http://ipadcasefinder.com/ is the site. I'm doing quite well and plan on expanding it to be a network of Case Finding sites. It may look a bit 'lame', but it has the potential to be a very big earner (We could easily make $4k profit in our first month).

Don't call a your product 'lame' just because it is simple.

Making it good as you did is nothing but 'that' simple, maybe your experience make you think it is the natural way to go but not everyone follow that way.

And don't be ashamed that such a product doesn't trigger any real technical challenge. Be proud of it.

Yeah, I am quite proud of it, I just think most will underestimate it. I really do appreciate where your coming from. :) Thanks

That's normal. Just because you're good doesn't mean all your competitors are, though. There's a name for that that I can't remember, but the simple fact is that you can carve out market space even with substantial competition. You only need to distinguish yourself by competence, responsiveness, honesty and transparency and ethical dealings. imho, that's the key.

Well whatever we think, clearly your customers don't think it's lame :)

Yep! We're getting something like 5 page views per visit, and a bounce rate of less than 40%.

First and formost, you want someone with intergerity. Someone who has your back and won't screw you over.

They may be great at coding, or business or PR or something else entirely. But you want someone you can trust by your side. Preferably someone who's great at something you're not, since you seem to have your end running just fine.

Someone who's in it for the right reasons.

At least, that's how I do it.

My two cents, - Nicholas E. May http://www.notjustbinary.com

Ok, so I've found this rip of a site: http://ipadcasestore.org. What should I do? I know we bought the theme, but they ripped the concept, the filtering, the theme, etc. This sucks! (Also, they're ranking for our keyword - Which we had for about a week, then Google dropped us from all major keywords).

Oh that is harsh! What douche bags!

I think before you can really pick a partner, you need to think very thoroughly about what you're very strong at, and what you could use a bit (or a lot) of improvement at.

For so many people, it's hard to be willing to identify what you are not so great at doing. Sometimes it's just a matter of admitting it. In other cases, you may actually struggle to determine where your weakest points are.

Then, once you've done that, you should look at the list and think about what you LIKE to do, and what you DON'T LIKE to do.

Prepare a final list which is composed of a cross section of what you are/aren't good at doing, and what you do/don't like to do.

Chances are, a person who is good at and likes to do what you aren't good at and don't like to do, is a good match for you.

In other words: If you're good at web design and programming, then perhaps you want someone who's more business and idea focused. This person would need to have some connections too.

Otherwise, if you just don't like doing the design portion, but you really like to code, then find another entrepreneurial minded person who like to design.

I'm a marketer, with basic technical knowledge. I know how to run and adjust WordPress blogs, I can dive into the code and change basic things.

I owned www.PSDtoWP.com - so I'm quite compitent. It's just the decisisions..

Do I want: - A designer - A coder - Someone well connected, or versed in device peripherals - Or another good PR / Marketing person (This is what I'd call myself)

But your strong attribute seems to be marketing (according to you) with only basic technology knowledge. Think of all the hours and hours you may have struggled trying to figure some things out. You may enjoy it (or you just think you do) but perhaps it actually takes you longer than an actual development minded entrepreneur.

Of course, I don't know you, so I don't know. But that's how you should be figuring out who to pair with. You should be thinking "Whats the BEST use of my time?"

This is why some people pay people to clean their homes, cars, and clothes.

Congratulations. You have solved the problem really well.

My biz partner is currently some one I went to school with and a good friend for years, some one I can share my bank account password with.

Connections are important but my personal thought is if you have a great product and achieved the market-fit hiring a professional or an advisor to help is at your disposal. But don't partner if the only asset they bring is connections.

I recommend looking in your circle first, some one you've worked with in the past, understands you really well, shares your vision and trust you.

There is some great advise on http://venturehacks.com/articles/pick-cofounder that might help you.

Good luck with the search.

Congratulations, you've got a live one.

Be critical about your prospective partners, and build in a trial period, if at all feasible meet in person.

Sounds like a good plan. First step is finding a partner though!

Think of it as dating with handicaps.

A good business partner is my opinion about as hard find as a good marriage partner.

And you only really know how good your partner and you work together when you hit a serious obstacle.

Take your time, better to work a little harder and keep your options open for a while than to say 'yes' to someone too early.

This is probably even harder than finding a live startup, you seem to have that one licked though :)

One down, 50 to go or so!

btw, it's 'dilemma'.

since iPad is a registered trademark...you can lose that domain at any time

Milk it as much as you can...but don't expect to keep it forever.

I think a big problem with trying to rank for trademark terms, is that you'll never beat out apple for the #1 position. So even though "ipad case", is searched 70K+ a month, #2 position will only see a 1/3 of that if lucky.

Do you think Apple would come at us?

eventually yes...they have to defend their trademark or they'll lose it.

Here you can see a bunch of domains that they fought for:

http://www.udrpsearch.com/index.php?query=apple&search=p...

Granted for each one of those, there are probably hundreds of domains flying below apple's radar...but if you get big, you can expect them to sue.

I'm prepared to think we're safe, for at least quite a while. I imagine they would allow you to move before having to give it up as well. They seem to mainly be after direct names e.g. iPod Nano, or Airport, etc.

what I would do in your position is start a site called skinz.com or something along those lines.

And use the ipad site as a way to direct traffic to it. i.e. in the footer list "a skinz company". Also setup a newsletter and add a subscribe to newsletter button prominently on your site. This way you'll have a way to contact your users when Apple hits you(and if you get big, they will). Then you just tell them to come to your skinz.com/apple-ipad-skins website and instead of losing all your traffic, you'll lose just half.

