Muse idea - your views

[stevereed1968]

Hi

This is my first post, having read the book at least 5 times and played with a muse idea, done some testing, only 2 sales and these are for low value items for download. Put it on the back-burner for a while.

My love (although I've only been at it for a year or so) is a sport. Massive market, but I've drilled it down to a smaller niche which I particularly enjoy.

My idea is to put together a blog/web page providing info etc on the sport and hopefully an e book with info on getting started, special requirements etc, training program and tips.

However, People participate in this all over the world and I'd like to create a database or down-loadable files so people traveling overseas can find the best places to carry out this activity. One idea would be to create POI's for in car GPS systems so people could drive to the start point. But also mapping on Google Earth etc might me an idea.

Possibly setting up a forum etc and a paid access for people to find the maps /files etc.

The site would help those holidaying to find the most amazing places to carry out their passion (for the sport that is)

I also thought that I could create an area for local 'guides' to be able to sign up (for a fee) to show customers the best places and to take them out to participate in a safe ,guided environment.

Is this too huge a project? I could start small with down-loadable items covering say, the top 50 locations in a number of countries, but the world is such a huge place, where to start ???

Any ideas, suggestions as to the viability of this??

Cheers

Steve

[Loxy]

Hi Steve,

Just came across this earlier muse idea of yours. Sounds pretty promising actually...

My only experience in muse-building is an information website that my wife and I built (homemade-gifts-made-easy[dot]com), and I can safely say that building a site about something you enjoy is
(a) A lot of fun
(b) Rewarding, regardless of whether it makes money
(c) Potentially quite profitable. Right now we're making just over US$100/week through adsense, and our site is only 6 months old.

I'd say go with a website rather than a blog. A blog needs to be updated every week to stay current. A website can be built once, and stay a useful resource forever (well, at least for years). It's like the difference between a stack of magazines (blog) and an encyclopaedia (website). Website is lower maintenance in the long run and maintains its value.

Don't get too fixated on a particular way of making money through the site. Once you've built it, and have loads of traffic, making money is the easy bit. There are loads of ways, e.g.
-adsense
-affiliates
-dropshipping
-creating your own product of service
etc etc.

Hope I'm not distracting you too much from your other muse :-)

Tobias