Art of finding stuff: a business idea

Orionblamblam

Orionblamblam

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quellish said:
Praetorian Starship actually has good information on CREDIBLE SPORT:
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA421975
(it's available elsewhere too)
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I could either download this public domain document for free from DTIC, or I could go to "Storming Media" (http://www.stormingmedia.us/57/5791/A579124.html) and vbuy the same PDF for the low, low price of $73.95.

Yeesh.

Maybe I've been following the wrong business model. I take documents and drawings that you *can't* easily find online and sell them for five to ten bucks. Maybe I should just scour DTIC and sell stuff for eighty bucks.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Maybe I've been following the wrong business model. I take documents and drawings that you *can't* easily find online and sell them for five to ten bucks.
Click to expand...
*had* that idea too and dismissed it - but wouldn't FBI reach you much faster than me in Moscow (it was *pure* joke)?
 
flateric said:
*had* that idea too and dismissed it - but wouldn't FBI reach you much faster than me in Moscow (it was *pure* joke)?
Click to expand...


FBI would be uninterested. If it's on the DTIC website, it's publicly available. Reselling it would seem to be perfectly legal, as since the vast bulk of the documents on DTIC and NTRS were done either for or by the US government, that makes it public domain. That means you can do what you like with it, including reselling it for $80.
 
what then idiots from Stormingmedia expect? I was always wondering...those banned from advanced Google search?
 
Stupidity of the people is endless. The same counts for the cushiness. Almost all business is based on that, so why not in this form? Someone rich is simply lazy to make a Google search.
 
flateric said:
what then idiots from Stormingmedia expect?
Click to expand...

Don't know. I have no idea how successful they are, but they've been around for a while and certainly *look* professional enough. I suspect they're doing quite well, if just on volume. Selling a total of five copies of a report - something I've yet to attain with a number of my products - might mean a whole lot of income if you have a *lot* of reports, and they all cost you nothing to buy, and nothing to process. The webpage for the SM version of the report looks like it was simply the DTIC page run through a filter of some kind. A lot of mine cost me a lot to buy and a lot of time and effort to scan, clean, process, etc. It could easily be that *I'm* the business-illiterate chump here.

I'm *really* tempted to start doing something very similar to SM... scour DTIC and NTRS for interesting stuff (which, let's face it, I've already done) and resell it with no modifications. But instead of $80, I'll sell for, say, $1 or $2. Greed is of course good, and anyone that says otherwise is a brain-damaged commie chump, but anything can be carried to excess. One buck might be low enough that someone scanning my list of Appropriated Documents might just say "what the hell" rather than trying to go digging for it.

Hmm. Starting to get a wee bit off the Credible Sport topic. Split it off into another thread, Mod?
 
Scott, sounds great - you just need to take precautions for potentional customer not to find what you are offering, for free on the net (again)
I agree that for years you have gathered sour milk of what is available on the net, knowing what to search for and making unexpected discoveries.
More, you probably have on hands *many* things are not available already for years (X-33 - Venture Star, Sonic Cruiser, Comanche, X-32 - you continue the list)
 
flateric said:
Scott, sounds great - you just need to take precautions for potentional customer not to find what you are offering, for free on the net (again)
Click to expand...

I think I will go forward with this idea. However, I'm torn:
Option A: List the title, show a little picture, charge $0.50
Option B: *Describe* the document, show a few pictures, charge a buck.

In both cases, be open and honest that these are items that, if you know where to look, can be downloaded for free from government online archives. In option A, a customer would be able to easily go and look, based jsut on the title. In option B... not so easy.

On the one hand, it is arguably a bit scummy to work that way, especially considering that there are lots of places online that scour these archives and post direct links to the DTIC/NTRS downloads.
On the other hand, I did go to the bother of looking this stuff up in the first place. On the gripping hand, I'm freakin' broke.

