10 Business Ideas That Are Both Stupid And Profitable

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1. Million Dollar Homepage

1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.

2. PickyDomains

Hire another person to think of a cool domain name for you? No way people would pay for this. Actually, naming domain names for others turned out a thriving business, especially, when you make the entire process risk free. PickyDomains currently has a waiting list of people who want to PAY the service to come up with a snappy memorable domain name. PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year. Full Story

3. Doggles

Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.

4. LaserMonks

LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. Full Story

5. AntennaBalls

You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire. Full Story

6. FitDeck

Create a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online for $18.95. Sounds like a disaster idea to me. But former Navy SEAL and fitness instructor Phil Black reported last year sales of $4.7 million. Surely beats what military pays.

7. PositivesDating.Com

How would you like to go on a date with an HIV positive person? Paul Graves and Brandon Koechlin thought that someone would, so they created a dating site for HIV positive folks last year. Projected 2006 sales are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year mark.

8. Designer Diaper Bags

Christie Rein was tired of carrying diapers around in a freezer bag. The 34-year-old mother of three found herself constantly stuffing diapers for her infant son into freezer bags to keep them from getting scrunched up in her purse. Rein wanted something that was compact, sleek and stylish, so in November 2004, she sat down with her husband, Marcus, who helped her design a custom diaper bag that’s big enough to hold a travel pack of wipes and two to four diapers. With more than $180,000 in sales for 2005, Christie’s company, Diapees & Wipees, has bags in 22 different styles, available online and in 120 boutiques across the globe for $14.99.

9. SantaMail

Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer. Full Story

10. Lucky Wishbone Co.

Fake wishbones. Now, this stupid idea is just destined to flop. Who in the world needs FAKE PLASTIC wishbones? A lot of people, it turns out. Now producing 30,000 wishbones daily (they retail for 3 bucks a pop) Ken Ahroni, the company founder, expects 2006 sales to reach $1 million.

To see other businesses that have not made the top 10 list but came pretty close, visit Uncommon Business Ideas Blog

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Entrepreneur scores with low-tech game in high-tech world.

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http://www.zelosport.com/

It didn't happen the way you might think. Not when children and sharp-pointed origami paper footballs are involved. No eyes were put out or even poked--despite countless dire warnings from mothers. Spud Alford simply saw some kids playing a game he remembered playing during his own childhood--finger football--and thought there had to be a better and safer way. He invented the board version of the game in 1989, but he didn't "take it to the next level." After a brief run, it died.

In 2004, Alford, 55, was wide awake at 3 a.m. and had an epiphany: He was supposed to follow through on his 15-year-old dream. "I found the material, I found investors, and I stayed the course," he says.

For a year, Alford kept his job as an investigator for the government while working on a prototype and a business plan. "I was worn out," he says. But a well-timed $100,000 check from an investor changed everything. Alford quit his job, opened an office and pursued Zelosport and Finger Football full-time.

By the fall of 2006, the Columbus, Georgia-based company, with Alford as CEO and his brother, Mike, as president, was ready to kick things off. The game, with its football field configuration, mom-friendly soft football and goal posts at either end, sold 12,000 units. By comparison, Trivial Pursuit sold zero units its first--and second--year. In four years, Zelosport has moved 80,000 games through seasonal mall kiosks, 700 mom-and-pop stores, Amazon.com and other outlets. Alford knows that big-box retailers are the way to big success in the toy biz. But for now, Zelosport is sticking to its lean-and-mean strategy.

That's not to say that growth isn't part of the game plan. Tactics include an expanded lineup. The company has already added hockey, basketball, soccer, golf and baseball, which won a toy of the year award in 2007 from FamilyFun Magazine. And plans for tennis, car racing and the decathlon are in motion. Its market advance also involves the National Finger Football League, a collection of local and statewide leagues that will compete against each other for the right to face off in the national tournament in Columbus. Fourteen states have leagues, and the first national tournament is scheduled for fall 2010. And then there is personalization; the game board can be made to look like the field at any high school or college. Coors Light had the company create games for the brewer to give to its distributors.

If you don't know, finger football is played by two people using a folded triangle of paper (the football). Players flick the football across a flat surface trying to get it to stop partially over the edge. A successful try earns a player the right to turn the football on its end and flick it in the air through a goal post made by his opponent using his hands, the tips of outstretched thumbs pushed together and pinkies sticking up--think two "hang loose" gestures connected at the thumbs. The rules for scoring and game length--as well as the width of the goal posts--varied widely as young boys tried to tilt the game to their advantage. Alford standardized the rules.

