Joel Comm makes 20k in 24 hours from 500words.com

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JDA

JDA

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I guess this goes to show that stealing ideas can be profitable:

http://www.revenews.com/bradwaller/archives/002019.html

Now that Joel has had his 15 minutes we can stop writing about his site and get on to other things. The first of which is that the true strategy Joel had with 500Words was not so much to make a fortune on the actual site, but now he is selling the script used to create the site. He says he made $20K in the first 24 hours and expects to make $50K by the time he is done from the 500Words site.
I'm guessing that he will do far better selling the script because #1 the price is a lot higher than selling words, and #2 he can sell as many copies are there are suc- er, buyers willing to pay for it. If you believe his numbers, he already sold the first 25 copies for about $500, and is selling the next 25 for about $600. That is an easy $20K for the first 40 copies sold. By my calculations he will break $100 grand right at copy #142. Pretty good if the sales can continue.
Of course these unique sites flash into existence, burn brightly as others imitate them and then fade away. And this only happens faster if something else can come in and grab the attention away. I have found that next amazing idea at BidTheGrid.com. Instead of buying space that lasts forever, you are only buying space until someone pays more for it. BidTheGrid has been up since March, and so far has 19 ads out of the possible 103 squares. Since you can get a space for free and only go away once someone outbids you, I calculate that they have made as much as $0 so far.
Seriously, while I think the idea of bidding for space on a smaller screen makes a whole lot more sense than the MillionDollarHomepage, these folks are daft if they think they can make much of anything without a real strategy. Joel had his list of followers to leverage who not only were the right customers, but they also trusted Joel and his ability to generate publicity and thus traffic to the site. Alex Tew spent money on a publicist to get him started. Here you have another site that has actually been around for months, but has nothing to show for it. Maybe Joel can get their script and show them how to make money with it too!
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I guess that's one way to look at it, I just find it sad that he started that site the day after 1000words.com started to take off.
 
Stealing,everything on the internet is stealing. Ebuams world is only popular because they steal.

stealing FTW!
 
Yeah, I look down on Ebaums too. It's tough, I'd find it hard to pass up the money, but you've got to have some kind of morals too.

This was just really blatant anyway, so it offended me more than it would have normally.
 
All 500 website did was take a good idea and capilize on it...It's was a good business move.
 
Thank you Joel Comm for showing us how to do this so that my programmers can make a replica script for me for $50 or less. Yay for you.
 
Jon said:
Thank you Joel Comm for showing us how to do this so that my programmers can make a replica script for me for $50 or less. Yay for you.
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no doubt. just put the wickedfire logo instead of your mug in a monkey-suit on the spammy sales page
 
DanNicol said:
no doubt. just put the wickedfire logo instead of your mug in a monkey-suit on the spammy sales page
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Who said anything about selling it? I think coming up with something that makes you lots of cash, and then selling the source of it is either..

A. A sign that it's not even that great, so you need to sell out quickly for some fast cash.

B. You're just an idiot and only after short term cash and profits.

If he did in fact make $20k in one day, which I'm not doubting he did either, why on earth would he sell the source for $1k? For a smart guy, he's fairly dumb. Yes, you can definitely make $100k from selling the script, bravo. But that's a one time deal. Instead you can own the market, make all the sites yourself for any niche you want, and truly make well over $1M every few months (or less) with it.

The price and reason for selling always catch my eye quicker than the actual product and how much it has made the owner.
 
i get what you are saying now. I read the post wrong. I assumed you meant selling the script of $50. I get where you are coming from now.

Dan
 
Jon said:
The price and reason for selling always catch my eye quicker than the actual product and how much it has made the owner.
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he is selling it for a crazy price too.. look how much you can buy a milliondollarhomepage script for - this one isn't even as difficult to write I would think, in fact from the look of it it could just be a static html page
 
marc said:
he is selling it for a crazy price too.. look how much you can buy a milliondollarhomepage script for - this one isn't even as difficult to write I would think, in fact from the look of it it could just be a static html page
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It definitely looks easier, and more customizable. I guess I can't really blame him for selling something for $1k if it can potentially make 20x-25x that in a day, or even a week. But when it comes to taking an original or semi-original idea, and then using it, and proving to yourself and team that it works, and then selling it? That's just retarded. He should be going out there, flooding the market, making millions of dollars, then after everything is pretty much tapped, and he is well bored of it, THEN sell it to the potential competition.

For a self proclaimed internet marketing expert, he sure is a shitty strategist.
 
Maybe he's already bored of it? Already thinks the idea is getting old? ;)

You like making niche sites and making a ton of them but other people might not, even when you tell them how much money you can make. Why do software companies sell software? Why not just take on projects and sell you the finished product? Just comes down to personal preference and knowing what you're good at I think.
 
Maybe he's forseeing that the flash-in-the-pan is about to come to an end, and wants to cash out now (like you said)
 
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