3000]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some business advice.

A couple of months ago I started building a system that could detect if a user's website had been hacked into.

I started scanning websites and I've pretty quickly got a list of 100 websites that have hidden spammy links injected into their homepages. I estimate there are at least 20,000+ in total.

My plan was to sell them a product that would detect and alert them of these hacks.

But now...when I look at these 100 websites...which are mostly small businesses with weak passwords and outdated wordpress versions...would they even really care that much?

Would they care enough to pay a monthly subscription for an issue they were not even aware of? An issue that seems (to them) to have no impact on their business?

I was going to message the 100 websites and build a pre-launch list to validate my idea but even that seems like it might be a waste of time now...

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

 

[imnew]

I had previously found some of these sites where various types of hacks was in place. Some of those were big. So I sent message to them but no one ever replied. But I sent to only a small number, if you send to many there could be a difference.

 

[jamie3000]

I had previously found some of these sites where various types of hacks was in place. Some of those were big. So I sent message to them but no one ever replied. But I sent to only a small number, if you send to many there could be a difference.

Yeh I suspected that might be what happens. The average person just isn't going to understand anything about hidden backlinks. He might even think we are the hackers haha.

I did find it a really interesting project though and I understand where niches like p0rn, gambling, replica, pharma all get their powerful homepage links from now.

 

[Dopious]

But now...when I look at these 100 websites...which are mostly small businesses with weak passwords and outdated wordpress versions...would they even really care that much?

Why not mail them and sell them a cleanup service, no one likes to know that their "nice" business site is hacked.

 

[ritafairclough]

Why not mail them and sell them a cleanup service, no one likes to know that their "nice" business site is hacked.

This definitely. Use the GDPR angle if the website is in the UK as well - I would approach this as an "emergency service" type. I would think it would do well, you could always partner up with a Wordpress dev who does this.

 

[Juhku]

I’d see this as a numbers game.

Are you able to scrape thousands of these hacked sites weekly?
How many of those scraped results are actual businesses, and not some old and forgotten starter blogs?

I would personally discard the idea if I wouldn’t be able to get at least ~5000 filtered results a week.

Just my opinion, based on the idea that a cleanup/security service like that most likely won’t have an average customer value over a few hundred dollars, especially when majority of them are small business owners.


I would personally rather sell them web design, and then upsell the security/cleanup service.

 

[Elusive Proxy]

Implement it into a broader SEO package.

Clean up the site.

Improve SEO etc.

Your USP would be "your site has been compromised".

100% worth shooting a few emails off and seeing if they stick.

Maybe even do a few cold calls.

 

[roydan]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some business advice.

A couple of months ago I started building a system that could detect if a user's website had been hacked into.

I started scanning websites and I've pretty quickly got a list of 100 websites that have hidden spammy links injected into their homepages. I estimate there are at least 20,000+ in total.

My plan was to sell them a product that would detect and alert them of these hacks.

But now...when I look at these 100 websites...which are mostly small businesses with weak passwords and outdated wordpress versions...would they even really care that much?

Would they care enough to pay a monthly subscription for an issue they were not even aware of? An issue that seems (to them) to have no impact on their business?

I was going to message the 100 websites and build a pre-launch list to validate my idea but even that seems like it might be a waste of time now...

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

In most fairness, a quick keyword research should give you a straight answer to that.

My gut tells me that there's a market for that, but again, look into the searches people make.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

A waste of time. Cybernetically it's pointless to create such a system. There's no reason to fix things that are 10 levels deep into hell and are fully belonging to the realm of private ownership.
Fix something bigger than your "self".


With the same effort, one could build a new civilization.

 

[Elusive Proxy]

In most fairness, a quick keyword research should give you a straight answer to that.

My gut tells me that there's a market for that, but again, look into the searches people make.

To counter this.

The people who's websites are compromised are probably less tech savvy and unaware that there website is being used for spam links.

They don't even know it's a problem.

Got to educate the lead on the actual issue and WHY it's an issue.

I've got a feeling that cold calls in this case would be much better than sending emails out.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

I've got a feeling that cold calls in this case would be much better than sending emails out.

In consequence one will get a heart attack, multiple sclerosis and become an alcoholic.
What a way to use gifts of the universe! If sun could speak, it would probably scream right now seeing these propositions.
Offer something like that to a planet or an elephant. They won't even answer. Because it's such a joke. It's disrespectful to the whole universe.

"Hello sun! We're trying now to fix 10000 broken sites that make 0 sense and will cease to exist in 3 months or about 3 years maximum! We're using your energy to do something like this! What do you think..."