How Do You Get Out Of A Rut?

[leono]

I've been thinking about what my fastlane business could be on and off for a good while now. My problem is my mind seems to just be running in circles. All I can seem to think of are freebie type businesses, where the service is "free" and makes it's money through advertisement, think: Google, Youtube, Facebook, etc. I'm trying to avoid using advertisement as my monetization model because I personally hate looking at ads, and feel it would be hypocritical of me to build an entire business around them. So, what do you all do to break the cycle? How can I come at this from a fresh angle?

 

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[PatrickP]

What do you buy on a daily basis or perhaps a few times a year?

What hobbies or interests do you have? What do people with the same hobby buy?

That is a start.

 

[DeletedUser2]

get a job you hate more than looking at ads

that should motivate you

 

[JayKim]

How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (Examples: AppSumo, Mint, Chihuahuas)

"Think of all the things you do on a daily basis. Anything done more than once has potential for a product or service to improve the process. For me, one of those products was a mirror I could hang in the shower. It saves me tons of time while shaving, and now I don’t know how I ever lived without it.

Be cognizant of products you use and frequently complain about. Before Gambit, we were constantly asking our payment tool partners for certain features, yet our requests were always rejected. That was the impetus for us to create Gambit for our own games."

"You can also see if there is a large property that you can piggyback on.

Paypal did this with eBay, AirBnb is doing it with Craigslist home listings, and AppSumo looks to the 100 million LinkedIn users. If you can find a comparable site with a large number of potential customers, you’ll be in good shape."

 

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[healthstatus]

You are looking at it incorrectly. It is a paid site, just not from the user, which is an extra service you have provided the user. You probably don't dislike ads, you probably don't like bad ads or ads that are poorly presented. There are TV shows about the great advertisements, the Super Bowl gets a percentage of people to watch for the new/cool ads that could care less about the game, so the population in general doesn't mind advertising. Nobody likes things that are poorly done (unless it is your competition). You also haven't said how you will get users to your site, would that be through advertising??

 

[leono]

What do you buy on a daily basis or perhaps a few times a year?

What hobbies or interests do you have? What do people with the same hobby buy?

That is a start.

Well, I really like reading fanfiction, but I hate those stupid ads that show up on the site. I'll be reading a story when the site clicks over to a retarded ad, "You're the 1000th viewer... YOU'VE JUST WON AN IPAD!!" Get the f**ck out with that nonsense! I'd love to create a fanfiction website, problem is the only way I've seen them monetized is through those retarded ads that have nothing to do with the fanfic story! Also, there is a bit of a problem with copyright, and profiting off of someone else's work.

 

[leono]

You are looking at it incorrectly. It is a paid site, just not from the user, which is an extra service you have provided the user. You probably don't dislike ads, you probably don't like bad ads or ads that are poorly presented. There are TV shows about the great advertisements, the Super Bowl gets a percentage of people to watch for the new/cool ads that could care less about the game, so the population in general doesn't mind advertising. Nobody likes things that are poorly done (unless it is your competition). You also haven't said how you will get users to your site, would that be through advertising??

My plan was/is to use word of mouth. Get one person and provide such wonder service that they can't help but to tell other people about it, building up my momentum like the snowball effect.

 

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[leono]

Let's use fanfiction.net as the example. As an outsider looking in, it appears to hit all of the CENTS requirements of being a fastlane business. It's clearly been automated, so it probably has been divorced from the founder's time. If Wikipedia is to be trusted, the site has 2.2 users meaning it's got the scale and need covered. I believe there's control by the owner controling all of the systems used on the website, but honestly I'm not entirely sure. And there's some definite blocks to entry because the copycats out there just aren't as good looking or user friendly as ff.net. But is it fastlane? I honestly can't tell. Also, I don't know if it's possible to sell a site like this...