

Ask HN: Is there any other web-business as easy as online dating and blogging? - popat

I was studying about the online businesses that has lowest amount of hassles; one that doesn't require anything other than building a web-app and your business is on with money coming in ... no purchase of any goods, no inventory, no shipping, lowest customer service headache, no returns, no coordination for selling 3rd party stuffs etc.<p>Do you know any business that is as easy as online dating and blogging business?
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pg
To make a successful web startup you have to deal with problems much harder
than pedestrian ones like inventory and shipping.

Creating a successful dating site "doesn't require anything other than
building a web-app" in roughly the same way that being a successful novelist
doesn't require anything other than writing a novel.

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ivankirigin
But good people can have insight into these problems. Most people probably
don't have any intuition for how to partner with a manufacturing firm in
China.

I agree that product design is non-trivial regardless of context - but some
problems are a superset of the problems faced by web companies.

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byrneseyeview
Why would you deliberately look for low barriers to entry? If it's so easy
that people will do it for free, you may have some trouble making a profit --
especially if your motivation is to do a minimal amount of work.

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josefresco
If you want no hassle, affiliate sites are the way to go as you only generate
the sales lead and they do all the rest. Once you find something that works,
you just replicate. CJ.com is a good place to start.

I'm not sure what you mean by "blogging business" though, you mind
elaborating?

Social sites where the users generate all the content are good as well, look
into scripts like Pligg which are easy to install and customize to suite your
niche.

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ideas101
blogging with ads related to the article that makes you money ... write an
article on shoes & perfumes, get some ads displayed (thru google and yahoo
network) and females will go crazy by clicking you money-in :-) --- though you
require good advertising to get high traffic for your blog... but not
impossible.

regarding affiliate sites; you need to have a good content on your webpages,
because google (search and ad program) discourages sites that only displays
ads to make money.

~~~
josefresco
No money really in blogging, unless you own a network or are a complete
blogging whore/pro like John Chow. AdSense pays shit and if you run any other
ad network the Goog will whack your PR and drop you from search results.

You're right on about affiliates, I'd combine your idea with my suggestion,
start a blog and instead of running AdSense use affiliate links. Remember the
more focused your niche is the better.

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gaius
But the people making money in ANY business are the ones who _aren't_ looking
for something easy. As PG says, they're the ones looking for an opportunity to
get rewarded for working harder than their competition. This is truer than
ever on the web. Sure match.com or whoever may have cheesy ads but in the
boiler room there will be talented geeks working their asses off.

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thedob
Gimmicks work well - <http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/>

~~~
babul
As with most one hit wonders, it is hard to predict them or know why they work
when they do (hindsight is great).

If you go for one, make sure you think big!

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noodle
drop shipping on ebay, i would argue, is easier if you have a good product to
drop ship.

blogging requires effort to write content. online dating software requires
effort to build the community and improve the site to a level that makes
people actually want to use them. both require active work on the website that
doesn't necessarily pay off, at least initially.

with drop shipping, you find your source and post it on ebay. the item sells,
order an item and send it to them.

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smoody
User-submitted news sites that allow people to vote articles up and down. ;-)

~~~
ideas101
you mean something like HN?? and how do you make money (from Ads may be??)

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babul
Most service based business like this have been done e.g. fininding jobs,
houses, love.

If you want to go that route, just do what many others are doing - use web
2.0/3.0 tools to do them better and play the niches.

