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My Top 10 Worst Ideas To Make Money

I think I am about 5 for 500 when it comes to successful ideas vs flops. I just watched a documentary about my neighbor Warren Buffett and he talked about how you should brag about your failures and be humble about your successes. I think my new years resolution in 2007 is to be way more humble. Do not think I have some golden touch or something that everything works out great… its just the law of averages.. try enough stuff and something will stick.

Anyway I came up (in about 10 minutes) my top 10 worst ideas to make money that totally were a waste of time and effort (and money in some cases).

And also BTW you cant read this post if you know me in real life and k thx…

  • 10 – FireFox Forum (firefoxforum.com) – I purchased this site on digitalpoint ($800) after getting some inside information that FireFox was going to team up with Google on a per download affiliate program. Well all that happened and I think I made about 50$ the first year. FLOP
  • 9 – BabyCalc.com – If you were about to have a baby you could go on this site and punch in some numbers then it would email you as your baby was growing and let you know what was going on… “like 10 days until you should be able to tell the sex of your baby!” or “Babys heart beat starts today” ect.. stuff like that.. I paid to have the backend developed and the site was about 95% completed (about a 1500$ investment).

    Then a very close friend of the family had a miscarriage about 15 weeks into her pregnancy and told us about how she had signed up for all these baby websites and now they keep emailing her stuff and she breaks down and cries every time…. I just wanted no part of that… FLOP

  • 8 – Pimp My Blog – I thought this was going to be teh win. I mean… you want to pimp out your blog right ? I registered pimpmyblog.org but it was burning my ass that someone owned pimpmyblog.com. I hate making a site when I do not own the .com. Sure you can do good without owning the .com but they are always going to mooch off of your hard work…. so I HAD to own it and after about 3 weeks of haggling with this guy I paid $2,000.00 for the domain.
    I made a forum with Vbulletin and had big plans to implement wordpress templates and all kinds of cool blogging tools but just never got around to it =p. FLOP
  • 7 – Omaha-Used-Cars.com – Now here we go! This is easy. Just make a used car site and charge dealers a .25cent per car listing fee right ? ehhh none interested… FLOP
  • 6 – SMS Text Dating textdating.com/texting.com – I was soooooooo sure this one was going to be it! The concept is simple basically you subscribe to this dating website. Make a profile then you could send a message to the person from the website to there mobile phone without having to know there phone number. I had this totally done and nobody every signed up… FLOP
  • 5 – St. Marry’s Bar & Grill – Ok this has nothing to do with the internet. After the Hooters closed down in Lincoln I tried to re-open it then when that did not work out I thought about making a restaurant called St. Marrys where it was like a church and the waitresses dressed like catholic school girls and like the nuns would be the managers and spank the waitresses if they were bad?!? Yes I know bad idea and I never really pursued it…. I like in one of the most conservative catholic communities in the country so no way it would fly… and yes i know im going straight to hell.
  • 4 – 2 Topless Chix In A Ferrari Cross Country

    What would get more looks then a brand new ferrari f430 ? what if 2 topless girls were driving it cross country ? what if you could buy advertising on the car ? seemed like a good idea… then it did not.

  • 3 – Ads Or Not

    Simple concept. There is 5 ads on a webpage only one of them is NOT REALLY A AD! Each time you successfully spot the fake ad you get some money built up into your account. – I had issues finding advertisers who were down for this =P FLOP

  • 2 – ShoeMoney SEO Contest

    I thought it would be fun contest to see if someone could outrank me for shoemoney. Id like to not relive that.

  • 1 – ShoeMoney Petroleum Company -

    (I cant believe im actually telling these in public)

    Ok Follow me here -
    I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas

    The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).

    How do I make money ? EASY – I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee. PROBLEM – I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance” or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…

Anyway….. thats all for now.



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Comments

  1. trevor

    I like the concept of text messaging on a dating site. Maybe you give users free text msg. so people will flood the site.=p

  2. Tzutzu

    Actually.. that one with the Ferrari I’m sure it will work in my country…but guess what..no money for ferrari :D

  3. Slave to the Dollar

    I have a list of about 600. I think anyone who does inetrnet marketing for real and makes a living suffers from ideas on crack. Most of us have ADD, OCD and we get our keyword tools and domain finders and we find a new million dollar niche every day.

    We just forget that it takes 6- 1 year of work to make money or make the niche really work. So with my 600 niches will take 600 years.

    Hey, anyone wanns buy some domains? They are all money makers, I promise!!!

    Moe Bedard

  4. Web Hosting

    gas station is the best !!

  5. gurtey

    i got to read this too late.

  6. metafever

    I just laughed my balls off at the paint ball gas station tid-bit.

    Too freaking funny!

    I too have had way more failures than success!

  7. Clive

    Years ago I bought a domain http://LeaveMeAllYourMoney.com the premise behind it being that people would leave me money in their wills and I’d promise to send postcards to their disinherited children/spouses telling them how, and what a good time, I was having spending it!

    My surreal side tells me it still has potential :-)

  8. Matt James

    Oh man… that baby calc idea sounded pretty good but… what happened to your friend… real downer.

    Can see how you’d wanna skip that one!

  9. Justin

    I think the worst way to make money online is ebay. You hear so much hype about ebay business kits and how much you can earn on ebay.

    I would have to say that ebay is probably the worst idea to make money. Even though Im sure some people do I think it is a bad way because few can do it.

  10. YingHang

    Funny and very humourous. Laughing until my stomach explodes!

  11. Holly Mann

    Wow the funniest one was your Petroleum Company idea. :) My brother made a baby calculator like you mentioned and it’s gotten him a lot of traffic and backlinks. It has really worked out for a source of income – linking to his baby-related website. But I can see how you would want nothing to do with that idea, after hearing your friends situation. That is sad.

  12. R Kumar

    The last one was indeed very funny. I just pray somebody start a gas station on this idea and we get some free gas at least.

  13. mumbaikaar

    Topless Chix lmao that is priceless. Keep up the creative ideas man you rock :)

  14. Julia

    This hits really close to home. I have been in so many different MLMs and internet businesses, that I thought I was the only crazy one. Guess I’m not. I’m still trying to find my money machine, but guess I’m a little old fashioned. I would like to become a virtual assistant – accounting, financial services, data entry, blogging, graphic design, etc – but I’m not sure how to get started. I would love some FREE help if anyone has some suggestions. I’m working on a website now and hope to get it up and running and then figure out how to advertise it, with little investment, because I’m broke with no job. Thanks for uplifting my spirits.

  15. The Fit News

    lol, sounds like the type of ideas I have on a daily basis.

  16. Deborah

    I dunno, I like the text dating. It sounds like fun. The hard part of course is getting people to feel safe. But if that was a pre-Twitter idea, things have changed.

  17. EARN MONEY

    This post is helpful! Cheers for this one! :)

  18. Perika

    no 1 is simply the best idea, and the tenth’s just soo good enough :> Cheers for posting. ;)

  19. Keira

    #9 – Sign up requires two emails. Email 1 for yourself and email 2 for a friend/relative who has access to your account in case the unthinkable happens. That way if the expecting mother does indeed have a miscarriage, the friend/relative can go in right away and nix the emails. A lot of people would love having that information sent to them – don’t keep it in the rubbish.

  20. Yolanda Morris

    As a person who owns over 50 domain names, this post hits close to home!!

