I am sitting at the Wash Tub Laundromat in Manhattan Beach, CA doing my laundry tonight. I was working on my Macbook and the owner of the laundromat asked me if I was able to get wifi on my laptop?
I explained that I have a Verizon USB stick to get my Internet connection, since there wasn’t wifi available. He said he had talked to Time Warner Cable and they said they’d install free Internet for him, but it had been months and nothing. I’m assuming they have some sort of public spaces package that routes users to a home page, upon connecting and monetizes the Internet using advertising.
The laundromat owner said he’d just pay for Internet himself. I told him about CityGrid local advertising, and said he could monetize the home page and probably end up paying for the Internet through local advertising.
Seems like a great idea for a local web application, one that helps laundromat, coffee shop and other business owners set up a default home page for their router, and make money from it using CityGrid local places and advertising.
It would be easy to go beyond just ads on a single splash page and build a quality local directory that introduces customers to other products, services and business in the local area.
As I’m traveling, and talking to small business owners about ideas for web and mobile apps, I will keep sharing with developers here, so you can take advantage of these opportunities.
