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How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

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Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#11
post #5

I've read a similar article which was on the frontpage of HN not so long ago. And it was better. Why would you use ThatHigh as an example to illustrate this ? I think this site did poorly. And just looking at how much fan they have on their facebook can pretty much prove my point (I got like 95k fans on my page just by liking something with my facebook account. Never did anything else than that to promote my website)

Would you mind sharing your techniques? I'd be more than happy to learn :-)

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#12
I am more curious to know how much traffic it takes for a site like this to become profitable ads? Anybody has any details?

ps: I guess quite a few of us have such "Oh that would be a fun site" ideas... I just don't know what traffic will make it worth the effort.

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#13
Very interesting. It's funny, I'm actually launching a site with the chicken/egg problem and I thought of some of the same ideas (fake users or at least having your friends create 2-3 accounts each and chalking up my campus quad). I'm glad to hear that these ideas have resulted in lots of hits. I will report back on my progress with chalking for those interested. I'm planning to hit the 3 major universities in my area and I think this could have major impact. We'll see!

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#14
post #12

I am more curious to know how much traffic it takes for a site like this to become profitable ads? Anybody has any details? ps: I guess quite a few of us have such "Oh that would be a fun site" ideas... I just don't know what traffic will make it worth the effort.

From my experience, 500,000 pageviews a month will turn a decent profit. Absolute minimum seems to be 100,000 a month, which is extremely easy to obtain these days.

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#15
post #8
post #5

I've read a similar article which was on the frontpage of HN not so long ago. And it was better. Why would you use ThatHigh as an example to illustrate this ? I think this site did poorly. And just looking at how much fan they have on their facebook can pretty much prove my point (I got like 95k fans on my page just by liking something with my facebook account. Never did anything else than that to promote my website)

The traffic numbers are legit and not inflated, if that's what you're wondering about. Honestly, I don't know that many people who have built a community site of similar traffic level that quickly, especially without doing any SEO. If you can put me in touch with others who have accomplished something like this, I would love to write about them too.

Honestly, I don't know that many people who have built a community site of similar traffic level that quickly

Maybe I missed it, but did you mention the site's age anywhere in the article?

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#16
post #12

I am more curious to know how much traffic it takes for a site like this to become profitable ads? Anybody has any details? ps: I guess quite a few of us have such "Oh that would be a fun site" ideas... I just don't know what traffic will make it worth the effort.

From my experience, 500,000 pageviews a month will turn a decent profit. Absolute minimum seems to be 100,000 a month, which is extremely easy to obtain these days.

How much can you make with 100,000?

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#17
@endlessvoid94 - Good work solving the chicken/egg problem. I noticed you're a UIUC alum (couldn't help but make the connection between your mentionong of chalking the quad in the article and the actual THATHIGH.COM chalk I saw everywhere last year). I would love to hear your thoughts on entrepreneurship in CU and what prompted you to move out west. Just sent you a tweet.

Re: How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience, 500,000 pageviews a month will turn a decent profit. Absolute minimum seems to be 100,000 a month, which is extremely easy to obtain these days.

How much can you make with 100,000?

100,000 at $1 CPM = 100,000 * .001 = $100

If you are just throwing up a generic banner ad network, it's probably close to $.10-.25 CPM. Then multiply by how many ad units displayed per page (networks usually don't allow any more than 2-3).

So: 100,000 * .00025 = $25; x3 = $75

Very rough estimates. With a site with such a particular niche, he can probably get a higher CPM. I also count 7 ads on the home page.

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