The Web's opportunities, as seen in my world

I read with great interest about Mike Arrington in Wired. He runs TechCrunch, a blog about consumer-facing Web start-ups, and he's a fairly influential guy. The article talks a lot about his revenue and power in Silicon Valley. It's a neat story, because he's capturing what mainstream media can't.

Of course these kinds of stories cause me to reflect a bit as a former mainstream media guy myself. Honestly, the power doesn't interest me at all, but steady revenue that can build wealth, generated on my own terms and not by offering services, is incredibly appealing. I should know, because I've built just such a business.

But that business is small. Really small. I serve coaster enthusiasts mostly with CoasterBuzz, and almost by accident I serve the amusement industry at large, which only has a few lame and slow dead tree publications. Mind you, it's a really small business overall, so the opportunity is certainly rather limited. I could probably squeeze out another couple of grand in annual revenue, but at the expense of a disproportionate amount of work. It's great for funding vacations and gadgets, but not so good for living off of. Expanding into the amusement industry specifically with a new brand could make even more (I don't care if it sounds arrogant, I could tear down the print rags), but I'm not sure the amount of work matches the output and expense. I have done the math on that one.

Which leads me to the idea that I'd like to start something new, with a more broad audience. I've actually got one idea already that I think I could bring together pretty quickly, and if I spend a couple thousands on marketing it, could bring in a user base. Of course, it's another community of sorts. I just need the time and balls to try it.

I feel like I need a retreat to somewhere quiet where I can focus on my own projects. Despite my best efforts to make home as comfortable as possible in that regard, I don't think it's an ideal place for me to really make stuff happen right now. The only true "distraction" is the comfort of home itself.