Web 2.0 Discussion

One of the changes brought about by Web2.0 is that people are more open to experiment and sell the ideas. Any valid and worthy idea, can be sold for good deserving price. The following incident is a personal experience, and knowingly name of site has been withheld as per sales agreement.

When i stepped into net business, I barely had funds to survive for more than a few months. Funds and investments were necessary to keep my about-to-come projects alive, if they were relaized some day. I started a site with concept where people were provided free domains and they were not under any obligation to provide any service or carry advertisements. Now, a few of you may be thinking on how come i do that when i speak of shortage of funds?

Well, thats where i integrated marketing of site with other aspects. I approached few investors and explained them the concept and where they could benefit from. Since free domain is a huge traffic puller, most of them were impressed and agreed to experiment with it for a month. So, funds were arranged for the first month and site was opened to public. It required some promotion and hardwork and by second week, traffic picked up. Ad revenues started flowing in and people were actually getting free domains. When the month ended, site had good traffic to encourage me to approach funders again and the reputation was good. People were talking about the site, so mouth-selling was in place. Who wouldn't want to have a domain without paying a penny and when they had complete control over it and were not required to do any service or place ads, just free!

Funders continued with the site and slowly the revenues started to pickup. Profits were increasing and so was traffic. How i managed to provide free domains and market it, was a concept which has till date not been tested by any other site. As it so happens, few competitiors were born, but none lasted more than a month or they never provided what they promised. The idea, the concept was unique and it was the cocnept which was driving in traffic, providing the domains and bringing in accolades for my site and me.

After running it successfully for some four months, I realized it was time to sell it off. usually, idea should be sold when it is new and not much competition around, besides when its gaining popularity. Site along with idea/ concept sold for high $xxx and most of it was for the concept. Site was on a free script otherwise but concept was unique.
The sale of this site and concept, got me enough to invest in few other ventures.

So, from personal experience, i can safely suggest fellow members that if you have an idea, if you have a concept which is unique, there are many to invest money on the same.

That's an extremely empowering story cdrw. It's rare to see such a success story, but I'm glad to see you pulled through the rough patch. One thing I'm curious about however. How did you know the idea would catch on?

You are never sure man. Its all the risk and calculations if they work out right.
In my case here, i was optimistic because i find many people posting in forum about free domains and even offering to work for it. So, if they had a chance to get it free, why wouldn't they try? Now convincing funders was a difficult job, but the proposal was supplemented by my explaining them everything and clearing their doubts. Initially they had doubts though they were impressed with the concept, so they tested it for a month only. I still remember, that first month was a hard work for me. Promoting, advertising, posting at places, spreading in whatever manner I could. Once monthly stats and details were out, investors confidence was strengthened and rest was easier.

You need to have solid proposal to back your concept. I may blab about any idea or concept, but it has to be supported by a good proposal where everyone is convinced that they are safe and would benefit. Afterall, no one wants to loose.