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How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

blog.cubeofm.com

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Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#31

Post by kiba »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #6

This is an interesting post, and I'm eager to hear what other people who have spent more time in the startup scene think of it. Here's my thoughts: 1. I think I've seen the "two groups" that the post talks about, but I have begun to have serious doubts that they're as fatalistic as they're made out to be. For example: The in-crowd live in the U.S, they attended MIT or Berkeley, they write well, have interesting blogs…

Wikis are forever sustainable, even if it is horribly outdated.

However, depending on the niche you occupied, you barely get enough money above your domain cost renewal. Beyond a certain point, it is not worth your time to invest in it.

For me, it helps that I can wait a few year before bootstrapping my next website, along with freelance work. That wiki is still earning me money.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#32

Post by sabat »

conesus wrote: post #30

This is a sure-fire way to create a lot of spam and hack products. The creative element of fostering a project and putting real intellectual effort is gone, for sake of trying to turn a measly profit. There is nothing artistic or genuine about what he is doing here. There is no soul in these products. Of all the products and software I use, there is soul in every single one of them. Safari, Tweetie/Twitter, Hacker Ne…

I'm not sure your conclusion necessarily follows what he's proposing. He's saying: find 400 things that each make $1/day -- it's a thought experiment as much as it is a proposition, BTW.

Some people would certainly make 400 spam blogs or something else equally useless. I don't think that was the author's intention, though.

I wish I could personally say that every single thing I do has my heart and soul in it. I can't, for reasons outside my apparent control. I bet I could find 400 things I like enough to spend time on, and that's enough for me.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#33

Post by sabat »

icey wrote: post #2

I think the bigger hurdle for most people is getting from $0 a day to $1 a day. Replicating success isn't as hard as finding success.

Max is proposing that it isn't that difficult for a programmer to find a way to make $1/day. Max -- care to elucidate?

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#34

Post by sabat »

mrtron wrote: post #26
dbz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the projects was putting thirty ninja videos on a website. When that project becomes a real success I'll buy you dinner.

Ask a ninja is ridiculously popular and probably started with a bunch of videos.

Ask a Ninja is so popular that he/they (I'm unclear) appeared alongside a bunch of stars in SF recently -- in honor of Conan O'Brien, whom I presume was there as well. Holy cow.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#35

Post by patio11 »

I'm not a big fan of creating that many products since it seems like you're forcing yourself into a churn-and-burn corner (and you'll probably be building systemic weaknesses into your model, like being one Googlewhack or AppStore reordering away from penury). However, the core insight about creation being one more process that can be scaled is potentially pretty big.

You can even use it in the service of the one big lovingly-handedcrafted adequately-supported non-sucking product that you're supposedly not capable of building/marketing/etc. For example, everybody and their dog has done "photo sharing website", and if you're coming to the Internet today with photo sharing site #85421 you're probably not going to get too far. However, you could probably do fairly well with the same tech and a focus on wedding photographers. (I happen to know that pond is well-fished, too, just an example.) And you could roll out new facets of your marketing/product creation strategy to target each niche you can identify, big and small.

For example: I very much doubt that I could make a software product about a subject as niche as owls of Asia while still adequately devoting time and resources to supporting/maintaining/improving it, but I'm pretty sure with an established product adding a bit about owls of Asia to the marketing mix is pretty much just a bolt-on-and-go sort of maneuver. (You might ask "Now is there anyone in the world who will actually pay money to do something associated with the owls of Asia?!" I have evidence in the affirmative.)

Edit to add: It seems Max and I independently chose owl-related niches as our practical examples, since he posted before me and I didn't see it. What are the odds, right?

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#36

Post by conesus »

sabat wrote: post #32
conesus wrote: post #30

This is a sure-fire way to create a lot of spam and hack products. The creative element of fostering a project and putting real intellectual effort is gone, for sake of trying to turn a measly profit. There is nothing artistic or genuine about what he is doing here. There is no soul in these products. Of all the products and software I use, there is soul in every single one of them. Safari, Tweetie/Twitter, Hacker Ne…

I'm not sure your conclusion necessarily follows what he's proposing. He's saying: find 400 things that each make $1/day -- it's a thought experiment as much as it is a proposition, BTW. Some people would certainly make 400 spam blogs or something else equally useless. I don't think that was the author's intention, though. I wish I could personally say that every single thing I do has my heart and soul in it. I can't…

My conclusion stems from his primary example: A collection of ninja videos slathered with adsense. It's half-way to a spamblog, but he considers it something to be proud of.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#38

Post by maxklein »

sabat wrote: post #33
icey wrote: post #2

I think the bigger hurdle for most people is getting from $0 a day to $1 a day. Replicating success isn't as hard as finding success.

Max is proposing that it isn't that difficult for a programmer to find a way to make $1/day. Max -- care to elucidate?

If you want to make $1 a day, go search for a keyword. Like Owls. Then find a bunch of videos of owls in YouTube, put them on the site and call the site OwlVideo.com. In a week you will be making $1 a day.

Or if you prefer to program for the desktop - go wrap ffmpeg and make an AVI to MP4 converter. Def make $30 in sales in a month.

Or if you prefer to program for the web, make something that parses Apples XML of new iPhone apps, put all that text on your website, slap adverts on it. There is $1 a day.

Or you can copy the bible and allow people to annote it. Put on web. There ya go.

Find a commonly done task like file uploading. Write a wrapper script for this in PHP. Sell it on a scripting site. $1 a day.

Make a wordpress theme and target a specific group. "Theme for Doctors". Make it premium and put it for sale. $1 a day.

It's easy, you just need to think in the right mode.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#40

Post by maxklein »

dbz wrote: post #29
chime wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you take his definitions of in-crowd vs. normals to be true, the in-crowd has the prerogative to choose energizing startups and work on exciting projects without putting much thought into making money early-on. The normals have bills to pay, kids to send to school, and sick family members to take care. For us normals, money is always a large (though not the only) factor in making decisions that relate to our caree…

I guess I should have said sounds like a "strategy." It dislike the strategy because it's not why I program. I don't program a million things to make a million dollars. I program because it's a passion, and unless I misinterpreted the meaning of the post, this strategy is...heartless. I take into account that "in-crowd" has it easy and "normal" doesn't. I could image myself writing a similar article; however, instead…

One of the reasons I write now is to grow my popularity, so that one day I will have enough reach to be able to build something big and grand and people will actually notice.
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