PaperKarma - take a photo, eliminate junk mail
paperkarma.com
paperkarma.com
It's also available for Android, which the site doesn't make clear (I left the site thinking "pity it's only on iOS", and only realised when i hit "get the app" to see if the app page had more detail).
Finally, neither the site nor the app page says whether this works outside the US - I'm assuming it's US-only?
camtarn - you're quite right & thanks for confirming our hunches. Will update the site during the next couple of days (UI & text). thx.
Have now read your blog post, and am really wishing it was available in the UK now - the mechanism of getting something through your door, taking a photo, and being assured that you won't get any more is amazing... like a 'flag as spam' link for physical items. Very nicely done!
That takes a few weeks but should stop most things. Then you contact the Royal Mail and opt out for door to door. Which stops unaddressed mail delivered by Royal Mail.
One important difference between US and UK is that anyone can stuff things through a UK letterbox, but the US mailcan things are protected and only us postal service can put things in them.
I agree this service is really neat and would be very popular. Perhaps if they had a way of telling them that you've opted out and this particular bit of mail still came, and then they could handle the complaints?
(http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/guide/door_to_door_opt_out.ph...)
The logos weren't shown on mobile devices up until a few moments ago. Now they're visible everywhere.
The former has a pretty decent chance -- pretty high with reputable companies, esp mags/catalogs/credit cards/etc. The latter, it's case by case. Some honor it (eg Valpak), some have no way of suppressing you.
In either case we provide you Sender info (click on the company tab) w information in case you want to give them a piece of your mind :).
1) Basically, I think the slideshow is pretty ineffective.
a) Why is the first slide a picture of tree branches? It doesn't help me understand what the app does. b) It's not obvious at all that you can switch among slides by clicking the phone, and the slow timer compounds that fact. c) The copy is too far removed from the images, and also isn't highlighted in any meaningful way, hindering its effectiveness.
My solution to this would be to record a short, snappy video to place inside the phone "frame" (which I find to be effective). If you want to use photos, do so in a section below the video in more of a step-by-step format.
2) Your marketing message needs some distilling.
a) Don't mention saving the earth. I think it distracts from what the app actually does and why someone should download it. You have a great idea! Push that idea and push it hard. b) Overall, there are too many words. For instance, "PaperKarma helps you get rid of paper junk mail and save the Earth at the same time" could be shortened to "Get rid of junk mail" and would be more effective. The initial pitch needs to be boiled down to its essence.
3) I think the overall look of the site isn't very polished and belies the quality of the app.
IMO the tagline on the HN post is far more effective than the one on the site. I'd explain this to a friend as "Take a picture of your junk mail, and this app automatically unsubscribes you from it". Things like "save the earth" confuse me.
A description of how you actually unsubscribe would be helpful too, for the curious and the skeptical. "We automatically contact the junk-mailer for you and have you removed from their subscriber list."
1. Over 100,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail per year sent in the US
2. 18 pieces of junk mail for 1 that you actually care about
3. Several -months- of your life spent processing junk mail (!)
4. 100s of thousands of dollars spent by cities (ie, your tax money) on post processing, landfills, etc.
& Nevermind the carbon footprint from manufacturing, processing & delivery of junk mail...
re Description: check!
Cheers,
s
The snippet explained me the entire app. Perhaps some of it belongs on the home page.
How does PaperKarma work?
The PaperKarma app enables you simply snap a picture of
your unwanted junk mail, press Send, and get
unsubscribed. That's it! Just snap your junk mail away.
(In about 24 hours you'll receive a notification that
you've been unsubscribed. You can always use the app to
check on the status of your unsubscribe requests.)
Those stats are great hooks, but I doubt your potential users would need convincing. You stop spam for yourself first and foremost, that it helps the environment is a nice add-on.
After reading through I still knew nothing. Market description was much more informative.
PS: It should be geographically blocked on markets (is it possible?) as I guess it only works in USA
Once you've got millions of people uploading photos of their junk mail along with their names and home addresses, how is this monetized?
EDIT: I ask, because this is where the privacy paranoia comes in.
That seems like the slimiest of all possible options.
Which brings me to my question: I can see what the consumer benefit is immediately, but what's the business model if not large-scale group analytics? Will advertising/marketing firms pay to understand what sort of customers they do not connect with?
Re Biz model: priority one is getting enough of a user base so we have a ticket to the dance. After that there are several possibilities, some of which are implemented already, but not activated:
1. N free scan per month, in app purchase for more for some $. or $/year. 2. some non-obnoxious ads, esp for compliant companies that honor unsubscribe requests 3. PK is really about mailbox management: get what you want & only what you want -- and push as much as possible toward digital versions. eg: I love Costco. But i don't want receive their catalog & kill trees. I rather PK -- with my explicit permission/opt in -- sign me up to receive E-coupons or a digital version of the Cotsco Shopper. At the end of the month when I visit Costco I just grab my E-coupons or read their catalog on my iPad... In summary: we save Costco printing/delivery costs & provide them with an opt-in customer & charge Costco: win/win.
