Looking for real investors

[williams89]

Hi. I have an great idea of a membership website that i want to launch. Not only will this website bring in alot of income i will also be helping people as well. The website is about relationships. There are millions of people out there that are having relationship problems and will do anything to improve them. So thats when the idea of making a relationship website popped up. I will have the best advice, i will do interviews with real people about there relationship and how they manage to stay happy and post the video on the website, i will have ebooks to help people with the relationship, i will have a forum for people to get adive from other members, & alot more i just dont want to give it all away right now. I will charge members about $10-15 a month but no more than $15. I already have a local team of developers that said the project is great and they cant wait to work on it. They said that the whole project will cost between $10,000-17,000. When they give me a total price i will let you know. I figured if i charge just $10 for the membership price and get atleast 2,000 members thats $20,000. So im 100% sure that the money invested into the site will be paid back within a small time period. Now im looking for real investors that will be willing to invest in this project. Please only pm me if you are an investor and want more info on this project. I will have the total amount needed for the project soon. thanks.

[Iamnotsatisfied]

1. Your idea has been done many times over
2. So how are you going to compete with your competition who are already established?
3. Most people won't pay to use a website like that when they can get something similar on other websites for free... Getting 10 people to pay $10 is a miracle... Forget 2,000
4. $17,000 to build a website like that? You've just proven to us that you don't know what day it is
5. Think your business model over again... If it was ad based then you might have chance aslong as it's free for the users.

But $10 a month.... No way on earth you would get people paying a monthly subscription for that service.

[EC44]

Unfortunately, on the internet the saying "build it and they will come" is NOT true. What experience do you have in marketing websites, let alone giving relationship advice? I really hate to break it to you, but to be honest, and only to be fair, I can tell you right now that the developers are saying it`s a great idea to get your money.

With that being said, if you're passionate about it then go for it. I would suggest testing with a blog first, if you can get traffic to your blog then build a community from that traffic.

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Obviously if the developers are quoting $15,000~ for it then it's a "great idea"

A lot of developers could set up a website like that for a fraction of that quote.

[chuff1026]

if you need less than 20K
forget investors
take a loan
personal or business...
investors money is to expensive and hard to get

[williams89]

you know the funny thing about this? i knew that i will have a bunch of HATERS taking nonsense. There are plenty of website that are alike but still succeed. YAHOO is successful and MSN thats just like yahoo is also successful. Mcdonalds, burger king, wendys, are all successful but are they alke? YES. please know what your talking about before you reply to my post. oh and what i named on my post was just some of the things i want done to my site i know you can read when i said " theres alot more things i want on the site but i wont give it away yet". the reason the price is like that is because of the things i want done to the website. I also said its between $10,000-17,000 which i dont think is high priced for the kind of website i want done. But people like you all motivate me because when someone tell me i cant it just make me want to do more. thanks for wasteing your time tho. Oh and i tried to check out you alls website but they dont seem to work. I THINK ITS TIME YOU DO SOME UPGRADEIN.

[Ergo1]

you know the funny thing about this? i knew that i will have a bunch of HATERS taking nonsense. There are plenty of website that are alike but still succeed. YAHOO is successful and MSN thats just like yahoo is also successful. Mcdonalds, burger king, wendys, are all successful but are they alke? YES. please know what your talking about before you reply to my post. oh and what i named on my post was just some of the things i want done to my site i know you can read when i said " theres alot more things i want on the site but i wont give it away yet". the reason the price is like that is because of the things i want done to the website. I also said its between $10,000-17,000 which i dont think is high priced for the kind of website i want done. But people like you all motivate me because when someone tell me i cant it just make me want to do more. thanks for wasteing your time tho. Oh and i tried to check out you alls website but they dont seem to work. I THINK ITS TIME YOU DO SOME UPGRADEIN.

Here is my advice on the matter: Take the emotion out of it and come up with a fool proof plan that you can show to an investor so that they can see the potential. Put some thought into it. Yes, McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger King are all after the same market, but you better bet they all have a distinctive selling point and can differentiate each other in a heart beat.

