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Free Business Plan: VOIP Wakeup Calls

I haven't done one of these in a while, but I think I came up with a good one on the train.

Why isn't anyone doing free VOIP-based, ad supported wakeup callsand meeting reminders?

It seems so easy...  Create a little plugin in Outlook or even easier, cc an e-mail address for the wakeup service and let it call you using a VOIP backend, but with a relevent advertisement as part of the message.  You could generate very targeted ads depending on the time, keywords in the event, location, or even letting the carrier tip you off on your geolocation on the call. 

"Its 6AM... time to wake up for your 9AM Meeting with Jim.   For a quick pick me up, drop by the Jamba Juice on 22nd and 5th for a Bright Eyed and Blueberry.  Tell them we sent you and receive 10% off!"

Just the wakeup calls alone could generate lots of ads from Jamba, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, 7Eleven, etc.  Throw in 1-800 Flowers and FTD for Birthdays, Anniversaries, etc.

Plus, the neat thing is that you could private label it for anyone with a quick paste of some HTML.  Conferences could use it, too.

Knowing where someone is or needs to be, the context of what they'll be doing, and being able to reach them at an appropriate time with an opt-in call should make for great ad potential.  Its probably not too hard to setup either.

Feel free to take this plan and build a company.  Its all yours.

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im sure youll love it when i add your email address and have someone wake you up at 5am every morning... perhaps that is why.

Oh... come now.. this is such an easy fix.

For one-offs, when you create a reminder, it texts or calls you back immediately and you press one to confirm.

When people sign up for accounts, only you can sign in and create an alert for yourself.

i couldnt imagine the privacy issues... doesnt this go back to how to do you prove that you are you?

and either way you cant get around call forwarding. i think there are a large number of issues with this concept. good idea, but im not sure how it could be properly implemented.

What's the issue with call forwarding? If someone wants to forward wakeup calls to me, the could do that, or they could just prank me anyway. Can't stop anyone who has your number from calling you... but on call forwards, don't you see where its coming from?

the # can easily be blocked. i mean, yeah someone could just do it themselves, but its much easier if a machine does it for them at 5am. i guarantee no one listens to any of the advertisements as well. they will just pick up the phone and hang it back up

At first, it sounds like a good idea. However, after pondering about it- most people HATE their alarm. Would a brand want to start out in the negative point arena before the day had even started?

Also, when one wakes up, they tend to be groggy. Sometimes not even comprehensible. This could be an issue.

Brand recall - ties into these as well.... There are a few more things but I think you get my point.

Now, with that said, rules and barriers are made to be broken. there will be an entrepreneur out there who will do this - and all the power to him/her!

It's already on line. Take a look at http://TelePixie.com They do wake up calls, stock alerts, reminders, weather alerts, jokes, horoscopes and a lot more.

who wants to be woken by an advert? OMG - this is awfull

I was a beta tester for Snoozester wake up calls. same concept. great delivery. They went live (snoozester.com) and the service works well

6Channel6 Inc does it all (6channel6.com), not just phone, but also email, text message, IM (all 3 major messengers), and fax. All together, kind of surprising. You can have as many phone numbers, emails, IMs as you want. And it is free. 20 phone calls is free. IM, text, email are free of limit.

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