June 8, 2011

I was told by tons of family and friends that I could never make money by giving products away for free,” said Giancarlo Massaro, founder of AnyLuckyDay, LLC, an online product review website. “Three years have passed and now I am constantly being asked if I’m hiring.”

Any Lucky Day, an interactive marketing platform, created by Massaro allows businesses to promote their products and services through giveaways. Every day the website features a new company and giveaway.

“Our goal is to provide an affordable and effective marketing platform for businesses to build buzz around their products,” said Massaro.

Is traditional media dead? He believes that the age old billboard, television, and newspaper ads are no longer as effective as an online marketing — focused on creating and distributing content to a large audience.

“A billboard ad, television ad, or newspaper ad only lasts for so long, but the content that is created and distributed through AnyLuckyDay lasts forever.”

Checkout Giancarlo’s story and how he found inspiration for his company in the unlikeliest of places.

Founder: Giancarlo Massaro, 21

Company Name: AnyLuckyDay, LLC

Location: Woodbridge, CT

Industry: Product Review Site (Advertising & Marketing)

Startup Year: 2009

Startup Costs: $1,200

How I Got Started:

I run an online marketing platform that allows businesses to promote their products and services through contests. I started the company as a sophomore in college in 2009. Revenue was $0 in 2009, $51,000 in 2010, and $75-100k projected for 2011.

My business was inspired by a TV infomercial; not the product itself, but the idea that consumers might want to test out products before buying them.

In 2009 I launched AnyLuckyDay.com, where I wrote product reviews and created contests to giveaway products, with the hope of generating a large enough audience to attract advertisers.

Best Success Story:

In 2009 I made $0. For an entire year I reviewed products that were sent to me and I would give them away. I knew I needed to figure out a way to monetize my venture and it finally dawned on me that I needed to start charging companies to be featured on the site.

I improved upon the design and layout of the website, and started charging companies a fee to be featured on anyluckyday.com, back on January 1, 2010. My monetization idea worked and I’m still able to charge companies a nominal fee who request to be featured.

Biggest Startup Challenge:

The biggest challenge for me was getting companies to pay for my service. There are hundreds of different product review sites out there and I needed to come up with a way to differentiate myself from them all.

The first thing I did was redesign the entire site so that it no longer looked like a blog but rather, a professional looking website. Second, I created a calendar that would allow companies to purchase a day to have their business featured.

Lastly, I reached out to hundreds of companies via cold-calling and email to get them on the site. This was the toughest part of going from a free to a paid model, but it eventually paid off.

#1 Tip for New Entrepreneurs:

If you have enough passion, desire, motivation, and determination you can make anything happen. Just map out your business plan, your short and long term goals and go for it.

I was told by tons of family and friends that I could never make money by giving products away for free. Three years have passed and now I am constantly being asked if I’m hiring.

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