  21. Aqeel Syed

    Too funny ;) I’d few similar ideas in past and still now got caught in same situation.

  22. Ron Givens

    Truly amazing.

    Not only are these great learning experiences, but some great comedy material as well.

    Keep up your excellent work!

    -Ron

  23. Domni

    Brilliant ideas. I tend to do the same thing, come out with different ideas but never run with it. I do run with it sometimes but I find myself getting burned by always hitting a dead end.

  24. Smart Boy Designs

    I must say, after reading your idea about the paintball gas station – I couldn’t stop laughing. That’s got to be the greatest idea I’ve heard in my entire life. I’d surely pay to shoot helpless people trying to get a few gallons of free gas. That would be terrific. Not to mention an excellent stress reliever – and a surefire way to feel better about myself! ;-)

    Thanks Shoe,
    Christian

    • GeorgeB.

      Problem is, a little free gas is not worth the paint stains and damage to your car from all the paint balls hitting it.

  25. Bill Wolfe

    What a great post. I can really relate to this. From these 10, there are probabaly about another 1000 that never saw the light of day. A true entreprenuer. Love it. Thanks for making me laugh today.

  26. helmy

    LoL, it’s hilarious yet innovative to give away gas from your own gas station. I would lik to know how it’s goin on, haha,,,

  27. fun-da-mental

    @ Terrence,
    you said:
    “…I have a friend who recently started an ad company wrapping gas tanker trucks with advertisements. Perhaps he can have the Ferrari girls drive the trucks, for an additional “pop” in eyeballs!”

    Cool idea I must say!

  28. xaer8

    None of my ideas got right. Still finding the best shot to make money online. And this post really open my eyes!

  29. Terrence

    Great stuff! I have a friend who recently started an ad company wrapping gas tanker trucks with advertisements. Perhaps he can have the Ferrari girls drive the trucks, for an additional “pop” in eyeballs!

  30. Noble

    hello! The babes are here! This is my sexiest site to visit. I make sure I am alone in case I get too hot. Post your favorite link here.

  31. Catherina

    I would’ve played the Ads or Not game! Cool ideas, anyhow. (By the way, I was hoping to register shoemoney.com)! :)

  32. ketantgr

    save trees and save earth bcoz starting global worming so plz plz save to

    one optical is moniter and u speak is typening and every thing feature in opticals
    withcamera
    with mike
    u watch in eyes
    and u think is working also

  33. Tyrone – Internet Business Path

    It’s ideal to remind these business minded people about those worst habits in running their time to earn money. I have some tips on how you can earn goodly.

  34. Bill

    I would have gone to the St.Marys Bar & Grill. Sounded fun. I think it would be more popular if the customers got to spank the girls though.

  35. myinternetbusiness

    Ha ha you have had some crazy but genius ideas. Priceless, I liked the St.Marrys bar & grill that would have been crazy.

  36. Agent X

    Failure precede success!
    http://tinyurl.com/cx534z

  37. Jan

    I know the feeling about finding the perfect URL only to see it owned by someone else. I waited over a year for my one to be abandoned by the former owner and then I snagged it up.

  38. Online Marketing Blog

    That paintball idea is priceless i would defiantly sign up for a site like that. I think you could get around it by making it a drive in gas station with 2 doors so no paint balls could get out. You should give free gas away in some major city at one gas station and film the pandemonium and the huge traffic game and riots

  39. Kumar APP

    Hilarious – funny stuff!

  40. Aditya

    Hillaries i dont know how you tried all those things. I thought you are a smart guy lol

  41. Monty - Sensonize.com

    #1 is the funniest one! ahaha!!

  42. Gene

    hehe, funny :) failed business ideas are always entertaining to read. here’s some more:

  43. sarah

    please do gas station paintball or some variation of it. that’s hilarious.

  44. LAKHMINARAYANA

    Arey bhai! What a great idea to popular our web sites! Really this is an excellent! Especially the ninth point about babycalc.com is really mindboggling! I sincerely would like to follow jeremy’s advice! Thank you! (www.knoweverything.tk)

  45. China Travel Blog

    I think the intention behind several sites you have mentioned seems quite logical, it should have worked, especially the BabyCalc.com, I know there is a website which is still using this function and getting many members (babycenter.com).

  46. Daniel Su at Forex Training

    Hey, I think you are a genius, how can anyone beat you for the shoemoney keyword? It’s impossible. :)

    • kyle

      no its not it happen i seen it happen ppl did out rank him for shoemoney!

  47. Paul U

    The shoemoney SEO contest is so funny.

    No one can outrank you on that keyword.

  48. hennyhartan

    teach me to make your way.email me asap.from:nicest lady in indonesia.

  49. Christoph C. Cemper

    LOL – just came across this by chance – idea #1 is frickin funny!

  50. Daniel

    Post is kind older, but it’s still nice to read and learn. Thanks

  51. Hanna

    I think you are doing just fine.

  52. Tran Harry

    I am loving the gas idea, thing is I would totally go there so forget about city ordinance. I suck out about 16 gallons of gas every 1.5 weeks anyway, I would head out there with my dirtiest gas pumping outfit and let them fire away.

    Although I would want to wear a helmet or something to protect any real injuries.

    I can see a lot of Counterstrike kids out there wanting to spend a few bucks of their lunch money on this.

  53. Nate at Plasticprinters

    I love the gas company idea. That is genius.

  54. Michael Hathman

    Jeremy:

    I’ll give you an A+ for trying (and I am sure any nuns you had in Catholic School would too)! You sound like a go-getter and I really admire that about someone who at least tries to go after a dream or a thought they had. Your failures are taking you one step closer to a great success – just don’t give up. That’s really what makes a success a success! The inability to never give up will ultimately yield a success for you. Just think about it, Edison used 5,000 different materials in trying to create the lightbulb, and now it seems everyone in the world can’t get enough of them. Abraham Lincoln ran for office nearly a dozen times, failed and finally, on the last try become one of the most famous, admired and accomplished Presidents in modern history. If you really want to make a fortune, pull your boat out of the docks and ride out in perfect timing to offer something that people need. In this recession, there is nothing more than people need now than hope and a chance for prosperity. Wrap your mind around that one – and I’ll bet my bottom dollar, you’ll come up with the idea that would be a “grand slam!” Best Wishes, Your Friend, Michael

  55. HomeBusinessTeam

    #4 is hilarious, im shocked that it did not work! :)

    I gotta give it to you, you got alot of creative ideas whether they have worked or not.

  56. Aggressive Dog Training

    I have to hand it to you, you have a lot of patience and perseverance, qualities which will ultimately make you a success.

  57. KevinS.

    Tsk. Tsk. Next time try real estate.. in fact.. read “The Pizza Delivery Millionaire ” by Rick Vazquez.. I think you would enjoy it and might even learn a thing or two about the real way to make money :P

  58. AJ Kumar

    That was quite inspirational. I just started working the internet so I’ve already prepared myself for many failures ahead. Fail forward fast is what I say :)

  59. sruthin

    super ideas

  60. Quest for Money Online

    The one take-away from this is that to be successful, you need to learn how to think outside the box! Your imagination is definitely out there and creative!!

