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The Challenge-500 Dollars, One Week: Launching a Profitable Web 2.0 Startup

blog.theweblogwire.com — Two CEOs take the challenge of creating a successful startup in 500 dollars and one week. Follow their blog, and see how the Web 2.0 age is making it that easy for creating a startup, that can be brought to profits. Their startup is TheWeblogwire, an online news wire that connects companies and their press releases solely to bloggers.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 26, 2006

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37 Comments

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  • weaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Likewise, does anybody else who DIDN'T register today want to comment?
  • cloudbrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Creating a profitable Web 2.0 company in ten minutes:
    1) Create free pages.google.com website
    2) Fill with article describing your Web.2.0 rags to riches story
    3) Add Google AdSense ads to page
    4) Post on Digg
    5) Profit!

    And for the advanced users:
    6) Get interviewed by blogs / podcasts / cnet / wired / nytimes describing brilliant idea
    7) Write book describing brilliant idea. Sell on Amazon.com. Profit!
    8) Sell website on Ebay to sucker that thinks the fame and fortune will last...
  • Mabu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15When someone mentions "web 2.0" you know it's going to be *****.

    http://BSAlert.com/
  • DoctorEvil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14How is this even a true challenge when they immediately hype and get press for their "$500" startup. Sounds more like they're trying to cash in on the Web 2.0 hype and free press.
  • Mabu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13It's nowhere near pure. It's old, regurgitated hype.
  • Mabu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"uGather, I wanted to build a system that would be a newswire for bloggers and online media outlets"

    - That's innovative? C'mon guys.... there are a zillion aggregate news dissemination sites, RSS feeds and all that.

    Hey, I have an idea for your next venture.. hold onto your hat.. nobody's ever done this before...

    An INTERNET RADIO STATION! Yes!

  • deusex4life, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12It seems like these goons registered a bunch of fake digg accounts to promote the story and left fake comments congratulating themselves.
  • Mabu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Let me guess.. your next venture is an automated Digg sycophant astroturfing system?
  • abstractia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11This is total spam. They only plan on having a prototype up an running in one week - more than enough time to build such a simple app. Also, there's already a way for lame startups to get their press releases to the blogosphere - it's called TechCrunch.

    Also, the bios of the "CEO"'s seem a bit self-congratulatory. Since when is "Infinimedia", (with an Alexa rating of 5,429,320) "the world’s premiere Web Design firm"? And has anyone heard of "Ugather.com"? Probably not, because it's Alexa rank is in 780,942. Hell, my personal blog has a higher rank than both of these so called "CEO"'s past ventures.
  • weaz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Looks like pure hype.
  • spectre, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8$500, my ass.

    I'm assuming nobody working on the project is getting paid? What they've laid out has got to be about 80-100+ man hours, and unless they've found programmers and designers wiling to accept less than minimum wage ($5.15/hr), they are leaving out the major captial cost of this venture.
  • Jack9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'm sure they are billing their time hyping against the 500$ right? Didn't think so. BS story and BS contest looking for a quick business loan to default on!
  • DoctorEvil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@smokeyghetto,

    Marketing a non-existant product is a piss poor marketing strategy. I already know plenty of lame web sites and services on the web, hearing about one that isn't even launched yet will be forgotten rather quickly.

    Here's a tip for a $500 launch in a week. Actually deliver a new or improved upon idea/service that's online and working.
  • Guder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No this is more like spend more then $500 and think of a great scam for publicity. Reported lame. :
  • dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Are you kidding me? Just by virtue of them getting this sort of press coverage, half the battle is already won. Now all they need is something to keep people coming back.
  • nuclearpenguins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You sir speak the truth.
  • tkdan235, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is not amazing. This is similar to what happened to singlestat.us.
  • ThrasherC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"Several years" -- wtf? Your web site sucks...stop spamming in comments on Digg, and if you do, at least throw together a half-way decent site.
  • csperler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2$500 + cost of pc equipment and software...
  • trialofmiles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@BrewedInTexas
    While it's true Alexa shouldn't be used as the end-all-be-all of traffic estimates, the rankings for the sites abstractia mentioned do give a basic indication that they are not high-volume sites, and thus one indication that the past ventures of these guys may not be too successful.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I built a site in 10 hours this weekend, and put it on my server for free... not worried about profit with it because the idea is so small.

    Yes, I'm spamming. www.SkinnyR.com
  • uncleLeo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2mark as spam
  • jonashwing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1buried as spam.
  • BrewedInTexas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Stop using alexa to rank pages. It's like Nielsen raitngs if they only allowed mentally disable families to participate.
  • dharmesh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1330 diggs for this? I'm losing faith in the wisdom of crowds...
  • gweedo767, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Step 1) Register domain name
    Step 2) Add random SOMETHING.us JavaScript package
    Step 3) Get on Digg.com
    Step 4) PROFIT!
  • smokeyghetto, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5@ DoctorEvil "Sounds more like they're trying to cash in on the Web 2.0 hype and free press."

    Um, thats called marketing. When you only have 500 bucks in the kitty, I think that pretty good marketing.

    It worked too. You know about the company.
  • saleens281, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2I think you mean to say "BRILLIANT!"
  • WebDesigns4, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1a week and $500? sounds like a good idea, i'd like to see it happen (so i can take the idea and run with it). maybe people are missing the point: sounds like it's more about the $500 challenge and less about the "big budgets and greatness of my product"
  • disrupter, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3- 1
  • Infiniquick, on 10/12/2007, -15/+0Wow! Goes to show you what the Internet can really do for a company. Good Luck!
  • mbtiger04, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1Very interesting story. Anxious to see how it is recieved. There is definitly a need for a site like that.
  • clinko, on 10/12/2007, -18/+3I like my plan. Several thousand in dollars over several years, my site http://www.clinko.com/ is finally making a slow profit. I don't go hypetastic with it, but i'll settle for a semi spam comment in digg by me.

    :)
  • CarlosGarcia, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1Congrats to Jason and Brian on a brilliant and much needed concept.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -17/+1thanks CNelson7 :-) the support is appreciated.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -18/+0amazing. good luck!
  • cnelson7, on 10/12/2007, -27/+1amazing, absolutely amazing

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