It looks rather obvious at this moment that I am not going to meet my
self-imposed deadline of today at midnight as the moment I will have the
mini-demo of some of my ideas online on the Web. To anyone who might
be watching this page: please don't unsubscribe just yet! I'm
still working on it!
Last previous update: 30 September, 2002.
The Web page you are looking at (http://tomelam.tripod.com)
is a place-holder for Thomas
Elam's future webpage (now isn't that lame?) and a means for him to publish
his email address (tomelam@yahoo.com)
in such a way that he might not get overwhelmed by spam. In the meantime,
I present the rudimentary ideas below.
A Few Ideas for Making Money by Using My Own Expertise
What My Expertise Is
Broadly: math, science, engineering, computer science, and computer
programming.
Probably no one is an expert in those fields per se
(except in subcategories of them) but most of my narrow expertise must be
found in those areas.
My other interests and knowledge might be applied to making money:
an addiction to the Internet, some knowledge of both the USA and India,
some knowledge about the philosophies of ancient India, some knowledge about
music.
Why I Am Thinking in Terms of My Expertise (and Interests)
Any significant learning I would have to do (taking about a year or
more to learn) perhaps might best be in areas built on top of my present
skills. If I were to extend my present expertise, I could increase the
likelihood of my having a unique combination of skills, interests, and competitive
advantages.
However, if I could really learn a second, small, subject well in
a year or so, there is still a possibility that the combination of that expertise
along with my other expertise would form a unique combination.
Some Places To Look for Money
Anything that could get some rave reviews on Slashdot.org, CNET, Forbes.com,
etc.: probably anything that would greatly simplify the use or administration
of Windows, Linux, Web browsers, or the Internet.
Anything to help people find what they're looking for on the Internet.
The biggest problem with google.com et al is that they search for
words, not semantic concepts. Hence, if a large collection of key phrases
define a topic, or possibly no single collection of key phrases define it,
it is often impossible to narrow down a search. Serious, deep research
on the Internet is slow as a result. It wouldn't have to be if the
Internet search engines had some rudimentary natural language parsing.
I have some ideas on how to create such an engine without buying even a single
computer.
Anything to help people do what they love doing: blogging,
irc'ing, building websites, etc.
Specialised portals work: they are popular.
Some Ideas To Hook People & Squeeze Money out of Them ;-)
Give 'em something free & cool to start with.
Give 'em something to play with to help you get started, like a forum
or some free s/w -- or both.
Give 'em a website they need to keep coming back to for its great
services (not just manually compiled content). Examples: Yahoo.com,
Google.com, Slashdot.org, Amazon.com, Orbitz.com, .... The list is
endless.
The End of Free is a
website devoted to ways of making money with websites. It presents
news about websites that have converted free subscriptions to paid subscriptions.
It also discusses other schemes for making money from websites, such as
"micropayments" (which are still not possible, according to the www.theendoffree.com).
Charge a fee (as close as possible to the size of a micropayment)
for use of my website. A micropayment is a fee so small in its increments
that many users would not worry about it, just as they don't run to check
their electric meter when they turn on a light switch. With online
security scares coming into the news almost daily, this won't work as well
as it should, but it will get better over time, so I can start advance planning.
If I sell free software, it can be significant software that would
give a strong, competitive advantage to a company. This will discourage
them from sharing it with others and allow the possibility I could get more
paying customers.
If I sell free software, I should look at the possibilities for customisation.
