How to find out if your idea will work without ...

... people copying?

Say I think of "Idea X" ... how do I find out if people will use Idea X without people thinking, "I could do that!" and then take your idea?

Is it just one of those things you have to do or are you better just starting it without asking and hope people do?

 

All good ideas are copied. The goal is to be the first to come up with an idea, make some money, and start thinking of another idea.

 

I would argue that the goal is actually to execute the idea well. Most often than not the ones that come up with the idea first are not the ones that win over the market.

If you are afraid someone else will execute the idea better than you do, just patent it. That's what patents are for. When you start working on your site, make sure it is obvious that you have "patent pending". Provisional patents are very cheap and give you a whole year until you find out if the idea even needs to go and become fully patented.

Cheers!

 

Very good advice!

Also, make sure that anyone that you discuss it with sign's a "NO COMPETE" agreement and make sure that you retain legal council as well. Getting a good lawyer can sometimes make or break your "good idea"

Think first, then act - and whatever you do, be careful and trust your gut.

Best of luck to you!

 

Very true.. it's whoever does it best that reaps the best benefits.

 

I think that the key factor is just making an early name for yourself in the market. If you are the first person to come up with the idea, you should have some time to establish yourself before the copycats run in. Just make a quality site and you'll always have some brand loyalty.

 

Do you have examples to prove your point? No offense but it sounds very naive to thing that this will work. Look at the real life lessons. Do you think DIGG made it big because they were the first? They were backed up by people with money. Look at YouTube... same thing. If you want to make it big you have to establish connections with the big boys, there is no question about it.

Just to reiterate... The only way an individual can make it big is if they do a patent and license the technology to the big boys. But one way or another you HAVE to mix with the big players to make it big.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the replies guys

 

Not really. I took something that was already there, changed a few things and created an entire niche. The site was recently sold for $17,000 and it was nothing but one page with a simple php script. Now there are 1000's of these sites. And because I was the first to do it in this manner, I got a huge boost from digg, blogs, stumble upons and etc.

At one time I held top 10 in Google, Yahoo, and MSN for the main keyword. Over 400 million results in G for it.

If you create brand awareness off the bat, before anyone has a chance to copy you, and you have a really good domain, you should be just fine IMO

 

That's great! I think it is an amazing and inspiring achievement. But $17K at least here in the states is not enough to retire.

 

Agreed, it is who has done it best. I remember back before Youtube came out I was asked to be involved in a video host website, and I said nah it'd never fly. In the end I don't remember who or what the name was and then look what happened to YouTube!!!

 

I agree but best means best on all of the accounts. One of the reasons youtube made it big is because they had a scalable solution. They had enough money and servers so when millions of people started visiting the service didn't just die out.

 

If you have a good idea, execute it and do not tell anyone.