Actual Business Thread #2

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by RyanLanane

Carrying on in the tradition Aeon has started, which by the way that is a great thread going on over there... I figured I would start another subject that would affect all of us and most likely there will be altering opinions on.

Can any site you make, no matter whether or not there are products that would be directly marketable to your consumer base, make you money ? Let me try to think of an example...

You decide to open up a site about the Chicago Cubs, and there are no affilaite programs for you to sell Cubs merchandise through to make money.. There are no vendors that will drop ship for you, nothing... But you can get a steady amount of traffic through it. To make this discussion more debatable, let's say you can't sell any sports merchandise at all, can't link to sport's gambling sites, etc... Absolutely nothing that would demographically fit your audience.

How do you handle such a situation? Doy ou fly double click or one of the other ad agencies? Strictly Google Ad Words and pray... I am interested in hearing thoughts about this, and in a sense Aeon this does have to deal with your cross selling question, just from a different angle.

If you have nothing to sell why would you open a free site?
With that little info you have given here and hypothetically.... at first glance Id say your revenue choices are Adwords which may or may not take you and Adbrite.

And in that case good luck with both of them.
Nick or Serge will tell you someone will always buy your traffic. You might have to go looking for them in this case..... hypothetically.

[RyanLanane]

Gonzo, why did the first free porn site ever open?

Eventually there will be a reason for any and every free site to be built, meaning eventually there will be someone willing to pay for the traffic.. However in the meantime you are left with nowhere but google etc..

Unless, of course, you become the company who would buy the traffic in that particular field.. I.E. The first pay porn site on the net; in your respective field.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by RyanLanane

Gonzo, why did the first free porn site ever open?

Eventually there will be a reason for any and every free site to be built, meaning eventually there will be someone willing to pay for the traffic.. However in the meantime you are left with nowhere but google etc..

Unless, of course, you become the company who would buy the traffic in that particular field.. I.E. The first pay porn site on the net; in your respective field.

I see another thread... Sharky wants your quality traffic.

[Dravyk]

Ryan, this is my own thoughts, although they certainly parallel what Gonzo said in his first reply to you. Your question is so limiting that you've painted yourself into a corner with your words. By the way you set that up, you can only do Google because that's how you set it up.

Want to try again?

[Hell Puppy]

Anything worth doing is worth doing for money...

But with that said some of the most successful sites on the web have been created out of a true passion by their creator. In the case of a Cubs fan site, maybe a life long Cubs fan starts the site out of pure dedication to the team. Say it eventually gets a message board or something for other Cubs fans, etc.

The key is if it is indeed successful it will have the most important fuel of the internet: Traffic.

If you've got traffic, money that wants that traffic will find you.

[RyanLanane]

"But with that said some of the most successful sites on the web have been created out of a true passion by their creator"

And some of the most successful programs to overcome addictions of all sorts have been made by the people suffering those addictions themselves, such as AA

I don't want to make a program that sells people on overcoming their addictions, rather offer them a 'place' to go 'on the net' 24/7 to discuss them through message boards, chat rooms, etc.. A Place to go after a rough day, if you can't get out to hit a meeting, or if you don't like lifting the 300 pound phone at 2:00 AM.. And it wouldn't be just for gambling addicts, just for coke heads, just for any particular type of addict... It would be for addicts in general of every type.

Question is not only can money be made doing this, but why hasn't this already succeeded... I looked for such sites in the middle of the night many many many times over the years for various addictions I have had .. as was as depression, you name it.. I am yet to fdind a place with the level of activity I would have expected the web to have by now..

That's why the question was posed as it was, I really didn't want to lay all this out there, as it is somthing I am considering giving a shot. However as mentioned this really isn't something that is going to be big in traffic without spending money. You also have a highly targetted group of people at your site where alot of the products on the market in general would be offensive to one or another of them. Which is quite possibly, why it has not been done on the broad spectrum I am mentioning...

Hell, have any of you even seen AA's web site? They are far from streamlining their way on to the web which they should of done by now, as well as NA, and GA, so on ... One centralized location for all of them to discuss all addictions (as most people don't have just one) ... might fly ?

It also could very well be the stupidest damn idea, not just because addicts need people shoving it down their throats they are f'ing idiots who don't know what they are talking about in the BRASHEST way possible for them to get it.. But maybe some things jsut weren't meant for the web?

If this 'sort of thing' was however meant for the web, meaning by that that all businesses will eventually have heavy internet dependance and utilization .. I do see some advances in many other fields that are entirely untapped and are multi billion dollar businesses.

Just the rambling thoughts of someone who has screwed up alot in their life the last couple weeks though and may not be thinking 100% clearly right now...

[Hell Puppy]

Obviously I haven't looked....

But I'm shocked there isn't a good support community out there already. That's one of the things that has been one of the positive benefits of the internet and it's reach. You can typically find an online support community for almost any type of disease, condition, trauma, etc.

[Dravyk]

For what it's worth, two things. They say for writers, "write what you know". Just as that doesn't have to be the case -- Jules Verne never got to the moon or the center of the earth -- it might be a good thing for business too. Like Verne, it certainly doesn't have to be, but it doesn't hurt.

Second, I've spent the last eight or nine months, going through, reading business articles to put on MW. I've glanced at, skimmed, looked at and often read completely several thousand articles now. Some by morons, many by real experts (as opposed to pseudo-gurus). One thing that has come up often as a theme, and one which I am taking to heart in a new venture I'm working on, is do what you enjoy and try and make a business out of that.

HP said that earlier with "But with that said some of the most successful sites on the web have been created out of a true passion by their creator." And that's been true for Green Guy, PK, Dokk and his radio, JFK and his photography and tons of other adult and mainstream successes.

It's something I know that personally has been missing from many of my past business projects -- not much "soul", not enough "heart".

So, naw, Ryan. If it's something your passionate about, I say give it a whirl.