ideas101

blogging with ads related to the article that makes you money ... write an article on shoes & perfumes, get some ads displayed (thru google and yahoo network) and females will go crazy by clicking you money-in :-) --- though you require good advertising to get high traffic for your blog... but not impossible.

regarding affiliate sites; you need to have a good content on your webpages, because google (search and ad program) discourages sites that only displays ads to make money.

you mean something like HN?? and how do you make money (from Ads may be??)

this is so true:

working people on weekdays: home and work place

students : home and school

on saturday's (day): home and grocerry store (in evenings) : movie/night clubs or home

sundays: home and church

absolutely, few features should be just copied from dating websites; like what language you prefer, or whats your regular route and what time of the day - bunch of people going for grocery at the same time and place can get connected to share ride almost on daily basis. there are many software professional from india (on H1B visa) whose wives get bored by staying at home doing nothing, this kind of service will connect wives to do things together.... a social connection in itself (wow!)

i think its a fantastic idea, this saves a lot of time, money and energy ... this idea will be instantly super-hit amongst south asians (india, pakistan, bangladesh, srilanka and may be china as well) - you might be surprised to know that people from these countries are used to share rides with strangers, in fact it is a norm in some parts of these countries... there is absolutely no fear or privacy or any other kind of issue amongst people from these countries - in fact there is something like share-a-taxi program in many part of these countries. Following is what i would suggest:

1.target everyone but make a special effort to focus on south asians.

2. make your web-tool extremely simple to use. use simple GUI with simple english so that a person who is not that familiar with the language or computer can also use it with ease.

3. Also after getting initial success try to make features available in multiple language, this will increase your market by senior citizens (again south asians) who dont know english.

4. Two parties should be able to connect instantly, here u may add some kind of web-to-cell (and cell-to-web) tools. so for example if i'm already out of my home/work but if i can still pick-up someone on the way then i should be able to know that via my cell phone.

5. You will also come to know what routes are more popular in what part of the city, this should make you able to add few more features that saves user's time in getting a ride right away.

6. This is most important feature: add a tool where 2 people speaking same language get connected right away - this will create a comfort zone and your service will be hit just by adding this feature .... TRUST ME ON THIS !!!

because you need 2 things (residency and geeks) no matter where you live you have to be mentally prepared to live there for a year or 2 before you move permanently. i would suggest to file for immigration for canada and in the mean time find a temporary place to live couple of years. the best thing is to shortlist top 2 places and then apply for immigration at one place and move temporarily to the place that was 2nd on the list (who know you may like 2nd place more than the first one).

Also if you file for canadian PR (while you're in US) then it won't take longer - US cases are faster than other countries but you need to file while you are living in US.

Your choices: Asia: Singapore, India, Indonesia, Philippines

Europe: any eastern europe that has good weather and geeks.

Far East: Australia (btw australia also has immigration policy, and fantastic weather)

Middle East: Abu-dhabi and Dubai (most happening place, no tax, you just need to find good geeks or import it from India).

Good Luck. P.S: Find out everything about Australia and Canada - they both have immigration policy - in fact i recently heard that australia has something like temp work visa for people under 30 and then you can file for permanent residency.

you must visit http://www.prototypeinvest.com/default.aspx

its a Venture Capital firm providing software, web applications and guidance, and instead of money they ask for equity (just like any other VC) ..

i hope this helps, also if you plan to go with them then let us know your experience .. as you can see its a new kind of VC model.

can u add the blogs or job sites that are specifically for jobs at startups. thx

thx for updates ... welcome to HN !

i read this post again and again and realized that most of the comment is for you becoming a VC - a VC is someone who invests other people's money, are you sure you want to do that??? because what i understand from your question is you just want to invest along with other like minded people, right?

couple of months a go even i didn't knew that a VC is different than an investor...becoming a VC (or running a VC firm) and becoming an investor, both are different and distinct. Both have pros and cons along with different sets of roles and responsibilities.

thx - too tricky though - i wish there is some knowledge base available for this kind of investments.

do i need to be accredited investor if i'm helping my friend and he is readily giving me equity in his startup?? does model like YC requires such accredition? if yes, then i think the law is not favoring startup growth, is it? : there has to be some way out or may be rules are only for the people who are investing over million $$.

i dont know why people over here are giving an impression that its difficult or not that possible - i think it is 100% possible - if Angels can do it and VCs can do it and Seed funding people can do it then why not you ...

according to pg's essay http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html - there are 3 phase of funding - Seed, Angel and then VC. YC model comes under pre-seed funding phase (am i right?), nevertheless what is interesting is that there is a GAP between all these phases. It would be nice if someone fills one of these gap... they might be called as micro-seed or micro-angel or micro-vc or pre-angel or pre-vc etc... but there is definitely this gap to be taken care of by some smart investor(s). Just recently I was talking about this to one of my friend and he did showed little bit of interest, so i'm sure you will also find few investors. If nothing works then just find couple of partners and get in to pre-seed funding, though you should have some talent to pick brilliant ideas/people/companies to invest in... sometime its like looking for needle in a haystack (but not impossible). Good Luck.

EDIT: read pg's essay which i'm sure will motivate you : http://www.paulgraham.com/googles.html : you just need to create a business model that makes win-win game for all.

