supermike

Based on observation all over the web in the past few nights, I've started to look at AM as an inverted pyramid. It's small at the bottom because:

* You don't know a lot.
* You especially don't have a lot of options because you don't have the funds to re-invest.
* You don't know enough to have options.
* Because you're often using someone else's playground, you have to play by their rules and this diminishes your options.
* Without a lot of options, you may become discouraged and quit.

Then, in the middle, things change:

* You know a little more.
* You've got a little cash now.
* You have just a handful of funds to re-invest and you've started purchasing a minimal hosting plan and have parked multiple domains there, and you may have paid to sign up with an affiliate ad network, while on others you've joined for free.
* You make a lot of errors, going down dead ends, wasting time on the wrong stuff.
* You're not as much in someone else's playground because you've been purchasing several domains, but you don't completely leave that playground because you need that extra cash.
* Your options are encouraging you, but the dead ends can be de-motivators.

Moving above middle, things change:

* You know a lot more.
* You've got a lot more cash, but you're taking huge risks and losing some of it on far more dead-ends.
* You're even paying others to ghostwrite content for your site to some degree.
* You make even more errors, but you've gotten used to them and are clearly motivated by it.
* You're still using some sites in someone else's playground because you have to -- they are still paying.
* You have a lot more options because you not only know more, but you have the cash to re-invest.

Moving into the top, things change:

* You know a tremendous amount.
* You're taking even larger risks with the cash and your losses are less because you're experienced.
* You're making far less errors.
* You still have some sites in other people's playgrounds, earning a trickle, but you've compounded that.
* You've moved into scripting sites with packages so that you can churn out 100 sites on a particular set of topics and can go back now and use another script to create the content, and so on.
* You have a lot of options because you've got the cash to re-invest.
* Even though you may have made $290K last month on a set of 10 ringtones you helped market, the Ad Network people you meet at conferences barely know your name but want to encourage you even still.

In the middle top, things change:

* You can start to stop doing the things that only generate a trickle and invest completely in the things that generate solid growth.
* They pyramid is large -- there are far, far more options for you to choose from because you've got the cash to re-invest.
* You're a master -- errors are few.
* You're not writing the content anymore -- you're paying others to do this.
* You've got a set of dedicated servers and a fractional T1 or DS3 out of your home office.
* You've got deep scripting skills on Linux with Perl and perhaps other languages.
* Ad networks are excited to have you join them and meet you at conferences or send you stuff all the time. They know you by first name.
* A few conferences may call you up and ask you to speak.

And at the top, things change:

* You've hired employees.
* Others are doing the work for you and you can focus on strategy.
* Even though you're not doing a lot of scripting, you are in training classes to learn about new product generation and new ad networks, then turning around and teaching your staff to do it by creating mockups/demos.
* You may even be playing around in venture capital, starting small companies with great ideas and the ability to generate income either from advertising or other ideas.
* You know the big guys on a first name basis, and they to you.
* You have a lot more conferences to speak at.
* You can even create your own ad network.
* You are compounding on your options.

In the nanosphere at the top:

* You've died and gone to Heaven. Just kidding. Actually, you've generated so much silly income that you've quit ad networks entirely and are just doing venture capital work, stock investments, or retiring, living off your dividends. This can open the options for the people below you to get in the markets that you left behind. But you don't care because you're sort of half-retired.


Anyway, knowing this, if my observations are right, I've discovered that it appears the doors at the bottom of the pyramid are closing -- that the saturation isn't generating enough useful content and the freebie sites are blocking it. For instance, go start a blogger site at blogspot and see if you can get it listed on Reddit. I haven't been able to do so -- Reddit declines, saying a bogus, "You've been submitting sites too fast," when I haven't. Also, the rules with Google AdSense are growing. And then WordPress has now done the discouraging thing to block Google AdSense and replace it with their cheesy ad network that costs you to get into it. Also, on the freebie sites, the content's starting to look so much like cut and paste that you end up with almost duplicate entries being indexed on the "what's new" sites. I mean, for those that make it on Reddit, you often see 4-5 others that did the same exact topic in almost the same exact way, and there are then people reposting the content and saying "Non Link-Jacked" besides it in parentheses.

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Yes, I can do PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite dev work.

barman

if you spent less time writing and over analyzing this shit, worrying that you "can't get it", you'd realize there are plenty of ways to game various systems. you think digg submissions hit the front page because they're cool? and if youre such a programmer, why dont you just install wordpress on an actual site so you dont have to deal with the ads/subdomain issue?

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be a super affiliate eh

join the ppc.bz fan club noob (now with more tits)

machinecontrol

If you're failing on reddit, it's your own fault and not an inverted pyramid. "You're submitting too fast" means your IP is blacklisted by them for spam. That doesn't mean there's no money to be made there.

For example, I have been making good cash pimping my Ron Paul blog on reddit...all of the sheeple always vote it up.


EDIT: Noticed Barman's sig. :-D

audax

Dude, you need to just shit or get off the pot. The general idea of your inverted pyrimad is true. You are only stuck down there because your vision is too narrow. Why are you starting sites at blogspot or wordpress? Download the software and set it up on your own hosting plan/server. Gaming Reddit isn't only way to break in... there are hundred of other ways.

radio

Yo, Mike. You've just described every learning environment known to man. You don't know shit, you learn some shit, you shoot the shit, then you are the shit.

Now get to work or spend the rest of your life shoveling shit.

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$10 banner creatives / headers / etc. :: make money beta testing my site :: jizz in my pants

stack paper

This is the shit.

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Rob_TID

Less talk.

More work.

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supermike

That means purchasing a domain and paying for it, parking it where I host my current site, then gambling that the domain idea will work. Sure, I plan to get to that part of the pyramid, but I don't have the cash because I lost my job. So, the only route I have now is the free route.

__________________
My company is Volo. And here's my blog.
Yes, I can do PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite dev work.

m0rtal

The door's wide open.

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twinkle twinkle little star

radio

Seriously, pick a generic domain, get a hosting plan that offers up subdomains, and now you have more than enough to keep you busy and the flexibility to do more. I know funds are tight - but mid-range business managed hosting w/ three domains is under $10/month and even less with the coupons that get posted here. I saw your other post about funds being tight and being laid off - but tell wifey-poo to forego a latte and have the kids pack a lunch once this week - there you go. You're first month and your cash nuetral... but your options have gone up exponentially.

Shit - you already have a site and hosting. Create some subdomains and have at it. Don't point them back to your main domain and you don't have to worry about causing page rank issues with your main site.

You are in engineer mode and you need to get into entrepreneur mode... as in now!

Seriously, I'm not in the business of being motivation coach. If you're going to stay in engineer mode, code me up some shit so at least one of us can make some money.

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$10 banner creatives / headers / etc. :: make money beta testing my site :: jizz in my pants

argh01

soopermike:
would any of these domains work for you?

yourshittysite.com
whoreofwarcraft.com
buzbiz.biz

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DelJean

Mikey, if you'd put as much effort into producing content for yourself as you do for this forum, you'd be golden.

I'm sympathetic to your plight, but... time to suck it up. Pity party's over.


Spend the next two days enjoying Xmas with the wife and kiddies, then start bright and early Wednesday morning building your web empire.

If you need a domain, I'll sell you an excellent generic one -- xpiru.com-- on the installment plan, $1 a month for 12 months. If you need hosting, I'll give you a spot on one of my servers, $.50 a month for 400 mb/5 gbs.*

There ya go, $1.50 a month. Get to work.


*No body rides for free. Ass, Cash, Gas or Grass, baby.