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How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

mixergy.com

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Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#11

Post by kitcar »

Let me summarize this video for you and save you some time:

1) Guy makes some good money in the "sewers" of Internet Marketing during the boom years (using search engine spam tactics to gather traffic, resell it to the .com startups for inflated prices, then moves on to "finance and other" affiliate programs)

2) Guy gets involved in domain name squatting. Runs into some issues, doesn't pan out.

3) Guy gets involved in "gaming marketing" - online casinos. Makes good money as casino are cash-rich businesses. But it turns out that casino marketing is a seedy business!

4) Develops "Casino Affiliate Program" certification program. Make money off the Casinos - the guys with the money - rather than the affiliates - most of who are just trying to follow get rich quick ebooks they bought from an adwords ad.

Only part of his story that is missing is (my guess): - Selling porn/Acai berries/Loan Consolidation leads - Spamming email lists/search engines

Good for him for making tons of cash online. Maybe not the most noble of businesses, might not be for me, but alas, each person has their own goals.

My take away: easier to make money off rich firms than poor individuals.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#12

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

ujjwalg wrote: post #7
RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #2

All I get is a box with: Type your comment here. Am I missing something?

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You've confused me. I'm familiar with the guidelines, but I've gone and re-read them to be sure, and I still don't see why you've pointed me at them. Would you be so kind as to be more specific?

More particularly, I was civil, I wasn't disagreeing,, I didn't introduce a classic flamewar, I didn't sign the comment, I didn't use uppercase for emphasis, I didn't complain that the submission was inappropriate, I didn't say HN was turning into Reddit, and I didn't complain about being downmodded.

Finally, it wasn't flame bait.

What do you think I've done wrong?

EDIT: It wasn't me that downmud you.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#15

Post by nekopa »

For all the spamminess of the content, I did see something useful in there. You get the door slammed in your face 50 times, don't give up. Try to learn why it's happening. I've seen a lot of chat here recently about needing more info on why start ups fail. And there has been some good articles put up too. Even though I think his biz model is sleazy, I like the fact he kept going until he got it right. I hope that when my start up launches, and I get rejected over and over again I have the fortitude to learn from my mistakes, adjust and try again. And if needs be, rinse, repeat.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#16

Post by fallentimes »

mrkurt wrote: post #13

That site (mixergy.com) gives me that oily feeling that only comes from visiting a skeezy site. I don't know what it is about the site or the guy who's in every video, but gah.

Andrew's a good guy; I just think he resides at the the opposite end of the spectrum compared to most of the readers of Hacker News. Although some of the tactics expressed in the interviews make me shake my head, many more have been entertaining and informative.

It's always interesting to see people's reactions when they see how the sausage is made in the kitchen (look at this thread). This is especially true when it comes to businesses in highly competitive markets like cars, computers, coupons, software, tickets, finance, marketing and insurance. Many big brands are just as guilty as anything this guy talks about (e.g. AOL's love.com, BMW SEO spamming, the shady stuff that goes on with Google PPC, the amount of paid links almost any consumer-facing Fortune 500 co buys). They're usually just better at PRing a cover up and/or keeping it behind the curtains. It's one of the joys of being a public company: massive consequences for failure to satisfy short-term earnings expectations and a huge incentives to employ shady tactics to ensure that doesn't happen.

Edit: Here's an example more closely related to venture capital. Guess who two of Cash4Gold.com's biggest investors are? General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners. You won't find Cash4Gold on their portfolio pages.

Or maybe even more telling: look at all the major companies that have affiliate programs. The companies know what they're getting in to; they're just outsourcing the dirty work.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#17

Post by brandnewlow »

fallentimes wrote: post #16
mrkurt wrote: post #13

That site (mixergy.com) gives me that oily feeling that only comes from visiting a skeezy site. I don't know what it is about the site or the guy who's in every video, but gah.

Andrew's a good guy; I just think he resides at the the opposite end of the spectrum compared to most of the readers of Hacker News. Although some of the tactics expressed in the interviews make me shake my head, many more have been entertaining and informative. It's always interesting to see people's reactions when they see how the sausage is made in the kitchen (look at this thread). This is especially true when it…

Agree 100% about the typical Mixergy interview being terrific. The Reddit and OJByrne interviews were great. This one's just too sketchy for my tastes.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#18

Post by AndrewWarner »

I might be too close to this interview because I feel like I'm missing the sketchiness that you guys caught.

My understanding is that Warren's site works because networks like CJ.com, which do things like ensure that affiliates get paid, won't cover the casino industry. So Warren filled in the gap. He helps ensure that affiliates get paid and that affiliate managers find new sites to work with.

Before we did the interview, I pre-interviewed him, checked him out with trusted friends, and confirmed his company's revenue with Inc Magazine.

If I missed something, please email or call me: mail(at)awarner(dot)com or 650-450-4098

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#19

Post by zaidf »

OmarIsmail wrote: post #9

Nice headline, but not really an accurate portrayal of what really happened. Definitely a "marketing" story more that sounds a lot nicer to tell and hear than the nitty gritty that actually went on. If you look at the stats of the forum they get very little traffic (relatively), and the forum itself is pretty barren. Therefore, I highly highly doubt that the majority of the revenue is coming from the community itself…

However, it doesn't really add much value to the world, and they can go out of business in an instant if the CPC rates change in any direction.

- It's unfair to mix this guy's business success with your views on online gambling("doesn't really add much value").

- There are plenty of sites that would go away in a click if google decides to close their adsense account for whatever reason. At least this guy is diversified across the industry--meaning his revenue comes from few hundred different partners.

Re: How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000

#20

Post by kitcar »

AndrewWarner wrote: post #18

I might be too close to this interview because I feel like I'm missing the sketchiness that you guys caught. My understanding is that Warren's site works because networks like CJ.com, which do things like ensure that affiliates get paid, won't cover the casino industry. So Warren filled in the gap. He helps ensure that affiliates get paid and that affiliate managers find new sites to work with. Before we did the inte…

Basically if you've ever worked in the affiliate business, either as a publisher or an advertiser, you pick up on specific terms which are used when talking about not-so-nice activities in "nice" conversations. There were lots of those terms said in this interview.

It's not a reflection on this guy in particular (although he did openly admit to spamming search engines - "doorway pages" is one of those key terms), its the affiliate business as a whole. As he says in the video - it's about the leads, not the product. I get you customers - it's your problem what to do with them. Your product doesn't work as advertised? Not my problem - I just lead the person to your doorstep - it's your responsibility what you do with them.

Read a few discussions on WickedFire.com (a popular affiliate forum) and you will quickly understand what I mean...

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