I’m not going to reveal any of the details, but I was just about to go to bed, when I couldn’t because I needed to write down an idea I had for a website. It is a pretty good idea for a comics website that provides a service that is not currently available from any other source (that I am aware of). I think that if I could get it working the way I want it to, it could be very popular, and integrate with the “big names” in online comics pretty easily.
Here’s the weird part: I was writing down all the details I could think of for what would actually be on the different parts of the website and how they would work together so I could think about how to build the backend later, and I found myself writing down a way to recover some of the costs of developing and running the site. An honest-to-goodness business model. Normally when I have an idea for a website, money only figures into it because it costs me money to buy the domain and host it. For the first time I can think of, there was a valid place for money in the initial idea for a website. I’ll look into the costs of putting it together and what is a reasonable amount of money to charge for the services I am suggesting, and keep you updated if I find out that it could actually be a break-even or profitable business model.
I didn’t say it was a good business model. As we all learned, most of the business models for the web weren’t profitable ones. This might be one of those, but even if it is, it’s my first. Anyone know a venture capitalist looking for a rinky-dink online comics service provider to invest in?
