I came across BookMooch today, it’s a 20-month-old service founded by John Buckman that lets people trade their used books for the cost of postage. It immediately appealed to me, as an fanatical bookworm my life is an endless quest for new reading material! What’s interesting about it however is that despite being a free service it generates an estimated $500,000 dollars a year in book sales (via a tie in with Amazon).
That’s because for every 25 books swapped on BookMooch, at least one person buys a new book on Amazon. In return BookMooch collects 8.34 percent on each of those Amazon sales. Buckman is quoted as saying "We’re making money by accident", not bad though I’m sure a lot of people would be happy making and estimated $41,700 from their business "by accident".
It’s not the first time someone has implemented this Internet business idea, but it seems to be the first to accidentally find a business model!
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
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