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Ask HN: Monetizing a Supplements Dataset

1•lilouartz•1h ago
A few years back, I got obsessed with the idea of analyzing the entire supplement market. The first couple of experiments didn't go far, but as models got better, I was able to:

* Extract detail breakdown of every ingredient in every commercially sold supplement. I believe that today my dataset is the only data that could accurately answer questions like: which supplements contain the most X, which supplements would be the cheapest when seeking a specific ingredient, etc.

* Extract signals from every research paper about supplements about the effects of specific supplements in relation to different conditions (effect type [neutral, positive, negative], effect size [small, moderate, great])

I was kinda hoping that over time, the data that I've gathered will attract people who are into nutrition, researchers, value buyers, etc., but I am learning the hard way that the supplement space is hyper competitive [other websites in the nutrition space will not link to my project, but rather extract insights and use as their own] and that Google actively panalyzes anything that's even remotely related to YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category. So I cannot rely people discovering my website through search (Bing is driving steady traffic). I thought of even changing the domain name to start fresh, but that feels like a short-term fix that will just get me back to where I started a few months later.

So I am left wondering what are my options to monetize this project. Would appreciate anyone's advice.

Comments

lilouartz•1h ago
Someone on Reddit suggested to make this data available via API and license it. This is genuinely an angle I didn't even consider.