Money Making Ideas

I was browsing around the Digital Point forums the other day and ran across this thread titled Girl Make $70,000 Month With Free Myspace Layouts. Catchy title, I must say. The thread then pointed to an article on Fast Company titled Girl Power. After reading through half of the article, I had to stop and email it to some friends and join in on the forum discussion. How is it possible that a 17 year old girl could be making so much moola? I’ve been working on the web for over 10 years and haven’t even come close to this level of success.

The girl who makes this obscene amount of cash is Ashley Qualls, and her site is Whateverlife.com. Apparantly she has been obsessed with computers/web design since she was 9 years old. So we have our first clue to the secret of her success - passion and a true love for what she was doing. But, what else contributed to her success? Or…was it all just dumb luck?

I took a look at her site and used one of her layouts on my Myspace account that I never use. The key thing I noticed is she links and/or plugs Whateverlife.com on each of the free layouts she gives away. During the time frame that Myspace was peaking, this probably created a viral effect for her site. More than likely her layouts got featured on an army of Myspace profiles and that number must have grown at an exponential rate.

She eventually ran into problems and couldn’t afford her web hosting bill. Luckily for Ashley, her host suggested she put Google Adsense ads on her site. Amazingly, her first check was $2,790. This must have provided a nice motivator to make even more layouts and further grow her empire. She now makes as much as $70,000/month and was recently offered $1.5 million, which she turned down. I think this was a mistake as it is quite obvious that Myspace is going down the tubes. I think she should have taken the money and started a new venture with a fresh, clean slate.

Anyway, I’m very fascinated by this story and had to write about it to hopefully gain some insight as to why her site is so successful. What have I learned so far? First thing is that maybe it is a good idea to capitalize on an existing success. Myspace was hugely successful, but is now fading fast as everyone moves to Facebook. What is hugely successful right now that you can create a product or service for? Hmm…perhaps the iPhone? Facebook?

Since she included her web site URL in her layouts, this created a viral effect allowing her traffic to grow exponentially. So it’s probably a good idea to add some kind of viral component to whatever product or service you are trying to sell. Of course, if you are giving away something for free this definitely helps. Everyone loves a free product. Let’s throw that in as an ingredient to her success.

Overall it seems that if you can provide something to the public for free and include some kind of viral component you can eventually build an audience that will hopefully grow at an exponential rate. If you can get enough traffic to your site you should have no problem converting that into advertising dollars.

Sound simple? Murphy’s Law will ensure that if you TRY to become successful using some kind of formula, you will probably fail. So, you’re probably better off just following your passions and hope for the best. I’m sure if Ashley reads this, she must be laughing. So, Ashley… or anyone else out there that has a clue - please leave a comment and tell us what the secret is! I’m outta here….

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts today, called net@nite, starring Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur, and during the podcast they mentioned a funny web site/service called MoanMyIP.com. MoanMyIP.com doesn’t just display your IP address like other web sites… it moans it to you thanks to the sexy voice of someone they hired - or perhaps their girlfriend?

Leo mentioned that he thought this may be the brainchild of the guy who created IPChicken.com, but, after doing a bit of research, I think it may be someone else.  Leo speculated that IPChicken.com has made hundreds of thousands of dollars… and it wouldn’t surprise me if his estimates were true considering the popularity of the site.

A quick search of MoanMyIP.com revealed dozens of blog and forum posts plugging the site indicating that the site is experiencing the viral effect - at least among us geeks. Check out the Alexa graph of its popularity:

I can hear the moans and groans already… Alexa, shemexa. Yeah, you can take their stats with a grain of salt, but at least they do provide a general indicator of a web sites popularity. So, what am I trying to get at? I’m curious what it takes to make a stupidly simple and profitable web site such as this. There are hundreds of super complicated Web 2.0 services out there…many which may be less profitable than this super simple one. MoanMyIP.com isn’t the only silly money making idea.  Other legendary sites include The Million Dollar Homepage, SantaMail, AntennaBalls, and more.

Here are a few ingredients I think are necessary to make a super simple profitable web site:

1) Be First - Alex Tew was the first person on the Internet to sell pixels for $1 each on The Million Dollar Homepage. The first person will get the most attention and will ultimately win. Hundreds of copycats followed, but his site was the only one to make a million.

2) Modify a Known Success - If you can’t be first with a great idea, put a twist on an existing successful idea. MoanMyIP.com did this by using a sexy voice to speak your IP address instead of displaying it. I repeat - modify a known success.

3) Don’t be Boring - We are all like monkeys.  Throw a shiny new object to us and we will all drop what we are doing and gravitate to the latest thing.  Think objectively…does your idea really grab your attention or are you deluding yourself?  Does it excite the hell out of you?  What kind of energy does it give you?  Why is the iPhone successful?  Because it is the latest “shiny object” to entertain us monkeys.

4) Would You Tell Others About It - What kind of sites, videos, pictures, etc. motivate you to tell others about them?  Is your idea good enough that you would forward it around, write a blog post about it or mention it in your favorite forum?  What bores you to tears and what doesn’t?

5)  Improve the Quality of the Buyers Life - Now I’m just blowing stuff out my a-hole..but seriously, I guess a great idea has to improve the quality of the buyer’s life in some way…shape…or form.  The Million Dollar Homepage improved lives by (hopefully) providing traffic to anyone who bought an ad - which gave them more sales.  SantaMail gives kids the excitement of getting a letter from Santa.  AntennaBalls helps you find your car faster.  How does your product or service improve the quality of a persons life?

Well, that’s about all I can write about at this point.  I’ve had about four margaritas and need to go to sleep soon.  But, I hope this might perk up a few entrepreneur minds out there and maybe they will post a comment to add their thoughts on this subject.  Yes?  Go ahead… please leave a comment, plug your blog or web site and continue the discussion.  If we all work together, maybe we can once and for all discover the secret to creating exciting, fun, super simple, useful and profitable ideas like MoanMyIP.com…and most importantly, cash in.

I was reading through my favorite blogs this morning when I stumbled upon this article by John Chow on the Million Dollar Wiki, which is similar to Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage, except you get a full page for $100 instead of a tiny 10×10 pixel.

When I read his article this morning, 158 pages had been sold giving this 21 year old college student an extra $15,800 in the bank.  As I write this he is now up to 220 pages sold bringing his total up to $22,000!  WTF?!

Honestly I’m a little peeved, but can only be peeved at myself for not thinking of this first.  Just goes to show you it pays off to take some time off and do some creative thinking/brainstorming from time to time.  If you can’t be first, create a new category.  It is too late to do pixels…it’s been done.  You have to put a new twist on an existing idea to have a chance.

I put a twist on the Million Dollar Homepage by selling pixels for a penny instead of a dollar.  The Million Penny Homepage was born and worked very well… I even sold over a million pixels, somewhere in the range of $12K- $13K.

I wonder what new twist can be put on the Million Dollar _______ idea?  Million Penny Wiki?  What will be next?  I have one idea in mind, but will not tell.  One thing for sure, I’m going to spend a full day every now and then to do nothing but brainstorm a way to create and cash in on an internet fad like this.

It will be interesting to see how well this does.  I have a feeling he will make a million or at least make $100K.  It may be pretty hard to get the press that Alex Tew did, as his idea was PURE GENIUS!  The Million Dollar Wiki is a good idea, but is not truly original.  But, who cares… a few thousand bucks is still a few thousand bucks!  To be continued…