  61. Nokia 5800

    I’m surprised the used car idea was a flop. Couldn’t you have just used wordpress with an ebay plugin that would pull listings? Just have it pull listings based on zip code. Then you could maybe entice dealers to advertise on the pages for their particular model. Just a thought. I was thinking of this kind of thing for my area, but maybe now I’ll reconsider. Thanks for posting the bad ideas..not enough successful marketers do that. Makes the flops for the rest of us easier to swallow.

  62. Brian " Cure Acne " W.

    Where can I make an investment for #4!

  63. mike sky

    i would pay to do number one set it up!
    i would also go out to get the gas haha
    you could also charge for people to sit on a tower or something and shoot at the people in real life

  64. LARRY

    ShoeMoney Petroleum Company – THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME !

  65. haber

    I love This Blog :D Thx.

  66. eran

    shoemoney,

    if you notice, so many people actually liek the gas station idea. I have had over 1,000 ideas myself, and know how most wont fly before i start. you gas idea is not half bad, but you would need to crunch the numbers, the novelty rating, etc… but it is a really good idea. you are exchanging humor for free.

  67. caleb

    What about charging people to go for a ride in the ferrari?

  68. ways to make money online

    I got my list too pal…You have to keep trying…

  69. Ehab

    Pimp My Blog was a mighty fine idea if you ask me :) Should have given you a call or something when the time was right, but I guess thats history brother !

  70. Quit The Day Job

    #1 is my hero

  71. Web Hosting

    The gas station idea is great, it would definitely work and be sure to generate tons of publicity.

    Have a nice day!!

  72. Web Hosting

    The gas station idea is great, it would definitely work and be sure to generate tons of publicity.

    Your text dating idea should have worked, but perhaps it was not marketed correctly.

  73. EasyProfitPack

    Seems like you had a fun time! Well I guess smart bloggers also have their issues. :p

    Well, buying domain names has not been something that I was very successful, so I can relate to what you are saying.

    I would love to know about the shoe money seo contest! :p

  74. Xbox

    The petrol station was hilarious, you have to be mad to come up with that.

  75. Arfan

    the gas station idea just was LOL

  76. Mike Henry

    The ideas about the bricks&mortar business were really outlandish.

  77. Lisa K

    Great post. I think some of those ideas ( babycalc & restaurant) could have done well.

    Can you post some of your more successful ideas as someone mentioned?

    Lisa K
    Traffic Coordinator
    http://www.coolmediaplacement.com
    We Drive Traffic! Traffic Drives Results!

  78. Keral Patel

    Giving free gas on gas station is the most out of the world idea I have ever seen.

  79. Lisa

    It makes me feel good to know that someone like you can have bad ideas perhaps it won’t depress me too much when I make a mistake. When are you putting up the “winning ideas” that did fly? Maybe you already have but I’m new to this site.

  80. wallney

    the no.1 is so interesting.we are f u-cking money but our ass is burned. making money online is not easy right? every of us try hard to find out how to do is the easiest way ,it is a long run. and just keep running ,running

  81. Jason Sieckmann

    Dude, those were HILARIOUS. The St. Mary’s made me call my mom and ask her what she thought. She dropped the phone. Very awesome.

  82. Önder

    Maybe some of them will work now.

  83. Susan

    Thanks for opening up and sharing these “failed” ideas. I had a good laugh, but it also helps to know that everyone hits and misses… It’s the endurance to keep trying new ideas that helps us hit goldmines!

  84. lowest gas prices

    The Gas Station idea made me laugh I would pay a few buck to take the shots but i don’t think you would make any money after pay for gas even if it was just 2 bucks a gallon.

    Please share your best ideas

  85. Kim McGinnis

    Wow, what a twisted and creative mind you have. You are truly an inspiration for having the guts to share. Thank you. I am preparing for a seminar next Saturday, and one of the topics is breaking past fear. You have proven by virtue of writing this post that you are a King at this. Do you mind if I use your Gas Station Story (w/o using your name) at my seminar?

  86. Kim McGinnis

    Wow-do you have an open and creative mind! You are a true inspiration. I am preparing for a seminar next week and one of the topics I am covering is breaking past fear. What you revealed in this post is that you are insanely competent at this-Kudos to you! Do you mind if I use the Gas Station story (w/o using your name) in my seminar?

  87. Christopher Ross

    OMG – St. Marry’s Bar & Grill – I had a similar idea in Montreal but it was when a church closed down. I thought it would be great to have the bartender dressed like a Vicor and the waitresses as school girls on roller blades.

  88. Ganesh

    Haha. I want to know more about the Shoemoney SEO contest. :D

  89. Linn

    ahahah, this is awesome to read.. you really have some cool ideas..indeed.

  90. Linn

    ahah, it’s an awesome read..

    you really have cool ideas indeed.

  91. Ari - Laberinto Social

    I am sooo glad you put this out jeremy. everyone thinks people just slip and fall into success as if they slipped and fell on shit you know? they don’t realize that we really have to work at it and most of all, we have to try ten things that fail before we see the upsides to all that effort… thanks, its nice to see “related pain?”

  92. Zeca

    Shoemoney Petroleum Company is great. deserves the leadership of its top10, very funny

  93. alifahru

    With buying other site perhaps it will be worked. Sometime the idea of the original site and buyer site different, also with result, definitely different.

  94. Dominick

    I totally digg the St. Mary’s Grill idea. It would fly somewhere here in Michigan, most likely Ann Arbor or Detroit. I could also see it happening in New York, Detroit, and San Francisco. I don’t see it happening anywhere else though…but the restaurant would definitely get my business!

    We once considered buying a church and turning it into a club. Forget sacrilegious. It would have been fun!

  95. Mike

    Let me know when #1 is ready to go. LMAO!

  96. Keep It SEO Simple

    Those are some painful ideas indeed, particularly the BabyCalc at number 9. You can’t win them all I guess. Laughing my head off at St. Marry’s Bar & Grill. What were you thinking?!?

  97. unoblogger

    So I see the best of the achievers have done the worst of the mistakes… I am having my share of mistakes and I see that I can become an achiever too!!

  98. John D

    Lol, i really liked number 10. I’d imagine one shot would be very expensive. And then, you’d have to deal with the car insurance companies ;) .

  99. Erica

    First of all, I just admire you for your business ideas…I mean they say the best business owners come up with the whackiest ideas…i mean…who would have known Google would have been as big as it is now…or even Youtube?

    I think…no in fact…I know you will be even bigger than you are now. The biggest entrepreneurs failed at least 50 times before they came up with the right venture…wow, i wish i was as ambitious as you..but keep the whacky ideas up!LOL

    To find out how to dramatically increase your online sales with copywriting secrets visit http://www.copywritingincome4life.com

    erica

  100. HSD

    these were soo funny especially the last one lol

  101. ddm

    oh,lord, this is propably the funniest things I’ve heard in years.just crax me up.
    actually I reckon some might work if you keep do for a year or 2.

  102. pearlin

    thanks for sharing. i think some of the ideas are good! haha.

  103. Tom Jones

    I like the gas station Idea. I would have paid to shoot someone.

  104. Bryn Youngblut

    I still laugh after re-reading #1 over and over.

  105. NDN

    I know I am late to this party but I thought number 1 was so much fun. Shows just how far your mind reaches for ideas. I still like the Ferarri idea.

    BTW- I came across this post when googling “money making ideas”, you were number 2.