So why, in a decidedly high-tech era, did launching a decidedly low-tech game strike Alford as the right thing to do? His faith played a big role, and he knew families would like a game everyone could play together. Appearances on CNN and The 700 Club didn't hurt Finger Football's prospects, either.

With sales of $1 million over a four-year span and roughly the same pace expected for 2010, about 40 college licensing agreements, an expanding roster, a growing network of competitive leagues and word-of-mouth buzz growing, it might just be time to call Zelosport and Finger Football a 20-year overnight success.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Entrepreneur]

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Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Homeless As Tour Guides

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http://www.sockmobevents.org.uk/

It's a well-known fact that tourists typically get a very different view of a city than locals do, but it's a pretty safe bet that participants in Sock Mob Events tours get an even more different view than most. That's because Sock Mob's Unseen Tours of London are led by none other than homeless residents of the city streets themselves.

Inspired by London's Sock Mob, which is a volunteer group that engages routinely with London's homeless, Unseen Tours offer an entertaining and poignant walk through the streets of London with trained homeless guides, giving participants a historical but also unexplored perspective. The tours interweave the guides' own stories and experiences, giving participants a view of the city through the lens of homelessness while introducing a new social consciousness into commercial walking tours. Four routes are currently available — more are coming soon, the group says — each culminating in a “merry pub trip” at the end. Pricing is GBP 5 or GBP 8 per walk, depending on what the participant can afford, and two free places per tour are always set aside for people who are unable to pay and/or are accompanying someone as a care-giver. Launched on World Homeless Day — 10 Oct. 2010 — Unseen Tours happen at 7pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 3pm on Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine.

In offering its Unseen Tours, Sock Mob aims not only to provide tour participants with a different view of the city, but also to empower the homeless and restore their confidence. The “lion's share” of the tour's proceeds goes to the guides, the group says, with any profit getting reinvested directly back into the enterprise to engage more guides and widen the scope of the offered tours. Ultimately, the group hopes to turn over the reins of the enterprise to one of the homeless guides themselves, and to spread the concept to other cities.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

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Bar On Wheels - The PedalPub

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http://www.pedalpub.com/

Entrepreneurs: Eric Olson and Al Boyce, dedicated home brewers with day jobs--Olson teaches business at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., and Boyce is a computer programmer for U.S. Bank in St. Paul, Minn.

What Possessed Them: A fellow home brewer e-mailed Olson a photo of a crazy-looking pub on wheels in Europe. "I said, ‘Damn, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.'" He tracked down the creators--brothers Henk and Zwier van Laar in (where else?) Amsterdam--and asked how to make one. They sold him one instead.

"Aha" Moment::In 2007, they got the first PedalPub rolling and sent e-mails out to friends and family, expecting a mild reaction. "But our e-mail list started to explode," Olson says. "And that's when I had the first inkling that this might be really successful."

Startup: Savings and home-equity loans covered the $40,000 to buy their first PedalPub, plus $20,000 to buy a van, a trailer, insurance, storage and marketing materials.

Pedalmania: Olson and Boyce have six PedalPubs in the Twin Cities, one in Houston, plus licensees in Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Lawrence, Kan., and Milwaukee; plus, one sold to Amstel Light.

Customers: Birthday parties, corporate events, even a wedding. Most are women--68 percent.

Vital Stats: PedalPubs weigh 2,340 pounds empty (without beer or drinkers) and have a top speed of 5 mph. They seat 10 pedalers, a bartender and a driver and rent for $160 to $190 per hour, BYOB.

2011 and Beyond: They plan to franchise the concept next year. Says Olson, "I'd love to see 500 of these things all over the country."

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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I Caught Santa And You Can, Too!

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http://www.icaughtsanta.com/

Mommy, is there really a Santa Claus? Why did Billy’s mom say there isn’t a Santa? If you haven’t heard these questions yet, you likely will as the little ones grow and begin to question the antics and even the sheer existence of the jolly old elf. Would you like to be able to offer a bit of proof to an inquiring little mind? Wouldn’t we all like to prolong the magic of Santa Claus even one more year? iCaughtSanta.com lets parents not only put an end to the questions and doubt—but, create a memorable photo of Santa caught in the act in a child’s very own home!