[williams89]

thanks alot i appreciate your comment. yes there is alot of website out there like mind but do they offer the same things im offering. im putting alot of thought into this and im going to be offering things no other website is. Im trying to make my site alot different from other websites but no body knows what im trying to do maybe thats why im getting replies from people who dont know what there talking about. theres alot of websites just like this one right here i can name about 3 of the head. But they are all successful. i just think people need to think before the reply to someone post. especially when theres websites SUCK. thanks for your help tho.

[Proph]

I like your enthusiasm, that tells me you have passion for your project which is a big piece of the puzzle in my opinion. One piece of advice I wanted to give you was about the pay subscription model. Some (not all but some) of the people you might attract are likely to married or in a serious relationship where a bank account/credit cards are on a shared account. If the other person in the relationship notices a charge to a website (they will if it is a reoccurring charge) and question the other which could make for some akward moments.

I will use myself as an example. Finances are something i take care of, if i were to see a charge for $10 by my wife i probably wouldn't think twice about it. Now if i see that same charge the next month I will absolutly question her about it or find out where the charge is going. In either case it leads me back to your website about relationships. Next of coarse comes the invetible fight were i would ask her WTF she is doing spending money on a relationship site, she says she is unhappy about certain things and wala, you have a night long fight which ends with her mad and me forcing her to cancel her subscription.

If you have decided the subscription model is the road you are going to go down you might consider lumping months together. for example signing up for 6 months costs $50 (save $10!). Using myself as an example again i would probably look right over a one time $50 charge and forget about it completely when i see it again in 6 months. There will also be a subset of your users that use the site for a month or so get what advice they are looking for and then leave. on a month to month basis you only made $10-$20 from them for using the site for a few weeks, but if you get $50 up front from them you get paid if they use the site for 6 weeks or the entire 6 months. Still have the month to month option but make it less desirable than the lumped month package. So say $10/mo or $50/6mo will get a large part of the user base on the $50 plan. It would mean you would have to manage your cash flow alot better since you wouldn't have payments coming in per month as much.

[EC44]

You are indeed putting a lot of thought into it, but thought != action. Not only this, you have no previous actions to base your thoughts on. Seriously, you really need to reconsider this before you drop $17k on it. I mean no harm, this is some FRIENDLY advice, I never like to see people ripped off.

This is how I suggest you proceed.
1. Start a blog.
2. Attract readers, offer up free advice to people who post questions. A "dear abby" type thing.
3. Once you have a nice following, subscribers and enough people you can actually convert into subscribers - I suggest you take the next step.
4. Invest in your aforementioned subscription based model, but not until you have the following;
A. Credibility in you area of expertise, or some sort of recognition on the internet.
B. A following of no less than 2k subscribers who REGULARLY interact with your site.

I have experience, and I DO hope that you take my suggestions.

[nonrate]

Obviously if the developers are quoting $15,000~ for it then it's a "great idea"

A lot of developers could set up a website like that for a fraction of that quote.

That's not exactly true. Yes, a lot of developers could set up a "website" for a fraction of that quote. But, you can't say they could develop this website like the one mentioned for a fraction of that cost without knowing the complete list requirements.

$15k is not a lot of cash for a custom built effort. This is what many newbies and cheap-skates believe, that custom developed web efforts should be a few hundred dollars. It would be like expecting to go to Toyota with an idea for a completely custom built vehicle and only paying a thousand bucks. They'd laugh you out of their factory.

I've had tons of customers come to me after they've been screwed because they were reeled in by a wanna-be web developer that told them they could custom build them a website for a few hundred dollars, usually a few thousand. The sites never get finished, sometimes never even started, they never work right, and they are told near the start they have to make concessions to the spec because there's no way to do what they want to do.

The reality is, there's no way to do what they want to do for the price they were foolish enough to agree to pay. Then, they tell me they lost their down payments because the developers end up disappearing and they end up spending even more to finish their project.

