Forum Moderators: phranque
Let me give you a little insight into my first post: I’m coming here for some suggestions on starting a new site. I’m definitely not a marketing newbie or anything like that, but I seem to be fresh out of some ideas or “sparks.” Back in 1998-1999 I ran one of the larger virtual greeting card sites (100K visitors a day), but sold it when the offer was right. After my non competition clause expired, it seemed the market was saturated.
Now, I’m looking for a new site/company to start up and was wondering if I could get some feedback from you guys. Here are my ideas as of now:
1) A metasearch engine
2) Attempt the greeting cards again, although this would be a hefty start up cost considering I would need to get tons of cards once again
3) A media site which shows TV commercials where people can comment on them etc. Not sure about the copywriting on this one though.
I would love to get some feedback and some good ideas. I’m not looking to sell products per se, maybe the google adsense way in which traffic would be key. I’m not expecting a brilliant idea here as I know if it was truly brilliant you would do it yourself. I’m just looking for some general comments either about my ideas or places to look I haven’t tried yet. Anything will help.
I look forward to being a part of this community and grow alongside. I wish I knew about this site back when I had my greeting card site, it would have been invaluable.
Have a good weekend everyone,
Brandon
If full time, how about a forum site? Look for an industry with advertisers with deep pockets looking for targeted traffic. Some of the high traffic forums for a topic like "hosting" are getting $30 per 1,000 banner ad impressions.
Keep your ear to the ground for the next big thing, when you find it start a forum related to the topic. You don’t even need to be that knowledgeable on the topic because you will find moderators willing to work for free to promote their obsession. The hard part is getting it started which will require lots of promotion, talking to yourself to get threads started etc…
If you become "the forum", you will be living in the lap of luxury. The best part is, after it takes off your customers and moderators do all the work while you cash the checks.
1. Keep your ear to the ground. Example: Today there was a article talking about powerpod (super ipod), immediately after reading that I registered some great powerpod domains. Too bad it was a hoax... but THOSE are the ideas you have to leap on, even if you might get burned.
I read slashdot/wired/cnn.com/WebmasterWorld religious every day looking for the next "thing".
2. Forum sites are awesome, but what is even better is when you make a industry website FROM a forum site. The forum provides you with the time and the inhouse (forum regulars) expertise and information to build a great traditional site.
I agree to the extent that a lot of forum sites are a good way to make money. But it sort of disobeys the rules of content content content I've been reading about. You may say the people will be adding content themselves, but will this count in terms of SEs? Also, I could not possibly think of a popular forum that could take off that hasn't already been thought of. It also seems like promoting one of hese is near impossible.
Thanks,
-Brandon
1) A service like AdSense that takes affiliate urls from places like CJ and can be used in replacement of Google PSAs.
2) TownHall type forum sites. Basically use something like PHP Nuke and write a townhall type forum for lots of cities where people can gather and comment on what's going on. Use bills introduced by the local municipality as conversation starters.
3) A coupon site where people can enter in coupons and you share a percentage of the profit with them for finding the coupon.
Warning .. these things could already have been done or if they haven't it is because they are simply not worth doing.
1) A metasearch engine
2) Attempt the greeting cards again, although this would be a hefty start up cost considering I would need to get tons of cards once again
3) A media site which shows TV commercials where people can comment on them etc. Not sure about the copywriting on this one though.
A search engine is to hard of a market, unless you have lots of $$$$$$$$.
all the internet providers have their own greeting cards now, so no need for that.
The 3 one sounds very boring............
A forum is a good ideal if every one didn't already have one on just about every subject.
The best market right now is porn and yes I said porn ( :) we all love naked women).
A search engine is to hard of a market, unless you have lots of $$$$$$$$.
However, A search engine is a different thing, unless you can offer me $500. :)
Sid
How about porn greeting cards?
;)
Seriously now:
I've got a fantastic idea! Only I'm not gonna tell you, because I'm gonna do it myself :) (sorry).
But remember that your idea doesn't have to be unique, you can surf over the net looking for a good idea and then adapt it a little and make your own site.
Do improve the idea then ofcourse :)
Obviously you want a topic that is searched for a lot, and one that's not already saturated by people like us;) I know this sounds really generic, but if you can't come up with "the next big thing", this is a good place to start at least. Plus if it's something that interests you, it won't seem so much like work!
I'm just about to launch the first of several of these types of sites, so I have no idea how much $ can be made this way, though.
3) A coupon site where people can enter in coupons and you share a percentage of the profit with them for finding the coupon.
not true. Give me a 50 bucks plus $6 for the domain, and I'll buy a meta search script and start a meta search engine right away! its that easy.
Yeah you can start one, but it's not going to go very far. 50 dollars will get you very little visitors. You also need more money then that to index lots of pages.
Do you think you could do that with javascript in order to avoid issues google/yahoo/msn getting on your case?
You also need more money then that to index lots of pages.
All you need to start a meta search engine is the software. The software can run on any hardware supporting its language, unlike a search engine which will require upto 3 servers etc.
Sid
