HD911.com
because the 90's paled in comparison to this...

Damn it man, why can’t I think of something to increase exposure to my name, or even a tiny bit of passive income on the side.  I’ve laid in bed for the past fortnight or so trying to think of something that I could do for money on the side, from creating/selling something, to eBay seller (ech) or maybe just doing out of hours freelance work.  I just need an idea, something that I can get off the ground and get started, then let it run from there.

Ah, the classic line, I just need an idea, from the dodgy con artist to the pre 1950′s American Novel/Movie of the inventor/travelling salesman yearning for the American Dream.  I want my own peice of american dream, white picket fence and all, or maybe not the fence, but you get the idea.

Irrelavent, but I liked the title.

I need to do a little retooling myself I think, just really sit down with a glass of Single Malt and think.  But this mind doesn’t think, it darts all over the place at a 100 miles an hour, just whilst completing this sentence I’ve already considered watching House, some porn, playing Counterstrike or living like a normal person and go and get some sleep.  However, I’m hoping that by writing these words down, I’m actively thinking, brainstorming and retooling this amazing head of mine, so that I can put this wild imagination to some good use.

Sometimes I think you’ve gotta grab an idea, however stupid it may seem and run with it, I can only imagine that’s how the likes of YouTube, Facebook and similar started.  Not that I think I could think or create anything as simple yet so perfect, but who could complain with YouTube being sold off for $1.62billion, or the Microsoft purchase of x% of advertising rights on Facebook this week making the proposed net worth of the company over $15billion.

There are some ingenious people and ideas out there (even if they’re not generating a profit):

•  The Sandwich Guide - However many 100′s or 1000′s of ready-made sandwhiches there are at any of the UK’s 100+ supermarket, coffee shop and corner store chains, this guy strives to review and rate all of them.  Pointless… maybe?  But I know I’ve checked there for tasty lunch ideas a few times already, and with a big reader base, and others writing content for you, its no work, and possibly a steady (albeit small) revenue from advertising coming in.
• Web2Msg – Again, another simple idea, which has been done many times before I’m sure.  Allow kids, cheap people and people without mobile phones to send free SMS’s, and relying on ad revenue.
• Digg, DotNetKicks, Reddit, Delicious, Slash Dot – The perfect idea, digg especially.  I’d say no other site on the web has as much influence over what users will see, based completely on users that have seen it before and have rated it.  The world famous slashdot effect, garunteed to bring all but the most mighty web servers too their knee’s.
• CAPTCHA Beater – Nobody likes spammers, they are the scorn of all delivered content ranging from snail mail, email, forums, this blog (thanks akismet, over 200 messages caught already).  You’ve got to hand it to these guys though, they’ve embedded the jumbled images (CAPTCHA’s) that you have to decipher from all over the net into a porn game, where to see more and continue with the game you have to enter the code.  The second the code is submitted the automated bot running the game can then get past the spam check and the cycle continues.

There are thousandsmillions of ideas out there, and this list could go on endlessly, so I’ll stop, but this is just an example.

Now, back to thinking.  Think Shannon.  Think.