Looking for webmaster/partner

[jmadero]

Hi All,

So I originally posted this in html forums thinking I'd get a hit but....nothing, probably think I'm a spammer or something like that....hoping that that doesn't happen here as I have several hundred posts and often help people

What I'm looking for:

I'm hoping to find someone who has some time, some creativity, and some tech skills I have an idea that I really am hoping to implement but it'll require a pretty hefty website. The idea in a nutshell...

A publishing company who works only online, free to the consumer (all books/literature free to download), ad supported, "fair" to the authors (as in much fairer than most publishing companies are today). I have a couple pages written up with more details if someone wants to have it just private message me and I can send it out.

So the tech person would have to make a website which fulfills the above. Basically, it'll have to have login/database because the amount of ad revenue will be based on how many people download the books. I'm thinking something along the lines of netflix (but not exactly, I have some ideas outside of the box).

The problem here is that I just recently graduated from college and I don't really have the funds to hire someone. So I'm hoping to find someone that is interested in the idea, has some time to spare, and willing to become a partner with me in making this idea become reality.

If you're interested or have comments please feel free to either leave a comment here or send me a private message. I really appreciate all the help this forum has brought me along the years, hoping that it'll come through here as well

Thanks again!

[schwim]

So are you hoping to simply provide hosting, income and exposure for the author or are you planning on catering to the consumer as well, offering matches based on prefs and historical data, new offering notices, etc.? I ask because the bare minimum that you did mention would entail a bunch of coding(tracking per author, data management as well as customer manipulation and retention.). Adding any of the stuff I mentioned would require even more. If it's done in their spare time, I'd be looking for more than one person.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but can't imagine how long it would take to code something of that magnitude in your spare time.

Unless of course you had a bunch of spare time.

[jmadero]

I'm always looking for someone to poke holes in my plans, it's the only way to really get them down. I agree that this is quite a project and assumed it would take a lot of time for a single person or even a group. All in all this is my hope with the project:

I want to make a four way "win" situation. The consumer will get books (online pdf's I'd assume) at no cost.

Authors will get several things. One, is that with this method there wouldn't be the issue of shelf space, a lot of times authors are flat our rejected or don't get enough exposure because books are expected to be sold quickly to clear room for the next batch. With this process we could keep books indefinitely and therefore eliminate that problem. Furthermore, because costs are significantly lower (no physical books made, less people needed, no "stores" to sell the books), there could be substantially more authors contracted to the company. Lastly, authors will win because their contracts will be directly linked to the amount of downloads for their book(s). This gives them motivation to promote their book as well as gives them a chance to not sign on to contracts which give them $3,000 - $5,000 flat (assuming they even get signed on in the first place). The company I envision would be quite generous to authors in terms of % of profits because I see them as being the backbone of success.

Ad companies. Now with a partner I'd need them to understand a couple things about this. I am aiming to lean towards environmentally friendly companies, smaller companies, companies with "good" track records. IE I won't be trying to get Shell to put an ad up. I'd be in charge of getting the ad companies. Now...what would we have to offer them. First off, pricing would be reasonable, I'm thinking no more than $0.01 per download (giving them exposure to 10,000 people for $100. Initial offers could be substantially less in order to bring on enthusiasm. Also, there would be a three tier advertising method. One would be ads inside of books, these would not be horrible for the consumer, I'd suggest coupons or something of the like for companies so that a consumer might be reading, see an ad and think "oh that's a good price", go right to the website and check them out. Another would be direct ads on the website itself (these would be minimal, more expensive for the company, and limited in size and scope in order to avoid annoying anyone). Lastly, this would be a long term goal, but having commercials while downloading would be really good, I think that hulu.com offers a prime example of how well that method can work.

Now that last winner would of course be the company itself. I think that it offers enough potential for growth/profit that even after paying authors their % and taking care of other business, there is money to be made.


So, I want to thank you again for pointing out a potential flaw. I'm glad that you stated it clearly, this will be quite the project, and what I offer is only a partnership, which means success/money would come with success from the company itself. I know this may sound cheesy but I look at the companies succeeding today (especially tech based ones) and I think that a lot of them start out this way. If you are interested still I'd love to hear more complaints/concerns/suggestions. I am really willing to talk to a group of developers, since I don't know much about website design, especially implementing database, logins, etc..., I'm at other people's mercy in terms of how big of a project this is and time schedules.