FTW! Good advice. That would give you a way to keep earning income on your products even if the name itself gets "complicated" by potential future legal action.

Any of us who have done a successful startup knows that the name itself is great for marketing, but as soon as it becomes a liability be prepared to sell it or abandon it, if necessary.

Word of warning: legal action is a major expense, once it gets its teeth into any company. Even Microsoft suffered tremendously because of it.

Litigation is the most expensive legal action for both sides. If you can meet a challenge with an amicable settlement you will have a much greater chance for survival long-term. i.e., be prepared to cease and desist on the narrow issue of the name. Try to contain the legal issue.

My advice (which is solely personal. I am not a lawyer) is to do all you can to anticipate legal challenges and have files ready to go when your attorneys might need them. Or, if the IRS requests documentation. They require full and complete business records. The standard is nebulous, except as regard financial transactions. Those are pretty clear. Full and complete is safest.

Documentation is like disclosure. Just like the old joke about voting in Chicage. "do it early and often" Not publicly, necessarily, of course.

Before you even start using a trademark owned by a large company, you need to prepare your eventual defense theory.

Look at the case of Mr. McDonald who was told he can't use that name. Even though it was his.

And make sure you have a good attorney involved from the get-go. Don't let him prevent you from doing things so much as allow him to be ready for any legal challenges.

My 2c worth. Good fortune, my friend!

You've got the right attitude for running a business, however I would caution you to begin preparing your counter-case now, just in case. No pun intended.

Yes, eventually. Their success will hinge on whether you used the name before they did, imho. But you are a value-added service for them, so unless you poke at them they might simply decide to tolerate it. Their case would be complicated, regardless of the registry dates. But they have deep pockets and a case like that would bring them publicity, (as it would you), so who knows what they'll decide to do or not. Hard to predict that one. If I was on their counsel staff I'd say they should go for it and make sure there is nobody else using their trademark. And that's their pattern. I hope you're saving most of your income for your next venture. And I hope you are preparing your legal team with all the information you have available so they can give you the best advice possible. Good luck, my friend.

I agree mostly, but I would never say what can or can't happen, since this is in the civil arena. It all depends on what a jury would consider "reasonable" and that's hard to nail down. At the end of the day I think you are right, but Apple might like the value added and may not decide this is someone worth investing their massive resources to mobilize against. I'd prepare for it, but it is by no means inevitable.

There was a HN thread a few months ago regarding a cofounder wish list. Here's a link to the Google Spreadsheet that was created http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgCvDTyBjHdOdDFfMENq...

Why would you need a partner for a simple affiliate site like this?

I plan on expanding quite a bit. Setting up a huge network of sites, expanding on features, working out the best ways of marketing and SEO.

Sounds like you don't really need a partner now.

I just clicked on a link over to a vendor, and didn't see any affiliate tags on the URL. How do you make money on this purchase?

The product was the first one (CNS360 Neoprene)?

Great looking site, and nice idea.

We only make money on some of the cases!

When I Google ipad case, I don't find this site.

When I go to google keywords and check ipad case I get 165K searches per month, and that's broad, not phrase.

How are so many people finding you?

That's a bit of a problem. We had a very high ranking position on that term #5 or so. Then we suddenly dissappeared on every single term. We're trying to get in touch with Google on this issue - just to make it clear - we did no spam / blackhat.

We track our search term rankings daily and they frequently drop off the frontpage google results for a day than come back higher up or at the same rank the next day.

Google is constantly testing sites and seeing which ones perform well.

I wouldn't be worried unless its still not back in 2-3 days.

It's been one week, and a copy cat site ipadcasestore.org has ranked much better than us. I'm quite annoyed!

Think of imitation as flattery. It also gives you a chance to think about whether your competitive advantage is easily duplicated. And I mean that in a positive way. Really nice site. =)

What tool do you use to track search term rankings? Manually or automated?

Advanced Web Ranking for osx.

I'm not a fan of it (non-native UI) but it does the job and I got it for free through my company.

Please email me nnlevy at google's mail service. (For general purposes, you may want to add your contact info in your bio).

Emailed you.

If you're interested in a techie startup partner, I'd be happy to tell you more about myself. dan at danmunro dot com

Can you describe how you got your initial traffic?

I'm very curious, and will probably be helpful to the community :)

Well, it was basically just getting featured on big blogs, driving links and traffic. Then keeping it going on Twitter. What I do is find junior writers on the blogs, and then discuss the site with them, my story, etc. They will usually do a post.

Now my job is to keep it going.

any numbers on direct/referring/searchengine percentages?

thx! i tried reaching out to you with the email on the website, but it bounced :\

please shoot me an email at hi@jeff.otherinbox.com if you'd like to chat!

If you're ok with a front-end, design bg guy, email me pmura A/T pmura.commercial

Throw me a mail if you want to have a chat. cdmba1 at gmail dot com

Sent :-)

Maybe you should share a link to your site?

How did you come up with the idea?

Also, according to http://danielbru.com/2010/05/03/announcing-my-next-venture/ you made Daring Fireball...nice.

Thanks! Just to be clear, Daniel was a partner, he's now just an advisor. I'm not Daniel :)

My dad basically told me that I should be making some passive income, and a few days previous my friend dropped and cracked my iPad (without a case). Thus, iPCF was born! Hah!

That's really fortuitous. Congratulations.

Thank you!

You sure got a lot of coverage and link love really quickly for a fairly simple idea. I'm curious how you accomplished that.

It's really quite simple actually. I know it sounds cliche, but if it's good, people will write about it (if you tell them too). Basically, I get in touch with junior writers at the sites I target, and talk to them for a while before asking them for a favour.

Usually works!