Cash for Clunkers Website Concept

By now I am sure everyone has heard of the cash for clunkers (official name CARS - car allowance rebate system) program run by the U.S. government. It’s a $3 billion dollar bailout program for the auto industry paid for by tax dollars. If you are new to the program, here’s how it works. If you have a car that’s considered a clunker, you can get up to a $4,500 bottom line discount on any new car.

In my new role I see a lot of websites that are clunkers. Many of the sites haven’t been touched in a decade, are broken, are out-of-date, missing any current functionality or aren’t indexed in Google. How many dollars of revenue are these businesses losing out on because their website is a clunker?

I am not even talking about any sort of social networking or social media optimization. Just simple updates so that the sites are usable and, more importantly, findable. By investing in creating better small business websites, the local economy will benefit which in turn will provide more jobs and strengthen local businesses for the long term. Some of the concept overlaps with Robert Scoble’s 2010 web concept.

With that I’d like to introduce the concept of the “Cash for Clunkers Website Edition”. I’ve posted my initial thoughts on the concept and program in my Information Week column. Have a look at the concept and let me know your thoughts!