The smartass in me is tempted to go through Storming Medias catalog and post those items, with links to the relevant SM pages and say "See? You can pay them $80, or me $1." But that seems like too much effort...
 
There are some reports and technical papers on the Storming Media site that are not available for download in PDF format on DTIC or the NASA Technical Reports Server. What does it cost to order a hard copy NASA report from the Federal government?

Also, I seriously doubt that the customers of Storming Media are aviation hobbyists and the people ordering them are using their expense accounts or being re-imbursed by their company.
 
Orionblamblam said:
I think I will go forward with this idea. However, I'm torn:
Option A: List the title, show a little picture, charge $0.50
Option B: *Describe* the document, show a few pictures, charge a buck.
Click to expand...

Orionblamblam
Why not proposing a customized research fee:
It's uselly takes (me) hours to find THE document(s) through the different available servers (NASA, DTIC, Patent Offices, etc...) and their rather abstract search engine and/or document titles.
Since Time is Money.
Perhaps you can propose something like:
Question:
Orionblamblam, do you have something on the...(for example Rockwell C0157 project)?
Answer:
Yes (doc including drawing, specs, or esle) and it's x$ (for the past research time) ==> Paypal, download
No, but will search and final cost will be xx$ for research time + doc ordering cost + ... ==> Paypal, download

It's just an idea (but I will be the first to use this option: Orionblamblam, do you have something on the Rockwell C0157 project ;D).
 
Retrofit said:
Orionblamblam, do you have something on the...(for example Rockwell C0157 project)?
Answer:
Yes (doc including drawing, specs, or esle) and it's x$ (for the past research time) ==> Paypal, download
No, but will search and final cost will be xx$ for research time + doc ordering cost + ... ==> Paypal, download
Click to expand...

That makes a measure of sense. It also broadens the range of possible documents...

It's just an idea (but I will be the first to use this option: Orionblamblam, do you have something on the Rockwell C0157 project ;D).
Click to expand...

IIRC, that's the wacky Shuttle concept with the sideways payload bay? Yeah, I've got an AIAA paper on that... to be more accurate, I have a paper by the designer who shows a *lot* of different Shuttle configurations that were studied, including some pretty oddball designs.

Things like AIAA papers are held under copyright, and are not the sort of thing I would offer up for sale for both ethical and legal reasons. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with charging a research fee that includes things like AIAA papers.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Things like AIAA papers are held under copyright, and are not the sort of thing I would offer up for sale for both ethical and legal reasons. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with charging a research fee that includes things like AIAA papers.
Click to expand...
Indeed, and with a big "+": To inform about the real contents of the document. In charge after for the "end-user" to order it, or not, through the official procedure copyright owner's website (Thanks for the info on C0157 ::))
 
Retailer Business model:

-Main page: index, search, new additions, ads(can be removed once the biz kicks in), chat with admin(you) at set time and day of the week
-Once searched: display title and abstract and some pictures with watermark(cons people that THESE ARE HARD TO FIND), tag the paper with the associated project name/s
-Purchasing page: place download options: file format (.RAR,.PDF,.DJVU, et al), a REAL COPY, file transfer option(.ftp, p2p et al)
-Thank you for purchasing page(cons people that it's a real deal biz)

charge: set dollar price per MB file size + option charge

Subscription Business model:
-applicable when the database is ginormous
-clients will have an option of downloading either a limited or unlimited number of paper
-clients will also have tiers whereby they are given or denied access to certain "goodies" which of course will be given some sneak peaks to tempt them

note:
-to con people into buying your products, maintain a relatively green color rating with WOT(web of trust), some interweb retail certifications

interweb capitalism is all about word of mouth, publicity and getting higher hits on search engines(usually with associated price or more often free)
 
saintkatanalegacy said:
-Main page: index, search, new additions, ads(can be removed once the biz kicks in), chat with admin(you) at set time and day of the week
price or more often free)
Click to expand...
Oh no, not ANOTHER search engine!
 

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