How A Forum Site Grew Monthly Revenue From $400 to $400,000 • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by zaidf » Tue, Sep 01, 2009, 9:09 PM UTC

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…

Sketchy industry does not equal sketchy guy.

Irony is, for those that watched the video, this guy turned the sketchiness of the industry to his advantage and made a whole business out of certifying these online casinos.

I really enjoyed it. In future, please ask him(or other folks you interview!) about how they scale the salesforce for the businesses that have one. I am at a point where I am able to launch something, may be even make some money from it, but find it challenging to scale.

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

#22

Post by pbhj » Tue, Sep 01, 2009, 9:16 PM UTC

kitcar wrote: post #11

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 i…

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

A worthy insight IMO, one of those 'I know it but it helps to be reminded' comments.

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

#23

Post by delackner » Wed, Sep 02, 2009, 3:36 AM UTC

zaidf wrote: post #19

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 diversifi…

What is unfair about saying that he prefers to look for successful business methods that feel like they contribute value to the world? I'd sure rather make good money contributing than make stratospheric money being a parasite.

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

#24

Post by sireat » Wed, Sep 02, 2009, 8:01 AM UTC

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…

I think you might be right that there is a shadowy side, however, where is that shadow site, that is, anyone have a specific link on CAP page to the dirty stuff?

Taking a casual look at CAP, it looks amazingly clean(and legitimate looking) for a gambling oriented site.