I have had this idea for a while now. As far as I can tell, noone is doing anything like this and I think it would be a great service that could gain a lot of viral attention. I was wondering about the implementation issues and cost. Obviously it is important to grow as fast as possible to leave as little time as I can for others to copy the idea and outgrow me. So I figure it takes quite a bundle to throw at this and buy the proper press releases, bribe bloggers, buy links, ppc and whatnot to quicky shoot up the ranks and be known as THE site for that. But first things first. I would need to hire some programmer(s) for proper implementation. So far I have been doing everything myself, but then again, I would wan't this to be perfect (the idea is too good). How can I make sure the programmer doesn't steal the idea? Obviously I should only feed him/her information on a need to know basis and hire someone local. It may actually be better to give them a stake in the company and get them on board selling them the idea. What do you think? What is the best approach for this? How much money would I have to spend on a huge marketing campaign and what else besides: -Press Releases -Blogger Bribes -Link Buying -PPC would you recommend to get the word out quickly. How would you fund such a project? I know its a lot of questions and I don't expect anyone to tell me how to start a business. I'd just like to gather some ideas to evaluate if I should persue this or not. I have told some friends (non SEO/Website people) and they were all excited and said they would really love to have such a service and would use it, but I don't really want to put it out there until I have made a good plan on how to grow it very fast. Andre
I would hire a reputable local development firm and have them sign a NDA and non-compete agreement. I think that would be a good start.
Your costs to market the idea depend in large part on your target market. If it's a broad, consumer-based product or service, there are many great ways to cheaply get the word out. If it's a product to improve medical office billing record digitization and storage....then you're probably looking at a steep entry fee. But seriously, a local firm and strong NDA are great ideas. You might also pitch the local dev firm on a joint venture so as to minimize initial costs. Give them a piece of the action in exchange for developing the idea.
CLKeenan: Good idea about the NDA. Gotta think about this. WP: Yeah its a broad market thing, but I want to literally get the buzz out, meaning get into the news and peoples inboxes (without spamming them, more like a viral thing where friend A tells friend B+C+D ...). I am convinced that I need to spend a bundle to do it right (e.g. I don't want to spam Myspace but rather buy advertisement on about.com ...) I've got to see if I can talk someone into investing into this idea first ;-)
yes, if you hire a programmer or a team of them make sure they sign something preventing them from stealing the idea. And if he/they are renowned, they'd also risk losing their reputation. also, by having the developper into the deal via some kind of joint venture or shares in the project, you're sure he'll not only code as you want but also share his ideas, some will be very helpful hey, i even wish we were friends, i have a few $ to spare. good luck with your project, think it well, and make it a slam dunk
thanks patataur. it will probably be a little while until i have everything figured out, esp. since i don't spend much time on that at all. andre ps.: I am not looking at a few $ but a bunch $ ;-)
hm, good for you. put it into a bank. but seriously, just because i think i may have a good idea that doesn't mean it really is good. don't be so eager to invest (lose) your nest egg into any crazy idea
don't worry for me andre, the money is in the bank, and thanks to my job there is more coming in every month And by the way, i wouldn't invest blindly, so you'd have to share the idea first, so that's why i wish we were friends cause that is obviously not going to happen over an internet discussion with a guy you know nothing about. Your idea may not be as good as google or yahoo or ebay or amazon back then, but i believe it doesn't take that much of a good idea to recoup a few thousand $ invested in an internet venture nowadays. look, i have a silly site displaying freely available data to a limited audience (not worldwide) earning me 1k$ monthly and growing. So i guess a cool idea to a worldwide audience would easily beat that. i think you ought to try your idea, before somebody else gets the same idea or somebody else who already has it decides to try his luck with it. keep us informed
- didn't say worldwide (at least not initially) - i have yet to run a site that makes me as much money as yours do - googles idea was backlinks (or citation ranking), not anyone would have thought they'd become larger than GM with that silly little idea - youtubes idea was doomed and poised to fail (copyright, server cost ...) but got $1.6B so basically i think i could revolutionize a certain market but i have to do my homework first and i have very little time for that
yeah, that's more or less what i was trying to say, an internet idea is always promising. i have the feel you intend to reach the german market, can't help you on that i'm accross the border
nope, i am not living in germany (anymore) and i am always after the biggest piece of the pie first (us market) where are you from?
i'm in france right now, and i thought you were the one that started the other thread about german vacations... so from that mistake i thought you were after the german market... my mistake there
what i noticed from my local newspaper: they do offer reasonable price for a space to advertise. So if you think your target audience is locally, you may go offline via newspaper too. Usually in the newspaper, they offers some cheap or free services to ,let say first 10 customers only and indeed it really helps to get people attention.
Wasn't my thread. I was just helping some guy who struggled with the German language. Its not related at all to this one here. That said, with any large idea you will eventually want to branch out and persue the European market. Right now that market is a bit too fragmentet for my taste (language wise). That said, I get a decent amount of traffic from Germany to my English sites already (enough to have geotargetting enabled).
Nice idea. I will keep that in mind. Wonder what a full page advert in a large magazine (nationwide) would cost.