I am in a creative mode just now, trying to think of “the next big thing” and I have come to the conclusion that the way to make money these days online is to make something for free, give it away for free, get hundreds of thousands of users and sell it to a company who will go on to monetise it. Seems all pretty simple, or is it!

Well the problem is with anything you do for free it will ultimately cost you and if it’s really popular, it will really cost you. Take Twitter it’s as simple as they get idea wise but it taps in to what people want to do, express views to their friends and anyone that will listen to them in an easy way that accessible on the move, a kind of mass text message system where everyone you know can join in the conversation and it’s currently free.

The thing is Twitter costs millions to run for free, in fact I think it’s something nuts like $92 million has been invested in Twitter so far, could be more. I say nuts because as far as I can tell it’s not made a penny, however I hear in Japan its Advert supported so maybe that’s something we will all see down the line.

Anyway what I am getting at is the right free service could make you very rich, so that’s what I been thinking about. What could I build while we are in a recession that people with money will be interested in getting a slice of when we come out the recession (and if it’s really good even before that happens).

So get thinking, and think Global. I far too often have been thinking and acting local (aka UK) but it time to get Global. Don’t worry if you can’t do design or programming, most of the best ideas online are by people who couldn’t upload a web page let alone program a complex system.

p.s. I never posted this on my Affiliate Blog, why? Because Affiliate Marketing is great but not the only way to make money online and some times you just need to build it and worry about the money making down the line.

Just a random thought, but do people think “lets eBay it” these days instead of lets take it to the Charity Shop / put it in them massive Charity Bins at the local dump?

Only crossed my mind as I was looking on eBay to see what price an item I got last summer for £50 was at now, someone is selling it for a crazy £1,000 (normal price is around £600 to £700) come on it’s a digital item, it’s not even real. Well the card it comes on is real, but that’s not what people are paying for. In a recession, I can’t believe an item like that would get this kind of money, will have to follow the bids and see if they sell.

Anyway was taking a look around what was for sale as I am thinking of plugging an eBay and Amazon back feed in to a few of my new websites and noticed a huge trend in selling clothes, so that mean charity shops are not getting the clothes they once got, not going to loose any sleep over it, just a thought!

Finally I see the point to Twitter. I have held 2 “personal” accounts and my main business accounts for some time now (could even be 2 years now), but only ever used Twitter for Paid On Results and even then it’s really only been to inform people of New Merchants that join. However after finally getting an iPhone, I decided to give Twitter a try. Basically so far it seems that your just thinking out loud, you know mostly talking crap to other people who like to read about the crap you will talk .. But it’s strangely fun, it’s kind of like being part of a conversation that can be brief or go on and on but you only take part when you want to and I guess it’s a bit like listening in and being allowed to give your view when you want to in some cases people you hardly even know.

So far I have started off with friends from Affiliate Marketing that I have managed to find and already some people have found me, but so far not a single one of my family or friends seem to use or even know what Twitter is.

Micro blogging for micro brains LOL

Anyway here is hoping my Twitter is not just a work talking shop because if that’s all it’s going to be then I will probably switch off, however so far so go.

Add me to your Twitter so I can talk crap even more than I do here.

twitter.com/ClarkeDuncan

As many of you know I lead a busy life being a director at a few Internet companies, my typical day will start after dropping off my son at school I go in to the office, solving problems, reading blogs, coming up with ideas and working away on various projects with the odd meeting thrown in for good measure.

Getting closer to lunch time when I get an MSN message from Fraser “why are you not out finding the liveguy?” what on earth is he on about, so I ask and sends me a link to his blog post on the Vodafone Liveguy. The day before he was in Edinburgh and Fraser decided he would go look for him after it was clear that very few others had taken the leap from desktop to out and about. So what did I do, went off for lunch and decided I too would track him down, and I did. With Frasers help back at his Affiliate Command Centre he guided me like a Cruise Missile straight to the building the Liveguy had ducked in to, however when he came out of the building I was just up a bit outside Scottish Screen’s Glasgow HQ and missed him by like 10 seconds as someone else who decide to take the afternoon off work got in with the magic phrase.

So we have one Affiliate Marketing winner in Edinburgh, I have let the side down for Glasgow but Newcastle is next, will Kieron strike another blow for people who work but when something interesting Internet wise comes along go running from the office with any excuse just to take part even when they don’t actually want the prize, they just want to win!

I just did a blog post over at one of my company websites Paid On Results affiliate marketing company. About the new charts and graphs we are installing this weekend on the Affiliate and Merchants control areas.

Lots of people have asked me about these graphs before, as most of you see them back at the start of August on a website of another company of mine House Price Spy, free house prices website. If you check out the graphs here for various house price trends you will see they look rather good and while like to take the credit for making them it was in fact a company called Fusion Charts, what is most shocking is the price points you can buy the software in at from as little as $69 all the way to $1,999 and believe me these prices are amazingly good especially with the flexibility on how you can use the charts. I expect to see a lot more Affiliate sites using these in future as why use boring dull crap looking charts when these stuff is such great value.