Profit/non-profit website idea?

[musicismypill]

Hi everyone

I have recently thought up an idea for a website which I believe could be very popular and provide a lot of help to people.

It would be reasonably small in comparison to say stevepavlina.com but I would like to provide some of the following: articles & advice pages, links to other sites, at least one regular blog of my own but maybe additional blogs, if the site is popular a forum also.

I have two options:

#1. It would be terrific if I could use this site for my own passive income, but how would I generate enough revenue to cover the domain, hosting etc. ?
I don't believe that I could charge a subscription to the site but I would certainly include a donation system of some sort.

#2. Because it would be of benefit to the community and college (university) students in my area I guess that I could ask for sponsorship of some sort to cover the running costs.
Has anyone here set up a charitable or non-profit site before?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
I will continue to research this topic further.

Thanks.

[Caveman Joe]

Project Wonderful works pretty well for me. It'll cover your hosting bills without problems.

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[Restrikted]

The site doesn't necessarily have to be popular to have a forum. They're actually very easy to make, and allow people to discuss the articles. Also, even though I've never created an income-generating site before, I would advise against having a paid subscription. For some reason, they just remind me of AOL, and their gated community. I think you should just set up your site with a donation page, and maybe no ads at first, since they will probably generate almost nothing at first. Get your site going, and just bite the bullet for a while, your site is not going to make money from the getgo. I think the sponsorship is a very good idea, but let the potential sponsors know what they are getting into. Let them know that your site won't be getting a million hits a day from the beginning, it'll take a while to get going.

My random $.02

[musicismypill]

Thanks for the insights.

I think I will concentrate on producing a lot of great content and a very easy to use offline site first.

Like you say, I should

just bite the bullet for a while

.

If my site generates a steady and increasing number of traffic, then i can go about monetizing on the site.

Project Wonderful looks like a great way of doing things. Will definately look into that.

[OnionJack]

Hola Musicismypill,

#1

Caveman Joe may have been onto something with the Project Wonderful. I've never used it myself, so can't comment.

In a topic I responded to earlier I mentioned experience from the endeavour. Your non-profit site may not generate much, and may even end up costing you a little. But consider 400 bucks for a year. And that's at the higher end in my opinion.

I believe Restrikted summed it up perfectly. A minor point I would make is, don't make a lot of forums. In the beginning funnel everything to 1 general forum. You want to generate responses.

#2

Look into sponsership with companies. If you're in a college town, a lot of companies want more exposure. Offer them something reasonable and they'll line up at the chance.

Depending on the college, people want a cause to believe in, just help direct it. Your there
Either way, you lose a little bit, and gain experience in a field you obviously enjoy. Or it takes off....

#Rewrite

Sorry musicismypill,

I just reread entire thread. I was replying as if you're a non-profit. You simply said you have something to offer university students.

First, it will not be passive income. If you want the website to generate anything more than a few cents it needs active content. Or just pick out the next "hot" words and secure the domain names.

To rework what I wrote above.

Work on local sponsorship. The costs are actually very minimal for things such as hosting. Decide on what you can afford as a one-time cost on the site, and on-going costs. But the exposure you can provide potential companies is ENORMOUS.

University is something highly coveted by marketing companies. Perfect age group, money and not much thought.

[SeriousKidding.com]

I really like where this thread is coming from, but why reinvent the wheel? I may be way out of line with a comment like that, but you can accomplish the very same thing for free. The system and the site are already set up with just this very thing in mind.