Great Idea, But No Idea Where To Start.

[AMCarbonaro]

Hello, My name is Anthony. I am 16 years old, and I have a great website idea that I have planned over the last month, and I need some help.

I was online one day, and I came across an article which talked about how high-school and college students where making great sums of money from these websites that they created. Well I thought to myself, If I can sit down and patiently thing, I could come up with and outstanding idea. Well, I believe I have.

It involves music. more say a tool for musicians. It would be an online service, subscription, profile, all of that. A network for musicians. But more detail which would make it the unique site. I have talked to a lot of people and All have said they would pay to use the site. So I feel it would be a pretty successful.

Couple problems, I don't know how to code for the site. So I called a web design company based out of new york city, and to create the intensive site, it would cost a pretty penny. $70,000 or more. Well, that means I need investors. So I thought for a week on how to get investors, and I came up with the greatest plan for that as well. These people would be part of the service of the site, more say providing the service. while receiving benefits of an online network. But, before I start asking investors I believe I need a business and a bunch of stuff copyrighted. I was told to; register the domain, then register the idea and company. I don't know how I would do that. Can anyone help me out. Just tell me what I would need to do?

Thank You
-Anthony C.

 

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[ZDS]

First off, I love your enthusiasm! It's great to see your drive and initiative at such a young age. Here's my recommendations:

1. Even if you had 70,000, you don't want to spend that much on an idea without thoroughly testing the idea first. Learn enough to make a website and get people to the sign up/pay section without having the software. Then you'll know if people will actually fork down the money.

2. Getting an investor without customers or a prototype is almost impossible. Idea's are a dime a dozen, its all about execution.

3. Use odesk or something like that for building your website, MUCH cheaper.

4. You don't need to copyright or register anything. Just start testing and get your idea up. Hell, you could even learn to code it if you wanted. No reason to spend the money, and you could probably learn enough fairly quickly to get a prototype up. If your idea is excellent and profitable, people are going to steal it bottom line. Whoever succeeds will be the person that executes better!

Anyways! Good luck!

 

[AMCarbonaro]

Ive talked to many people, and only one has said that they probably wouldn't pay. But I would rather have this company help because they would help so much more then if I did it alone, and it would be so much more professional looking.

The investors would be part of the website. because the investors are other businesses that would be involved with the site, and there are over 50,000 of these specific businesses, I am sure I can get 70 of them to invest $1,000 each. and in return I create the site and they get the advantage of the network to help them grow as a business.

But I need to create my own business, or at least have the plan, and copyrighted idea so I can confront them with the idea and hopefully have them jump on board.

 

[AcquireCurrency]

I recently thought of an excellent Web App/Site, and I decided to learn to code myself.

Once you can code you can use your skills as an asset. If your business doesn't kick off you can easily make $2,000+ per week freelancing and having a job. You can also launch websites easily with minimal start up costs if you can code your self

Right now I'm learning PHP, MySql, Ruby, JS and AJAX

At the bare minimum you should learn HTML and CSS - You can create a "mock-up" of your website and collect visitors emails and alert them when your product has launched

 

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[AMCarbonaro]

I don't have the patients to code, and It would just be better if I had a team do it for me. And they provide me with different services as well.

 

[Rickson9]

Sounds like CDBaby.com created by Derek Sivers.

"Derek Sivers (born September 22, 1969) is best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians.

A professional musician (and circus clown) since 1987, Derek started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby went on to become the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients."

 

[AMCarbonaro]

Not its not selling music. Totally different.

 

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[valuegiver]

Derek Sivers didn't know how to code, but he learnt PHP and built CD Baby, and sold it.

When you've got no money, learn programming, do it yourself.

Quit F*cking around.

 

[Talisman]

Yeah Im with valuegiver - you're basically saying " I have a great idea, but .. ".

You've been given some great advice here. Here's the short version:
- Go to oDesk
- Put in an ad for "needed: web dev who can prototype non functional idea within [ $X ] to assess market interest"
- Then pay an SEO company (check out guido65's post, or chris from warrior forum) to push traffic to it
- Assess the # of people who try to PAY for your product online.

Do NOT believe people that tell you "yeah mate, I'd buy it". That's the easy answer because you're there. When it comes to the crunch, they will tell you "Ahh yeah, not now.. [Enter excuse XYZ here], sorry!"

In short-short: Find if people you DONT KNOW will PAY for it.

 

[ice]

I don't have the patients to code, and It would just be better if I had a team do it for me. And they provide me with different services as well.

Have you read the book The Millionaire Fastlane ?

Because what you are talking about is the opposite of that.

The book is about continual learning. The book is about being in the driver's seat and not a passenger.

If you've already read it, then read it again.

 

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[Rickson9]

Not its not selling music. Totally different.

You're not selling anything. That's the problem.

 

[AMCarbonaro]

I'd be selling a service.

