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

16 points by JFitzDela 16y ago

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

minalecs 16y ago
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.
- maxbrown 16y 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.
  - JFitzDela 16y ago
    What you said. :)
  - minalecs 16y 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.
    - mikerhoads 16y ago
      Yeah, but unfortunately if it is time sensitive, the approval process required by the Apple market is a huge hinderance.
keiferski 16y ago
Charlie Sheen? It's already been done. http://livethesheendream.com/ http://livethesheendream.com/ If not, that site is filled with good ideas.
- JFitzDela 16y 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!
  - erichcervantez 16y 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
    - JFitzDela 16y ago
      I agree. I've got it built (6 hours from conception...) -- gonna let it stew over night, see how I feel in the morning, and start pushing it. Thanks for the advice!
    - salemh 16y ago
      You never know with Mr. Sheen. Now selling his tweets (or shopping them): http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=charlie+sheen+sells+twits#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=charlie+sheen+sells+tweets&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.&fp=1f88e33b228dcf78 http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#3... http://blogs.forbes.com/chrisbarth/2011/03/02/charlie-sheens-twitpics-are-worth-1000-words-but-are-they-worth-1000/ http://blogs.forbes.com/chrisbarth/2011/03/02/charlie-sheens... Edit: This IS a man who demanded a raise post-controversy of the prostitute being locked in a bathroom. This could just be the beginning. As well as a great viral bid to capitalize on. http://www.watchmojo.com/blog/film/2011/02/28/charlie-sheen-asks-for-an-apology-and-hefty-raise-from-cbs/ http://www.watchmojo.com/blog/film/2011/02/28/charlie-sheen-...
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
mikerhoads 16y ago
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 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=242166564197
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - keiferski 16y ago
    You're acting as if Conan is in explicit control of his lawyers. He's a major celebrity worth millions of dollars. If the lawyer didn't try to shut down sites with his name in them (that are about him), he/she isn't a very good lawyer. Besides, the grandfather post said they asked for the domain - not the site (?). That could be very relevant.
    - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
      >If the lawyer didn't try to shut down sites with his name in them (that are about him), he/she isn't a very good lawyer. People don't generally own the rights to exclusive use of their name and news reporting clauses in copyright usually make such requests contrary to law IMO. However, in the USA at least I expect it's the old "I've got money and lawyers and so you have to do what I say".
imrobert 16y ago
You could pick a relevant affiliate program (check out Commission Junction) and promote it.
Tycho 16y ago
t-shirts c.f. snowpocalypse 2011
- salemh 16y ago
  http://madebyloren.com/posts/10 http://madebyloren.com/posts/10 his blog
JoachimSchipper 16y 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.
JFitzDela 16y ago
The site is now live at http://sheenme.me http://sheenme.me -- would love feedback!