These are my expertise, recommendations?

9 replies
I'm having some trouble deciding on what I want to get into. In my time on the internet, I've only ever been wildly successful once and I was too young to understand how to make money from it. Since then, I've read a lot of forums and been on several adventures, but I always seem to fall short of my goals. I think I get a little too excited about ideas that sound good in my mind, spend my money, then find a lot of problems along the way that make me realize my ideas weren't as good as I originally thought.

I've found that I catch myself thinking about the money and success a lot, not the hard work and effort put into it. Back when I was 13, before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and around the beginning of Youtube, I had a hugely successful forum dedicated to reverse engineering PSP games. I had somewhere around 100,000 members from all over the world. I could have made a fortune on CPA offers, PPD, ads, etc. but I never knew I could. My community died before I wised up, and now I have nothing to show for my success but a few remnants of videos and mentions of my old alias. The success I found with that niche was because I was passionate about it. I wasn't thinking about the success or the fame, I was just really interested in it. I spent hours on end doing what I loved, and the success and fame was a byproduct of that.

It's been years since then, and I'm now in college. I want to start another venture on the internet that I can do outside of college, but I just don't know where I can apply my expertise. For that reason, I'm compiling a list of what areas I'm interested in working in and what I'm generally good at. I'm hoping that some of you more experienced internet marketers can give me ideas on where I should search. I'm not looking for secret, targeted niches, how to get rich or the "easy way." I'm just hoping to amass some ideas to get the wheels turning in my mind. I want to take the ideas given to me and see if I can put enough of a twist on them to make it a worthwhile investment.

I would LOVE to make and market my own brand, but I'm taking it one step at a time. I'm hoping with any ideas thrown at me I might be able to put a spin on them and get something rolling. I don't know if anyone will reply, but I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone did. Nonetheless, here's my list of interests / expertise:

List of interests and expertise:

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1. I'm interested in building a community. Forums are a ton of fun, and I have a lot of experience building them.

2. I love the idea of giving out prizes. I've always wanted to run a site that would allow me to hold contests and little "no work required" give-aways. Not only that, I think they're pretty good for promotional purposes. I know these cost money and will not generate any revenue for me, I'm OK with that.

3. I'm decent at developing software. I used to write a lot of programs in C++ and VB.NET back in the day (at the same time I was reversing PSP games). I can design software, but these days I know people are more interested in mobile apps, which I have no experience building.

4. I love the idea of a shop. More specifically, I'm in love with the idea of running a community that has a shop on the side related to the community in some way.

5. I love video games. I would love to get into the video game niche somehow, but I don't have enough money to buy all the new games when they come out to make reviews and that sort of thing, especially when that specific niche is dominated by Pro-Youtubers and sites like IGN.

6. I'm really good at mathematics. I'm currently majoring in math at college. I'm open to math related ideas, but I'd really prefer to keep my math skills separate from my internet venture since I already work with it so much in life. I'm currently looking at taking up tutoring positions in real life, too, which will make it worse.

7. I'm pretty good at writing, too. I know that I can write good articles or generate unique content for whatever website I build. I know I can write a book and get people to sell it, which I've thought about, but I haven't come up with any ideas that I might be able to market specifically.

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Thanks for hearing me out guys. If you think I might be good at working in a specific area, I'd love to hear it. I'm just in a rut that I can't seem to get out of right now. Thanks for any input!
#expertise #recommendations
  • Profile picture of the author seekdefo
    People are interested in softwares but not the way that you are used to thinking about them. I can say this because lots of startups are booming which have these simple ideas. One startup I know does nothing but offer exit intent pop-ups, there are tools that help optimize the landing pages etc. etc.

    Also this should provide you some motivation http://godofseo.co/case-study/one-year-on/
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    A lot of people don't want to do the work required to build a forum community. It sounds like you enjoy it. I'm sure there's something you're passionate enough about to create another successful forum with a shop attached and monetize it this time around. Most of your interests and strengths seem to flow in that direction.
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    • Profile picture of the author Boonqueesha
      Originally Posted by seekdefo View Post

      People are interested in softwares but not the way that you are used to thinking about them. I can say this because lots of startups are booming which have these simple ideas. One startup I know does nothing but offer exit intent pop-ups, there are tools that help optimize the landing pages etc. etc.

      Also this should provide you some motivation The God of SEO Case Study - One Year On
      Yeah, definitely. Software has evolved rapidly from desktop to online and mobile. I'll take a look at the link you posted, thanks.

      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      A lot of people don't want to do the work required to build a forum community. It sounds like you enjoy it. I'm sure there's something you're passionate enough about to create another successful forum with a shop attached and monetize it this time around. Most of your interests and strengths seem to flow in that direction.
      That's so true. I think it's because they're so hard to start. There needs to be a reason for registration and then content from there. I'm heavily interested in science, philosophy and motivation, so maybe I'll look into some of those things. I could probably setup a decent shop for the motivational bit (books, guides, videos, etc.) Thanks for having faith in me.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Forums are a lot of work. Besides, social media is the way of the future. If I were you I would start a private Facebook group around your interest and charge people $4-$5 per month to be a part of it. Times that by 10,000 or 20,000 members and it's a tidy little sum.

    I'm sure gamers would have no problem paying that to be part of a private group where you all share game secrets, etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author seekdefo
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Forums are a lot of work. Besides, social media is the way of the future. If I were you I would start a private Facebook group around your interest and charge people $4-$5 per month to be a part of it. Times that by 10,000 or 20,000 members and it's a tidy little sum.

      I'm sure gamers would have no problem paying that to be part of a private group where you all share game secrets, etc.
      Does that really work? Can you share with us some examples because I have never seen a Facebook group that charges members?
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    • Profile picture of the author Boonqueesha
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Forums are a lot of work. Besides, social media is the way of the future. If I were you I would start a private Facebook group around your interest and charge people $4-$5 per month to be a part of it. Times that by 10,000 or 20,000 members and it's a tidy little sum.

      I'm sure gamers would have no problem paying that to be part of a private group where you all share game secrets, etc.
      That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure how well it would work in regards to gaming, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind with some other ideas. I just recently ran into a "niche" that I'm enjoying, but don't really know a whole lot about yet. I'm doing my research.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacobmark
    Get some good content and give it away in exchange for building a list... Having a list is very valuable
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    Jeff

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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Pambos
    I would put this idea into action by starting a blog about a topic you are passionate about and start publishing quality content showcasing your expertise about the topic in question.

    The blog is the vehicle used to establish and build community over time and once there is enough traffic flowing through the blog, I would then branch out and create a forum where I could make my community more exclusive and provide lots of value through my expertise on the topic in question.

    Sell relevant products and services via your own eCommerce store or affiliate offers to your subscribers and community.

    That is the basic gist of it though the question is I guess is what are you passionate about that you can continue to produce content about without burning yourself out let alone being a hyper-competitive market such as the gaming niche as you mentioned earlier?

    Blog -> Forum -> Internal/External Offers -> Make Money

    With a blog you have many forms of monetization such as selling advertising space, creating a continuity website that provides exclusive content, creating and selling your own products and services, coaching and consulting, selling affiliate offers, selling solo ads and other forms of Newsletter advertising space, and software is a bonus since you yourself are good at creating software from scratch.

    Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to go about turning a topic you are passionate about into a money maker.
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