Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

There seems to be an incredible amount of people today who are fancying themselves as "internet entrepreneurs" because they start blogs with a few adsense ads on them. But to me calling yourself an entrepreneur because you have a website is like calling yourself the manager of a race team because you have a car. I realize that a lot of them have original ideas, and I realize that "internet business" is attractive to them because they don`t need to invest a lot of money (and they can keep their day jobs), but does it strike anyone else as...something apart from entrepreneurship?

How many "internet startups" actually go on to produce a good amount of revenue?

I think there is a distinct difference between someone who blogs and has a few adsense ads to other forms of business online.

I would agree somewhat that blogging may be something apart from entrepreneurship.  But than again, it still takes a lot of business skills to launch your blog to the top and be seen.  So in a sense I think you have to treat it as a business if you want to succeed and actually become large enough to see some substantial revenue. 

But I don`t think that because one startup requires less investment than another that the people behind these startups should not be considered entrepreneurs.  The risk may be smaller, but it`s still a business and to grow you need to treat it as a business.  Some people don`t have the funds to start larger projects (as myself) so they have to start smaller, and the internet provides these opportunities. 

Overall I don`t think its something apart from entrepreneurship.



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ThePrizePursuit.com

I`ll argue that tossing together a quick way to make money copying everyone else isn`t entrepreneurial at all. Blogging and trying to grab a few bucks with Adsense isn`t a startup, it`s just a lemonade stand---a hobby.

That`s not to say that people can`t put together a business doing what`s been done, copying other ideas, and carving out a market in their area. But starting a business isn`t being an entrepreneur. Not many people have the inventiveness to create something new, then follow it through with a business built around that new idea.

I can see what your saying here, it`s hard to answer this question.  When I think about someone trying to grab just a few bucks here and there I want to think no, it`s not a entrepreneurial at all as well.  But if I see someone creating a name for themselves and making a living from blogging, then it seems like I would think otherwise.


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ThePrizePursuit.com

Well, there`s a difference between two words: "famous" and "notorious." There also are lots of celebrities who seem to be celebrities for no reason whatsoever other than the media has made them recognizable.
 
Would you say that Paris Hilton is an entrepreneur? She created nothing, does nothing, apparently is quite ignorant, and certainly has no concept of the Hilton hotel chain. And yet mention her name, and everybody seems to know who she is and what she looks like.

Does that make her an entrepreneur? Is she famous? Will kids in school, 50 years from now, read about Paris Hilton and how she affected civilization in some way?

She also makes and has made a fair amount of money by being Paris Hilton, which is similar to a brand. Her product is nothing, and the only reason it sells is because people are fascinated enough by her meaningless existence that they`ll pay to watch the possibility of her "career" being found out as nothing.

People who make money blogging aren`t entrepreneurs. They`re writers and authors who`ve entered into the new distribution and publishing channel of the Web. The entrepreneurs are the creators of things like WordPress, TypePad, and the blogging software itself.

Those who use the entrepreneur`s product are actually the entrepreneur`s target market. Then someone like Google comes along with an entrepreneurial idea to combine and consolidate ALL blogs, and that`s a new, creative idea.

The essence of entrepreneurship is to develop something new. Either a new product, or a new way of using an existing product. Blogging isn`t a new way to of using blog software. Writing interesting content on a blog isn`t a new way of writing (although in today`s world it`s surprising).