I am looking at starting up an internet business. I do not know where
to start. What I know so far is this is a personal research website
for hard to find goods.

People will come to the website; they will ask a question, the
question will be automatically logged for me to view only. I will then
be able to prepare the answer. Once I have done this another automatic
email will be sent to the client with a link back to the website -
through which he will be offered the information he requested for a
finder?s fee. Then if the client decided he wants the full answer he
will pay online using a credit card and the necessary information will
be emailed to him. Perhaps the idea needs to be improved upon, any
comments would be greatly welcomed.

Q. My question is how can I make this happen ? what do I need to do, I
am not very internet literate nor business minded and so need some big
help. I also need a business plan, contacts and anything else you feel
may help.

Looking forward to you answer!

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 24 Mar 2004 18:44 PST

pietch -

What is your budget, if I may ask?

jbf777

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Clarification of Question by pietch-ga on 25 Mar 2004 01:21 PST

I am felxible depending on a number of factors but say to start with about $2000.

Start a forum.. once the steam picks up.. make it a paid forum :)
(People need to trust that you would give relevant answers)

I don't see how you would have any competitive advantage over business
models like Google Answers.  You would be offering 1 person to answer
questions compared to hundreds, you would not have the brand name, and
you would not have the distribution. Things to think about before you
start investing in this.

I think, Its always good to do some experiment, if you can provide
something unique and useful for the users then It can always have
business for you. Google is a big name but it does not mean that
innovation and experiments should stop here, One can add some new and
innovative ideas in the service any time. It was just a comment, Now
how to do it,

It would require following steps, I believe

1) First of all you have to come up with a through and professional
requirement specification added with your ideas that how actually you
want it with some form of prototype. You can also assign this task to
someone.
2) After that the web site providing this service should be developed and deployed.
3) The main thing is that what you provide is unique in some sense and
you market it very well on the internet, The best website top market
on the internet could be Yahoo or other most visited website.

In my knowledge there is a group which works on ideas and they can
help you on this very well within your budget of US$ 2000/-- Go and
contact them at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techages/


Kind Regards,
Ehsan Baig