Sites like myspace, facebook, this forum right now... they weren't created in a week. It took years for the software to fully develop and mature. That means time and time is money. You think writing software for the "simple" google.com was a fraction of $15k? They must have been ripped off if it cost them more than a thousand bucks, becuase it's just a logo with an input field and it just searches a database...

If people actually valued the time and effort required to deliver highly customized web efforts they wouldn't lose so much. I still can't figure out why so many people try to believe a developer will spend 100 hours on a project for $500... it absolutely baffles me. Maybe it's because so many people have been led to believe creating a web application is a few mouse clicks like windows.

[williams89]

hi. everyone. i want to thank you all for your comments. the developers said that the cost of the project will be $8,000. Im taking alll your suggestions in consideration. i think im going to drop the membership price to $5 or FREE. that way i will attract alot more visitors. This is not a dating site its a site that will help struggling couples, connect singles, & more. It will be a forum site, mixed with a little dating site. Im still thinkin of other things to put on the site to make it perfect. are there anyone else that have any more suggestions for me? you all are a big help. thanks.

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Yh your absolutly right in saying that. I was wrong to say that without having seen the full web specs list than rather basing it on the info provided.

And @ William

Great that you are taking up some of our advise

If the service is free then I reckon it may have the potential that you said it does.

Good luck with finding an investor

That's not exactly true. Yes, a lot of developers could set up a "website" for a fraction of that quote. But, you can't say they could develop this website like the one mentioned for a fraction of that cost without knowing the complete list requirements.

$15k is not a lot of cash for a custom built effort. This is what many newbies and cheap-skates believe, that custom developed web efforts should be a few hundred dollars. It would be like expecting to go to Toyota with an idea for a completely custom built vehicle and only paying a thousand bucks. They'd laugh you out of their factory.

I've had tons of customers come to me after they've been screwed because they were reeled in by a wanna-be web developer that told them they could custom build them a website for a few hundred dollars, usually a few thousand. The sites never get finished, sometimes never even started, they never work right, and they are told near the start they have to make concessions to the spec because there's no way to do what they want to do.

The reality is, there's no way to do what they want to do for the price they were foolish enough to agree to pay. Then, they tell me they lost their down payments because the developers end up disappearing and they end up spending even more to finish their project.

Sites like myspace, facebook, this forum right now... they weren't created in a week. It took years for the software to fully develop and mature. That means time and time is money. You think writing software for the "simple" google.com was a fraction of $15k? They must have been ripped off if it cost them more than a thousand bucks, becuase it's just a logo with an input field and it just searches a database...

If people actually valued the time and effort required to deliver highly customized web efforts they wouldn't lose so much. I still can't figure out why so many people try to believe a developer will spend 100 hours on a project for $500... it absolutely baffles me. Maybe it's because so many people have been led to believe creating a web application is a few mouse clicks like windows.

[williams89]

i want to thank all of you who have helped me with your suggestions. sorry if i got a little upset in the beginig.lol. but i think i could make it free and just earn money from selling ad space and the sales page that i want to put in. Do anyone have anymore suggestions of another income stream to add onto the site? i dont think i want any google ads.

[nonrate]

i think im going to drop the membership price to $5 or FREE. that way i will attract alot more visitors.

Well, here's a very successful model for memberships. Give the membership away for free. BUT, limit the features of that membership. Charge for the more advanced features. So, if you can find something of great value to give away in your membership, make most of the functions free, but the final value of the usage of your site, charge for that.

So if you're connecting people, get them to sign up and perhaps give them use of searching and contacting others in a limited way, or a few times only, while controlling certain things like email address's, phone numbers, or web links being posted.

Or, if you don't want to restrict communication, perhaps charge for some other tool that is pretty much required to make the final connection or is the utility both people would use after the connect.

So, essentially, build a model where you can "charge up" for additional services and give something away that has great value, but needs to be coupled with the pay-for part of the web site to get full value.