Is this fastlane thinking?

[pikamoo]

I've asked a few friends about my idea and they've been encouraging to build this site. My idea is to create a social site for a specific niche (something we talk about a lot). Its setup kinda like a blog. Users would be able to register and post for free. I've seen a few other sites like this but they are not expanding or look outdated. I'm basically just taking the same ideas from these other sites and I want to improve on the interaction between users and develop a simplier design for the site. I planned on using adsense and possibly amazon affliate marketing to start out. Then move from adsense to selling my own ad space and build an e-store for ebooks. Possibly a subscription for groups wanting to create their own blog and information and special features like contact us form, polls, calendar events, ect... Then If I can build it up enough I want to attract a buyer or sell it to one of the moderators of the site.

 

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[DeletedUser1]

now go for it

 

[James Fake]

Possibly.. subscription model is def fastlane, but you better have some darn good content. Usually if it's content provided from other members, then folks aren't willing to pay. But if you provide the content yourself, then they may. Members will usually pay because a) they understand your hustle and b) they appreciate your hard work; whereas, if you're trying to charge for content generated by other members, they see you as trying to make a buck off of something you didn't earn.

I would think bigger, and take one step back; and create a platform where you can set up sites like this and not just creating the site itself. Sort of like, not building a forum, but building a web app that let's you build a forum. It's usually more money involved in providing a platform; especially one that makes others money.

 

[pikamoo]

Most of the content would be free. The only content that would cost would be products from the e-store. The subscription base (targeting groups / organizations) would be for extra features to the website that would allow more interaction with users. But some of the biggest users are in third world countries that dont have something like paypal or credit cards. I thought of opening a go between in one of those countries that could exchange monies.

Starting out I planned on having Adsense and also have a small area advertising ad space. so I can start trying to sell ad space asap. Yesterday I was just thinking about talking to someone who might be interested in writing an ebook with me. so we might venture on the ebook together so i can get the estore up as soon as possible. Hmmm maybe i can get some tee shirts also. My cousin knows how to make tee shirts but its not using a machine... its all by hand. Not the tie died stuff either. Its like with words and pictures. I saw him spend the whole day making like 50 shirts and that seems like too long for me. The process looks interesting. Maybe I need to get him to write it in a book how he does it and make the whole idea into a kit with some shirts.

I thought about replicating the concept for the website for other niches also. Using drupal as a CMS. I can save the theme, the sites design and add modules to grow it as needed. I can take the same theme and use it on othersite and all I would have to do is change the topics and tags. If I need to program a new module or something like an app I could hire a PHP programmer just to create that one piece i might need.

right now im still studying drupal and tinkering with the site. maybe in a week or so I will be ready to post it up.

 

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