If you were able to travel back 5 years

What would you do?

[genem]

I come from the country that lags behind western world in Internet monetization, but is catching on. Many of the niches (real estate, cars, mobile phones, job ads) are already competitive. Rumors have it that there is about a year left before big money comes in. As a one-man show, do you think I can ride the big wave?

If you were able to travel 5 years in time, what would you start/invest in?

Thank you for advise and the beers are on me.

[vincevincevince]

Auction? Keep it entirely free to build market share until you're such a threat anyone who wants to run a pay-for-ads auction has to buy you out...

[Habtom]

If you were able to travel 5 years in time, what would you start/invest in?

Register a few good domain names, then "sit back and relax" for a while.

Sit back and Relax? Microsoft installation packages always told me that, though I don't remember relaxing much :)

[John_Blake]

i would have created a big real estate portal with loads of info on it that relates to the topic and loads of ad sense, hehe

[Lord Majestic]

Play lottery every week... and win all the time :)

[genem]

Vince, auction site is a good idea. Any working examples? Ebay?

Habtom, domain names are good idea too, but most of the good ones are already taken. I bought several the other day though.:)

John_Blake, I thought about real estate, but you really need to be in the know to provide the latest info. There are at least two big real estate portals already (coming from the real estate agencies) with market indexes, price watch widgets, forums. We're at the top of the real estate bubble right now.

Another thing I was thinking about is a epinions clone.

[LifeinAsia]

Write a note to self to buy Google stock at IPO, despite predictions of it being a flop.

[Fortune Hunter]

If your country is also one where outsourcing is big from other countries I would seriously consider job posting sites and freelance sites like Monster or eLance. In a country that is desperately short of qualified workers or finding efficient ways to connect qualified talent with jobs would be HUGE.

[genem]

Hey, Fortune Hunter, just sent you a sticky!

[DTIAnalyst]

Register a few good domain names, then "sit back and relax" for a while.

Register a TON of good domain names, then register some more...

[Jane_Doe]

Many of the niches (real estate, cars, mobile phones, job ads) are already competitive

There are many more fields where you can make a nice income that are less competitive. Look for untapped niches. They are still out there - even in the countries that have been online longer.