Meeting Santa at the mall or the local toy store rarely puts a child’s questions to rest. Imagine, instead, being able to offer a color photo of Santa literally caught in the act of delivering holiday joy in the child’s own living room or perhaps descending the fireplace in the little ones very own home. iCaughtSanta.com helps visitors create a unique keepsake photo of Santa inside the child’s home by combining site provided digital images of Santa Claus with a user’s uploaded digital photo as the background. Want a photo of Santa by the Christmas tree—or bending down to pet the family dog? With 20 different Santa poses from which to choose, visitors can select a wide variety of poses to coordinate with personal background photos.

Yes, tech savvy parents or photographers may be able to accomplish such a photo creation with a variety of software tools—but, for many of us, the time and effort involved is a bit too much at such a busy time of the year. iCaughtSanta.com makes it easy. In three simple steps visitors to iCaughtSanta.com can upload a holiday scene—such as a shot of the fireplace or the Christmas tree, add an iCaughtSanta.com offered image of Santa Claus and print it either at home or have it printed at participating retailers. Photos can also be shared via email, Facebook or on Twitter.

iCaughtSanta.com uses Adobe Flash technology to create custom images from user uploaded photos combined with one of the 20 Santa images available on the site. The site is designed with three easy steps in mind—but, users are able to take advantage of advanced settings to rotate and move the Santa overlay image, or adjust the size, brightness and color of both the chosen Santa and the uploaded holiday background to be sure that the Santa image matches the digital photo.

These make really cute keepsake gifts for grandchildren or nieces and nephews as well. Last-minute shoppers can also purchase Gift Cards and eGift Certificates for loved ones with children, making iCaughtSanta.com photos a unique gift idea even if you aren’t a parent yourself. If Santa doesn’t visit a child in your life—check out some of the other beloved childhood characters such as the Tooth Fairy available at iCaughtacharacter.com—the home site for iCaughtSanta.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Examiner.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Shrtn.Co

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http://www.shrtn.co/

Twitter and Facebook users are familiar with URL shorteners, the web tools that turn long and unwieldy links into short, shareable ones. Bristol-based shrtn is adding to that concept by helping social media users earn some extra cash while sharing product links.

Like other shorteners, shrtn has a simple interface that lets users enter long URLs, which are then shortened to something like http://shrtn.co/hb (linking, in this case, to Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From). The big difference with other services is that shrtn has signed up with over a hundred online merchants, and adds affiliate identifiers to their URLs. Ever time an item is purchased through a registered user's shortened link, shrtn receives a commission and passes part of that on to the user.

So if someone short-links to their favourite perfume on Beauty.com, and one of their friends follows that link and buys from Beauty.com, the user receives a cut of the affiliate earnings (shrtn pays out 70–80% of the total commission). Users receive their earnings through PayPal, or can choose to donate them to charity, in which case shrtn adds an additional 20% on top.

By simplifying affiliate marketing for ordinary consumers and keeping the experience unobtrusive for those who click on links (it doesn't add pop-ups or insert elements into the user's browser) shrtn seems like a win-win for all involved.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

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Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Storage By Mail

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http://www.storagebymail.com/

Centralized storage in the “cloud” is becoming an increasingly ubiquitous option for consumers' digital belongings, but tangible goods are still typically hauled off to expensive self-storage units when they can't be accommodated at home. New Jersey-based StorageByMail is a company that aims to change that, however, with a service that lets clients send their possessions through the mail to the company's central warehouse for flexible offsite storage.

Similar in many ways to Garde Robe's service for clothes and Dorm2Dorm's solution for college students' possessions, StorageByMail maintains a world-class storage facility that's also used by brands including Bloomingdale's and Tommy Hilfiger. Customers of the service begin by creating an account and an online description of any package of goods they'd like to send into storage. Next, they print a custom, prepaid USPS shipping label for each box they'd like to send; for users on the go, there's even a mobile app to send a label to the nearest fax machine. Either way, those labels ensure safe passage for the goods through the U.S. Postal Service to StorageByMail's warehouse. When the customer wants them back, he or she simply requests return delivery and the company will ship them out the next business day. Storage pricing ranges from USD 4.99 per month per cubic foot for a pay-as-you-go option to USD 249 per month for an annual plan including 100 boxes of any size and free return-trip shipping. For consumers with just a single box to store, there is no charge. A video on YouTube explains StorageByMail's concept in further detail.

We've already noted on many occasions the ownership-averse nature of today's transumers, who don't want to be tied down with possessions when they aren't currently using them. Mobile consumers, however, are likely to find StorageByMail's location-independent service equally compelling, as are space-strapped urban dwellers. One to partner with or emulate in your part of the world?

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You