Interesting Problem

[BigBrianC]

Hey all.

I created an economic model that examines revenue generated from income tax vs sales tax for a competition at my school. Now I'm looking to find someway to make profit. I could sell the software, but at most I would only generate a few hundred dollars over time because it wouldn't sell that much. I was thinking about making the project open source and then taking donations and making $ from a website with the program on it that would allow downloads, have blog posts about it, have results, etc. but I don't think that will generate much income. Does anyone else have any ideas?

(P.S. mods feel free to move this to the idea section. I didn't put it there because I already have the product, just need profiteering help)

 

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[jon.a]

Hey all.

I created an economic model that examines revenue generated from income tax vs sales tax for a competition at my school. Now I'm looking to find someway to make profit. I could sell the software, but at most I would only generate a few hundred dollars over time because it wouldn't sell that much. I was thinking about making the project open source and then taking donations and making $ from a website with the program on it that would allow downloads, have blog posts about it, have results, etc. but I don't think that will generate much income. Does anyone else have any ideas?

(P.S. mods feel free to move this to the idea section. I didn't put it there because I already have the product, just need profiteering help)

Could this tool brand you as an expert in some area?

 

[BigBrianC]

I don't really think this would make me an expert in computational economics, maybe I could call myself an expert/semi-expert in software to represent real-life phenomena as this is my second such program? I am more or less trying some Techincal/Social media consulting so I could add this to my list, helping software projects?

 

[jon.a]

I don't really think this would make me an expert in computational economics, maybe I could call myself an expert/semi-expert in software to represent real-life phenomena as this is my second such program? I am more or less trying some Techincal/Social media consulting so I could add this to my list, helping software projects?

So you're a coder that understands economics? That has to be a niche.

 

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[BigBrianC]

Maybe I could start a blog? Or create educational economics games?

I'm going to do some more research into seeing how I can exploit that particular niche (I also understand finance and the markets. Eventually I want to create an algorithmic trading system)

 

[jon.a]

Maybe I could start a blog? Or create educational economics games?

Just start with the blog to gauge interest. Don't go farther than that until you have a better understanding of the space and its needs.

 

[BigBrianC]

Yeah I'll consider the blog. The only problem is I don't know what to do for content. I could talk about my model, but I don't know what I'd talk about considering most Computational Economics people are Ph.Ds doing research in the subject, and I won't be constantly working on creating new things. I'll think more about the niche itself and combining my programming knowledge to other fields I'm knowledgeable about, preferably to create a SaaS. Or maybe try to convert my model into a SaaS

 

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[LibertyForMe]

I've got a couple questions.

How did you build your model? Like, what did you use to build it? R? SAS?

What results did your model show, and were you able to use any real data to run some tests to see if your model was accurate?

 

[BigBrianC]

I built the model in C#.

I am currently using real US tax / income / population data.

I'm not actually finished yet, but am very close to being done. Well, done enough to get results of revenue generated from income tax vs sales tax. I plan to expand it eventually to look at more factors, there's limitless potential (another reason I considered going open source)

 

[LibertyForMe]

What did your findings show?

I am not sure where you could take this, but if the results showed something interesting you could spin it to a local news station somehow and get some publicity.

 

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[BigBrianC]

I haven't gotten findings yet. I will by this week though. It was designed in order to see if eliminating the income tax in favor of a sales tax would be better for the economy or not.

I was thinking about the second part as well. I was thinking about emailing the newspaper/news stations or something of that sort in order to get it out and get publicity. Maybe I get the model thrown up on the type of site I was talking about, get publicity and then get some donations and lots of hits from news stories

 

[LibertyForMe]

So the first order of business is to get the findings. Then, depending on what results you get you can angle for some coverage. You might be able to make some connections on the hill in DC with it, or get in with the Fair Tax crowd, but I doubt you will be able to monetize this particular model.

 

[BigBrianC]

I consider myself a good talker and I actually would be interested in politics (though I'd want to go from a career => politician, not be a career politician) so thanks, I will definitely try to do that. Then do as jon said and try to look at my niches (economics/finance) and combine them with programming to come up with soemthing.

 

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[BigBrianC]

For whom may be interested,

I have finished and found the results.

http://i.gyazo.com/c10d0e95709f3c3f8b84e3c10c747334.png

Ask if you have any questions on what they mean, how I got the numbers, etc.

 

[Ninjakid]

Make it open source, and I'll tell you why:

1. You're a newcomer to the techie community. If you come along, start designing things, and expect money for it right away, you're gonna be seen as someone who's only in the game to make a dollar. You'll lose respect this why. Unless you've invented something amazing that could make you a multi-millionaire. you'll gain way more in terms of respect and recognition than you'll get from monetary value. Ultimately, someone will be annoyed that they have to pay for your program and just write their own.
2. I think you should turn this into a mobile app.
3. When it comes to computer programs, the most used stuff is always free. Law of Effection is in play here. Look at all the free downloadable programs that exist on the internet already. If they weren't free, someone would just come along and make one that was free.