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

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

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

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”"?

oops change #10 to #1 my bad

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? ^^

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…

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

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!

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!

ShoeMoney Petroleum Company.. pure genius

#1 is genius

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

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

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.

Dude the Ferrari thing was totally my bad idea!

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

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

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.

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

[...] Das hat natürlich auch seinen Grund: Erfahrung. Durch Fehlschläge lernen wir die Mängel an unseren Web-Projekten zu analysieren und erhalten Feedback für unsere zukünftigen Ideen. Der “Shoemoney”, ein amerikanischer Blogger, hat dazu ein schönes Beispiel gegeben: Seine Top 10 der schlechtesten Ideen um im Internet Geld zu verdienen. [...]

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.

Nice post,

Worse ideas have worked.

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

ahh also,

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

[...] From a post on a blog called Shoemoney I came across today comes a failed business idea of the blogger. I’ll just quote what he says, as it’s hilarious. [...]

Schoemakers Flop 10…

Was haben gute Geschäftsideen mit erfolgreichen Geschäftsideen gemeinsam? Richtig: Ziemlich oft rein gar nichts. Wir alle hatten schon gute Geschäftsideen, von denen wir überzeugt waren, dass sie auch erfolgreich sind. Aber oft wurden wir eines bes…

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)

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

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

[...] eines muss man ihm lassen, er versucht es. Shoemoney, kein Unbekannter in der Webszene, schildert seine gescheiterten Webprojekte. Die folgende Idee ist wahrhaftig plemplem, gefällt mir aber: [...]

[...] My Top 10 Worst Ideas To Make Money [...]

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

[...] [«] Shoemoney My Top 10 Worst Ideas To Make Money [...]

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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

hahaha nice one

What are your best ideas?

Does he read your blog?

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

[...] Shoemoney Lite? - “I think my new years resolution in 2007 is to be way more humble.”   There goes the ying to my yang… Google Folds for Brazil - as they turn over the requested info, think about what you say online. We need to protect even the thoughts and speech of those we despise… [...]

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.

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

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. Now where did I put that extra 250g’s?

[...] What entrepreneurs have to remember is that failure is real. And it will happen. It happens to everyone, even those that are successful today. [...]

[...] My top 10 worst ideas to make money - they’re not my ideas at all. Instead they belong to a very successful solo search engine marketer. If you want to see just how successful he is just have a look at the cheque he’s holding up in the ‘Most Viewed Photo’ that should appear to the right of the story when you follow the link. [...]

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?

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.

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.

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…

[...] After reading shoemoney’s post on his failures I thought it was time that I stay humble and mention some of mine… Where I am now is from learning from my mistakes. i’ve had a lot of ideas over the years and with each one I think I learned a lesson. Now it’s just a matter of having time to build new projects. [...]

[...] Crazy Shoemoney Man… I had to laugh/share/poke fun at his list of My Top 10 Worst Ideas To Make Money. In a way, I don’t feel so stupid. In another way, I feel more stupid because some of my ideas aren’t even this good. [...]

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

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.

[...] Adventures in search engine marketing By Jeremy Schoemaker. … How do I make money EASY - I would setup paintball guns around the gas station … Read More …. [...]

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

[...] Second, you can learn from his mistakes. While he has had tremendous success, he has also failed. In fact, my favorite post over the last year was his “My Top 10 Worst Ideas to Make Money“. The post reveals not only some inherent insanity on his part, but also his willingness to be creative and risky. The post is must reading for anyone who wants to try and earn a quick buck. The post itself has entertainment value: you will laugh your butt off when you read it. [...]

[...] the best and most effective ways to monetize locally focused websites? I know you come up with some crazy/cool marketing ideas from time to time, what’s a really useful easy idea that anybody could try for their hometown and be successful [...]

[...] September I published a list of ideas I had but never followed through on (well some i made a half ass effort on). I honestly come up with a new idea a day. 95% of them [...]

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

[...] Shoemoney shares his 10 Online Flops. [...]

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!

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.

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)

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.

[...] shared some pretty outrageous business ideas in his post: My Top Ten Worst Ideas To Make Money, and it really is worth checking out. You can read it here. The wackiest one has to be the [...]

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

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

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…

[...] [7] ShoeMoney’s Top 10 Worst Ideas to Make Money - A very funny post by Shoemoney where he reveals 10 of his business ideas that flopped badly. My favourite has to be gas station that gave out free gas (very slowly) with paintball guns shooting at the people getting their gas! [...]

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