Just curious, if let's say 2-3 people were working on this with their "spare time" (you tell me what that means), how long would it take, 6 months, a year?

Once I get this aspect taken care of (ie bring on people to handle it). I'll be getting together the legal stuff, finding companies to advertise through the site, and lastly, probably most importantly, finding authors -- I will do this several ways, also suggestions would be appreciated.

[Freston]

Not at all a bad idea to utilizing modern technology in a business model


Depending on a lot of factors, of course, but I think this kite has the potential to fly.

Two things. Once you start, you'll have the problem of having only a few books, making your site less interesting.
Once it's running wild, you'll have the problem of having too many books. The search feature will be very important, and needs to come up with sensible results. Otherwise the site will be a pain to use.


All in all, I don't think it's a bad concept for a business. But most details need to be filled in. I understand that's why you are here and why you ask advice.

Well, the best advice I can give you is to visit the site of the Chamber of Commerce and look for anything to do with setting up a 'business plan'. Because that's what you're doing.
I did this perhaps three years ago and I found it a great help in setting up my (part-time) freelance business. I cannot imagine your local government not having an equivalent to the help I got setting up shop. Basically what you do is find a quiet corner, have some coffee, focus, and fill out this questionnaire. It'll take some time, but you can see your business rise before your eyes.
Once you're done, you know who your intended audience is, how to reach them (marketing wise), who your competitors are, where you can get resources, how much demand you can expect for your service, what the minimum level of service is that you are required to give, what the maximum level of service is that you are able to give. You may think you already know all these things, but it's different to have them all together in one plan. It'll also make it clear what you need to arrange for things to go smoothly. A lot of problems can be solved before they occur.

Just curious, if let's say 2-3 people were working on this with their "spare time" (you tell me what that means), how long would it take, 6 months, a year?

Longer. You can have a website up in five minutes. But it takes longer to make name for yourself. And as above, the technical side of the website needs to scale well with the expanding inventory.

[schwim]

Just curious, if let's say 2-3 people were working on this with their "spare time" (you tell me what that means), how long would it take, 6 months, a year?

Once I get this aspect taken care of (ie bring on people to handle it). I'll be getting together the legal stuff, finding companies to advertise through the site, and lastly, probably most importantly, finding authors -- I will do this several ways, also suggestions would be appreciated.

Well, that's to be defined by the people offering it . Seriously, free time is going to be dictated by the one's offering it. Some will have more than others.

Another thing to consider is your choice in partners. I would view this to be much like an open source endeavor in the following way(I know I'm going to take heat for it, but you should be prepared):

Since you're not offering compensation up front for coding, there's very low pressure to actually follow through with anything, which means you're going to appeal to the guys that find shiny objects on the horizon and move to them. When something more interesting shows up they don't mind leaving you to move to it. There are hundreds of thousands of FOSS projects that are sitting on a server whose developers lost interest. You can find hundreds of graphical FTP programs for linux, but you can't find a single bug free app that has all the bells and whistles. Anyone can begin developing an app and for that reason, there are a lot of false starts, failures and lost interest in FOSS applications. You should be careful in who you attach your wagon to as it's a big pain to have someone come in behind another and figure out what the hell they coded (we're notorious for poor commenting ). Ask to see some code they wrote and a script in action. Ask them some questions concerning how they would solve an issue pertaining to your needs. Even if they don't have the solution, if they have a modicum of understanding in regards to your needs, they should be able to lay out a theory that can be tested.

Please don't view my posts as pessimistic, but as an attempt to help. Millions of startups do become profitable every year and your ideas give you a great starting point. I would just suggest that you don't grab anyone that's willing, regardless of how bad you want to get started. Have some hurdles. It will save you heartache in the future

[jmadero]

Thanks to both of you for your comments/concerns. I actually know of one startup which is on pause because of a crappy developer (MINE!). I tried starting up a non profit (I have since been a co-founder of another one) but this particular one is on hold because the guy said he could manage it, then after a year and a lot of....talk....he said he couldn't.

