ok well, i hope/think this is the right place for this.

I thought of an idea for a webpage. I plan to make it myself. I've learned html and css fairly well, but i'm obviously going to have to go into many more before this webpage is ever made.

Heres the problem. I am completely and utterly clueless and what steps i need to take. I have the desire and determination to keep with it no madder how long it takes, but i need to ask questions to many different people before i even start working on it. However, lets say my idea is workable, and it has never been done, what is stopping whoever i ask help about from just taking it and making his own website using my idea before mine is made?

I have so many questions I want to ask, but am somewhat scared too because I don't know if the person i'm asking is just going to take my idea and use it as his own, and i don't think what could be stopping that from happening.

My hopes aren't high though, i don't know if it could even work, or if its even a good idea, but i just want to make sure it won't be stolen, if anybody would even want to too begin with. Is there anything I can do about this?

ty

well, people will take your idea.. here's the trick

you have to release it to the public in a form they can't take it....


become the standard and then everyone else will be copies


if you need help with marketing, I can help you out... You need to submit your site to other websites that have a higher pagerank, traffic, and inbound link count than yours... This will "plug your site in" to the traffic patterns of the web..

You need to submit your site to other websites that have a higher pagerank, traffic, and inbound link count than yours..

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

I think what he was referring to was how can he ask questions/advice from people who won't steal his idea before he even makes the site.

SEO has nothign to do with it, because you can't exactly do anything without the website being made.


The best suggestion I have would be to find some friend that you know in real life (note: not from intarwebz) that has web knowledge and will assist you. Hopefully, they are a decent person and will support you rather than steal your idea.

Another way to do it (if there is no such person as described above that you have access to) is break up what your idea is into its basic components and ask individually how to do them.

For example, if you wanted to start a... guestbook site. You'd need a way for people to post, a way for the posts to be saved, and a way for the posts to be retrieved and displayed. You'd first do a little research yourself about forms and how they work - look a little into some server scripting such as PHP (strongly suggested), and see if you can get something to work. Once you get that, if you have specific questions about that part, go ahead and ask them. Then, read more about data storage (in this case, MySQL would be useful) and work with that. Questions again. Then, read more about getting info from MySQL dbs with PHP and printing it to an HTML page. More questions.

This way, at least if you have the idea split into smaller segments, the whole idea isn't floating around somewhere. Often, this is done in the real world and is called compartmentalization. An example would be if the government is trying to crack a code with sensitive information in it, only parts of the code are given to people. That way, the decoders (however trustworthy) never have the entire message.



Edit: Wow, long insightful post for my 100th lol.

ok well thank you all, especially nasaboy, yes, very insightful xd.
i will be doing that, and 90% of my questions should be answered no problem.

Now, I don't know anybody personally that is into web design or can help me what so ever... however, i would still kind of like to discuss the idea with somebody.. at least one person, that knows what their doing. Have any ideas on how i can do this? because your right, I can't just throw it out there for everyone to see... and don't have the money to pay somebody to help.. hmm.

If you don't know ANYBODY (people at school/job, family friends) that are into web development, i'm afraid you'll just have to put your faith in good old honor system and pick somebody and hope that they won't backstab you.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have, and I promise I won't steal any ideas XD.

Too busy with my own stuff anyway X_X.

Feel free to PM me if needed.

Have you ever seen "Knocked Up?"

It's a funny movie, but the point I'm trying to get across here is they spent over a year trying to make a website where they could display information of naked celebs in movies. (that tells you the type of movie this is - but still funny).

At any rate, they spent all this time and effort creating this site - and they didn't know that one just like it already existed: mrskin.com

What I'm getting at is you should do some research. Plug some words into Google that you think users would use to get to your site - and take a look at the results. Sometimes it's not a bad thing if other people have the same idea. You have the advantage of looking at their pros and cons, wins and losses.

Chances are there IS a site like yours - maybe not a successful BOOMING site, but it's kinda hard to come up with an idea that NO ONE else has had - but good luck to you.

Check to see if your idea is patent worthy: http://www.intelproplaw.com/Patent/

If you pay someone to help you, they may be willing to sign a non-compete and confidentiality agreement.

If you have a patent pending, you can confide in people with a little more confidence. Keep in mind that the only way you can truly stop people from copying your idea is the have a bad idea. If there is big money in your idea, people will copy you. Maybe now. Maybe after you launch your site. But it will happen. Google wasn't the first search engine.

With that in mind, worry less about being copied and more about having a marketing and business plan that minimizes the risk of copying while planning for what to do with copycats. Worry about how you will stay ahead of me too competitors by providing the best product and service to your customers. In that end, that's the only thing you can do.

Well, all I can suggest is when your discussing your idea, try to be as general as possible, without being too general. Dont explain what you are doing if you dont have to... remember that one piece of code rarely will show the whole story.

It is impossible to completely protect intellectual property. Even if you have the money to hire lawyers and patent researchers, people will still find a way to mimic your ideas. That being said, its probably unlikely that your idea has never been thought of.... maybe you should do a little research into what there are no other sites using your idea.... maybe you could figure out a solution to a problem that has prevented similar sites from a continuing exsistence.

If you are serious about this, I would suggest finding some local web techs (or people who might relate to your site) in your area and have a focus group... make everyone sign a confidentiality agreement.... they might steal your ideas anyway, but it will make them hesitate.

I always use Confidentiality Agreements.
At least then if they steal it you have a basis for the Law Suit.

Paranoia can be fun!