  106. ways to earn online

    Those are funny ideas but some seem to be ok if you put more effort in it. Nice post

  107. Make Money Online

    I can’t believe textdating didn’t work!!!

  108. Quest For news

    Those were the worst ideas Ive ever seen! LOL The No:1 was most funny. Still laughing man!

  109. Web Marketeer

    You sure had some offbeat ideas over the years….the catholic schoolgirl idea is something that would really appeal to some of my more colorful friends. My personal favourite has to be the fuel station idea. Paintballs, webcams and gasoline…hmmmm…methinks a free topless carwash with attached webcams could be interesting too….server crashing potential actually.

  110. Nate Hill

    Funny stuff … i doubt most people would even share these thanks

  111. cooliojones

    The St. Mary’s idea? Yeah, you’re going to hell for that one. I like the topless Ferrari idea, and the free gas one? You know someone could make a fortune off that right about now in America…just have people inundated with advertising while they sit there and take 10-15 minutes to fill up! Actually, what if you you just charge less for gas…say $1.50 – $2.00/gal? I bet you people will do that! You mind if I borrow that idea from you? :)

  112. Chaya Jennifer

    hey simply nice, and it tell us about our behavioural economics on money making.
    thanks

  113. Nik

    Hilarious – good stuff!

  114. Briongloid

    Yeah I’m no stranger to zany schemes either. Though I’m not going to post them here, I’ll wait until my site’s as popular and well known as this place! :)

    Great read though – gives hope to us all.

    I just wish more people would fess up like this. I’d love to read Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch or Richard Branson’s “I dunno what I was thinkin’!” files.
    I think it would do us all good to know that sometimes even a golden goose can lay a rotten egg.

    At the same time there’s a valuable lesson to be learned – nothing ventured nothing gained right? The very fact that you took risks like that in the first place is the reason you’re successful today.

  115. BeyondBANS

    Yup those are some really crappy ideas…

  116. Prosperity Writer

    i almost felt sorry for the baby calculator project. it seemed it had a future until a friend of yours had a mis carriage

  117. pikoo

    hi,
    what a nice post about enterprenourship ..try to invent new idea..i have found some free money making products offer ..you can also try these offers ..go to http://mywebmoney.wordpress.com/category/money-making-products/ try this ..only for US

  118. Moms Cash Blog

    This is quite possibly one of the best blog posts I have come across in months. Thank you : ) I have been craving a good post like this one. Well said, I am quite the entrepreneur as well and I find myself buying into domains, websites and ideas on a daily basis. I always think the next one I try is gonna be IT! When I was reading your list, I am almost got confused and thought that you were talking about me. Been there, we should start a website with all of our domains and ideas that didn’t pan out. We could sell them for a couple of bucks each – LOL. Are you in Shoe? He He, okay I will let this dream go. Bravo!!!

  119. Luckydont

    Abstracting from everything, these are niche IDEAS , and definitely would work for somebody, the only question is “how well” and would they reach a critical mass?

  120. CodeFreedom

    I was going to make my fortune selling energy drinks. So I took a dozen samples around to a friends place and asked him if some of his friends would be interested in trying the product as well as seeing the business concept.
    My friend had a bit of a drug problem at the time and thought I might be able to help him out. I arrived with my cooler full of my perfectly chilled energy drinks to find my friend and 4 of his friends (who also had drug issues) totally smacked out and just not on the planet.
    They gulped my energy drinks down and said how great and energy filled they felt before two of them fell asleep on the floor and my friend threw up !!
    Next idea please.

  121. A State of Trance

    #5 is my favorite actually, but i don’t know what will customers think while you spank a waitress at kitchen

  122. Flimjo

    #9 still would have worked, though. I had a baby in June last year, and my wife and I signed up for a similar website. We got weekly updates, and it was real cool to read this stuff. You should have stuck to that.

  123. Mayank Rocks

    Everyone has. Even I had, but I havent shared them in public yet :D

  124. Mayank Rocks

    Are you sure? Any of them will work actually?

  125. Mayank Rocks

    The most funny thing among them is the petrol pump lol.hahahah

  126. Daniel Andrade

    Well, thanks for sharing! I’ll stick with the things that are working for me! :)

  127. natespost

    Don’t let the paintball idea die, Shoe…….don’t let it die…

  128. Ryan

    you need to put the bong or the one-hitter down…I know because we have had the same type of crazy thoughts the only difference is that you possibly have the money to even try those wacky ideas…how about the restaurant that is flying over disney in orlando…how about eating your food at 150 ft in the air…and some crazy ass folks are going to eat up there…dinnerinthesky.com and it is like 12k for 8 hours…are you kidding me…check it out

  129. Creative Real Estate

    Man I’ve had some pretty terrible ideas myself – I can certainly relate

  130. K

    The gas station cracked me up. And I thought I was nuts… Funny stuff!

  131. K

    And I thought I was sick… Funny stuff!

  132. What is going on, blog

    You can’t be serious about the gas station???????

  133. Mayank Rocks

    I laughed out loud………..nearly fall off my chair laughing :)

  134. Uzair

    And the greatest thing is that we admit it. I know some people that never accept their mistakes. Like the Apple.

  135. Uzair

    I think the worst advertising idea is that of Video Egg. And that program(can’t remember name) that would load an ad audio everytime a page loads.

  136. Uzair

    Does it say Ads or not. I guess he did.

  137. Uzair

    The firefox….Is it genuine

  138. Uzair

    i AM not little.

  139. Uzair

    It was bad. Ya

  140. eMarketing Chat

    The free gas idea I like a lot. Though I think that your current business works better.

  141. timothy

    recognize the symbols of militarry security

  142. timothy

    okay i thank good but i also think it bad

  143. TravelFoot

    What do you think about the future of internet business and making money online? What is next?

  144. Terry Tay

    They say on average people come up with 6 or 7 ideas a year that could make millions, unfortunately most never attempt to bring those ideas to fruition.

    At least you attempted some things, failed, and learned from your mistakes. That is probably how you made it to where you are today. You keep plugging away and probably learning new things even today.

    Paintball Gas Station (dot) com is available I think. hahaha
    ~Terry

  145. File Snatcher

    Damn, and I thought I was creative! : )

    Shooting paintballs at people feeling their cars with gas? That one’s a little out there or are you just being sarcastic?

  146. Brian

    Better idea, purchase a building and set up paint ball guns. People pay you to run the gauntlet and if they make it without getting hit then they get a prize or some of their money back. People all over the world could log on and you could set up a whole slew of paintball guns that online members pay for to shoot. You win either way. Damn good idea, dont you think?

  147. big money

    that was when I was half asleep and waking up when it sounded like a great idea tho.

  148. big money

    my worst idea for making money was chopping trees down around my house and building bird houses out of them and selling them online LOL!

  149. Syed Balkhi

    Idea 8 could’ve been well worth it, but it was just a flop because you never got around it … idea is still good ;)

  150. Justin

    the paintball gas station love the idea. You should put one in saginaw, michigan

  151. Web Design

    You could have sold idea #5 I bet you could get millions with that one :p

  152. Tom

    Page bookmarked for later use. Thanks:)

  153. SEOContest2008

    The baby update site could have worked for you, if your relative hadn’t had a miscarriage. Some of these ideas can work for you now, if you give them a try.

  154. Niro

    Shoe your really honest.. He he.. anyway people do learn by mistakes. Thats normal. Anyhow you have been the best even with few foolish things he he… So you can be happy about it.