Time has arrived where original content creator/artist (musician, writer etc.) has to decide how they want to publish their content and make money. Self-publishing is gaining momentum in the book arena, the same can happen in music, movie and tv - the only thing is someone has to make self-publishing and internet distribution eco-system simple and affordable (wow! here is the business idea).

The other platform that can be explored is creative commons. Licensing under creative commons and sharing content freely with the support of some kind of revenue generation is one of the best option (i think).

Cities also tell you about the lifestyle (and speed) - new york is all about speed, people dont have time. while i noticed that atlanta is laid back. also each city might have multiple message depending which pocket you are - for example if you are on a broadway in new york then you will definitely have different feeling, if you are in hollywood then along with fame you will feel hypocrisy (may be) and creativity. big cities always have multiple message with different kind of ambitions.

I have also noticed that one kind of person will normally go for the city that suit his/her personality (due to experience and the way they have been brought up), for example a person brought-up in new-york will most possibly won't like atlanta and vice-versa. the reason being NY guy is used to speed, he just cant take anything slower, if the train is scheduled at 7.13am then he has to be on platform on time, while a guy in atlanta will get anxiety if he goes to NY and have to rush his life with everyone else.

City with laid back attitude also tells you that people over there dont care for money but that doesn't mean people dont make enough money (in fact they enjoy money at the fullest), on the other side people from the city of speedy lifestyle always feel like they dont have enough money even though they make good money, this is partly due to the cost of living and the culture where everyone wants to make more money.

Also people from laid back city are not in-secured the way people are from busy places like NY, London, Bombay, Tokyo etc. People from laid back city dont worry about what will happen tomorrow, but people from city like NY and Bombay are constantly worrying about tomorrow, it drives them crazy if they are not planning their life/career in advance.

by the way - if you are going to work full-time (from here) then how are you going to survive? do you have enough savings? i think you must have plan-b ready just in case if things go wrong ...

you have asked many questions ... startup scene is not bad in india - the VC fundings are also available there ... apart from that you need to decide by yourself whether you can commit time and energy that can add value to your friend's dream. also if you are in US then you can also take advantage of all the startup programs and apply for it to see whether you can get launching pad. you may also explore about incorporating your company in USA to leverage benefits (if any). Also communication with your partners will be the key ... all 3 of you will be required to be on the same page as far as vision of your product/service is concerned. Lots of time will be invested in tele-conference, also make sure how you are going to get your partner equity, keep everything on paper and legal so that you dont face any problem in the future.

EDIT: it also depends what role you're going to play from here, will you be a main hacker? if yes, then you will be busy in communicating to your partners - if you are going to handle online sales, marketing and PR from here then it could be easy and fast due to broadband connection and other infrastructure.

All the Best !!!

the author is right when is says that "The argument that copyright holders are wrong or stupid for not coming up with some new business model and for trying to enforce the law is not just wrongheaded, but dangerous."

Time has arrived where original content creator (musician, writer etc.) has to decide how they want to publish the content and make money. Self-publishing is gaining momentum in the book arena, the same can happen in music, movie and tv - the only thing is someone has to make self-publishing eco-system simple and affordable.

The other platform that can be explored is creative commons. Licensing under creative commons and sharing content freely with the support of some kind of revenue generation (may be thru ads) is one of the best option.

lots of ideas - visit :

http://searchyc.com/credit+card

i think its a fantastic idea provided there are few committed and determined individuals ready to volunteer here to help each other - i always believed in the power of synergy ... "Synergy generates incredible Energy".

i know this site - you may have to manually print all the chapters or just learn online.. http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_intro.asp

can you explain what is meant by "doing all your business in NV" - do you need a physical office in NV? or do you need to sell your stuff to NV customer?? or do you need to live in NV?? or all of above???

i guess i read that "S" is meant as a sub-chapter and it is same for all corp no matter where they incorporate. it gives dual benefit of sole proprietorship and corporation.

what are you doing right now? i hope smart people like you are always busy doing something creative - if possible can u post your email please - i would like to contact you.

Despite often outpacing Google in the development of new features, Zoho is looking to form closer ties with the internet giant.

"We are going to offer documents automatically synced with Google so you have two copies - one in Zoho and one in Google.

Source: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/76592,zoho-targets-the-iphone-...

the only degree that should matter is the quality of programming/coding a person can do - a degree certificate, which is basically a paper can not guarantee the quality of a hacker and his/her skills. The society has become way too demanding - also supply and demand is off-balance. situation in india is different than in north-america ... in USA/Canada i have seen that you can still survive without a degree but in india you just cant survive, in fact every other person (applying for a job) is a master degree holder - competition over there is crazy - but there are few entrepreneur who think out of the box - for example people behind the Zoho.com hire poor students from the high-school in a village, they then train them and within few months these high-school students become one of the best developers ... this is a must read interview "The Smartest Unknown Indian Entrepreneur": http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/22/mitra-zoho-india-tech-inter...

also read http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=198437

i think the whole lock thing is weired - cell phone should be available as any other consumer items at walmart, circuit city etc. You just go to these stores, pickup the phone and hook it up with any service provider of your choice, same as what we do with our TV, Internet etc.

by the way how did u add pointer (up arrow) to count votes?

for new folks you should add definition besides each category. though i think all entrepreneurs are builders.