[sigtau]

Sup guys, I've got an idea I need your help on.

In light of my summer job search, with about five applications sent out this week, I'm looking for other moneymaking venues to help me out during college--since I am convinced that I will be busy as hell my first semester, as all former freshmen have told me I will be--and I'm turning to the non-game development related hobbies to possibly help out with this, despite how crazy, naive, or stupid the concept may be.  I'm in need of some help, though, so I'm turning to some of the smartest people I know: the general discussion forum of HLP.

...

Joking aside, HLP seems to have knowledgeable participants, and I'm interested in you guys' ideas or opinions.

Here's the plan: I want to create a website that has some sort of self-sustaining function--anything from image/filehosting, to social networks, to oddball utility sites (like this one), and so on--to the point that all I'd have to do as the bare minimum maintenance is pay the hosting bill.  Of course, if this ends up seriously happening, it'd be more than just paying the bill, but the point still stands--it doesn't need to be something I need to constantly participate within in order to get it off the ground.* The idea is that such a self-sustaining service could be ad supported, despite the fact that statistical evidence (read: a quick google search on my part) shows that at least 15% of the internet uses adblock or similar.

Self sustaining, ad supported, easy to use, easy to remember, easy to find.  Those are the constraints, and they have to be followed.  That's my goal with this--if I even do it, that is.

Now, it's not the ad-supported, easy to remember, or easy to find part that I'm worried about--that alone isn't hard for me to achieve.  What is hard is the self-sustaining part--that is, the actual function of the site.  Put simply, I have no idea what kind of site to make, let alone what it would do.  I've got lots of web design experience, coding experience (with a fair bit of PHP and a pinch of databasing on top), and design theory under my belt.  But I need ideas, and that's why I'm asking you guys--what kind of little services or quirky things of that nature would you like to see appear on the internet?

Before I wrap up this post, there's a few other things I'd like to mention:

There are things I would prefer to avoid if at all possible.  File hosting, image hosting, and clone websites that duplicate the functionality of things like Meme Generator or Pastebin are to be avoided, because there's plenty of those around.  Think about it: Why would I use this obscure website if I can just put it into Dropbox or Imgur?

User-content-driven websites are really, really hard to get going, and if they take off, they're sometimes even harder to maintain.  It's totally possible if the content you're featuring isn't readily available from other massive sources on the internet--which is why sites like YouTube and KnowYourMeme have taken off, because when they were founded, there wasn't anything else performing that dedicated role on the web.  If you try and start a user-content-driven website, you run into two problems: the forum paradox, and the policing problem.  The former is the infinite loop many forums get into when they first get off the ground ("No one wants to join my website because no one posts on it, and no one posts on it because no one wants to join my website!").  You can't really avoid that unless you're filling a very, very specific niche role.  The policing problem is simply being able to hunt for copyright-infringing content on your site, because corporations are assholes.  Doing that costs money and time, both of which are two things I'd really like to avoid wasting.

Okay, that should just about wrap it up.  I'm open for ideas, if anyone's interested in offering them.

* I'm talking about having to constantly post my own stuff to the website to get it to start working.  Imagine QuickMeme or some other meme generating website, but all of the image macros have been made by the same person just to make the website look active.  It's unprofessional and sort of a turnoff to most users, as I understand it--so that's just one additional reason I'd like to avoid a concept that is totally driven by user content.

[IronBeer]

I've always had an idea, were I to do a site, which would essentially be "rate-everything.com". It would literally be a place where people could rate ...everything. Though perhaps it might be smarter to limit it to businesses, products, and services. Generating revenue for such a site might be tricky- the obvious (and insidious) choice is to let rated entities pay for higher rankings, which could jeopardize the site's credibility. The better other option is "Google-style" ads, where ads are simply displayed that are related to the subject at hand. Perhaps not ideal, but it should be functional.

To be fair, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into the concept, but it *is* an idea.

Other than that... I dunno. It's like stupid-yet-brilliant inventions you sometimes see on TV, like a wire cage for steaming hotdogs or somesuch. Given the cognitive power of the Internet Hivemind, a lot of the easy services have probably already been covered.

[redsniper]

Just copy something that already exists and give it a catchier name.

[Polpolion]

wait I'm confused about what you're trying to do. do you just want experience working on a website? are you just trying to pad your resume? are you trying to make money? your university will have lots of student organizations that will help you get good experience with this stuff. I actually volunteered for a space system fabrication lab last year and the this year i'll be working in an AI lab - university is hands down the best place for this kind of experience because you've got thousands of other people that want to do the exact same things crammed onto the same campus together. you really don't need to go balls to the walls nuts on your own unless it's something you really enjoy (in which case you shouldn't need our help finding something to do but myeh ). In fact you've already demonstrated you've got plenty of the necessary skills to get a decent internship somewhere; the only thing that could possibly be holding you back is that you're young.

[Klaustrophobia]

so basically your plan is

1) internet fad
2) ???
3) PROFIT


honestly, i can't wait for the internet advertising bubble to pop.  **** is getting ridiculous.  you know what i just did a few minutes ago?  entered a captcha that was an ad.  they played a ford (or something) commercial and had the text to enter pop up about 10 seconds into it.  ****. that. ****.  i gave google the finger when they wanted to "monetize" one of my youtube videos.  then i found out later they did it anyway.  i was treated to a pop-up ad in my own damn video.  who has seen the movie Hardwired?

off the soapbox now, what i'm saying is if you want to make money, sell a REAL product or service.  maybe try to freelance your design/coding skills.