 

[healthstatus]

If a professional, US based web design company is quoting you $70,000, then you haven't got enough time to be skilled to design and code that site in the next 2-3 years if you can't code now. US coders are the most expensive, India, Phillipines, Ukraine, are going to be MUCH cheaper. I would suggest you roll it out in phases, get a site where people can get their profile up, then add a few features, now you should have enough visitors to start making some money via advertising, take that money and roll it into creating the "plus" membership site and start collecting subscription fees, then keep adding features.

 

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[AMCarbonaro]

That actually sounds like a good idea. But the first site will still cost a lot more than $50,000.

 

[healthstatus]

That actually sounds like a good idea. But the first site will still cost a lot more than $50,000.

You should be able to develop a starter version for under $7,000.00. PM if you want to discuss it.

The New York rates you were quoted probably had programmer and designer rates at $100+ per hour. You can go overseas and have work done for $10-$15/hour, so your $70,000 quote changes to $7,000.00 by eliminating the overhead of New York real estate, US taxes and so on.

You should write up some detailed specs and put the system on Elance for bid for 3 days. Be vague about the industry if you are worried that someone will steal your idea (see the 50 other threads about people afraid programmers will steal their ideas).

 

[easymoney99]

Dang, everyone here has told you what you need to do and how you need to STOP looking at your stupid idea the way you are looking at it. You need to get it done, it doesn't matter if a USA team did it or an Indian team, just as long as make sure it looks good and does what it needs to do.

Why the hell would you spend 70k on a website idea? Dude I'll JV with you and could have that site up for less than 3k.

 

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[AMCarbonaro]

Your telling me that your going to be able to create a website as complex as amazon, well a little bit less, for 3k. That probably wont work out buddy. and get the F*ck off my post if your just going to talk shit about my "stupid idea". GTFO.

 

[VQ Copywriter]

Your telling me that your going to be able to create a website as complex as amazon, well a little bit less, for 3k. That probably wont work out buddy. and get the F*ck off my post if your just going to talk shit about my "stupid idea". GTFO.

lol Well put man. The quality of your site is going to make a really big difference. You're doing the right thing man, don't go cheap. Cheap sites get cheap results...at best. I learned that one the hard way back when I started. My first question would be though....is there a way you can start with a smaller scale of your marketing plan? Instead of trying to build the entire thing right now, get a blog going and start writing things that your readers might be interested in.

Track the reader behaviors using Google analytics and find out as much as possible about your target audience. This way you'll have some momentum going while you're looking for your investors. Most business owners make the mistake of creating a great product and investing all their time and energy into that. However the most valuable investment you'll ever make is investing in getting to know your customers and what would make them buy.

That's why, in spite of owning three businesses, I still hang out in places like this. Get to know your customers while you're working on getting the bigger picture going. It'll be worth it.

_________________________

Ask about our Social Media Marketing Company & Copywriting Services

 

[DeletedUser394]

I am 16 years old

Your telling me that your going to be able to create a website as complex as amazon, well a little bit less, for 3k. That probably wont work out buddy. and get the F*ck off my post if your just going to talk shit about my "stupid idea". GTFO.

You clearly have some growing up to do.. Not that your age is a detriment, but your attitude certainly is

 

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[Icy]

Your telling me that your going to be able to create a website as complex as amazon, well a little bit less, for 3k. That probably wont work out buddy. and get the F*ck off my post if your just going to talk shit about my "stupid idea". GTFO.

And you think you'd be able to set up a website as "complex as Amazon" for only 70k? That's easily salary for only one dev of theirs. Let alone the years of development to get to the point they're at.

 

[Likwid24]

Sounds like CDBaby.com created by Derek Sivers.

"Derek Sivers (born September 22, 1969) is best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians.

Great book by the way! AMCarbs, maybe you should read it and it will help point you in the right direction. It's a quick read. You can finish it in less than and hour.

Another thing. I know your young and all but you can't have an attitude like that in this forum. Saying things like that will get you banned. We're all here to help each other.

And while your at it, read "The Millionaire Fastlane " too!!!!

 

[GlassCannon]

Not to harp on your age, but that fact that you're so young you should probably look to just get some experience and try to succeed or fail on a much less grand scale. If we're doing a baseball analogies, try going for a few singles instead of a grand slam right off the bat. Swing for the fences once you have some experience. Now is not the time to try to wrangle up $70k because quite frankly you probably won't get people to lend you that much and while you're waiting around for mystery investors to show up you'll end up doing nothing and have no momentum. Make a site/business where you can act NOW.

 

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[Rickson9]

Dang, everyone here has told you what you need to do and how you need to STOP looking at your stupid idea the way you are looking at it. You need to get it done, it doesn't matter if a USA team did it or an Indian team, just as long as make sure it looks good and does what it needs to do.