Ideally we'd like to push for #3 & keep the app free.
Hope this helps!
s
2) Even if you just stuck to removing from lists, you're actually providing value to the the direct mailers. They have one less printing and postage item cost that would have either been useless or pissed someone off. That could be over a dollar per household saved with each mailing.
While it seems like you're attempting to tell a story of the process on the front page, you're getting the user lost.
Pardon me while I take the time to list a few gripes but please note that it's only because I really love this idea.
1) Your very first screen is a picture of buttons that appear to be pointed at a tree, with "Take a Photo" prominently displayed. When I see that, the most eye-popping thing on the page, I see nothing about what the app does. It looks like it's for taking pictures in nature.
2) The phone book. Really? For junk mail? Phone books + mobile apps have a very distinct connection. It's confusing, again, when I see you taking photos of a phone book. Does that mean I get to import phone numbers some how? I'd recommend starting with that original piece of junk mail.
3) Take us on the journey and let us step back and forth. As another user commented, let us move with the bullet points. They're useless otherwise.
4) Story that makes sense:
Picture of junk mail. "Take a picture of the junk mail you don't want to receive."
Show the logo highlighted -- "Our system identifies the logo associated with the junk mail."
A picture indicating a message. -- "We notify the organization on your behalf to stop sending junk mail."
Show the logo or the picture in the success screen -- "We will notify you upon the success of removing you from their mailing list."
Let us see the life of that single piece of junk mail all the way through, in every step of the story, so we have something to follow.
5) Since you've decided to go down the route of associating this service with a message of doing good for the world, why not make that a more prominent point? A big "Why?" link underneath your black bar with a popup that showed the information and numbers you gave us in your comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3570470 would be a nice addition.
Anywho, just a few ideas. I think you've got a good thing going here and for the right reasons, too. Hopefully you will take the ideas folks have here to heart.
Has anyone had experience with this app yet?
Beyond that, some companies require your email address. We don't give them out. We supply a proxied email to ensure they dont get anything beyond what they have already. Hope this helps...
Our blog has a bit more info: http://www.paperkarma.com/blog/
edit: grammar - it's 2am & brain is running on one core in low power mode...
Not necessarily. A lot of times junk mail is directed to just the address, and not the resident. You can tell that by the "To" line, which will say "Current resident" or "resident". They pay the USPS to carpet bomb each and every mailbox with their catalog. This service won't be able to do much about that.
I say mostly true, because many companies, such as Valpak, pseudo carpet bomb -- they many not have your name, but in order to remove you from their list (and they do!), they require full name & address.
Q: how does this make money? Do large commercial mailers actually pay to have a streamlined unsubscribe mechanism, or is there another customer that I'm missing?
1) How does it work? I can see how the app works, take a photo and magic happens, but what is that magic that stops me receiving junk mail?
2) Does it work outside the US?
Sadly US only for now. Where do you live & is there a junk mail problem there if i may ask?
Great idea. And if it works - you guys are awesome and I will let my facebook peeps know !
Can you please elaborate or provide some explanation so I can understand? Thanks!
In short, we don't do anything that you couldn't do yourself... we just make it a tad bit less painful.
The general pipeline is this: scans come in, they get processed (human/OCR), the company is looked up, request to unsubscribe is sent, your phone is updated. In 2 months we follow up with you to make sure they honored the request. If not, we'll follow up with them on your behalf (by our lawyer - FTC FTW).
The app basically provides convenience. We've just spent a year building up a database of who manages customer lists at what company, who the privacy officer is, whether they have customer suppression lists, etc. That's where rubber & asphalt really meet. As with each scan that comes in the DB improves.
*OCR is experimental: mixed results.
Hope this helps!
edit:formatting
How does this work for varying names in the household and multiple addresses?
We receive 8 inches of junk mail every two weeks, mostly catalogs and CC offers, so can't wait to try this once I know how I can use it for our situation.
If so, make sure to advertise that you can help others do this in addition to your home address.
You put a red dot (i.e. a red sticker, any sticker) in your mailbox, and they will NOT put junk mail in.
What's even sadder is I cannot fathom how you guys have this option. The US has literally grown up with junk mail - it's always about 99% of mail and we cannot fathom what life is like on the other side!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sunday-review/the-junking-...
It's just as bad in the UK, if not worse...
Take my money!