  155. cashslacker

    You should revisit the gas station-paintball idea. I’ve laughed for three days. Oh, and please put it in the town my ex-wife lives in!

  156. http://homejobsite.blogspot.com/

    Get A Job!? You need a refresher course in becoming a real MAN, man. Creating what I call lifestyle by design… well I guess you will never know until you run your own home business!

  157. Free Xbox 360 Package

    however the best idea….get a job

  158. Milica

    Never mind, we all make a failure here and there. Keep it up

  159. Gunter

    That’s the way to go up, trough failures

  160. ShowYes

    Come to Brazil, with this money you did the party easily… =D (Using Google Translate)

  161. Matt

    Interesting list. Nice to see other people’s flops. I almost fell out of my chair when I read number 5.

  162. AndreaSandra

    You are telling your failures in public, that’s great. But as you know we all have failures.

  163. Monsenior

    Okey! great, please send me some tips, http://www.money-on-blog-easy.blogspot.com

  164. The Abemore Perspective

    pretty much? you roll on that floor! I assume you need the exercise :-)
    ———-
    The gas station idea is interesting tho. Free gas would be huge and interest a lot of people. You would just have to have a clever way to somehow make ~$150 per person per week… and that sounds pretty difficult

  165. Simon

    I have made many home business mistakes in the past, but running things the way you want is priceless!

  166. ajacx

    ahaha… i think i am gonna sell my self on ebay….

  167. Ahmed

    iam a very happy to see some body who giving the people how to create a money iam a very poor money but know iam the way that i can create a money iam living in nairobi my nationality is somalian and iam student so iam collecting these days ways that i can create a money so if u have more idea contac with me dhegaweyne86@yahoo.com

  168. Sarah

    I would’ve thought the text dating thing would be a good idea, too.

    Shows how much I know, I guess :)

  169. McBilly Wilford

    The possibilities for disaster makes it the more interesting as a show. Just think of all the bloopers you could get.

  170. McBilly Wilford

    Haha. Yeah. Seriously, I LOLed hard on the last one. It would have been a real cool show. A lot of those kind of shows kinda click especially with all the weird shows popping around these days.

  171. Glowicki {roBlogger

    That would be awesome!

  172. Kristi @ Addicted2Decor

    This is encouraging. Sometimes we “little people” don’t realize the things that really successful people went through to be successful. I like Benamin Franklin’s quote, “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”

  173. SatishSays.com

    Get the petrol by the boot!!
    Muhahaha!

  174. Karn Patel

    Number 1 was really weird but I (sadly) would pay if you actually did it. That would be freakin awesome.

  175. Steve!

    I read this post again. I love it!

  176. Webmaster Forum

    last one made me laught :p

  177. softmanya

    i think first one is really good. you should try it.

  178. St. Marry’s Bar & Grill –
    1. I just wet myself laughing.
    2. I’d LOVE to see this…of course dress standards would apply for customers…they have to dress like vicars/popes/priests etc. and they take it in turns for lap dances from the catholic school girls/nuns…

    Hail Mary and god bless you Jeremy Shoemaker.

  179. EnergyThis.com

    Hillariously creative… Wow. I like St. Mary’s and the gas station.

  180. quest

    lol .. No.1 was the best and sorry for No. 9

  181. m07

    hahaha.rolling hahhaha on hahah the florr i ha am ha.nice hahahaha post.

  182. Affiliate Marketing Podcast

    Haha, love #1 – it’s nice to see that even the big guys still make human mistakes.

    ~ Dave

  183. Justin Dupre

    God hahaha…

    I feel like I am going through these same motions. Never being able to get the idea right and unable to build up the traffic that wants my services. Blah

    Just gotta keep trying till I get it right I guess.

  184. Daniel Peeden

    My Twin and I, come up with innovative ideas all of the time, at least we think they are. We are young entrepenuers that are getting our feet wet in th internet industry. Trigeia.com is our first site and i think the initial start up weve spent is about $30,000 and it isnt even live yet, Hopefully this works. But then i think to my self isnt anything possible even if you think it might be the dumbest idea on planet earth. They say “Persistance make the impossible, possible. The Possible, likely and the likely, definate.” I guess you just have to keep moving forward.

    Twin

  185. David Melamed

    LOL.
    Worst Idea for me was probably my reality tv show idea, “Two Babies, One Bottle.” You ever seen two under two kids one at home and the other is a guest. when the guest starts playing with a toy, the hosting baby usually gets pissed, and they can be quite vicious… I even pitched it to Steve Spira, the executive vp of global biz affairs of warner bros. whose words about it were, “Dude, you are twisted!” and than explained no one wants to watch a show with babies crying…

    My best idea ever, “Bikini Realty, motto: Actions between consenting adults is not the responsibility of Bikini Realty.

    It’s simply brilliant, Sex Sells, so why not let Sex sell houses ?! We have hot chicks in bikinis as our realtors doing apt. rentals for college dudes, and condo sales for rich bachelors and such….

  186. Empowering Success

    What a laugh fest! I loved them all, but agree, a couple really could make some money with the right marketing! I have actually had quite a few ideas, luckily my wife is good at making sure I don’t throw away any money on something I haven’t fully thought through.
    Actually I recently came up with an EXcellent idea, and I am sure it would go over great, but then again….

    Ron Killian

  187. newMediaMike

    Why did #7 fail? Was it a flat $0.25 per vehicle per day? week? I ask because I’m in the process of launching http://wheelsmart.tv – kind of like a cross between youtube and autotrader where people can advertise their own vehicles for sale using videos they shoot and post on youtube, but I want to charge dealers for professionally produced videos. I was going to keep the rate at the same as the local autotrader rags.

  188. Dave L

    Common problem with ideas—they are actually more like seeds, but most people treat them like trees. You need to start with an idea, develop it, combine it with other ideas, get at what’s right and wrong in the principle behind the idea, develop the principle, etc.

    But most people just take an idea and run with it. Rich Whittle has the right start, but need to go even further. Keep an idea diary and expand ideas over time for months.

  189. Margaret

    It’s really funny, but your worst idea regarding the car — well, check out THIS post … by the way this is not my site, but a post I came across earlier today :)

    Margaret

  190. Ricardo

    “paintball guns shooting at the people getting their gas! ”
    Now I’ve heard it all!

  191. Ricardo

    “paintball guns shooting at the people getting their gas! ”
    Now I’ve heard it all! :p

  192. Smart websites make money

    Well, and I have a friend coming up with what I thought to be the most stupid ideas :-) Anyway, I like the one with the gas station. And the one with the ferrari, of course

  193. Christine

    I would pay to shoot paintballs at people filling up with free gas! You can sell them full body plastic covers too. Woohoo! Please open it!

  194. Neotrepreneur

    SOme humm interesting ideas lol. Im just wondering how did you come up with all that?

  195. Wezod.com

    Number 1 is great… It could definitely be done outside city limits. I could think of a couple different ideas with this business model. lol

  196. pachecus

    LOL your Shoemoney Petroleum Company idea is the best one!

    hey shoe… what about new ideas?

  197. Jason Brailow

    Some of your ideas may have taken off with follow though, but your rich, who cares!!

  198. TvForPc

    Some great ideas actually, but you got enough money that it really wont affect you too much… lucky man!