Why the hell would you spend 70k on a website idea? Dude I'll JV with you and could have that site up for less than 3k.

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." - Anais Nin

He wants to fail on his own terms. I can understand that.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

A lot of great ideas discussed here. First of all you must realize that many people do not succeed on their first attempt. This can all be a learning curve for you still. The idea is to increase the odds in your favor for success.

You are still 16 years old, there is plenty of time. It's good that you have started at this age and I hope your idea can succeed.

I suggest you take the option of building your site cheap (initially). Someone brought up that you get what you pay for. That's a great point. But let me ask you this? Do you think that Amazon was created on some ridiculous price for a start-up? I'm sure they scaled their profits to continue growing their business to where it is today.

Why not opt to go for a cheap prototype model of your site, test to see how it does? Then continue to redevelop it? After all if your business takes a few years to become a household name you are STILL a teenager. There is plenty of time.

Good luck.

 

[mrhahn]

Cheap sites get cheap results

Not necessarily. There's a lot of great programmers on sites like odesk/guru/etc. that you can get extremely good bang for your buck. The key is knowing who to hire. In that sense, you'll need to still learn enough html/php/mysql (or [insert other web language here] based on your preferences) to be able to converse intelligently and spec your site out to a worker.

Since you seem to be leaning towards outsourcing, follow the advice others have given already. Decide on the basic prototype of your site which will have the basic features that embody your idea. Write your specs and requirements and make sure you know what it entails technically before you start searching for bids. Launch it, and iteratively improve on it with more features, better design, etc as you get more feedback and you see that this idea can bring in revenue.

 

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[SwiftBlog]

If you are being quoted prices in the XX,XXX range, that means that these companies are planning to do something completely custom (waste money). What you need to do is find existing code/scripts that will fit what you are trying to do, which I guarantee exist, and work from those. NEVER try to go completely custom on an idea that hasn't been tested/is extremely profitable already, that's probably the biggest mistake I've made in 10 years of internet marketing/entrepreneurship.

 

[LianaWesten]

It seems to me that everyone is concentrating on telling him how to cut down on his quoted web design costs.
He never mentioned that 70k is too much for him.
Whatever kind of investors he has, it seems to me he takes them for granted and is not worried about the financial part.

I also agree with whoever said about asking real musicians you don't know whether they'll pay for using your website or not. There's a big difference, no, make that a HUGE difference between your friends' garage bands and established bands with record labels and contracts.


To answer your original question...
@AMCarbonaro:

You have to decide what domain name you want (and several other possibilities, in case the domain name is taken), you need to register your domain name with an accredited registrar. There are thousands of accredited registrars to choose from and costs for registering a domain name vary.
I advise you to take service into account and ask others for their recommendations rather than choosing a registrar based solely on price.

Once you’ve registered a domain name, you have a home for your online business on the Web. To actually turn it into a functioning website, though, you need to have a Web Host, the next step in starting an online business.

You can't register an "idea".

Registering a company name is whole other ballpark. It depends on what kind of company you want to register.
Like others have said, read the Fastlane Millionaire, it has all the information about the advantages of different company types (such as LLC, LTD, INC, S, etc etc).

Hope this helps.

 

[mmmoney]

I was told to; register the domain, then register the idea and company.

I don't think you can register an idea

oops posted this before reading the last post by Lianawesten

 

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[healthstatus]

Your telling me that your going to be able to create a website as complex as amazon, well a little bit less, for 3k. That probably wont work out buddy. and get the F*ck off my post if your just going to talk shit about my "stupid idea". GTFO.

The name of your post is "No idea where to start".... Also, do you know the firm you selected has offices in Europe? They are outsourcing your development to either Russia or the Ukraine.

 

[Upncomer]

When you said Great Idea but "NO IDEA WHERE TO START".
I believe you have one of the keys in your question.
YOU NEED TO START.

I do not know what you want to copyright, and not sure if you could easily do it.
But even if you can copyright your plan, it could take a year to have the copyright be accepted.
Do you want to wait a year to start?

The most important part, as has been already stated by others, IS TO START.

I'd suggest you start by choosing a Domain name.
* Register it as soon as you find the one that you want, if it is available.
If you find the domain name you want, but wait till later to register it, it will probably be registered by someone else when you go back to register it. So dont wait for it, find it and register it.

Odesk, Scriptlance and others are a great place to start to get your idea moving.
And there is nothing wrong with having a foriegn designer start your project.
Don't kid yourself even big design firms outsource, and who knows, you may end up using the same guy the big firm would have used anyhow. (except for $64 less per hour)
The key to a good designer is checking his references, and portfolio. A good designer or a bad one can range from $6hr to $200hr. Just because a firm charges big money doesn't make them the best choice.

Starting with small steps is not a bad thing. Each step is a step forward.
Start taking steps, even small ones.
Each step gets you closer than you were before.

Good Luck.