Assuming 50K investment avail to author content for a new site, what topic would you focus on?

[mark2000]

I'm interested, would appreciate, finding out peoples' opinions/ takes on the following:
Assuming one had 100K available to build a new website--50K for original content and remainder for site setup/ marketing/ updating content/ working capital until business supports itself-- and wanted to create a 100% digital download/ publishing or similar website, with good prospects of eventually becoming automated to the extent the the owner can oversee it with less than 5 hours per week, what would you do?
Assume also for a moment that your hobbies and passions don't line up well with income producing niches, or that you simply aren't interested in trying to monetize them. Your content is going to be solely based on what you feel has the greatest chance of successfully reaching your goal.
Owner would work it full-time until sales reached a level where it was possible to delegate most site functions to others.

[petertdavis]

This may not be the answer you want to hear but personally I think it would be foolish to put $50,000 into a new site when you don't have a clear idea what the site should be about. Buying an existing site would probably be a better strategy for you, just be sure to do your due diligence on it.

[Thomas]

Agreed with Peter. You can burn through $50k very quickly if you're desperate to prove the site will be profitable.

Your best bet is finding an established site in the $10-30k range that you feel has "potential" to a) grow and b) be largely automated and invest back into that. You can outsource pretty much everything these days so working less than 5 hours a week shouldn't be a problem if you buy the right site. Personally, I'd avoid ecommerce and look for something affiliate based (preferably build a mailing list and/or community, too) as they tend to require far less time to manage. I'd spend the first few months testing and perfecting whatever sales funnel you have and then the rest with a decent agency (to manage PPC or media buys) and then sit back and hopefully collect the cash. I wouldn't invest much into SEO, but that's just me

[Clinton]

... and wanted to create a 100% digital download/ publishing or similar website, with good prospects of eventually becoming automated to the extent the the owner can oversee it with less than 5 hours per week, what would you do?

I would think beyond content.

There are still numerous opportunities for new software that solves specific problems, new services that haven't been discovered, new ideas that improve people's lives and businesses.

If you want to be an entrepreneur rather than take the easy route gutless people like me did - via acquisition - then good luck to you!

Here's one suggestion: The world needs a competitor to Flippa.

On the issue of content, here's an interesting article.

Here are the four new rules of quality that publishers must obey to flourish. The biggest difference between the old and new definitions of quality are who’s doing the judging. In the era of Publishing 1.0, when production costs were high, alternatives low and time ample, the editor deemed something quality or not. But today, content isn’t scarce at all—in fact, it is in oversupply. And it is the audience that judges quality directly, dozens of times per day.

So, according to the audience, what is quality? It comes down to these four characteristics:...

[Kay]

[Edit - I took so long to reply others had replied meanwhile. Mine was a reply to the OP without having seen the others.]

It's a very interesting question, thanks. But why would you necessarily want to start a new website/business? Why not buy something for $xxx - $xxxx that looks promising and build on that?

By original content do you mean innovative tools or what? Good writing? A totally new and different concept?

It's difficult to say what topic to focus on. Something that's needed and wanted (demand) even if people don't yet realise they want it, and something that others aren't doing (supply). Of course if any of us have such a thing up our sleeves, we're not just going to blurt it out on a public forum. Probably.

Perhaps this is a hypothetical question, but if it's not then why not invite people to pitch their business proposals to you? It would be great to have an EP Dragon's Den.

Anyway, with that amount of investment, why would the owner need to work full-time in the business? Surely s/he would just oversee things and hire others or outsource to achieve the goal.

[grynge]

If you have balls and don't mind taking on the USA in legal challenges then the world needs another megaupload type system and the opportunity to make some extremely nice money is there for the taking (for anyone willing to take on jail/extradition)

[KenW3]

I would never spend fifty on a new venture (well, maybe not 'never'). It is very difficult to put money to work. Buying cash flow, buying income, buying businesses is risk, but not as risky as creating a new business. For a new venture, I would sooner bootstrap growth as much as possible.

