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What kind of business is teh best to start?

by haydentomas
16 replies
I have been busy browsing the posts and find the entire idea of starting a new business a minefield!

Although I have been playing around with online marketing for quite a few years, i have been actually quite unsuccessful mainly due to an age old problem of mine which is looking for greener grass when I start to lose momentum.

I do understand that I want a long term income that will continue to grow for me even when i am not working and have considered a few things and would like your thoughts!

I am a web designer and do consider myself pretty good. I code in Wordpress and DotNetNuke. However I find the entire process of dealing with clients a nightmare!

So with that in mind I have come up with a few ideas that i can most likely tie into my web design skills.

  1. Website flipping - I can likely add some backend stuff to this such as hosting and extra services such as site updates for extra income.
  2. Creating and selling themes and skins on marketplaces
  3. Plug in profit site - I do like the long term goals of a business such as this.

    Although I build websites for a living, I do not wish to have to spend every minute building them to achieve the kind of lifestyle I want, believe it or not we don't earn that much!
I would love to hear your thoughts, what would you do if you were me?
#business #home business #kind #start #starting a business #teh #web design & development
  • Profile picture of the author onqdirector
    What kind of business is teh best to start?


    the kind that makes money!

    If you're a baller WordPress theme developer I say go that route. I buy tons of those things. Sell them on Themeforest.com keep them up to date and appealling and sales will continue to pour in for a long time. Wordpress isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Be honest with yourself though, if your themes can't compete with the best ones on their don't even bother.
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    • Profile picture of the author altitudemarketer
      I totally sympathize.

      I used to have a corporate job where I was on the helpdesk... the most awful job in the world for me ... And while I can setup Wordpress sites... I do not want to go "offline" and chase people down.

      You are probably correct to consider Website flipping or creating and selling themes... both in demand and great products to work on.

      I'm not very familiar with Plug n Profit... but I'm too creative to just work on a plug'n'play anything where I'm just selling a commodity. You may feel the same way.

      I would pick whatever you are excited to work on.

      If talking about it, organizing info and referencing other people's work excites you... then you can create info products (the favorite business model around here) and as you build an audience and are selling them info products and affiliate products, you can add in Wordpress Themes (your own and others)... and start flipping sites on the side.

      Or, just go for site flipping, and get really good at it... focus just on it and you will be making big profits as a flipper... no customer hassles.
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      • Profile picture of the author haydentomas
        I also like the idea of teaching people unfortunately my video skills are not that good!
        While I have lots of knowledge on web design I would probably find myself hard pressed to compete with the likes of Lynda, Treehouse and the rest of the big boys!

        But thanks for your replies. I will definitely look into the wordpress theming route and site flipping. I really like the idea of selling developed websites but getting traffic is where I fall down! lots to learn and get on with!
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        • Profile picture of the author altitudemarketer
          I've been learning that we don't need to compete with the big boys..just share little chunks of info in a user-friendly way with our own spin to a more narrow, targeted audience and we will be able save people the trouble of going and surfing through those big sites.

          So, no matter what you decide, learn from this forum how to narrow down a smaller market and provide a custom solution... and people will be glad to pay you for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author haydentomas
      Originally Posted by onqdirector View Post



      the kind that makes money!

      If you're a baller WordPress theme developer I say go that route. I buy tons of those things. Sell them on Themeforest.com keep them up to date and appealling and sales will continue to pour in for a long time. Wordpress isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Be honest with yourself though, if your themes can't compete with the best ones on their don't even bother.
      I have considered this. While my themes can't compete on a personal level I can always involve people on Elance to help me with what I can't do. On a creative level I can deliver amazing modern websites, its the theme functions where it would fall flat and i would need help. things like colour pickers as an example..

      On the other hand I have seen some pretty ugly looking themes picking up a couple of hundred sales and i wonder in those cases what entices people to buy!
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  • Profile picture of the author bluewaveseo
    start with something that you have a lot of knowledge in and create
    a solid base. as you go along you will see ways to expand it. keep it simple
    and refine refine refine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Rosmer
    Message me and I'll help you with this. The answer is you're starting looking in the wrong place you need to think about the problem differently to build a business that will sustain your dreams and none of what you've listed is likely to be the way to go. Like I said message me and we can have an in depth discussion about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    If I were you with your strong web development background I would definitely focus mainly on #2.. Building themes and skins for peoples websites and selling them through various marketplaces.

    I wouldn't ignore the other opportunities though, such as creating quality websites to flip for a profit.

    Sometimes in your position it is best to throw a whole bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
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  • Profile picture of the author DBradleyNMS
    As someone who has created more than a few websites over the past couple of years (mostly hobby sites, rather than true IM sites since I started my job), I can confidently say there is money to be made from Wordpress themes.

    Just please don't ever give me your link...every time I see a new theme I think 'hmmm, maybe I should change one of my sites'!
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  • Profile picture of the author zahanega
    Website flipping can be very profitable. If you can drive enough traffic to the website, I think you could make a decent amount off of that
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  • Profile picture of the author haydentomas
    Looks like I will be definately sticking to building themes and sites to flip!

    I guess my end goal would be to have a team build them for me so I can relax a bit more, but at this stage in my career I will be getting my hands dirty.

    Michael: Everything I have listed will work, in fact there are hundreds of opportunities we never hear of that make money. The key is to take something and simply work it but what I don't want to do is look for "another opportunity"

    I am not the biggest fan of affiliate marketing and would much rather lean towards product based and service based sales based on products and services I have full control of and would rather pay the commissions than receive them

    What I want to do is build a business around my skills which happen to be web development.
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  • Profile picture of the author vishwa
    All Of them are good and really help you to make some handsome money online. But The most important is which one of them inspire you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trey Morgan
    Website flipping is a great choice, and the one I would choose. Once you get good at it you will have a skill that can literally make you a predictable and large sum of cash whenever you want. All three choices are great ways to make money online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Levine
    Because you've gone through what it takes to learn how to create WordPress and dotnet themes I'd guess that's where your passion and expertise lies. It's probably at least a good basis for you at this time, until the day when it possibly leads you in another direction.

    I also think that although dealing directly with clients can sometimes be frustrating, once you work all the kinks out of that, it's pretty nice to make a thousand dollars plus, for doing little more than making a custom theme, and installing it for them. Then you get to charge for hosting, upgrades, SEO, business cards, etc. In other words, there's good money to be made as a local web designer, even if working from your home. I've made a nice income doing it for years already, so I know this first hand.

    Good luck in whatever you choose.
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  • Profile picture of the author Teddy T
    1. Create a product of value
    2. Pair with an established marketer in your niche to market your product
    3 Build a buyers' list
    4. Profit
    5. Repeat
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  • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
    The best business is to do something you know and are skilled at.
    Period.
    The end.
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