Business ideas - ambition and originality

Hi guys,

Wondered if I could have the advice of a few internet businessmen/women on getting ideas off the ground.

Ive been teaching myself a few programming languages for a while now, and I spend lots (probably too much!) time on the Devshed forums. I read a lot of peoples posts etc, and I am envious of the popular sites people have.

I originally wanted to learn programming server side languages so that I could make online games (like those MMORPGs). As I have grown up, and spent more and more time on the internet I have come to realise that there are too many of them about, and I am not prepared to do all that work to be in competition with too many other sites.

I really want to create a "proper" site, one that is original and will get visited occasionally, but I am worried that I am setting my plans to high.

I am a chemical engineer and I want to set up a website for buying and selling chemical plant equipment and machinery on the net. (!!!). A bit like an ebay of the chemical industry world. Its a pretty tall order and I know it has been done several times (but not many) before, but I think I have enough knowledge to do 80% of the work...and could learn a lot of the last 20% "on the job", and whatever I cannot do I will eventually look at contracting out to other programmers for a cost.

I really feel strongly about doing something because it is tricky, not because it is simple - I really want to use what I have learned about databases, I want to do something that has not been done before and not everyone would want to do etc...so I thought this fitted the bill.

I wondered if anyone could give me advice on the above - am I setting my sights waaay to ambitiously for what is effectively 1 guy (me!!) to achieve in any reasonable time frame...or is it actually an interesting and achievable project to do solo, and seek outside help when the time comes?

All thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated,

Regards,

Porky

How much effort really goes into a enterprise level site?
My sites are all small and inconsequential.
I am a brochureware guy.

Of course in my imagination the ebays - slashdots* - yahoos - and to a lesser extent devsheds - all had:

a.venture funds
b.project leader
c.graphics designers 2+
d.database guy
e.info architect
f.scripters 2+
g.writers 2+
h.contracted server group

Basically for a professional effort it takes around 10 minds putting in 40+ a week.
How many succesful web ventures are really done by a single semi-pro in his spare time???
Besides kirupa.com i mean.....?

For that matter -
Anyone know what type of effort went into Devshed?
Does devshed have phpBB ancestry?

hi, you can try sell on ebay , it's very easy to make money. if you set up your website, it's very hard to get people visit your website.

if you have a supplier from China, import very cheap items , and sell on ebay , you will find it's very easy to make money .

I can help you sell on ebay , you don't need have goods in your hand at first, i can email you picture, you list on ebay , sell it, get money , then buy from me . i ship items to you or your buyers.

I am sure you can make money more than US$1000 at the first month . then US$2000 the next month , then more than US$3000 . and up to US$10000 a month is not a dream .

You can do all this things at your free time . it's your part-time job . you don't need quit your present job ,and you can make more money .

it's simple and easy .

if you don't konw how to sell on ebay , I can teach you.

trust me , i am really looking for a parter doing bussiness with me .

if anybody is interesting in making money with me , please email me . i will tell you what items we will sell and how to make money .

please email me at : yejack@gmail.com .

try it , and you will find you are a happy guy . you will have more time and more money . you will find a new world . trust me . i know i don't waste time wrote here .

thank you.

riiiiiight....who wants to sign up yejack@gmail.com for every porn and viagra site they can find????

hi, Porky need some advice . i just show my advice.

it's not a good idea to set up your website at the begin , you need start your business at first , then if you business is large enough , you can set up your website.

Hi guys,

Thanks for responses.

@brandsme:

Thanks for the advice, but I do not have any interest in going into business on ebay. I think perhaps mentioning ebay was a bad idea, as it implies that I want to set up an auctioning system. What I really meant was that I intend to set up an "agency" for people who are interested in buying and selling equipment, where they can post and browse listings etc. I hope that is a bit clearer. I cannot trade/do business on ebay because the average chemical plant item is out of my budget!

@hzane:

Cheers for the response, but (call me simple) I don't understand this sentence:

"riiiiiight....who wants to sign up yejack@gmail.com for every porn and viagra site they can find????"

Anyway, you other stuff does make a lot of sense to me. I think yahoo and ebay are a little larger than I was intending, as I have said to brandsme above, I think I actually said something I didn't mean when I mentioned ebay.

My friend owns a site for landlords to display their properties on a listing board, so that visitors can come online and browse them. If the clients are interested they request the details of the person offering the property and make arrangements...the website is acting as a (kind of) noticeboard for properties in the area. He wrote all the web material (scripts etc) himself. I thought the same could be applied to engineering equipment as it is something I specialise in. Hmmm, I wonder if a lot of what you have said still applies...

a.venture funds - would look at these when the bulk of the site is done, and make a final decision on whether to put money on it...but in the meantime do as much as I can myself.

b.project leader - I guess that would be me.

c.graphics designers 2+ - again, I would look at doing the technical side of things - working scripts, layouts, etc and then look at hiring a graphical designer (x1) to do some artwork.

d.database guy - how do you mean by "guy". I can create the database easy enough, might need to learn a bit about administration of them?

e.info architect - Apologies, not sure how you mean?

f.scripters 2+ - I guess there would just be me. I do not envisage there being *too* much scripting as I want to keep the site (reasonably) simple...

g.writers 2+ - you mean content writing? I think I can handle this. I consider myself to be quite articulate and I do not intend on having essays on the site!!

h.contracted server group - I'm sorry, not sure what you mean. The people who host my website?

Thanks again for the responses guys. I don't deny that it is ambitious, but I do feel its a few orders of magnitude less ambitious than trying to create a site like ebay.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated.

Porky.

I would like to suggest you to take technical support by hiring a technical person locally or from remote as outsourcing.

Especially getting technical support from outsource you can save time, cost and your efforts too.

This is the wisest response. so rep me

I was suggesting sabotaging brandmse who is trying to push his ceramic figurines scam or bootleg whatever. Mr. direct from China guy.

Have you thought of placing your business on a online publication like a Ezine or E newsletter or an online directory, this can help enhance web traffic providing the publication itself has a high hit rate itself.

Have you thought about how old this thread is? Don't resurrect threads that are this old. Especially when it's your first post.

Why aren't threads purged after a set amount of time. Maybe in some forums it shouldnt be, but this one, outhouse, lounge, etc should be killed weekly if there is no activity.

I think weekly is too soon. And I think it's bad to purge threads that can be searched for in