A blogger's guide to bootstrap start-up

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on July 15, 2006

I know. I know. This is what the whole site is supposed to be about, right?

But blogger and start-up consultant Dan Marques has put together such a concise list of bootstrap resources for online start-up in the post-dot-com era that it simply must be included here.

Dan recommends:

• Ebay or Retrobox for used or refurbished hardware,

• OpenOffice and SimpleMepis for open source software

• Doteasy or other inexpensive services for hosting

• Elance and Design Outpost for graphic design and programming

• Template Monster and other template web design options

• Google Adwords and Overture for targeted search ads

• BlogAds, AdBrite and Marques' own company profileAds for niche Internet advertising

• Craigslist and launching a blog (see this post) for freebie promotion

A post on Bnoopy to which Dan refers suggests the difference in start-up cost for online companies between today and 10 years ago could be $100,000 versus $3,000,000.

(Actually, I think it could be a hell of a lot lower than that under the right circumstances.)

So now that you have what you need, go off and build your post-dot-com empire. But please remember us humble bloggers when you do.