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Ask HN: Got a site that could be massively viral then fade -- how do I cash in?

16 pointsJFitzDela15y ago23 comments

I just had a light bulb moment on the way home, checked GoDaddy for availability of the name I wanted, and lucked out and bought it. The site has MASSIVE potential for virality based on an already highly widespread trending topic, but I suspect it's going to very quickly fade from public interest.

Given this information, what can I do to cash in? I doubt anyone is going to be very interested in buying the domain/app (due strictly to the potentially very short topic lifecycle), so then what?

I've thought of:

- Ads (duh)

- Cafepress store, which would be great except it would be best to have an option for user customizable text to print on the clothing (this is going to be a lolcats-alike thing to begin with)

- Uh... that's all I've got.

Any other thoughts? If I go with the ad model, is AdSense going to be the best option? Can I really expect a return on a week or two worth of ads? Do I hope for a buyer and/or a longer lifecycle?

Can I expect a return at all on something that fades so quickly (if it does)? It's going to spike the hell out of my servers, obviously, which is going to cost, and I'm pretty broke.

Look forward to any thoughts or feedback at all!

- John

23 comments

16 comments · 7 top-level

keiferski15y ago· 4 in thread

Charlie Sheen? It's already been done.

http://livethesheendream.com/

If not, that site is filled with good ideas.

pbhjpbhj15y ago

That site is in a story on OK Magazine - http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/03/charlie-sheen-quotes-live-...

3 other such sites are listed in the comments. I think he missed the boat already.

JFitzDelaOP15y ago

No question I'm late to the game, but I suppose I'm just banking on the, "it's a big internet," notion -- thanks for pointing this out, though!

JFitzDelaOP15y ago

Didn't REALLY think I was going to get much past you folks....

It is Sheen related, at least, but has a better domain name (IMHO) and a different spin.

We'll see, I reckon, we'll see. Thanks!

erichcervantez15y ago

I'd say if you have an idea you have to act super fast...the whole Sheen topic could be dead in a month

minalecs15y ago· 3 in thread

from how I interpret this you're saying this is all guessing, and you actually haven't executed anything ? This makes no sense, just do it. Right now you are worrying about things that may never happen, and is holding you back from actually getting it done. If you do get this massive traffic, come back here and personally message me, and we'll figure something out.

maxbrown15y ago

While I agree with the unlikelihood of "The Sure Thing" he claims, I think he's just trying to be prepared. If it's true that it hypes on a grand scale but will only last a week or two, I would want to be prepared with my monetization so to not miss a day of it.

minalecs15y ago

I find it hard to take a viral app and make any kind of significant revenue in a short time, no example comes to mind. But if this was the case I would suggest, possibly a compliment iphone app that costs like 99 cents to capture paying customers of the apple market. This market seems to pay for things like this , example fart app.

JFitzDelaOP15y ago

What you said. :)

mikerhoads15y ago· 1 in thread

I have experience with this.

When the whole Conan O'Brien cancelation fiasco was going on, I registered teamconan.com and teamleno.com because I saw that phrasing in a TMZ poll and they were still available. My friend and I threw together a Facebook Group and put the domain on a Tumblr account. Within 12 hours we had 10k+ members in the FB group and were getting significant search traffic to the site. We were getting emails from people offering up 50-100 bucks to run a display ad (static image, not adserved) and we didn't even prompt for it. I only ended selling 2 of them and we donated the money to the Haiti Earthquake thing. I definitely could have made a lot more had I been prepared to sell display ads. Simply putting a link on the site with a contact email for advertisers will get you plenty of offers if you really are seeing massive viral traffic. Also, ALWAYS make a facebook page for the site you create. You can really ramp up virality and pages with a lot of fans can earn money with sponsored statuses (which is frowned upon heavily by facebook).

Also, for anyone that is interested: A few months afterwards, Conan's lawyer contacted us and asked to to give them the domain. I had no problem with that and now it currently directs to his official "Team Coco" site. We still have the FB group, it has lost about 200k members since its peak but still has 200k members: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=242166564197

JFitzDelaOP15y ago

Excellent thoughts -- I'll plan to include placeholders for simple ad placements that can be sold directly, and will definitely have contact info in the footer.

The Facebook page is also a great idea; I'll get it created and try to auto-post user creations to the page.

Thanks!

Tycho15y ago· 1 in thread

t-shirts

c.f. snowpocalypse 2011

salemh15y ago

http://madebyloren.com/posts/10 his blog

JoachimSchipper15y ago

> It's going to spike the hell out of my servers, obviously, which is going to cost

Seriously? Just throw it on some decent shared host to start with. E.g. Dreamhost (no affiliation) offers unlimited everything for $9. Yes, "unlimited" is rarely unlimited, and you will probably want to migrate to something better if it takes off - but there's no reason to spend a lot of money to start with.

JFitzDelaOP15y ago

The site is now live at http://sheenme.me -- would love feedback!

imrobert15y ago

You could pick a relevant affiliate program (check out Commission Junction) and promote it.

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