
10 Totally Stupid Online Business Ideas That Made Someone Rich - jasonlbaptiste
http://nichegeek.com/10_totally_stupid_online_business_ideas_that_made_someone_rich
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kwamenum86
These things are not "stupid" ideas. They defy intuition to be sure (selling
plastic wishbones online, who would of thought?) but most of the ideas simply
exploited hidden market niches, which is actually smart.

There is one exception: million dollar homepage. That site was launched at
just the right time and it was the first of its kind. People were willing to
take a chance on it for those two reasons. There will probably never be
another million dollar homepage so I think we can reasonably conclude that he
got lucky...but it still was not a stupid idea. It was a very well executed
plan and the creator capitalized (intentionally) on the originality of the
idea, the fact that he could offer a cheap creative ad space (everybody jumps
on that), and the low overhead cost. It was a "this probably won't work but
what the hell" idea.

I don't think any business idea that makes you one million dollars is stupid
(unless you plan on buying lottery tickets everyday).

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mechanical_fish
_There will probably never be another million dollar homepage..._

In twenty years or so it might be possible to build another million-dollar
homepage, just as it's been possible to revive fads from the 1960s, the 1970s,
and the 1980s twenty years later. (The 1990s nostalgia is due any minute now.)

Twenty years from now there will be a large population of web users who have
never heard of the original million-dollar homepage. Others might greet the
revival of the fad as a charming reminder of their own youth.

And, of course, unless historical trends change a lot, eventually you'll be
able to build a million-dollar homepage just by passing a hat around your
circle of friends, just as Dr. Evil can no longer terrify the world by
demanding a million-dollar ransom. ;)

~~~
kwamenum86
Some fads can be revived...

but the real success of the million dollar homepage was convincing companies
to buy ad space, not attracting people to the site. Sure many web users will
not have heard of the site (I would venture to say web users of today have not
heard of it) but the people spending the ad dollars are (presumably) a more
knowledgeable group. That is the group the next million dollar homepage has to
court if indeed there is a next million dollar homepage.

The eb and flow of certain fads depends on people forgetting or people lacking
knowledge about the past, or nostalgia. I am hypothesizing that advertisers
are immune to both of those things because they manage money and have to be
careful.

..then again (yes I am arguing with myself) people on Wall Street manage an
awful lot of money and repeat their same bad habits in cycles...so maybe you
have a point.

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mechanical_fish
I'm glad you took the trouble to argue with yourself, because now I can ROTFL
at your third paragraph _with_ you instead of _at_ you. ;)

Believe me, advertisers are human and they will forget every bit as quickly as
everyone else does.

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O3d
How is making a dating site for people with HIV/AIDS a "totally stupid" idea?
I think there's also a dating site somewhere for people with herpes and other
STDS. Sounds like a good idea to me.

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kwamenum86
Agreed. This is a site with a purpose. These people are in a unique situation
where traditional methods of meeting people become complicated (to understate
things). I think the person who made this list misunderstood or did not
consider what role this could play in an HIV + person's life.

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fallentimes
The businesses & founders are not stupid. The people who buy products from
_some_ of these businesses...that's debatable.

~~~
mynameishere
Hey, shut up! My dog looks cooler than ever.

~~~
ojbyrne
I thought doggles was the least "stupid." Quotes because I agree that most of
them aren't really stupid.

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aardvarkious
The SantaMail is in the funny one to me. In Canada, if you mail a letter to
Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0 then Canada Post employee volunteers send you
a response in the guise of Santa. And the only cost to you is stationary and a
stamp.

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staunch
I wonder what it feels like to make a lot of money doing something that feels
kind of stupid. I'm sure the money goes a long way to soothing any mental
discomfort, but I still wonder.

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swapspace
How is any idea, that makes money, stupid? It's arguably the best metric for
judging an idea/execution.

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callmeed
I really dig the spirit of this article, but a few of the companies mentioned
had revenue below $200k. I wouldn't exactly say anyone is "rich" from that
yet.

 _PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year_

~~~
nazgulnarsil
yeah if it was just one year. running a 200k business a year for 5-10 years
will certainly make you rich.

~~~
ojbyrne
Assuming you don't have employees or significant costs, don't get hit by
random acts of misfortune, and define rich relatively broadly.

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SingAlong
_Doggles - goggles for dogs_ isn't dumb. The founder just made a non-sell-able
creative idea sell. He made it pay. I guess he makes more money than Twitter
:)

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adilsaleem
"Designer Diaper Bags" is not a stupid idea. Christie Rein was going through a
problem, she solved it and started selling the solution

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Allocator2008
An old principle here perhaps: evolution does not mean making an organism more
complex or "better" necessarily, only "more adapted", so sometimes more
complex organisms can become less complex organisms, such as cave fish losing
their ability to see. Similarly, perhaps with memes. Better adapted memes mean
just that, better adapted, even if they are completely insane from one way of
looking at things. So if the meme of say plastic wishbones mentioned in this
article is adapted for some crazy reason, it will find a niche. This is the
dark side of evolution. Sometimes organisms lose features and complexity for
the sake of adaptation, and perhaps there is a memetic corollary here to,
sometimes in the free market the most adapated memes are some of the most
insane or revolting, from an aesthetic standpoint. Which just proves the
"selfish gene/meme" paradigm - if they can get copied, they will, and they
don't care about whatever pain or suffering or cultural decline that may occur
as a result.

