Fundamentally you should do what you are good at.

The web is just a medium which makes it easy to set up a new business and reach people - but its also easy for everyone else too, so you need to do something that you know well, and can do that others cant.

Take the hosters, if you know it inside out then you can compete, but if you dont know much about it then you will be an "also ran" as you have identified.

What do you like doing? What do you know lots about?

I hope that helps.
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James Smith
Chartered Accountant
www.jamesesmith.co.uk

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Your indispensable guide to Small Business Bookkeeping, Self-Assessment & VAT

I'm a big fan of writing and blogging (admittedly not very good!) but it's something I really enjoy, however that's not something I could start a business with.

It's a tricky one really..

Follow your passion - what kinds of products or services do you enjoy? What do you think young people like us will want to buy in the future?

Similar to James, if you provide more information, we can give you suggestions. What I would say is don't put discouraged by the fact you're not overly technical, you can learn the basics or even outsource work relatively cheaply.
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Lion.co.uk

I love forums! I was considering starting a forum posting website, where you can purchase 50 posts for £5, for example. Or something similar to that?

Web design has always been something I'd love to do, but getting the programs such as Photoshop and so on is pretty expensive. If I had the patience to teach myself I would love to though!

Are they many forums where people actually pay to post?

Well there are a lot of evening, weekend, part time, short courses that you could do to learn the basis over web design if you want to take that route. Suggest you check out Hotcourses. If you really want to get into web design I'm sure you will find a way to learn the skills you require.
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(Accounting Help)
www.accounting-help.co.uk

I would suggest that you will very much struggle to make money from anything like a forum or blogging. Only a very small amount of bloggers/forums make any decent money from their efforts.

I'd focus on real world business ideas ... that can be run online. For instance, I'm a graphic designer, which is a real world business, but I run it completely online.

Providing information or interraction on the Internet through blogging/forums and such like is extremely unlikely to produce a good income.
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Regards

Amanda


Truly Ace Graphic Design Blog


Logo Design I Web Design I Print Design

- Kompozer
- Gimp
- WinSCP

Make a site about a) Something you know inside and out and b) Which there is a way of making money out of. The Google adwords tool can give a clue.

You don't know enough about the 'net itself if you think you can make money out of forums from a standing start.
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