i need to hear from those of you who have had experiences with business partnership.

today during lunch, in the process of enlightenment and exposure to business etc, I presented to my friend the idea of starting some kind of web site to make some profit through ads or whatnot.

with this introduction, a lightbulb went on inside my friend's head... a great idea that is still in development ever since.

what i need to know is... how should we make our business strategy? we need to spend as little $$ as possible to launch this thing. and i've been thinking money for domain and hosting is basically what we would need.

the conflict arises in how we should be splitting all the things that we are going to use. for example, we will probably have a hard time on deciding:

1) who will own the domain
2) who will own the hosting
3) who will sign up with those ad companies

he thought that hosting isn't a BIG problem, cause he thinks that he should host it on his own comp (we both have high bandwidth connections, cable and adsl). but i sorta disagree cause i think since we will be applying for those ad companies (some of) which require a certain amount of impressions per month before allowing us to gain the actual CPMs... would essentially require alot of resources (bandwidth etc).

our hopes are that this web site will (within approximately 3 months) grow and become a huge community. allowing us to profit (or at least pay for its monthly hosting and yearly domain registration etc)

what do you guys think about this situation?
he is one of my good friends, but i don't want this thing to get in between us... cause sometime in the future if necessary, we wouldn't know how to split everything.

and my other question... i am looking for an ad company that supports CPMs (cost per impression). we'll probably start with couple thousand impressions per month... then each month get bigger. what i need is an ad company that doesn't have a high monthly impression requirement in order for us to join their ad program.

can someone recommend me something?
and lastly, how can we maximize our profits... like how should we use the ads and what other programs should we look at?

thanks for any kind of input :)
appreciate it

Although they don't offer CPM, I suggest any program from http://www.standardinternet.com . Very professional service that always pays. As for hosting a site on your own computer, no. Not going to work. Gow tih http://www.hostrocket.com for $10/month or http://www.thinkhost.com .

That's close to the line from Field of Dreams, and doesn't apply to web sites, at least not without a lot of work. It sounds like you're trying to make money from a web site without knowing how.

People need a good reason to visit web sites and tell others about them and you give the impression you have no subject matter yet.

Nothing interesting = no traffic. No traffic = no income from advertising. No income = no reason for you to even try.

What do you even need a partner for? Neither one of you knows what they are doing.

Saying "I want to make money on the Internet" is not a business plan. You need a concrete idea. You could start with what information you are planning on offering that might attract visitors, and keep them coming back. Otherwise, you'll likely just waste time. It's your time to waste and it might educate you on a few things, just be forewarned.

As far as partnerships and splitting things, remember that half of nothing is nothing.

just because i didn't specify what this web site is going to do doesn't mean that we have no clue what we want/are going to do :)

both of us have plenty of experience on the web. personally, i am a web designer and have been surfing these kinds of boards for years looking for more experience and opportunities

besides, i am looking for advice right now and not much criticism yet

hmmm... and

No income = no reason for you to even try.


i disagree with this... i've been lurking around the net for couple years and have learned that if you have an idea that you can be ambitious with... you will be able to succeed somehow. even if it means seeing your idea as a complete failure, you will be learning lessons as you go along. take risks! if everyone doesn't take risks, how else are you going to know if your ideas will succeed or not?

but yes, i do appreciate those who are trying to be practical... but its no use now... we probably won't stop until this thing has been launched and succeeded or crashed.

[edit]
oh and we are both willing to work on this kinds of projects

thanks

Please don't take what I said out of context. The equation was more than the brief part you quoted. Using associative properties of mathematics, a more apt abbreviation would be nothing intersting = no reason for you to even try.

I agree about taking risks. However, a bad idea is still a bad idea and won't be successful just becasue you have ambitions about it.

If you do have an actual idea (other than making money), contrary to the impression you give, then go to it. It will be a learning expereince either way.

yea, i know what you meant...

you were trying to give me the broader perspective of how things work... trying to make sure that im not just dazzled by this...

thanks :)

You're welcome. A lot of people see dollar signs in their eyes when they think of the Internet. Wall Street did for awhile too as a few, early start up companies (nicknamed dot coms) made paper fortunes based on investor confidence. There was talk of a new economy.

Eventually, reality sets in and inflated markets drop. It happened with the great tulip debacle and it happened recently with dot coms.

Even companies like Amazon and Yahoo have yet to make a profit and new startups need something solid to build on now, a business plan with a solid premise.

I just wanted you to be aware of that. Build a worthwhile site and people will find it. You might even make some money. If its only purpose is to make money it will likely fail as it will offer nothing of value.

If you're going to expend your energy and time, better it be for a worthwhile purpose.

If you're worried about splitting things between you and your business partner, than you should draw up a partnership agreement. Then show it to a solicitor and they can get rid of any loopholes that you've left.

About ownership, I would recommend that you define things as either owned by you, him, or the business. When you split up (which will likely happen sometime before you die...), you keep what was defined as something you owned, he keeps what he owns, and you split what the business owns 50/50 or sell it and split the cash 50/50.

And how do you define it? Well the "business" owns anything that is crucial to its operation. That means the domain and web hosting. When you sign up for things (like the ad companies), sign up under your business name where possible (note: register your business name, I'm not sure about where you live, but in Australia it only costs AUD$105.00 for three years (from memory anyway)). Often, ad companies ask for a business and contact name, so don't worry too much about "Who signs up" for things.

Hope that helps you out a bit, that's what we do at Aborior.

Lawrence, in Victoria it's $70.00 for 3 years... Looks like it's more expensive in the ACT?

Well I just checked and it's definitely is $105 here.

Must be the commission the Registrar General takes for calling themselves the "National" office. :D

Definately go with a partnership agreement! Not just a partnership registration at the local court bu a full partnership agreement document. You'll probably need a lawyer for it. LLC, LLP or Incorporating might be a better way. I know you said you wanted spend as little as possible but these things have a way of mushrooming fast and sometims even the best of friends don't turn out to be the best business associates. Get it all in writing!

You know i wouldn't go in with a partner, because 50/50 everything all the time, i can't stand it. I guess i am money hungry. But if you do make sure you cover it all. because if ya split up someone has to carry half a couch home.

Don't ever have partners.

I say down with partnerships, they only end in flames

Partners are not a bad thing, necessarily -- so long as they are someone else's.

I don't understand your question.

Are you having problems making decisions? In which case, you should just quit now before you lose your friendship.

Or are you having trouble determining what's the best business relationship or solution to support these decisions that you have made? If that's the case, then get yourself a copy of Small Business for Dummies so that you can learn the basics and mechanics of running a small business.

I hate casual partnerships. Affiliations, a full corp sure. But a casual partnership usually ends up one person doing all the work and the other taking all the credit.

If the other person isn't serious enough to do the paper work then they aren't serious about the project.