Friday, March 10, 2006
Making Money by Doing What Others Aren't
I hadn't even considered this angle when I started this series on different ways to make money online, but news about my son's latest online business reminded me of an essential aspect of online success:
Creativity
Creativity is key to making your business stand out. A few months ago, a college student got a brilliant idea to sell advertising by the pixel and The Million Dollar Homepage was born. The novelty of it got worldwide attention and he has long since reached his goal of selling $1,000,000 worth of ad space on his site.
The success he had inspired thousands of copycats to try the same thing. But none of them, to my knowledge, have had anything near the success of the original. The idea of selling pixel advertising was fresh and interesting, but the novelty of it has long worn off.
In fact, the people making money now off of the pixel advertising craze are the ones selling hosting and template packages to the dreamers who think that using the same idea will automatically generate the same money for anyone.
But my son developed an interesting and original twist on the business model with—guess what—creativity.
Jon has started PaintMyPixels.com as "The World's First Internet Painting." For $1, anyone can choose a 100 pixel block and have it colored any color from the predetermined color palette.
The block will have a link to the site of the buyer's choice. But unlike the old pixel advertising, the final result will be something more than just a random clash of tiny ads. Buyers have a chance to influence the direction of an actual artwork that will be painted on canvas at the end of the project and auctioned off.
So anyone who takes part in this collaborative artwork will be part of a historic piece of art—the first of its kind—that will be displayed as fine art in somebody's home. And perhaps they can even have it in their own.
It's a clever twist that stands out from anything that's been done before on the Web. Whether it generates the kind of attention The Million Dollar Webpage did remains to be seen. But its use of creativity is something worth noting.
Nobody gets ahead by FOLLOWING the pack. You get ahead by finding a way to LEAD it. And that means being creative.
Jeff
I hadn't even considered this angle when I started this series on different ways to make money online, but news about my son's latest online business reminded me of an essential aspect of online success:
Creativity
Creativity is key to making your business stand out. A few months ago, a college student got a brilliant idea to sell advertising by the pixel and The Million Dollar Homepage was born. The novelty of it got worldwide attention and he has long since reached his goal of selling $1,000,000 worth of ad space on his site.
The success he had inspired thousands of copycats to try the same thing. But none of them, to my knowledge, have had anything near the success of the original. The idea of selling pixel advertising was fresh and interesting, but the novelty of it has long worn off.
In fact, the people making money now off of the pixel advertising craze are the ones selling hosting and template packages to the dreamers who think that using the same idea will automatically generate the same money for anyone.
But my son developed an interesting and original twist on the business model with—guess what—creativity.
Jon has started PaintMyPixels.com as "The World's First Internet Painting." For $1, anyone can choose a 100 pixel block and have it colored any color from the predetermined color palette.
The block will have a link to the site of the buyer's choice. But unlike the old pixel advertising, the final result will be something more than just a random clash of tiny ads. Buyers have a chance to influence the direction of an actual artwork that will be painted on canvas at the end of the project and auctioned off.
So anyone who takes part in this collaborative artwork will be part of a historic piece of art—the first of its kind—that will be displayed as fine art in somebody's home. And perhaps they can even have it in their own.
It's a clever twist that stands out from anything that's been done before on the Web. Whether it generates the kind of attention The Million Dollar Webpage did remains to be seen. But its use of creativity is something worth noting.
Nobody gets ahead by FOLLOWING the pack. You get ahead by finding a way to LEAD it. And that means being creative.
Jeff
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