HN, i'm wondering, are there still any ideas from the ages of web 1.0 that are still working? For example, software license key stores etc. I feel like there are many of ones i couldn't think of as being still profitable. HN, i want some heavy TIL experience, please help me! :)
Not good ideas but lucrative: porn, pills, casinos, rebelling fraud, diet scams, Make Money Online, etc etc.<p>Oldies which add value and continue to make money: affiliates (travel, mortgage, credit cards, insurance, etc continue to print money, though barriers to entry are much higher than they once were). Lead gen remains a multibillion dollar industry.<p>There are <i>many</i> companies with six/seven/eight figure sales of unsexy software, not all of which is SaaS on a monthly basis yet. (Though it probably should be :) ). Time tracking, invoicing, collaboration, and all the other usual suspects for freelancers each support more than a dozen companies. Business productivity/communication/collaboration tools. There are thousand niche things you'd never think of if you didn't love a vertical to death. (e.g. Solving the problems of multi property landlords... with software. There's one guy whose supports four families with a <i>very</i> specialized spreadsheet wrapped in a Swing app.)<p>Traditional web page hosting continues to make money. (Not everyone loves VPSes or AWS. Your local bakery has to get on the net somehow...) There are ecosystems around e.g. wordpress themes and shopping carts for getting the Fortune Five million on the Internet. These support marketplace sites, affiliates, etc etc.<p>Niche publishing plus ads remains lucrative in many sectors. If you dominate the Internet for Christmas cookie recipes, that is about equivalent to a full-time job as a cookbook author. Every similarly sized field of human endeavor makes someone the 68% that Google isn't taking.<p>E-commerce still exists. Pick something you can buy: fishing rods, for example. Someone makes a living selling fishing rods online, I'll guarantee you.
I'm going to say something trite, then try to explain it.<p>"Ideas are useless"<p>A business is a combination of dozens of little ideas supporting a large one. The large one could be anything. Maybe it's a "good old idea." Maybe it's something new and freaky.<p>Doesn't matter. You get zero useful information from the large idea. It's the dozens of supporting ideas -- the execution model -- where the money is.<p>So you can take something done to death and make really good money off of it. Or something totally new and unique that people might want -- and screw it up. (Most likely screw it up in either case.)<p>Maybe a better question would be "Which broad categories of web money-making ideas are hard to screw up?"<p>I'd be interested in that one too. :)<p>From many years of HN-watching, I find lots of folks more than willing to blog and go on at length about the broad-but-useless ideas. It's extremely rare that you actually get a peak into how the cookies are made.
I quitted my job 1 year ago and basically set out to make my own living on the Internet. I went from making an adsense-supported website offering free gift certificate templates to a Body Mass Index calculator with affiliate revenue, an online guide to help choose travel insurance, and now a SAAS offering for sending large files for small companies.<p>All of these websites make money to some extent. However I found the process of developing niche websites not to be too enjoyable (lots of focus on specialized content, nitty-gritty of building links for SEO etc) which is why I now try to focus on the SaaS file sharing solution.<p>If you want some money on the side, then niche sites are a good way to educate yourself on how to do it. On the matter of how to choose a specific niche, I found the ebook by Rob Walling (start small and stay small) to be a real eye-opener : <a href="http://www.startupbook.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.startupbook.net/</a><p>Also, I would recommend you to check out <a href="http://www.flippa.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.flippa.com</a> every week or so. You can see which websites are selling, and try to understand why they're successful and hopefully using this knowledge to advance your own ideas.
Um, depends on how you define making money. Is $60K making money? What if I told you that the author puts in less than 5 hours a month to make $60K a year? Is that making money?<p>If that is your definition, then the answer is "everything". If your definition is "lots of money" then the answer is, as always, very few things which are a lot of hard work.
As an Internet citizen, there goes my 2012 bill estimates<p>- Desktop Software (around $1,000)<p>- Hosting + Domains (around $300)<p>- SaaS (around $50)<p>- Mobile Apps* (around $5)<p>That should give you an idea where my money goes. I still believe that desktop software has lots of potential. Especially, when your target market is educated about purchasing a license. You eliminate the server costs and their data maintenance.<p>*My (probably) only purchase will be for AirSync (doubleTwist) on Android.
