Starting A Site Like the Onion

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to run a quick idea by you. Me and my buddy were reading an Onion article the other day, and we thought, how come the Onion has no competition?

Do you think it could be profitable to start a website like the Onion? Obviously it would be a lot of work to write the articles and everything, but it seems like it would be fun and if it works out that would obviously be amazing.

They have no real competition, and making fun of the News isn't exactly a niche market.

8 Comments
 

The Onion works because of its legacy brand value. There are quite a few wannabe blogs out there with pageviews in the hundred. Colleghumor spent a lot on marketing and provided tons of free content for years before building the kind of following they have.

 

Go for it! The Onion is unique in that they built a following over years with their print 'newspapers' available in bars and boxes in every city. But I think there is an opening.

One thing I personally look for is very subtle satire. Sometimes The Onion is a bit too ridiculous and silly, the satire weak and the stories too contrived. Good satire is something like the classic example set by Swift's 'A Modest Proposal'; only a few pages in do you realize it's satire, and even when you finish the piece you still wonder that maybe he is serious and his proposal has some value.

 

The Onion is the best in the world at what they do. There are other sites that try, but nothing stacks up.

Give it a shot if you think you'd enjoy it. No harm in trying, right? Content driven sites can be tough because they require a ton of original content. But, again, it could be fun so why not try?

 

Like TK said, give it a shot, but it's not easy. You're going to have hella problems finding decent writers and finding a way to monetize it

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Awesome thanks for all the comments guys. We decided to just start it as a twitter account and if we get a lot of followers to make a website.

 

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