Many hopeful rock bands spend tens of thousands on instruments and amps and lighting, then can’t get a gig. Recently on www.websitebroker.com a site was offered for sale:

“...This website cost a little over $20,000 to develop. It is a complete Flash 8 video streaming website with a content management system and registration system … Price: $8,000”

This is even worse ROI – real money gone.

And then there are the dreamers. Successful entrepreneurship requires good business sense and gritty pragmatism. How about this ad on www.buysellwebsite.com:

“...currently developing a video game trading site which will allow users to trade video games with each other...Are there sites like this already? Yes, I have seen a couple and they all make money and you can too if you market it properly... Price: $60,000”

This for an unfinished site entering a market with established competitors.

Most sites for sale go for a few hundred or at most a few thousand dollars, so don’t go spending tens of thousands on developers and designers. Launch the site as rough and ugly as you can and just test the waters to see if anyone actually cares -– the equivalent of banging out a few numbers at the local pub on a Saturday night to see whether the crowd produces cheers or bottles. AdWords is a superb medium for testing ideas and marketing for a very low cost – you only pay if they click so lousy ideas cost you nothing!

If the crowd loves it and you take off, then you can use the revenue to pay for the fancy stuff in a self-fueling process that will grow readership. Dump the sleazy manager you started with and find some classy gigs to play at. That is, move on from Adsense and DirtCheapHosting.com to targeted advertising services and robust hosting platforms.