If you're looking for a product idea; here's one that I have thought of since it's something that both I and enough other people have wanted that I think it's profitable.<p>A <i>simple</i> invoicing and shipping application, SAAS at a fairly low rate for tiny businesses.<p>You need to be able to enter customer data and product/service info, generate a nice, printable invoice and envelope and also offer the option to email the invoice. On the ship side, it should print out a packing list and a shipping label. Bonus points if it an print USPS postage paid labels, or FedEx, or UPS.<p>A very simple app to be sure (so why the hell haven't I done a basic version for myself yet but still keep doing it manually???) but I've seen enough people online looking for this that I'm convinced it's worthwhile. Go build it and make millions with my blessing!
My college roommate and I embarked on a social network(elephantunderground) to change the way people collaborate/share/media online. This was before RoR and much of the web advances. It was more ambitious than we were able to handle honestly.
Then we created yourbarguide. A bar scene type yelp social network competing with Yelp but we could not monetize.
He went on to create an online store called Revzilla and is CRUSHING IT. Selling Motorsport gear. Found a nitch(there were no real competitors), had the knowhow, and is growing like a weed. Sell something, drop ship, and grow!
With certain audiences, forums are still popular and profitable. For example <a href="http://candlepowerforums.com" rel="nofollow">http://candlepowerforums.com</a> is still <i>the</i> place to go for advice on flashlights, and has a thriving marketplace and following.
I have a little bit of a funny story regarding web 1.0. In 1996 or so, my then grade-school age son put up a web page on one of my sites with his then favorite subject, the Goosebumps book series. Somewhere along the line, I helped him add a few ads and he maintained the page for a bit, but he eventually lost interest. Now, 16 years later the page hasn't been touched for at least 11-12 years, but it continues to bring in a couple of bucks per month from the ads. And my son went on to get a job at Google. So, good investment all the way around!
I'll repeat some of the other answers here, while giving examples from my own company and industry. I'll provide numbers when possible.<p>You can still make money by taking:
(a) a moderately-sized vertical (excluding <i>hackers & developers</i>)<p>(b) and doing any/all of the following:<p>- Web hosting<p>- Email newsletters<p>- Forums<p>- SEO<p>- Publishing tools (web & print)<p>- Ecommerce<p>Ok, now details from my own industry (professional and semi-professional photography).<p><i>Web hosting</i>: at BIG Folio, we provide web hosting for photographers. We host the sites we build as well as WordPress blogs. We charge $20/month with very low space/bandwidth limits. If we tried to be a generic host, there's not way we could compete with GoDaddy at those prices. But in a vertical, people don't mind. Even though we use expensive, managed servers from Rackspace, our margins are really good.<p><i>Email newsletters</i>: Take a look at Photojojo's ad rates: <a href="http://photojojo.com/advertising/" rel="nofollow">http://photojojo.com/advertising/</a>. $6K for a 1-week sponsorship.<p><i>Forums</i>: We advertise on one paid forum that is focused on only wedding and portrait photography (a vertical of a vertical). They have roughly 5,000 members that pay $100/year + they get good advertising rates and run an annual convention. You can do the math on that.<p><i>SEO</i>: If you know SEO and/or social media, my guess is you could easily make $50K or more by publishing an ebook on "SEO & Social Media for [insert vertical]". I published a DVD on SEO for photographers a few years ago. I pressed 1,000 copies at Discmakers and sold them all within 18 months ... for $79/each. <a href="http://photographyseo.com" rel="nofollow">http://photographyseo.com</a><p><i>Publishing tools</i>: This could be anything from website tools/CMSs, WordPress themes, or even tools for printing (yes, people still print stuff). One of our competitors just sells a "WordPress theme for photographers" ... they get $200 for a theme that is no better than themes you buy for $29 on Theme Forest. I know people that sell Photoshop templates for borders, albums and greeting cards. In my recent foray into restaurant tools, I've notice that a lot of people search for restaurant menu templates (the kind you print). I could go on and on in this section, but just know that people have all sorts of web/print/mobile/social publishing needs and are willing to pay for it.<p><i>Ecommerce</i>: Not selling things directly but helping people sell things and taking a fee. We do this at NextProof (nextproof.com). We take 7-12% of sales and <i>it's the lowest I know of in the space</i>. The forum I mentioned above has a classified ad section and it's one of the few places I trust to find used camera gear. People are used to giving Apple 30% and Groupon 50% of their sales. I think there's lots of room to monetize (either through fees or ads) a vertical sales platform, classified system, or "Shopify for [insert vertical]".