  199. sexyMG

    Make a gas station and try to low the prizes of galons, i will come there every day then :D

  200. Israel

    u sure about that? sometimes it discourages you into not coming up with anything.

  201. Israel

    haha, i liked it a lot. sounds like a sick reality show.

  202. William

    Oh man, I laughed my ass off at #1. Not because it was a bad idea, but because I pictured it in my mind and thought that I’d like to see gas stations like that.

  203. Keith Cash

    I am MAD. You stole all my best Ideas. :)

    Cheers

  204. William Montanaro

    I agree with the thing about the forum, i ended up paying way over the odds for one cause I thought I could market it properly, but it turns out I can’t and there isn’t any money in it…

  205. SEOidiot

    The more bad ideas you have the better your chances of a good one

  206. Rich Sage

    Do you need Investors for the paintball gas station idea? Please get in tough!!! Ha… Can’t believe you got around to this. The wrong spark and there goes everything.

  207. Syd

    Everyone has their share of failures and mistakes. As it is said that success was never achieved without failure (maybe just a lucky few might have escaped this failure path). The important thing is not to give up when you fail and still go on. That is the test of character and strength.

  208. fbics

    nice ns ns…

  209. Tim

    The babyCalc and petroleum is very GOOD idea…Keep it up!

    –blog for dream–

  210. Tevin

    No kidding. I’m pretty much rolling on the floor.

  211. SEO Vibe

    #4 – topless anything has been done to death, not that anyone is complaining!

  212. Matthew

    ShoeMoney Petroleum Company – LOL if you ever figure out how to legally do this I want to invest…

  213. TIBET ARTS

    That’s good Idea At Last .
    hummm.

    Any way There are many FLOP story Behind every succesful Person .
    Best of luck

  214. Girish a.k.a KiHack

    What happened with the SEO contest?

  215. Dan

    The #1 is a great idea. Should try it in some country with less red tape :) I can imagine this totally happening on one of those supercrazy japanese gameshows / hidden cameras.

    Kudos for pointing out your failures! I must also state that I really admire your persistence to keep going and trying. After all, it can now be clearly seen it paid off huh? Great inspiration, thanks

  216. JoeTech.com

    These are effing great! #1 is awesome and in regards to #5, that would go over nicely in Phoenix. http://www.thelibraryusa.com The library is doing well (as far as I can tell), and I’d be at St. Mary’s all the time. Maybe I should post a list of my top 10 failure ideas, like when I decided to host a free image hosting site on GoDaddy hosting and GoDaddy didn’t enforce their bandwidth limit with a cap. Traffic was great, but the site came down when I saw the $2,700 hosting bill.

  217. Kay Kastum

    I found out about you in sabahan.com
    Well crazy people get crazy results right? Not to mention the crazy income :D

  218. Interwebhunt

    The gas station idea is by far the best idea i’ve ever heard for use of webcams in conjunction with paintball guns. I would completely buy into that project.

  219. John

    Great Post! It is nice to have someone talking about some of the failures they have experienced, along with the success. People always want to give up completely everytime they experience a failure. The truth is, you may fail 1000 times, but it only takes one time of being right to be a millionaire

  220. The Property Pundit

    Haha- very nice

  221. Samantha

    The gas station idea is great, it would definitely work and be sure to generate tons of publicity.

    Your text dating idea should have worked, but perhaps it was not marketed correctly.

  222. BloggerDollar

    Some crazy ideas, I beleive catholic school girls would make you a lot of money :)

  223. Deborah Dera

    #1 was great! I think you may have had insurance issues, though. No one would have given you coverage knowing all the people buying gas would sue you for new paint jobs after being hit!

  224. Tony Smith

    Funny post! It gives the rest of us hope that we need to just keep trying new things.

  225. Joeychgo

    were you really dieting heavy when you came up with the ShoeMoney Petroleum Company? LOL — Well, none of us are perfect.

  226. Domtan

    ShoeMoney Petroleum Company has to be the funniest idea encountered. Hilarious. But you could have made something out of the Text Dating idea. Sounds valid.

  227. Christopher Stigson

    HAHAHAHHAHHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  228. Hustle Strategy

    I am still laughing at the SEO contest. That is great…

  229. louise

    Oh wow, not often i cry lauging at a blog but I love this post! The gaosline idea just kills me! Maybe put the garage next to the nuns diner…

  230. Stream Clips

    Thanks for sharing. It gives me hope that I will find my niche as well .

  231. Stream Clips

    Thanks for sharing. It gives me hope to see that you finally found a niche that worked for you. Perhaps mine is coming soon.

  232. serge

    those are the kind of ideas that one has when laying in bed late at night. the next morning you wake up and think about it more… eventually the fire burns out when you realize it won’t work.

  233. 1000 Dollar Project

    lol we all have our sites we look back on and shed a tear for, but they made us what we are today. remembering the quality of my first website makes me cringe on how good i thought it was, but without it i wouldnt be as good as i am today (in my opinion lol)

  234. Catherine L

    LOL – the diner with nuns is hilarious. As is the gas station one.

    Seriously though – everyone has shit ideas. I reckon if you can find one good one in a hundred you’re laughing.

    One of my worst ones was trying to rent out fans to offices in the summer when we had a heatwave. By the time I’d got the flyers made and delivered the sunshine had gone – it only lasted about three or four days. We just don’t have much luck with weather over here in the uk.

  235. Harrisburg Web Design

    I can’t believe I didn’t see this post before. That gasoline idea is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read online. Brilliant!

  236. Vik Dulat - Making Money the Easy Way

    I love these flops shoemoney. I have couple of them I will shortly in my blog..Keep up the great work!

  237. Directory

    Nice for posting here so we would keep in mind not to follow up on them.

  238. Ashley

    I love the gas station idea, but I see why it would never work.

    But what about the same idea with the slow pumps and all, except show commercials to the customers as they’re standing there. I’d definately watch commercials for free gas.

  239. Brian

    great read, well worth my time =] thank you for sharing.

  240. Connoisseur

    Your efforts on the SMS text msg dating concept have sparked my imagination. I have an alternative use that may revitalize your idea, lets chat…

  241. Pete

    Somebody’s got to make the gas station site. I mean just think of traffic you could get with a idea as crazy as that.

    I think the pimpmyblog -idea was rather good. Instead of giving tools to create a blog I think they should do like the so. They would select weekly a blog and hire a professional web designer and some blogosphere guru and direct the site with huge amounts of traffic. I would visit the site weekly to see new pimped sites.

  242. Dabbling Mum

    I love it! You have great strength of character to be willing to share so many flops and in such a humorous and light-hearted way!

    I’m with Farmer77….I’d love to read about some of your “great ideas” that were not flops and why you feel they were not flops.

  243. Farmer77

    Shoe, can you post your 10 best ideas that worked? Okay, maybe not your best 10, since there would be some stuff you would want to keep for yourself. Maybe your best 11-20 ideas?

  244. Wealthy Webmaster

    Haha I’m glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that gas station part. I’d take the f430, naked chicks inside or not! That’s my favorite car at the moment. :P Now where did I put that extra 250g’s?

  245. Mike Dammann

    I could have told you about PimpMyBlog, but hey … you didn’t ask me ;)

  246. Rich Whittle

    Hey Shoe, I don’t know if you will read the 57th comment, but I think some of your ideas are good, just need a little tweaking!

