Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi all - first time poster here.

I`m in the process of starting a `side` business, my goal is to make some residual income to go along with my regular job and maybe one day not need a `real` job.

Basically my plan was to create a few websites from various ideas I`ve had with hopes that one or two of them can be profitable.  I`m doing all of this as a `side` job with no real funding (with assistance from my brother who is also a computer geek like me). 

My question is how many (if any) of you have had success making some extra cash via a website they created without any real funding?  Is this something that is worth pursuing? 

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.

 

First of all welcome to SuN. (and sorry for the long post :-)

I can only offer advice in the form of what I have seen work in the past. I`m a fellow geek of the last 12 years of my life. I`m currently working to transition from working for somebody else to working for myself.. I used to run a website design business on the side. Not specifically what you are talking about but since you are designing the site you are really contracting to yourself to design and maintain the site.

"My question is how many (if any) of you have had success making some extra cash via a website they created without any real funding?  "

I have not personally. A lot of the time these sites are accidentally created and turn out big. (see point 2 below)

"Is this something that is worth pursuing? "
If your passion is web site design and maintenance get familer with the business aspects of what you are going to get into (see point 1 below). This has been a big shocker to me. Designing a website that will capture users, provide content or a service is not difficult and is not something new. There are not many radical new ideas on the web (not meaning to sound negative) usually just spins on old ideas or revisiting of old ideas with new technology (reference myspace, everyone had a geocities homepage or an anglefire page, they just connected them together and added some features thus grabbing users)


Random advice / comments from my life experience.
Read / Research until you bleed from your fingers and your eyes are tired:
1. Read "The E-Myth" simply to understand the assumptions that many of us fall into as GEEKS starting a business. If you do nothing else this will be a good, quick read that is well worth the time!

Make the site self maintaining:
2. Content is time consuming to update on a website. Ideas that involve user contributed content has a viral effect and can cause the site to grow on its own. (see slashdot.org, myspace.com, craigslist, etc).

Focus as if it were not a side project:
3. If you plan to make it successful focus on it like it isn`t a side project. When you stop your day job for the day and start on the "side project" have the passion like it isn`t a side project. This will help with motivation and help you get through the tough motivation times.

Security (cause I can`t say anything without talking about it, it seems):
4. Build security into your site from the ground up. Since security is my business I have to preach it, but it isn`t that I`m this annoying guy trying to get you to buy into what I`m preaching, it is that what you build somebody will try to break, take advantage of and the list goes on. Be proactive and try to get the security kinks worked out upfront. Good programmers build security in upfront, bad programmers learn by having their code be the source of security problems and usually those programmers can never admit their code was flawed in the first please.

In the end a website is a website, it can`t hurt anything. Build it, get your friends to use it, evangelize it and start the buzz spreading.