I Have An Idea, Comments Please! (small business, debt, analysis, finance)

[darrell2525]

Hello, I have an idea to create a blog about investing in the stock market to generate cash. On my blog I will select different companies to invest my cash (about $2k to $3k) via E*TRADE and write an analysis about why I chose to invest in this company. The blog will illustrate actual images (from E*TRADE) of me buying the stock. As time goes on, I will update the site with my gains or loss percentages.

My reason for the blog is because I have a passion for investing money for long term wealth. Many website just state "invest your money for the future" but I actually want to educate and share my knowledge of what I gain over the few years of learning to invest. The blog will even show if I loss money and I will discuss what I learned. The blog will challenge me, share knowledge, and teach myself about investing for everyone to see. Maybe after a few years and core group of followers, I can start advertisements and that can generate an income.

After being laid off for 4 months and recently finding work, I discovered that a second income is a must and the only way to make money is to invest or start a business. Hopefully, I tackle both efforts with this blog.

Does this sound feasible? Any advice for this idea? Is this a reasonable idea?

Thanks,
Darrell

[maf763]

It costs nothing to keep a blog, so no problem there. I wouldn't count on it as a source of income though. As far as making money in the market, it will depend on how good you are it, but that's true whether you track it on a blog or not.

[debtmonger]

I think it is an excellent idea. My only advice would be to make sure E*TRADE does not have problems with using actual images from their site. There may be copyright issues here. I would want something from them in writing giving you the okay. I'm not much of a single stock investor, but I'd check it out.

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by maf763

It costs nothing to keep a blog, so no problem there. I wouldn't count on it as a source of income though. As far as making money in the market, it will depend on how good you are it, but that's true whether you track it on a blog or not.

Thank you for comments. The blog will be a future source of income by advertisement. It depends on the numbers of visitors coming to blog daily or weekly.

The blog will have category for “Stock Investments” and will have articles on each company and I decide to invest in along with my reasoning for investing in the company. I will talk about calculating fundamentals and how to decide if a company is undervalued or not. I am no expert at all, but I will be learning as well and taking the risk with my actual money. The objective is showing newbie investors that a regular person can make investments with $1k or more for a profit and overall building long/short term wealth. I will also have a section under Finance and how to sell unused items in the house on craigslist.

I just think it would be a good idea to actually show real money being invested from a normal 40 hour working person who wants to generate money. My overall goal for the Blog is generate money from advertisement once I get a fan based. I have not figured out how to keep the Blog up-to-date will new articles, but I’m thinking.

Any other comments

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by debtmonger

I think it is an excellent idea. My only advice would be to make sure E*TRADE does not have problems with using actual images from their site. There may be copyright issues here. I would want something from them in writing giving you the okay. I'm not much of a single stock investor, but I'd check it out.

Thank you for the comment. What type investor are you? I will also make some trades if I see the risk is low.

Thanks

[debtmonger]

I prefer mutual funds over single stocks, because of the diversification and lower risk.

[samston]

It's an intriguing idea, but I have these questions:

- Have you analysed the market for this service? There is a demand, yes, but who will buy it? Is there a picture of the ideal customer who would purchase this? Would it be profitable to do so?
- How will you advertise? In general, how will people know the service exists?
- Your competition. What is the competition, and how will you compete with them?

[darrell2525]

Originally Posted by samston

It's an intriguing idea, but I have these questions:

- Have you analysed the market for this service? There is a demand, yes, but who will buy it? Is there a picture of the ideal customer who would purchase this? Would it be profitable to do so?
- How will you advertise? In general, how will people know the service exists?
- Your competition. What is the competition, and how will you compete with them?

Those are excellent questions. The competition is all over. I dont think I can compete. I need to rethink this or think of another business idea because their is many blogs out there offering the same thing I am talking about.

Thanks

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by darrell2525

Those are excellent questions. The competition is all over. I dont think I can compete.

Ah Ha... Low barrier to entry in this type of business = too much competition. Porter's Five Forces

(Besides, you can easily run up against SEC regs when you start 'recommending' investments).
Congratulations on figuring this out before you spent your life savings on this particular idea.

Do yourself a favor and got to some FREE SCORE counseling or courses for entrepreneurs. SCORE | Small business mentoring and training | SCORE. They are launching a new 5 part series of courses to lead you to a 'go-no-go' decision point for ideas / business ventures.

There are many evaluation tools for refining / defining an idea.

I like to do a 'feasibility' study (can this thing even fly?), then a 'viability' (a long term financial growth and success model). BEFORE getting to deep into the nuts and bolts.

You can get MUCH help from Library / Reference America. BUT, Know your customer and KNOW your competition. Get RMA data on profitability ratios to substantiate your projections.

I would definately do a personal skills inventory, as well as define interesting potential business sectors you can be successful at.
Other Good sources here;

Start-up - Inc.com
Businessballs free online learning for careers, work, management, business training and education: find materials, articles, ideas, people and providers for teaching, career training, self-help, ethical business education and leadership; for personal

[killer2021]

yea good idea. I have several blogs that generate 2-3$/day from people visiting and clicking my adsense ads. Doesn't sound like much but over the course of a year its around 10-15k. I get a check in the mail every month from google for doing pretty much nothing, pretty nice. The funny part is that I haven't updated these blogs for **years** and they are still making money. Talk about passive income. Most of these blogs I started up in my spare time. However, its important to note that when I first started blogging I didn't make ANY money. It'll be the same for you. It takes time to seo your blogs, write articles and promote your blogs. Most of which won't generate immediate income. The real trick to staying motivated is to think of it as INVESTING your time.

However, its still a good idea since I assume you are wasting alot of time doing nothing much.

Use blogger.com to host the blog (its free!)

and buy a 10$ domain for the blog. Get a decent template and make it look professional.

After like a month apply for a google adsense account and put some ads on there.

I prefer mutual funds over single stocks, because of the diversification and lower risk.

I prefer individual stocks because I don't have to pay a greedy mutual fund manager 1% of my assets every year. Plus research shows that most mutual funds don't beat index funds. Search it on google if you don't believe me.

I think it is an excellent idea. My only advice would be to make sure E*TRADE does not have problems with using actual images from their site. There may be copyright issues here. I would want something from them in writing giving you the okay. I'm not much of a single stock investor, but I'd check it out.

No need to worry about it. If e-trade has a problem with something you are hosting on your site they'll send you a copyright takedown notice. If you get that notice then you simply take down the copyrighted material and there will be no problems. Most major companies won't bother going after the small guy. Unless of course its the RIAA lol.