I Have a fey questions to ask.

1 How doable is a online store that only sales Linux hardware and software.

2 Is it possible to have impartial hardware and software reviews on the same site?

3 Who should write the reviews the store or the users of the store?

4 Should the store pay for the reviews, if the the users of the store write the reviews?

5 if the store were to mirror kernel.org and GNU projects, should it ask for donations?

6 what happen to linuxmall.com? The linuxmall.com domain belongs to cheapbytes.com, .net is open, and I own .us.

Moved: These are not directly related to Linux in a technical sense but rather seem like questions asking how to run a website and or a business. Moved to General where its more suitable. Regards.

1. Sure, there are tons of companys that only deal with open source, gnu, etc.

2. I see why not.

3. I think that would or should be determined by the person running the site.

4. Read number 3.

5. If your going to mirror the kernel.org and other major sites, I say any donations should be split to give to the sites your mirroring as well. But if your a commercial business making money off their products and selling other products, I would say it would be nice any donations you recieve just out of good nature and from not buying your products should all be donated to different open source projects, etc.

6. I have no idea, ask them if you can find old contact information, etc.

All i wanted was a little help and you shot me down. thanks!

Enyawix - Trickykid didn't shoot you down, he answered your questions in a very reasonable manner.

You seemed to be asking a few hypothetical questions and he gave you answers to each and every one of them.

If you wanted them answered differently, you should have asked them differently. If, for example, you were asking from the point of view of someone setting up an online store why not say so - maybe the answers would have been a little fuller (except 5 - which was answered fully).

Regards.

Shootin ya down would have been closing your thread...

I answered them how I felt they should be answered from my POV. You know its possible to keep the discussion ongoing by asking me why I answered with this, or answered with that, why I feel that way.. and so on. Its called a forum, no one is going ot answer these types of questions with definite answers. They are hypothetical questions mainly and your going to mainly get opinions from members, not the most definite answer, etc.

Is the sun gonna come up tomorrow? -> most will say yes as its been happening for billions of years, but you never know, today could have been the last day, hope you catch my drift on the type of questions your asking as that was just an example.

Regards.

All i want is a little help.

First off i am not asking all hypothetical questions. I have about 5% of my site redy that is not much but I am a one man show. www.linuxmall.us is not much, but it is the best I can do with what i know for now. I was going to spend $500 in ads on LinuxQuestions.org to promote my site when it is finished. I do not like the you you treat people that ask for help. I am all was giving the GNU projects. I need a little help and this is what I get? I will not sped $1 here. I was not looking to be picked on. You guys really know how to rain on a mans Sunny day. I will never forget this.

I still don't understand why you don't think my answers were "shooting you down". Point out what you think is shooting you down and I'll see if I can't clarify for you but you have to realize your not asking technical questions and I only gave my responses of how I feel if it were me opening up a GNU/OpenSource type ecommerce site.

They might not be hypothetical questions to you but they are to the people who have never opened up a store like you are. What we are trying to explain is your questions are going to generate members opinions in what they think is going to be the best path to take when doing something in what you've asked.

I fail to see why your so sensitive in my reponses that I feel are adequate answers to your questions.

1. I answered sure, as there are tons of sites that do what you are planning on doing. No further explanation needed.

2. Simple question of yes. That's what I'm saying. You can have partial and impartial reviews of anything you want on your site. I'm sure once its all setup and started, you would recieve more feedback on something of this nature. That's why you have or should create a feed back section for poeple who visit your site to express if its helpful or not, etc.

3. That is totally up to you, the person who is running the site. That's why I answered with what I stated the first go round. If your on a low budget to start off with, try and get volunteers to submit reviews, etc. Then once you start making profit, reward them or pay people to do this for you. Its not really something you can determine up front as you haven't given any specific budget details with your questions, so I can't answer those for you as I'm not a financial advisor for a business, etc.

4. I think I explained this in my response in number 3 in paying people to make reviews for you.

5. I think I already explained this one well enough in my first response.

6. Well now thinking about it, if linuxmall.com is owned by cheapbytes, it would be my assumption that they got bought out.

Maybe this time I've explained my answers to your questions better.. (Didn't see anything wrong with them the first time and still fail to see why you think your being shot down from my truthful opinions in the matter.)

Regards.

A friend of mine used to write reviews for a magazine. They would pay by the word if the article was accepted. A website publishing an on-line magazine might do the same. A e-store web site usually has a poll/feedback section for user comments.

Ok how much do you think I should pay for each word?

I believe that sales sites tend not to pay for reviews - Amazon, etc. You are simply asked to review the product as someone who has paid to buy it.

If you start paying for reviews you will probably need to use contracts and, as a one man band, that could end up being costly and time consuming. Far better to ask for volunteers and/or have a link next to the product saying "review this product".

Contracts would be bad. If i give a person a contract than they could give me a crap review, and i would be stuck with it. By the word pay would stop that from happening.

In all honesty, i think you would really struggle to make money on GNU software. Only because, the majority of people that would use GNU software have the bandwidth to freely and easily download the software (which is usually fairly small anyway) or know people that can do it for them. Selling GNU software would be difficult at best....

There really is no such thing as "Linux Hardware", although if you have the capital (which, i assume you dont ) i would think there *could* be a small market for selling machines with Linux pre-installed. Unfortunately you would have to compete with some major competition with that one.....

Its 'doable', it has been done by a lot of people. Unfortunately with the nature of Open Source, you would struggle to make any real cash, especially with the amount of competition (which you would struggle to beat)

As for paying for reviews, im sure you can find ways to do it for free. As your a business man im sure it seems a bad idea to throw money away for nothing?

Not if you create a contract that enables you to not accept something you don't think is worthy of being posted. That's why you create a contract to your favor, not theirs.

I still would opt to ask for volunteers as most of the time, you will get them. Even this site has volunteers writing reviews for Distro's, HCL and our LinuxAnswers section. Why go the expensive route before looking into an alternative route that is more likely to work out better for you in the long run, in making money from the site which I'm sure is your goal.

I do not sale GNU software. I only ask for enough to cover shopping and the CD. I thing it is wrong to sale what should be free. I sale Linux compatible hardware at a great price. $122.00 is a nice price for a A7N8X -E Deluxe. I am starting no do more volume. Volume = low prices. Soon i well be able to sale for even less.

With reviews, I would start of using the manufacturers words - otherwise you have no "sales pitch". Then add your own comments as the seller - you are the first person on your site to see the goods so your words will count. Then add what the buyers think. That way you have some comparisons for whoever comes along.

With regard to paying for reviews, I would hold off paying. Unless you want to commission a piece about a particularly new piece of hardware, users (who are after all a community) will probably happily contribute off their own backs. Depending on the popularity of your shop, you may end up having to filter out a lot of reviews!

As far as the hardware goes, I would advertise it as 'Linux Compatible' rather than 'Linux Hardware'. If your prices are lower than other places, non-*nix users will also want to buy and you don't want to turn down money this early on. You could also provide links to the HCLs on Redhat, Mandrake, LinuxQuestions(!) and other sites so that buyers can see what it works with.

Unless you are selling distros as boxed sets, you will not be able to compete unless they are very low cost - existing sites tend to sell for just over the cost of a blank cd.

Hope this helps.