    * 9 – BabyCalc.com – If you were about to have a baby you could go on this site and punch in some numbers then it would email you as your baby was growing and let you know what was going on… “like 10 days until you should be able to tell the sex of your baby!? or “Babys heart beat starts today? ect.. stuff like that.. I paid to have the backend developed and the site was about 95% completed (about a 1500$ investment).
    Then a very close friend of the family had a miscarriage about 15 weeks into her pregnancy and told us about how she had signed up for all these baby websites and now they keep emailing her stuff and she breaks down and cries every time…. I just wanted no part of that… FLOP

    *******Sounds like a great idea…..here’s a fix. Everytime the babycalc would send an email, it would require that the end user do something like confirm that they received the email by clicking on a link in the email or a visit to the website for articles related to the fetus development at that stage. If there was no interaction by the end user
    after 1 or 2 emails, the account would be frozen and would require a visit to the web site to restore.

    * 7 – Omaha-Used-Cars.com – Now here we go! This is easy. Just make a used car site and charge dealers a .25cent per car listing fee right ? ehhh none interested… FLOP

    ******Problem with this idea is that anyone can build this web site. To convince dealers to pay to list you would have to have a lot of traffic already coming to the web site. Something that would take time to build.

    * 6 – SMS Text Dating textdating.com/texting.com – I was soooooooo sure this one was going to be it! The concept is simple basically you subscribe to this dating website. Make a profile then you could send a message to the person from the website to there mobile phone without having to know there phone number. I had this totally done and nobody every signed up… FLOP

    *****This sounds like a great concept. How long did you try it? Also, marketing is a big key. You would need to come up with some sort of viral message to generate word of mouth. Now with Youtube, you could create a video showing a guy and gal using the service, but make it funny.

    * 5 – St. Marry’s Bar & Grill – Ok this has nothing to do with the internet. After the Hooters closed down in Lincoln I tried to re-open it then when that did not work out I thought about making a restaurant called St. Marrys where it was like a church and the waitresses dressed like catholic school girls and like the nuns would be the managers and spank the waitresses if they were bad?!? Yes I know bad idea and I never really pursued it…. I like in one of the most conservative catholic communities in the country so no way it would fly… and yes i know im going straight to hell.

    ***How about a little modification of the original concept? Instead of bar and grill, make it an upscale mens club.
    The waitresses/dancers would be dressed like catholic school girls and for a fee, men visitors could “buy” a yardstick ruler and smack the dancers. Make money from cover, rulers and liquor! When local churches complain
    and try to shut you down, free publicity and more people want to come!

    * 4 – 2 Topless Chix In A Ferrari Cross Country
    What would get more looks then a brand new ferrari f430 ? what if 2 topless girls were driving it cross country ? what if you could buy advertising on the car ? seemed like a good idea… then it did not.

    ***How about a little modification of the original concept? Put webcams all over the car and hook it up using wifi that would broadcast video “live” from car to your SUBSCRIPTION web site. Still put ads on car, but more money would be made from web site with Google maps showing where the car and the girls were. People would stand on side of road with cardboard signs (Like OJ Simpson Bronco “chase”).

    * 1 – ShoeMoney Petroleum Company -
    Ok Follow me here -
    I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas
    The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).
    How do I make money ? EASY – I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee. PROBLEM – I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance? or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…

    ***How about a little modification of the original idea? Still giving away FREE gas. Go to a gas station and work out a deal with the owner. Offer to allow him to give away free gas in exchange for putting advertising signs at the pumps advertising your sponsor. Then using the gas pump software, develop software that would randomly choose someone pumping gas that would receive a FREE $50 gas card. Gas station owner wins with more business, you win with selling advertising to your sponsors and drivers win with free gas.

  247. fthead9

    Brilliant post, seriously made my day. Someone in Vegas has to run with your Catholic schoolgirl/restaurant idea.

  248. kevin

    man, i really like the paintball idea. I could probably get away with that in a hick town in Florida. Funny stuff.

  249. Ben Yoskovitz

    Kudos for telling us about your flops. Actually, the 2nd most popular post on my blog was about my Top 4 Failures as an Entrepreneur.

    People love reading about other people failing. It’s the same like watching a celebrity crash and burn, or reality TV.

    Nice job putting it out there.

  250. Everett

    I’m glad I am not the only one to have major flops. Misery loves company and http://www.promotiontrader.com was certainly a miserable flop (yes, it’s being redirected now).

    The idea was that people could join and post service trades like “ISAPI expert will write regular expressions for your website in exchange for a custom site design from a creative website designer” etcetera. But I got more attempted link spam than actual posts. The problem was I didn’t have the time – at the time – to really give the project the push it needed.

    Lesson: Unless you are willing to commit on a project, don’t bother. There are too many websites out there for you to half-ass it and expect to succeed.

  251. SeoRookie

    The Petroleum Company is a hoot but I’m sure there are regulations about discharging projectiles around gas pumps. Just a hunch.

    A better idea is to offer free bikini car washes and let people take shots at the girls.

  252. Igor M. (BizMord Blog)

    Jeremy, first of all … it’s entertaining as well as educational to read a post like this one.

    I think that if everyone would share their flops, business man and women would benefit 50X more than if they’d go to every seminar and read every book on marketing.

    Here is an idea …. BusinessFlops.
    oops … already registered that one.

  253. Convert

    I used to hate you, just because I was jealous of your money making schemes, but all that has changed after reading this post. You’re not a superhuman, who could’ve believe that. This post has just bought you a new reader. Thanks for the laughs Jeremy! :)

  254. Mr. Unconventional

    Woo boy Shoe, I almost spit my drink out when I got to your petroleum company idea. That’s too funny. What’s even funnier is knowing how popular that would be.

    It reminds me of those remote control hunting sites. Ever see those? Yilkes!

    On a more serious note – posts like this show that behind most success there’s a large trail of ______ fill in the blank. ;) I don’t even want to go there… lol

    - Dave

  255. Joe

    Does he read your blog?

  256. Ron Wilson

    What are your best ideas?

  257. ShoeMoney

    hahaha nice one

  258. ShoeMoney

    actually warren lives in omaha and I used to live about 10 blocks from him… close enough =P

  259. Thomas Czasz

    Wohh, your a neighbour with Warren Buffet????

    anyways the last idea was great, but I dunno about the paintballs shooting in a high concentration gasoline area.. And also the people would need to wear masks or something

  260. Patrick

    Dude those are some sweet ideas. Actually, what people need to realize is that you can launch 20 good ideas and only have 1 gain enough momentum to make decent cash. Its all about throwing a ton of ideas against the wall to see what will stick…

  261. Lurkster

    Shoe, those are innovative. I like your thinking. The Gas station would be a blast, literally. I’m sure there is some poor neglected gas station in the middle of nowhere waiting to be the next “Field of Dreams? location…LOL

  262. Michael Martine

    I think you missed your calling as a reality tv show producer.

  263. enkumber

    WOW ! THIS IS A GREAT IDEA !

    If i would have money for this i would start it right away as i cannot see any problem making this business in Romania here.
    Hey Shoe, maybe you wanna invest in Romania ? I think you will not have enough gas :)

  264. enkumber

    Damn ! THIS IS A GREAT IDEA !

