How I Got a $1,000 Site Made for Free
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“Success doesn’t depend on how many resources you have. But how resourceful you can be.” - Tony Robbins.
Let me tell you a personal success story of mine today.
I am a young naive kid still in high school. Its the days of Napster (remember that music sharing software that rocked the internet?) And I have an idea for a website.A The idea is simple
Can we napsterize advertising?
1. Send an email to members with 12-15 ads in each email. Each member can receive a maximum of 5 emails per day.
2. For every email that a member reads, send her ad to 10 other people.
3. Let members refer their friends to this service. For every email a friend reads, send the referring member’s ad to 1 more person.
4. Have the referral network 3 levels deep.
For eg:
- A Member A signs up and his ad is sent to 10 people for every email he reads.
- A He promotes and gets Member B to signup under him. For every email member B reads, Member A’s ad is sent to 1 more person.
- A Member B promotes and gets Member C to signup. For every email Member C reads, Member A and Member B’s ads are read by one more person.
- A Member C promotes the service and Member D signs up. For every email Member D reads, Member A, B and C’s ads are read by one more person.
The idea seemed brilliant to me. But I’m a kid with no resources. And no credit card. And the idea would require at least $1,000 - $1,500 to bring to life!
I’ve designed a couple of websites before on freelance basis. Which would allow me to pay for my own hosting. But there was no way I could hire a programmer and pay him $1,500 to create the entire site for me!
So What Could I do?
What I did was tried learning programming on my own. That was a big disaster. I soon gave that up. But not before I’d wasted a couple of months. (Mini lesson: Play on your strengths. Outsource everything else.)
I could always borrow money from my parents. But I didn’t want to do that. (In the end, I did end up borrowing $10 from my Dad to pay for the domain name.)
Instead, here is what I did. I logged on to the ICQ chat network and started finding programmers over there. I asked a simple question to all of them:
“What would it take for you to create a site for me for free? What could I do in return?”
The first 7 or 8 programmers let me know that they didn’t work that way. But one project manager working for a big programming company in Ukraine made me an offer:
If I found 2 paying clients for him, he would assign a junior programmer to create my website for free!
I then spent the next few days contacting anyone and everyone I knew and asked them another simple question:
“Do you know someone who knows someone who needs programming work done?”
I did manage to find 2 paying clients for the Ukranian company. And they did keep their word and create the website for me.
And within the first month, that website became moderately successful. Attracting close to 540 members in its first 3 weeks.
Would you like to see a snapshot of the website?
MaxMailer.com - now defunct.
Every time I’ve told this story to others, I’ve always been asked: why is MaxMailer.com no longer functional?
The answer is embarrassing: because I was young and stooopid.
I ran it for a few months. And the site was profitable from week 1 - as I had very little monetary investment in it. But then, I started having hosting problems. The site grew too big too fast. And my servers would go down every other day. At the same time, I moved to USA. So I gave up on it.
If I would have stuck with it, I could have sold it off for a lot of moolah!
Action Summary:
- Think Barter. You can always borrow or barter for resources.
- Ask for help.
- Play on your strengths. Do what you are good with. Or else, you’ll just end up wasting time.
- Just do it. Take action. Keep on moving.
Would you like to share one of your success stories with me?
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This sounds like a great story.
I started thinking about making money on the net ears back but never did. I wish I had jumoed in when there was more opportunity.
Saying that, I am just starting to make a small amount of money now but it had taken a long while.
Posted 04 Dec 2007 #
Forest Parks: Thanks for the comment. I don’t think the internet is even anywhere close to its peak. Plenty of opportunities still remaining. And better opps will keep on popping up even after 15 and 20 years. You’re not too late.
In fact, I prefer being the early follower rather than an innovator. Your risk is minimized because you can learn from people who failed before you. And with a little bit of creative thinking, you can rock the boat and grab a bigger market share.
Posted 04 Dec 2007 #
Ha, ha! This reminds me of last year, when I wanted to get myself a Russian Blue cat, but they were too expensive, so I ended up by programming a website for a cattery, and I got my cat in exchange for my work. And the website is still online and it is quite pretty, despite some strange things the owners insited to have there.
Posted 05 Dec 2007 #
Seems like the best entrepreneurs start out at a young age
I think the most powerful thing people who want to get something done for free can take away from this is to ask ‘What can I do in return?’
You can ask 1,000 people to, say, build a website for you for free. Unless they’re a good friend or a family member, they’ll probably say no.
You can ask 1,000 people ‘What would it take for you to do this for free’ and you’ll get very different responses. Great tip for anything — not just building websites.
Posted 05 Dec 2007 #
Simonne:
Thanks for sharing that story with me and using barter to get what you want.
Skellie: Thanks for your kind words and great insight. One of the principles I try to follow is: “Pay in Advance.” You’ve got to be willing to help to be helped in return. 3-way-barter just leverages other peoples skills for your benefit while giving them what they want. But you’ve got to take action, ask, and do the legwork.
Posted 05 Dec 2007 #
You idea was briliant. If you keep your maxmailer until today, maybe google will acquire you.
Posted 05 Dec 2007 #
Arcade: Hehe - thanks for your vote of confidence. The idea isn’t as good as it sounds though. Because the only people who would register are owners of websites that talk about how to make money - and network marketers. The vast majority of webmasters wouldn’t signup. (Its the same with all the banner exchange websites.)
The idea has legs. And would sell for quite a lot of money if I had kept it alive. But I doubt if Google would have bought it off me.
The idea is not as good as something like BlogRush by John Reese.
Anyways, if you want, feel free to run with the idea yourself.
Posted 05 Dec 2007 #
Nice story, Ankesh. You provide further confirmation of one of my favorite adages: “You can have anything you want if you help enough other people get what they want.”
Posted 07 Dec 2007 #
Just launched a new web site for freelance programmers called Freelance4.com . If you think it might help you in any way feel free to register. All the best !
Posted 02 Jan 2008 #
idea was good. bad that it failed.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 #
Ahh, you have the gift of innovation, and it also shows in all of your posts here at Blog Clout.
Keep up the great ideas, and you’ll continue to be successful!
Posted 14 May 2008 #
its sound good but its not easier like it look i have try my best but always fail. its all about trust
Posted 25 Jun 2008 #