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Profit on a site?
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2002 9:30 pm
by lc
Ok well... I've been looking around for ways to make a site profitable ever since I got my first one up.
So banners are really completely out... nice to link to your friends but really horrid for making money, unless you get in on a good deal and happen to have exactly the right audience.
I think by now we really have to offer products for the people. And I mean other than scripts/programs cause almost everyone can find them for free elsewhere.
The thing I am trying out right now for
http://alienhelpdesk.com is selling shirts and such through
http://www.cafepress.com
What do you think... is that the way? Or is there another direction to take? I mean... I have several sites and none of them make me any money whilst they do cost a bit to run... not even thinking about the time spent.
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2002 12:38 am
by llimllib
I think community is the only way to make money in the current internet. Let's look at a couple of the sites that survived recently, like kuro5hin.org and lwn.net, based on contributions from the community. Compare those to a litany of failed ecommerce/banner-driven sites, and what's the difference? creating a community.
just my 2 cents
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2002 6:00 am
by MattF
How about actually doing something in order to make money
Selling T-Shirts and stuff is one way - the product way but what about selling a service? Web hosting and web design are surely still in demand somewhere and there must be other services (not necessarily web related) that have not yet been fully exploited.
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2002 8:12 am
by lc
Well that's not exactly what I mean.
See wedesign/hosting and such do require you to do something other than run your own site.
What I meant is.. how to make a site that is only a site (dynamic or not) pay for itself.
Contributions is an idea. Like giving away your stuff GPL but would anyone actually pay? I personally never have.
That's why I am trying the shirts thing for now... all I do is put some designs on there and I am done... Providing an actual service would take a lot of time and that's not really worth it.
See I am not out there looking for a new market. I have sites with the content I want, now I would like to see them pay for themselves.
Getting money from your site
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 10:46 am
by Takuma
I think selling shirt is a quite good idea altough I think people can just go to their near by clothes shop and buy them. I think selling second hand books and maybe pictures (copy of pictures like water painting etc.) would be quite nice. Well this is just an idea anyway...

Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 5:48 am
by mikeq
A good way is to develop a site for someone else delivering a service, take very little money for the development but agree a percentage of their revenue.
They do all the selling stuff and for each sale you will get a percentage, and your doing not a lot once the site is finished but have a revenue stream.
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 6:33 pm
by lc
Right mike of course it is... but I meant more in the area of your own nonsense site at which you offer nothing that is sellable... or don't choose to. Like mine.. I show people some work, give some tips, give away a few scripts and such. Not really a money maker.
But since I do some 3d design I can also design some very weird shirts that people may like. That's sorta what I meant.
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 7:48 pm
by jason
Ahh, but little fun sites are where many recruiters go. I have already been a technical reviewer on a book, as well as offering my opinions on another possible up and coming book on PHP.
From these fun sites, people start to offer jobs and what not, small work, and it grows. So yes, these small sites can become profitable.
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 10:01 pm
by hob_goblin
i sell shirts
http://cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=iceonfireasl
i've yet to see profit come from them, though i have a couple friends about to buy some. selling clothes is probably the #1 thing to do online that doesnt rely really heavily on competition. there are tons of shirts with different designs - but think about it, you're not going to buy a hard drive or an auto part from an online store because of the design on it
Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2002 9:59 am
by phice
Just think of how much money cafepress.com is getting.

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2002 7:33 am
by MattF
CafePress have one of the most original and inovative ideas I have seen, they have basically no way of losing money, everyone else does their advertising for them - it's just great

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2002 11:23 am
by gotDNS
*wants money*...*is desperate*....*doesn't care how much CafePress gets , as long as i get money*...i'll try it.
Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2002 12:16 pm
by qads
jason is right about getting a job from a website that you made for fun, i know few people who make money cos they have a small site where they show what they can really do...people hire them etc for their services...
you to got to move around to get money now days....