    If i would have money for this i would start it right away as i cannot see any problem making this business in Romania here.
    Hey Shoe, maybe you wanna invest in Romania ? I think you will not have enough gas :)

  265. numlock

    haha!

    The gas station is so completely out there that it just has to work, even on the publicity it would generate alone..

    As for the other sites, after doing the same for the last couple of years I’ve come to realize that the idea and design doesn’t really matter much. If you don’t get blogged about by the right people, or if you’re not in the San Francisco “in-group” then the chances are you’ll just get drowned out by all the other noise :-(

  266. yfs1

    You could vary #1 depending on station so although the Shoemoney Paintball Petroleum Station would be your flagship you could open a few new ones:

    Shoemoney Russian Roulete Petroleum Station – You either get free gas or free sugar, you just won’t know until you get a few miles down the road

    Shoemoney Penny Over Petroleum Station – You have to put in even amounts like $10 – If you accidentaly do a $10.01 the flame thrower is engaged

    • Michael

      Hahaha dude i lolled at yours haha

  267. Jawinn

    Wow its good to hear that you’ve had flops. It’s too easy in the celebrity worship culture we have to only focus on the results of hard work and not the work itself (and the failures that go with it).

    Thanks Shoe!

  268. Hone Watson

    Pimp my blog totally rocks! Except the badge no longer works.

  269. Miha

    Try to imagine the topless chicx in a Ferrari on ShoeMoney Gas Station… wow!

  270. Miha

    Try to imagine the topless chix in a Ferrari purchasing gas on ShoeMoney Gas Station… ;-)

  271. pascal

    Hi Jeremy,

    thank you for your great post. After meeting you in San Jose it is still impressing to me how open you tell your ups and downs.

    Keep on rocking!
    Pascal (without metal cards)

  272. Stevie12

    ahh also,

    you’ve told us your worst now we want to know your most successfull.

  273. Stevie12

    Nice post,

    Worse ideas have worked.

    I’d be willing to pay to see the topless chicks in the ferrari :p

  274. mrrbobs_free_dating

    thnx for posting these. what a hoot. The gas station thing would be too cool. But that should be done in southern California I think.

  275. Mike Seiler

    Do you think part of the problem with #10 was that most people going to the forum already had Firefox?

  276. Quadszilla

    SHOEMONEYPETROLEUMCOMPANY.COM is available!

    Man, if I had 8 bucks I would snatch that in a heartbeat. Too bad my credit cards just got hit again for my monthly subscriptions to foot fetish sites. . .

    My worst idea for making money? “Investing” in baseball cards when I was 8. :(

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      Its nice to see that you were start investing at the age of 8 and from that moment you have learned at lot.

  277. Tuppy Glossop

    yes i know im going straight to hell
    No … first you’re being spanked by a nun. Then you’re going straight to hell!

  278. ShoeMoney

    ok the ferrari thing was your idea but the topless chix was me

    • Kyle Correia

      i got an idea for a website that would be as big as youtube and facebook and rival if not beat there daily traffic im currently working two jobs blogging and selling e books to fund the building of the site its been 9 months since i started saving and working my ass off i go to online everyday and pray no one thinks of it before i get all the money together!….wish me luck or become a business partner?…anyone wanna invest email me kylecorreia@hotmail.com.
      note i will not TELL anyone the idea till they sign a contract stating they will not steal the idea….i didnt go threw the last 9 months of torture for nothing

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      Lolzzz … another great humour from you.

  279. dillsmack

    Dude the Ferrari thing was totally my bad idea!

  280. Ian Anderson

    Great post shoe. People need to know that the vast majority of businesses fail, and that the failure of a business does not mean that you are a failure. If you keep trying, eventually you’ll find something that works.

  281. Caydel

    Please Shoe – bring on the gas station. I would love paying to peg random people with paintballs via a webcam….

  282. Don Chavez

    The gas station idea is priceless. I keep picturing housewives walking through their front door covered with paint.

  283. Dan

    #1 is genius

  284. Dan

    ShoeMoney Petroleum Company.. pure genius :D

  285. Dr G

    I got some southerners, to be politically correct, looking into the Petroleum company idea. That stuff will work for at least a quarter or two.
    Take care Shoe!

  286. Bulbboy

    Stick with Nun restaurant, it could be a goer =P

    and PimpMyBlog ain’t dead yet. You could revive it yet.

    Not so sure about the Petrol Paintball though, possiblities for disaster are many and varied. In the words of Wayne’s world : Ka-boom!

  287. garrett

    Goood to see that you had alot of flops too. I thought the cell sms dating thing would be a good idea. They have a couple azoogle offers that do pretty well doing this.Cell Flirt and some new Playboy cell dating thing. But the gas station paintball thing would be the best , i would love to sign up on a website and shoot paintballs at people. I think you need to give that one another shot

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      Yeah I do feel that this one was a great idea and if that wont work out that time than he should start now again.

      Man mobiles are increasing at very fast pace and we should capitalise it as well.

  288. kid disco

    Hey Shoe! Very courageous post! Some of those are freakin’ hilarious… but I think a couple are actually pretty valid ideas that may have just needed a bit of an extra marketing push…

    • oh

      f+ck i hate you so much right now!

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      Yeah some were really good one like texting one. It should be worked and if this one get the start than this would be the big thing now.

  289. peter

    the gas station is soooo cool lol!
    i bet this could be one very succesfull thingy, not for long but to make a nice amount of money, but needs good planning with tv camera teams and stuff.

    Or maybe people must get their gas naked? ^^

  290. Tom

    oops change #10 to #1 my bad

  291. Tom

    The petroleum company had me nearly wetting my pants laughing so hard. What a great warped idea.

    The other weakness though is the trial lawyers. Can you imagine the disclaimer that you would have to have before anyone could enter the “fueling arena”"?

  292. feralcat

    Laughing out loud at the Shoemoney Petroleum Company idea! I hope somebody does it.

  293. Chris

    That last one was a fricken excelent idea!! I would have paid for that.

    • Online Dividends

      Number 10 sounds like a pretty decent return on investment. 6.25% sure beats bank deposits. How has the firefox forum performed since then?

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      But what about the government and other legal rules as well.

  294. shoelover

    Number 1 may be one of the funniest business ideas I have heard in a long long time.
    xoxo
    Shoelover

    • Myrtle Beach Rentals

      #1 is funny, talking about crazy expensive at about $3.75 a gallon

    • Manzanillo Blogger

      The thing is, people would actually go! Heck I would go. It’s free gas. The best thing is that then you could set up an automatic car wash at your gas station and charge a premium for it.

    • zalim

      Number 1 is definitely the greatest idea here. No doubt!!!!

    • Internet Marketing Industry

      Funny Indeed…except I dont know how long it would be legal to have your customers shot with a paintball lol- the thought is hillarious though.

    • Make money online with a 17 year old kid

      Hi Shoelover. Your name suggests that you are a big fan of shoemoney. Well I too think that 1st one was funny but I enjoyed the 4th one the most.

      And a $800 investment for a website that earned $50 the whole year has really warned me. I was going to buy such site at sitepoint.

      Thx a lot for this post ShoeMoney. Now a know what I don’t need to do to earn money online. Thx again.

      Regards
      Laksh
      http://makemoneyonline-withme.blogspot.com/

    • ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

      I do not think that this one was funny. If this will get success than we were following him. But anyway sometime it fails too.

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