[Polpolion]

maybe try to freelance your design/coding skills.

http://www.guru.com/pro/index.aspx

[The E]

So, in a nutshell, what you want is a service that:

A) is popular enough to be more than self-sustaining through ad revenue
B) is stable enough to require little to no admin/developer intervention
C) is functional enough to compete with several existing services at once
D) can be up and running before you have to enter college

I think that several if these design goals are mutually exclusive, with at least one (popularity) being pretty much impossible to achieve without a good helping of luck.

[Scourge of Ages]

I've always had an idea, were I to do a site, which would essentially be "rate-everything.com". It would literally be a place where people could rate ...everything. Though perhaps it might be smarter to limit it to businesses, products, and services. Generating revenue for such a site might be tricky- the obvious (and insidious) choice is to let rated entities pay for higher rankings, which could jeopardize the site's credibility. The better other option is "Google-style" ads, where ads are simply displayed that are related to the subject at hand. Perhaps not ideal, but it should be functional.

Something like this, and/or... some sort of review aggregator. Combine reviews from Newegg, Amazon, CNet, etc; rottentomatoes, imdb, totalfilm, etc, all into a single site and give a single score.
If you can do it better than these guys who had similar ideas already

Unfortunately, most of the good ideas, bad ideas, and all of the others have been generally taken. You just have to figure out a way to do something better than anyone else.

[sigtau]

In fact you've already demonstrated you've got plenty of the necessary skills to get a decent internship somewhere; the only thing that could possibly be holding you back is that you're young.

Really, I'm only doing this to

1. make a (reasonably small, mind you) amount of cash on the side, and
2. demonstrate coding and design knowledge for web-based applications

... and the only thing keeping me from getting a job/internship is this:

So, in a nutshell, what you want is a service that:

A) is popular enough to be more than self-sustaining through ad revenue
B) is stable enough to require little to no admin/developer intervention
C) is functional enough to compete with several existing services at once
D) can be up and running before you have to enter college

I think that several if these design goals are mutually exclusive, with at least one (popularity) being pretty much impossible to achieve without a good helping of luck.

To address each thing point-by-point:

A) if it pays its own hosting bill (which, for me, the bill for hosting each site I have never really exceeds roughly $5-10 monthly, so that's a reasonable assumption), then it's doing its job well enough.
B) There's always the stupid "beta!" ploy that every web application played into during the late 2000's (also known as the waking hours of that whole "web 2.0" bull****), and I honestly don't mind tweaking it after the fact.  What I want to avoid is making this site--whatever it may be--into a day job.
C) This one depends entirely on what kind of service it ends up being and how I approach the whole competition aspect of it.
D) I'm going to have gargantuan amounts of free time during this job hunt; finishing a whole website is something I can sit down and (ideally) mull over in a week.

That said, you're pretty much right about the whole luck thing.  That's why I'm keeping this situation hypothetical for now, because unless I see something I can just do outright that will have a competitive edge to it, I'm not touching the idea with a ten foot pole.

[Polpolion]

... and the only thing keeping me from getting a job/internship is this:

look for job opportunities on campus when you get there. if your university is AT ALL worth its tuition they'll have some good jobs for undergrad students just in that situation. past that, student organizations will also give you enough experience for plenty of internships. just make sure they're relevant to your field and give you actual experience - no bull**** student government, activism group, or squirrel feeding club.

also i'm with The E. You're going to have a hell of a time making a self-sustaining website without an idea. And finish it in a week? ****, you don't need our help.

[sigtau]

... and the only thing keeping me from getting a job/internship is this:

look for job opportunities on campus when you get there. if your university is AT ALL worth its tuition they'll have some good jobs for undergrad students just in that situation. past that, student organizations will also give you enough experience for plenty of internships. just make sure they're relevant to your field and give you actual experience - no bull**** student government, activism group, or squirrel feeding club.

They do.  I'm just not in school yet.

also i'm with The E. You're going to have a hell of a time making a self-sustaining website without an idea. And finish it in a week? ****, you don't need our help.

Let me rephrase.  I can code and design the **** out of anything.  The only reason I made this thread was to see if you guys had any idea-related input--and if what everyone says ("it's impossible/already done" or some variation thereof) is true, that's okay too.

[sigtau]

Apologies for the double-post, but I think I'm onto something.  Still skeptical about the whole concept, but hey, it's something.

It appears that there's a shortage of freely available Google Analytics alternatives.  (If you aren't sure what Google Analytics is, it's basically Google's service for website owners to collect data about their user's demographics, such as what type of browser and OS they use, which pages they access the most, etc.)  I mean, yeah, there are a handful of good services out there that either have a slightly limited free version (like StatCounter) or are totally free but limited in functionality when compared to the competition, but what's beautiful about this is that if I make this a service that supports itself through both ads (for free users) and subscriptions (for bigger websites), then I actually stand a chance at doing this.

What it'll take to set it apart: Attractiveness of the interface, thoroughness of statistics, and larger freedoms for free users than the competition.  Also, ease of use for the web site owners would be great to have.

Where the ads go: In the free account interface, in conspicuous (but hopefully not too intrusive) places.

Subscription fees? Maybe, if it catches on and I need to conserve bandwidth due to interest.

Can it be done? It's worth a try to at least prototype the technology behind it.  If anything, I'll have a nice statistic-gathering library for my own use at the end of the day if things don't work out.