nudge

I'm a European and I use a credit card. And I'm pretty sure it's a billion dollar industry in my country alone.

[edit] Sorry, to be clear: they are related, but not as closely as you might expect. No signups does not mean no business, just like many signups does not mean lots of business.

While there's nothing hugely wrong with your sites, there's also nothing hugely right with them. I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just trying to be helpful. So mugshot wars is like a fun hotornot clone, and leftright as far as I can tell is a hotornot clone, and brainerd custody is great if you want to see pictures of convicts, and memify is probably fun if you're into internet memes and don't use one of the other internet meme generators and you can be bothered to figure out exactly what it does (which the screenshot doesn't make clear) and how to login (which doesn't work for me, mac+chrome, for some reason).

Again, I don't want you to think I'm trying to crush your spirit or anything. It's clear you know some stuff about making fun sites. But these kinds of things are flaky - either people love them and they explode, or they don't and they fade away. But they're all learning exercises.

It used to be that you could put up a stupid animated gif of a singing animal and it would be the biggest thing on the internet. But there's plenty of other stuff to do online now. It's not so easy to make a viral hit.

So I would say that there's no reason that your sites aren't taking off outside of the reason that there's no reason why they should.

But look at it this way: it's damn hard to monetize junky viral traffic, so be glad you're not just saddling yourself with enormous bandwidth bills! Consider all this a learning experience - you're better at making sites than you were when you started, so when you have an idea that provides value for people, you'll be able to implement it well.

The pricing is bizarre though. I'm guessing the short periods of time are for short trips away or vacations? Lose them, or at least tuck them away as a minor option somewhere. Up front you just want the 30 day option, with a free trial.

Consider offering this to apartment building owners, landlords and insurance companies.

What's the best car? What's the best country? Who's the best singer? What's the best beer? Which is the best musical instrument? Who's the best ever artist? Who's the best ever scientist?

As a step towards a more answerable version of your question, how about this: What are some orderings by which we can evaluate programmers? Who comes at the top of those? Who comes at or near the top of several?

http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/testing/

41.5 is an extraordinarily high price-to-sales ratio. Facebook is not an ordinary company, to be sure, but is there even a historical precedent for this? Has there ever been a company which has traded at anything close to this ratio, without resulting in a burst bubble?

This is all totally separate from how well your own service works, but it's just as important, because if you don't get your own front page right it doesn't matter how well your service works.

Oh, and I have a bunch of parked domains, so it's a worthwhile idea.

But start with a python tutorial. I don't know which is the best, but other people should be able to help you.

I would suggest this order of learning though:

1. Python 2. Django 3. App Engine

Each introduces its own elements, so you're better proceeding step by step. Obviously you don't have to master python to get going with django, but you want to be comfortable.

"Sure, they're not at all reflective of 'real programming' nor are they necessarily particularly challenging, programming wise."

Nobody claimed Project Euler is the way to become a great programmer. I would roll my eyes at your mistake, but I don't roll my eyes at people's mistakes. I try to help them correct them.

and

http://schemabank.com/

Perhaps there would be IP problems though...

I take it 'lock' is to avoid conflicts? Good idea, but do I have to activate it manually every time I think someone else might open the doc at the same time as me? Perhaps it should lock automatically if I am editing it.

Otherwise, very nice.

edit: I just noticed on your haloweb site that you made invoice bubble as well - I bookmarked that a while back when I was collecting good-looking sites. You do good design!

edit 2: Invoice bubble appears to have been redesigned since I last checked. Still looks pretty good though (I preferred the minimalism of the old one, but I expect this one is more functional)

But before you do, read up on the sole proprietor model:

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/start/chooseastructu...

It would appear to be the same as what we in the UK call sole traders - the most important point is that there is no real legal distinction between the owner and the business itself. Not in terms of assets/debts, anyway. This is the kind of business that loses the owner's house if it all goes to hell.

I don't know how this affects relationships with employees - even if there is such a thing under this model - and I really don't know how it affects the notion of equity. In particular, 'a percentage share' of what?

You want to talk to a lawyer about whether what your partner is proposing even makes legal sense, as well as whether it is advisable.

My hunch would be that it is not a fantastic idea. Go see a lawyer (or even a business adviser - your city may have some that don't cost anything).