So for now I guess I'll leave this post here and see if anyone shows interest in coding (or more people leave comments like the above). As for the chamber of commerce idea, I actually found a few things online about writing a business plan. I have started but since decided that it was worth starting to find a tech partner (I think doing both at once could be a good idea). I really am skeptical about finding financial backers because then they have too much push in making money...which as most people who use open source understand...it's not ALL about the money. I would be really frustrated if someone started telling me that I had to accept ads from companies which I....have a hard time understanding their methods. That's the main reason I was hoping to find a partner and not hire someone for web development, as I see that being the biggest up front cost -- someone suggested $5,000-$10,000. Everything else I believe can be done for a lot less.

One thing that I have thought about is contacting the companies which I am considering immediately and seeing if I could pursue them to put money into it if I gave them a good deal for advertisements (like a fraction of a penny per download).

But again, if there is anyone interested in developing this site I'd be interested in at least talking. I strive to be fair so any partnership would aim to do that but I'd expect dedication to the project -- even if that means dedication with your free time (and of course I wouldn't expect all free time but regular updates, etc... would be a good starting point). Also all comments are welcome, and none are taken as pessimism. I actually think that for the most part I've gotten positive feed back and people think that I have something here, so hopefully that something doesn't go to waste.

[schwim]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, but it's not uncommon, unfortunately.

I've been developing a user management system that would do some of what you require(per author tracking of downloads, user management/login, etc.) It's a site I'm developing for my wife in which template(HTML) authors upload their templates and then can offer the templates either unconditionally, or only to certain members, paying clients, etc. I would be happy to offer it to you(gratis, of course), but the caveat is this: The code may be completely useless to your developer when considering as it may not scale very well. I write applications for my and my client's needs and that's never been anything that served a very large crowd. There may be a chance(in fact, I would say the chance were great ) that my database queries and code are inefficient.

Regardless, the offer is there if you want it. I'd be happy to provide it to you at any time, but the longer you wait, the more that will be done Currently, I've only worked on the user management system and the HTML practice board. The tracking system has not been started yet.

[jmadero]

I really appreciate the offer. I'm going to try to get a nice looking business plan done in the coming month or two -- I'm in the process of studying for my GRE to get a masters in stats so my time is a bit split at the moment. But I will get that done and I'm going to bump this every once in awhile (with updates) or hopefully more people will respond. It would be amazing if I could get 3-5 people willing to work together.

As for gratis...I'd at least like to make some kind of contract that if the site does well I'll pay for it, if nothing else, it'll be a donation to you I try to donate to open source because, although it's free, I know that it takes a lot of time and patience to do the stuff that's out there.

Any other suggestions that might help me find the 3-5 people needed to make the site? Would you be interested in joining a team if I can find a few more people? Let me know and I'm going to start getting my contact information going so I can send out updates....

Overall, do you think that this has potential? I don't want to waste anyone's time (including my own) if there is no chance of success.

Thanks again! I'll be in touch as my plan comes together.

[jmadero]

I wanted to post an update as well as possibly request a plan B.

I am working on the business plan, aiming to have it done in 2-4 weeks (I would have never guessed how hard it is to get the information that I need and then put my thoughts down on paper, but it's coming along and I think, barring complications, that a month should have a polished version).

So my plan B. Is there anyone who is able to make the basic website while I'm working on the business plan? I'm not sure if this is how to approach it so I wanted to have a few developers respond. Basically what I'd want is the "look" of the site without the "feel" -- no database, no ratings system, no login, etc...it would be (I'd assume) HTML/CSS. Would this be a smart step while I'm working on the business plan? Then I'm hoping once the plan is done I can post, get a few developers interested and then "plug in" the database (I know...probably horrible terminology).

Please post and let me know how to approach this...I just feel like something could be done while I'm doing the plan

[jmadero]

anyone have any name ideas? I'm writing up this plan and as of now...am writing "XYZ" for the company name...I had a few ideas but none of them capture what I was looking for or they are already taken...my original idea was New Generation Publishing (name taken) then I went to Generation X Publishing (I think secludes a lot of people) . Also I think anything with the name "publishing" would maybe confuse the consumer/viewers because publishing is only one aspect of the project. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated