The Ultimate Agent of WERF Destruction

This guy knows it. Do you?.

Joseph Cooney and I were talking about the incredible revenue monster that is Balsamiq, a tiny software company which brought in over a million bucks last year. As such, the conversation soon turned to a lament for the paltry stipend that our own ISV's tend to bring in.

Pretty soon, one of us hit on a terrific winner of an idea, which you will see is far superior to any other possible money making venture, as it brings about exactly the right behaviour in people.

What one needs is a way to get the customer to take the wallet out of the pocket, and the credit card out of the wallet.

These are difficult steps with which potential customers are reluctant to demonstrate sufficient compliance.

Some products -- balsamiq being a great example -- seem to have a tremendous 'wallet-appeal'. After just a minute or two of testing that baby out, people realise this product will help them kick ass, and their WERF falls to almost zero, while their CCED rises to 100%. (WERF: Wallet extraction reluctance factor; CCED: Credit Card Extraction Desire)

So, Joseph and I devised a product of our own that has (I humbly submit) a better WERF curve, and a superior CCED factor than all your balsamiqs. And the time to market has been astounding: I time-boxed the development at 1 bus ride, and pretty much met this criteria.

So, here's the new product, I proudly present:

CreditCardOlogy

A big thanks to Mr Crazy Grumpy Smurf for agreeing to be the mascot of this little link out.

Web template from Ginger the Ninja of Open Source Web Design (OSWD).

Real ideas coming soon.

'Striker' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:11:34 GMT, sez:

Hilarious and utterly brilliant! And you have now achieved immortality, as when creditcardology is embraced by the professional fraudster community, it will no doubt become know as the CooneyBambrick scam!

(I can already see myself having that conversation with my mother... "No mum, it's not possible to predict which lottery numbers will work for you based on your credit card number. It's a standard CooneyBambrick scam...")

'Goran' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:48:40 GMT, sez:

My financial future looks bleak :)

'GG' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:53:33 GMT, sez:

Hilarious...and a great idea... but Leon, you are going to have to state in BIG BIG FONT all over the place that this is for entertainment and not real...

Because you know that you will get idiots putting in their real details and you will end up getting lambasted by someone..bloggers, the press, maybe even those little orange faced dudes Willy Wonka has working for him... the watchamakallits?...oh oh yeah I remember - oompa loompas. I mean, when they get on your case, you are going to be toast.

'David H' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:53:57 GMT, sez:

I nearly wet my pants ; )

'Farmer Jeb' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:40:14 GMT, sez:

I actually clicked through (without entering any details) all the steps that time. Ha! What a kack!

'mike' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:38:28 GMT, sez:

I entered all my info but it didn't seem to work. (?) Would it be all right if I just emailed you all my credit card numbers and details instead and you can just send me back my fortune? Pleeeeeeeease?

PS It works for American Express cards, right? What about debit cards? Thx.

PPS Is this one of these deals where if I don't send it to 6 friends in the next 10 minutes, I might experience bad luck?!? OMG. I'm sending it right now!

'Magnus M' on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:41:08 GMT, sez:

Hey Secretgeek...

Is that photo of you? Or perhaps a close relative??

M.

'JosephCooney' on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:03:06 GMT, sez:

mike - don't worry about email, just post them here. I guarantee a number of budding creditcardologists will record them for archival purposes and further study. And yes - for every 25 friends you email this link to Bill and Melinda gates will donate 5 cents to help starving kids in Africa. And your Qi will go up by 5 points.

'jonathon.mclachlan@gmail.com' on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:23:25 GMT, sez:

hahaha i just had to do it hahaha
that was so fun but i already have my bad news i beat the cc algorithm's and just make my own cards hahaha
have fun

'OJ' on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:39:48 GMT, sez:

OMG! The prediction I got was SPOT ON!!

It said I was going to suffer a financial loss and not 3 days later a transaction appeared from a company called LeJoBaCo with a reference of "Obscure sexual favours".

Very impressive! I'm off to do it again!

'Clayton' on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:38:50 GMT, sez:

ROFL. i hope my previous employer doesn't mind me using their AMEX!

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