Website idea

[onlinkmedia]

Hi guys,

I've had an idea for a website that would provide information and news on a certain type of event (I won't say what type of event at this stage but its a mega market). There are similar sites already in existance but they only cover segments of this market, whereas mine would cover all of it.

However, seeing as I'm working full time now, I'm concerned that if I set up the site I wouldn't be able to provide news as and when it happens because I'll be at work - yet this would be a major usp of the site.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could solve this problem? I've thought about RSS feeds but I'm not too keen on just having links to other web pages, I'd rather have the content on my site.

Thanks, Rich

[Incepto]

You could hire 'news spotters'- who would upload news stories to your site. In return for this, you could set up a scheme where visitors to your site rate the articles, and the 'news spotter' receives a payment based on this rating- meaning they should usually only submit good quality articles.

User Generated Content is the future! :D

[Genesis77]

was checking out that digg website the other day and havnt really come across it before but it seems to have that kind of user generated content the guy above was referring to in that users suggest stories and a way the user can help delete old links etc. Seemed to work well there as i found most of the highly rated articles i viewed to be interesting so that kind of system seems to work (or it does for me)

[onlinkmedia]

Thanks for the ideas guys - really appreciate it!

[moneyman]

First work out where and how you will earn any money from the site. If you cant get an answer, then you are stuck with a hobby site. simple as that. If it can make money then you have to start putting in figures etc and find out if it is worth setting up and what you can afford to spend. Dont start a site and throw money with no end game in sight.

[Mike.C]

check out www.1and1.co.uk their packages include all kinds of great ad ons including news and rss feeds etc they might have what your looking for.......

[onlinkmedia]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the link Mike, I've never looked at using 1&1 - I'll see what they can offer.

Moneyman, I was looking at selling advertising & article/page sponsorship as well as using affiliate links to make money. However, I know unique user numbers would have to be high to attract advertisers, so to help with that I was going to do a PR campaign (I work in PR so can do it myself) and let companies run small scale promotions that would drive traffic to the site, as well as the usual SEO.

I was also looking at creating a dropshipping store that sells products linked to the subject of the site.

Rich