For a digital product, I would avoid digital downloads and publishing. The market is saturated, as everybody and his brother is looking for hands-off easy answers with a way to stay fully within the digital realm. The only emerging tech with those attributes, that could be worth serious investment, is SaaS. There is massive untapped opportunity, yet to be developed, for mobile computing, remote apps, and cloud computing. Thin client solutions have yet to become ubiquitous and expected. That is exactly the future description of cell phones.

If you want to be an entrepreneur rather than take the easy route gutless people like me did - via acquisition - then good luck to you!

Also known as the smart way which is how I would apply the money in the OP, as an investment. I'd avoid the risk of an unknown new single site and diversify risk with multiple proven ones in related (symbiotic) fields that can be run under a single structure. Diversification processes can be applied to addressing either a vertical or a horizontal market.

Here's one suggestion: The world needs a competitor to Flippa.

I respectfully disagree. The Flippa model is flawed. They built an eBay instead of a brokerage. The market they are courting is much too small to be of interest to a serious competitor. Then again, maybe I should show some respect; They may have intentionally targeted a small demographic to avoid competition.

[golles]

I would never spend fifty on a new venture (well, maybe not 'never'). It is very difficult to put money to work. Buying cash flow, buying income, buying businesses is risk, but not as risky as creating a new business. For a new venture, I would sooner bootstrap growth as much as possible.

oh sooooo true. that is one for the quote list.

[mark2000]

So many of you wrote good stuff that I'd like to answer individually to, but I still haven't figured out how to select quotes from various posts and answer to them in one. Will read the posting instructions more carefully.

First a quick one: if not taking on the US legal system is considered ball-less, than I'm definitely lacking balls! Have no desire to get into that mess.

To say more about what I mean by content, in reply particularly to Kay, I'm thinking of an idea where one would approach a recognized authority / minor celebrity in some field and ask them to write an ebook/ articles/ do videos if applicable, and use this as the product for the site. For example, there are some top yoga instructors that have yet to make/ sell a product for the internet. I might approach one of them and ask them to prepare this material, using the 50K partly to pay them for their time/ use of name, and partly for the production costs. (They would also earn royalties from the sale.)

I am interested in acquisition and that's maybe the way I'll go, but this forum has sobered me up regarding the reality of the many pitfalls to avoid, and the difficulty and extensive time required in finding the right site. In particular time spent going down what are ultimately dead ends. Clinton, your honest post especially, about spending much of 2011 (or 2010? sorry don't have the post now) searching for a site and ending up with a 5K one that ultimately proved tricky anyways, drew my attention. If someone with your acumen, experience and connections has such difficulty, imagine how steep the slope is for relative newbies like me?

Ken, your post re Saas and thin client potential is interesting, but the challenge for me is that I have no way of measuring how good an idea/ what potential a particular ongoing site in those areas might have (I actually had to look up the definitions!) Or, if I bought a site based on these technologies, would I be even able to run it, grow it, given this lack of knowledge.

I'd welcome a dragon EP category! I'm sure many others would too. One big challenge though I've found with these type of partner seeking forums/ sites is vetting the person(s) proposing the ideas, or those offering to invest.

[Clinton]

Clinton, your honest post especially, about spending much of 2011 (or 2010? sorry don't have the post now) searching for a site and ending up with a 5K one that ultimately proved tricky anyways, drew my attention.

It's more a reflection of how difficult it is to find something decent in Flippa. As Flippa employees on here are capable of verifying, I signed numerous NDAs, exchanged PMs with many sellers, placed bids on many, many sites etc. I also have hundreds of emails exchanged with sellers during that time (I prefer emails to sharing my private correspondence with Flippa staff).

So while Flippa sales are, by all Flippa accounts, going through the roof I'm not finding what I want. Despite being willing to pay a bit over the odds I'm not finding genuine, profitable and suitable businesses on there that aren't high risk or with a major flaw.

This year I plan looking elsewhere. The smaller markets are more difficult to browse as each one has its own quirks, but that's where the good sites are and if you want gain you've got to take a bit of pain.