7 ms·

Yep. This guy takes "get rich quick" to the next level. In that same time period he could have founded real startups with real products. Instead, he got 10 yea

Yep. This guy takes "get rich quick" to the next level. In that same time period he could have founded real startups with real products. Instead, he got 10 years of putting his blood, sweat, and tears into bullshit money making schemes.

johnward 12y ago
Founding a real startup with real products also leads to failure most of the time. We just hear about the successes more often on HN.
- AdamFernandez 12y ago
  I would imagine that online 'get rich quick schemes' have an even higher rate of failure than most startups. Perhaps 99.99% versus 90-95%?
  - johnward 12y ago
    With some startups it's hard to distinguish between the two to be honest. I almost feel like the way the media covers startups they are a "get rich quick scheme". What percentage have a successful exit? I don't know. I did hit the startup lottery once as a late hire and got about $8k from the acquisition. However, I do agree I would have better spent those years thinking about how I could solve people's problems instead preying on their insecurities.
    - x0x0 12y ago
      Not all non-get rich quick schemes are startups. I think what people here are saying is that given the obvious level of effort you (I assume you're the author) put into this, you could have put serious dents in a few patio11/rob walling style saas or other small product businesses. I understand there's money to be made chasing various arbitrages in online advertising, but those get plugged over time. Plus a product business would make me feel better about what I spend all day doing.
      - johnward 12y ago
        Maybe you're right. I really don't think I have the skills pull off something like that.
        x0x0 12y ago
        Walling's book start small, stay small may help you get started. Amy Hoy talks about this a bunch; she runs a paid course but also has a ton of free content. You should check them out. I've also read about people making serious money from advertising; it seems like the time investment to understand all that stuff is big enough that it could help you understand a small business instead.
        johnward 12y ago
        I've gone through 30x500 which is kind of what shifted my focus to products. I haven't really taken any action with that yet though but it seems to work for some others.
        socialist_coder 12y ago
        I dunno, just from reading your blog post I think you showed you have a lot of ingenuity, intelligence, passion, and perseverance- add some good product sense and you have yourself a decent web startup.
  - kposehn 12y ago
    Let's separate get-rich-quick from the actual process of making affiliate campaigns, testing and scaling them. Here's some stats (top-level, very approximate) from my own experience: * Number of campaigns created & stage 1 testing: 500+ * % to stage 2: ~25% * % from stage 1 to 2: 20% * % from stage 2 to "success": ~50% In the end, I'd say that roughly 5% of my affiliate campaigns were successful. Success is defined as eventually returning the test budget * 4. The key was that if I got a campaign to stage 2 I had a very high likelihood of profit. Literally 50% of the stage 2 campaigns became successes (most stage 2's broke even close to it). Of those successful campaigns, only 10% of them generated 90% of my profits on average. The end result is that ~1% of all the campaigns I made made 90% of the profits, which is quite accurate. Over the span of 7 years of being a full-time affiliate (excluding the part-time years) 12 campaigns were the main money drivers.
mb_72 12y ago
At least he's being honest with himself. I see many posts here about people learning a tiny bit of some programming language, making (IMO) unnecessary products and then looking to cash out / sell out at the first opportunity and move on to the 'next big thing' to do it all again.

johnward 12y ago

Founding a real startup with real products also leads to failure most of the time. We just hear about the successes more often on HN.

AdamFernandez 12y ago
I would imagine that online 'get rich quick schemes' have an even higher rate of failure than most startups. Perhaps 99.99% versus 90-95%?
- johnward 12y ago
  With some startups it's hard to distinguish between the two to be honest. I almost feel like the way the media covers startups they are a "get rich quick scheme". What percentage have a successful exit? I don't know. I did hit the startup lottery once as a late hire and got about $8k from the acquisition. However, I do agree I would have better spent those years thinking about how I could solve people's problems instead preying on their insecurities.
  - x0x0 12y ago
    Not all non-get rich quick schemes are startups. I think what people here are saying is that given the obvious level of effort you (I assume you're the author) put into this, you could have put serious dents in a few patio11/rob walling style saas or other small product businesses. I understand there's money to be made chasing various arbitrages in online advertising, but those get plugged over time. Plus a product business would make me feel better about what I spend all day doing.
    - johnward 12y ago
      Maybe you're right. I really don't think I have the skills pull off something like that.
      - x0x0 12y ago
        Walling's book start small, stay small may help you get started. Amy Hoy talks about this a bunch; she runs a paid course but also has a ton of free content. You should check them out. I've also read about people making serious money from advertising; it seems like the time investment to understand all that stuff is big enough that it could help you understand a small business instead.
        johnward 12y ago
        I've gone through 30x500 which is kind of what shifted my focus to products. I haven't really taken any action with that yet though but it seems to work for some others.
      - socialist_coder 12y ago
        I dunno, just from reading your blog post I think you showed you have a lot of ingenuity, intelligence, passion, and perseverance- add some good product sense and you have yourself a decent web startup.
- kposehn 12y ago
  Let's separate get-rich-quick from the actual process of making affiliate campaigns, testing and scaling them. Here's some stats (top-level, very approximate) from my own experience: * Number of campaigns created & stage 1 testing: 500+ * % to stage 2: ~25% * % from stage 1 to 2: 20% * % from stage 2 to "success": ~50% In the end, I'd say that roughly 5% of my affiliate campaigns were successful. Success is defined as eventually returning the test budget * 4. The key was that if I got a campaign to stage 2 I had a very high likelihood of profit. Literally 50% of the stage 2 campaigns became successes (most stage 2's broke even close to it). Of those successful campaigns, only 10% of them generated 90% of my profits on average. The end result is that ~1% of all the campaigns I made made 90% of the profits, which is quite accurate. Over the span of 7 years of being a full-time affiliate (excluding the part-time years) 12 campaigns were the main money drivers.

mb_72 12y ago

At least he's being honest with himself. I see many posts here about people learning a tiny bit of some programming language, making (IMO) unnecessary products and then looking to cash out / sell out at the first opportunity and move on to the 'next big thing' to do it all again.