How would you turn a love of reading books into an online business?
 

I'm trying to help a family member create an online business. When I look at what he *really* loves to do, he's constantly reading books. He's addicted to reading, so its something thats a passion for him and I think that should be his business.

What suggestions do you have for turning that into an online business?
I was thinking of something like a community website for people who love to read. Anyone have any other ideas?

blogs with book reviews -> affiliate links for amazon etc, a ebook on speed reading.

Forums won't make much money unless its a high paying niche or has a buttload of traffic.

great ideas, thanks.
For me personally I dont like to make numerous sites as I get too scattered and lose track. I like to make 1 site and have it be a flagship site on that topic. Doing book reviews with links to where to buy it is a good idea.

online "business" or online "hobby"?... unless his real passion is webmastering it doesn't really matter what his interest is if it has any chance of making any real money... pocket change, maybe :2 cents:

Well, he could join amazon.com as an affiliate and then sell the books that he recommends by putting up ads for them on such a website. There are a lot of book forums out there already though.

well im going to tell him that it takes at leaat 18 months of solid work before he'll start to see some good revenue so Im preparing him for a long term business. I figure thats realistic and how long Google takes before it starts to respect a new site...white hat ; )

start up a site to write papers for college students :)

quite a few people making decent hobby money buying & selling used books online. thrift stores, garage sales, auctions etcetc you can grab books from $.10-$5.00. Non-fiction, and informational manuals tend to fetch the highest returns. Common novels aren't really a big reseller. But nonfiction hardcovers can be flipped for huge returns.

it's not somethign i can see someone making a fulltime living on. but for someone who truly enjoys books, and likes getting out and around digging for them. you can put some nice spare change in your pocket doing this.