Not sure if it's still profitable but I used to know a few people who would rent dedicated servers and sell shared PHP hosting to small businesses. See <a href="http://www.webhostingtalk.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.webhostingtalk.com</a>, <a href="http://forums.cpanel.net/forum.php" rel="nofollow">http://forums.cpanel.net/forum.php</a> and <a href="http://www.directadmin.com/forum/" rel="nofollow">http://www.directadmin.com/forum/</a>.
TechCrunch profiled a company called Mind Candy recently that is dominating a market in the UK you might not immediately think of a big money spinner: social gaming for 6-10 year olds.<p>The money comes from subscriptions and... merchandising. Lots and lots merchandising. To the tune of $100 million dollars last year and growing.<p><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/11/moshi-monster-madness-in-which-i-get-a-snookums-tattoo/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/11/moshi-monster-madness-in-wh...</a>
Just go to any company and see what they do poorly. Ask them what problems they face.<p>Working in TV in the past, you would not believe the hassle phone numbers and email addresses were.<p>I would've killed for a spreadsheet-like layout for contact info that userbased contact lists, department based, then company based. Bonus points if you let people pick up the phone, then click to dial out.<p>Or, working in a relay center now, I have to wonder why no one has created a simple TTY automated menu system for the deaf. Sell it to companies, let them associate an 800 number to that line, and deaf people could call in and navigate themselves, largely rendering my job obsolete. (Well, when someone also does a good voice-to-TTY mobile app.)
I think turnkey website scripts (mostly in php) are doing well. People that want url shortners or image hosts or some such things can buy a turnkey website for $50 or something. I know a few people who make money from scripts like this.
I think the hidden subtext behind this question is "what are the good old ideas that still make money on the web THAT SOMEONE CAN BUILD ON THEIR OWN?" At least that's a question that half of the replies answer and one that I'm also interested in answering. Most of what I do can only be done to make a livable amount of money when done at a company with other talented people to fill in for aspects of the business that can't be covered by an individual even if they had all the necessary skills if only because of the limited amount of time in a day. Any ideas for the lone wolf?
Clickbank. Seriously, i made a few bucks using it. Unfortunately, i could not redeem the money as i was 17 and now I forgot my account username.
Also, you can buy domains names which are somewhat related to the current web phenomenon and then sell them at a much greater price. (eg. the domain fb.com was bought by Facebook for $8.5 million)
Buying up second hand books in bulk (think 5k+) and selling them individually on the Amazon marketplace. Incredible markups. Need lots of storage space though.
content is king! as it always has been.
If you have fresh, unique content about your passion, damn sure there are a stack other people looking to find out that information.<p>As cheesey as it sounds,I personally think you are better off not chasing the money, but fulfilling your mission, be that success or failure and learning from that experience and doing better the next time.
people search<p>huge market and growing (growing with every new person which gets online, with every new person which gets into employment ready age)<p>dominated by a few big players, just waiting for smaller niche players.<p>the only downside is, that you get about 5 "i will sue you" emails per day if you reach a certain size (just ignore them,....)<p>said that: www.facesaerch.com is for sale
Buying and selling goods and arbitrage still make money. It's not easy and takes awhile to figure it out, but it's not a bad way to make money.<p>This is what I'm doing while building my startup. I arbitrage web services on Craigslist and other marketplaces. The difficult part is figuring out what makes money and finding reliable service providers.<p>It took me over a year of trial and error to finally settle on what I have now. It will never make me a million dollars. But I have more than enough time to work on my startup and I don't have to work a FTJ or consult (which I've tried and really don't like).