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The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

bbc.com

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Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#61

Post by saddestcatever »

DanHulton wrote: post #18

I always wondered how he got that site running in the first place. I had my own similar "dumb idea" that I created: http://www.ipaidthemost.com , but I have no idea how to get it out in front of people, even though folks tend to react well enough when I show it to them.

There needs to be a shock value. And associated number. Imagine of: "Best 15 cents I've ever spent. So, anyone want to chat?" showed how many views/impressions/clicks. You're following the classic "Chalkboard in a Bar" where you can leave a message for a dollar -> users will do that, since they can see the 50 people that they are paying to reach.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#62

Post by IgorPartola »

ZainRiz wrote: post #60
IgorPartola wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that nobody has it. It's basically a matter of hacking the system to get cheaper CPM than what you can get with ads. If ads are the market index fund, you are trying to beat it by exploiting some oddity in the system. Once you do so on a large scale, the market adjusts and the oddity either goes away, or becomes useless. But I can think of a few ways to do this: - Produce awesome content. Remember the Ol…

> Sell $1 bills for $0.90. That worked really well for Uber. It can work for you too! Huh? What's the story there?

It's mostly sarcasm, but Uber is one example of several companies whose business model was to disrupt an entrenched industry by providing more value than they were charging for, capture market share, then raise prices. Basically, initially it was cheaper to take an Uber than a Taxi. Currently that's no longer the case.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#63

Post by [deleted] »

ZainRiz wrote: post #60
IgorPartola wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that nobody has it. It's basically a matter of hacking the system to get cheaper CPM than what you can get with ads. If ads are the market index fund, you are trying to beat it by exploiting some oddity in the system. Once you do so on a large scale, the market adjusts and the oddity either goes away, or becomes useless. But I can think of a few ways to do this: - Produce awesome content. Remember the Ol…

> Sell $1 bills for $0.90. That worked really well for Uber. It can work for you too! Huh? What's the story there?

[deleted]

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#64

Post by laurent123456 »

ascorbic wrote: post #54
jfktrey wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sponsored content. http://www.hulu.com/watch/873050 It is South Park (so you get all the crude/offensive humor that comes with it), but this episode is a pretty good microcosm of this sort of thing.

It's the BBC. Sponsored content isn't allowed.

Makes you wonder though. The story about the million-dollar page is pretty interesting but there's nothing special about the Calm app, yet more than half of the article is about it.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#65

Post by burkaman »

SixSigma wrote: post #36
LanceH wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way about the kind of art that "a 7 year old could do". The part I admire is their ability to get funding.

I think the success of some naïve art is the audacity of the person making it. "I could have done that" "Yes, you could, but you didn't" http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kk-61u6leYU/UrB3Cfg6x1I/AAAAAAAAEO...

This explanation of modern art never makes any sense.

"I could have done that"

"Yes, you could, but you didn't"

"Yeah, exactly, why would I? Why would anyone? Why do you like this? Why did you pay for it?"

Somebody who doesn't understand the point of a piece of art is not going to be impressed by the bravery of the artist for publishing it.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#66

Post by tempestn »

If not for this guy, my life would probably have been totally different. It's silly, but the Million Dollar Homepage was definitely one of the motivating factors that got me into web development. After seeing his page I had every intention of making some ridiculous, gimmicky advertising ratings site or something and making millions of dollars with ease. Then I decided it would make sense to get some experience first, before I dove right into it, so I decided to make a simple little tool for my own use first. THEN I'd make the "real" site (ie the doomed gimmick site). Turns out my throwaway test idea was actually useful to people though, and it grew into an actual business that I'm still running 10 years later.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#67

Post by DanHulton »

tempestn wrote: post #66

If not for this guy, my life would probably have been totally different. It's silly, but the Million Dollar Homepage was definitely one of the motivating factors that got me into web development. After seeing his page I had every intention of making some ridiculous, gimmicky advertising ratings site or something and making millions of dollars with ease. Then I decided it would make sense to get some experience first,…

That's amazing. What's the actual business?

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#68

Post by manarth »

OJFord wrote: post #59
coderholic wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're definitely not a weirdo edge case, I think we all feel something like that around email, facebook notifications etc, and it's something we very consciously want to avoid in our product. Each Daily Calm session is available for that day only, so you either listen to it or you don't. If you do come back to the app every day there's something fresh for you if that's what you'd like (you can of course to a regular…

> Each Daily Calm session is available for that day only, > so you either listen to it or you don't. I'm really not in the target audience at all, but doesn't that make the situation described by the parent commenter _worse_? "Agh! Better listen quick or it's gone forever!"

At least there's no worry about the ever-increasing number (and increasing time-investment) of missed episodes to catch up on.

I say this as the guy who wakes up in the morning with 500-800 overnight missed tweets, and then patiently reads through them.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#69

Post by kuschku »

ZainRiz wrote: post #60
IgorPartola wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that nobody has it. It's basically a matter of hacking the system to get cheaper CPM than what you can get with ads. If ads are the market index fund, you are trying to beat it by exploiting some oddity in the system. Once you do so on a large scale, the market adjusts and the oddity either goes away, or becomes useless. But I can think of a few ways to do this: - Produce awesome content. Remember the Ol…

> Sell $1 bills for $0.90. That worked really well for Uber. It can work for you too! Huh? What's the story there?

Predatory Pricing. Something Uber did, which is illegal, but they will likely never get fined for it.

Re: The man behind the million dollar homepage 11 years later

#70

Post by keltex »

DanHulton wrote: post #67
tempestn wrote: post #66

If not for this guy, my life would probably have been totally different. It's silly, but the Million Dollar Homepage was definitely one of the motivating factors that got me into web development. After seeing his page I had every intention of making some ridiculous, gimmicky advertising ratings site or something and making millions of dollars with ease. Then I decided it would make sense to get some experience first,…

That's amazing. What's the actual business?

It's in his profile: http://www.searchtempest.com/
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