How? The big dogs of the internet become big? ebay, craigslist, myspace.

Yeah i think we should choose someone to figure out what they did and pay them for doing so but thats just an idea.

 

soon we will join the list.. its all brain + Money +dedication +luck

Sam

 

What they are doing is not creating affiliate websites and selling ebooks.
They are a service based business which generates a ton of money.

Find something that people need and take advantage.
Your not going to get big by selling a god damm ebook on how to make $1000 in 1 week.

 

I can tell you how to make a $1000 in one week... only 19.95 pm for more

 

Some pretty interesting responses on this thread.

I won't answer your question directly, but all I can tell you is: Find what's hot, join the right affiliate program for it and pump traffic. You'll make cash you won't complain about. Most importantly, keep it low key.

Hey, if you manage to ever get social networking traffic OR celebrity gossib traffic, IM me ... I'll monotize the living hell out of it.

 

what you know about celebrity traffic? I was thinking of throwing my hat into that cluster****... any ideas?

 

I think they just had a great idea with good timing, hard work, and "luck".

 

"I can tell you how to make a $1000 in one week... only 19.95 pm for more"

Will you take a $1.25, and a coffee mug with boobs on it?

 

I think most of us is forgetting one of the most important thing about their success.......... at the time and before they launched there was no eBay, or a Social Network like MySpace.......... so they innovated...... innovation is the key in having a mjaor success.

 

I've watched a documentary on Myspace and the kid based the idea off friendster.

Another thing I notice, I cannot find Myspace, craigslist, etc in one single link directory.

 

Corruption, backhanders, favours and lies mostly.

 

Most of these sites did not start with a huge team of people or some genius marketing strategy. They were one or two people with a good idea for a website that provided a utility to its users. These sites didn't have to convince people that they were a great product, they were so useful in original ways that people flocked to them. MySpace might be the one exception, because there were several social networking sites around before MySpace, but the others became big being the only site doing what they do best. It doesn't matter how much marketing work you do, if your site does not provide a unique product that people WANT to use, then it probably won't ever be 1/100th the size of the 3 sites you listed.

 

I think we all agree that they all had an innovated idea.

Despite myspace not being the first social networking site... they did innovate by supporting MP3 uploads (great for band promotions) Picture albums, blogs, classifieds, and more stuff that I can't think of right now.

I'm wondering if instead making an "innovated" site, just making a better and more secure (spam free) site? That's a HUGE problem with ebay, myspace, etc.. is all the B.S that goes on. Ebay's fees are ridiculous and they don't apply their money to support a better security team. And myspace is loaded with spam. I can get 5 emails or messages everyday... and all of it is spam garbage.

I think if people could find an online community auction with cheaper fees and better security and safety team... or an online social site with no spam.

So I'm thinking if anyone can take the concept and make it better, they will succeed.

Jm2c.

 

They had luck, perhaps, with the idea. But not luck with regard to their success. It's very basic business and e-business:

Business principle:
- Something people will want to use, is unique in some what, and value for money will find it easy to become popular.

To take eBay: People want to be able to buy 2nd hand things, they want to be able to sell old items. It's unique as I don't think it had been done before online, and also unique in the sense that I imagine most users had not previously used an auction even offline before, so it become somewhat 'fun' at first. Any popular product will simply gain word of mouth.

A lot of the popular online concepts are simply looking at popular offline concepts and bringing them online, and they still are today.

Whether it's something big like tapping the second hand market, or creating a department store (amazon, albiet its initial focus was books) or something small (such as a local business directory).

e-Business principle:
A lot of people on your website can potentially result in advertising revenue.

With that, they can then invest in deals and other things to improve it!

How to copy:
Be unique. Creating a proxy website or 'the next myspace' isn't going to be easy if you want to be in the same position as amazon and ebay. Why? Because amazon wasnt 'the next online book store', it was probably the first (or at least near enough the start to focus itself correctly so that it was used by everyone as standard).

I have always said that the best concept anyone can do is to do something local. Look around you. What does your community lack, or an accessible target market that perhaps you are apart of.

If you want an easier route, it'll be best to be unique and perhaps the only one of this nature. If you want the harder route, and to be 'the next ___'' then you still need to be unique, but not to the same degree. 9/10 websites on here do lack a unique selling point, though, which is why most aren't getting the results the owners would like.

 

The fact is, though, that most people don't care. Anything as popular as myspace will result in you being spammed - you just dont accept people you dont know and dont join groups unless you plan to participate in them (or optimize your settings).

As for ebay fees, I don't particulary perceive ebay as costing anything. I know it does. But for buying, it's free - which is good. As for selling, well the fee is taken out of the final price (and when you consider that the average joe of ebay is selling an unwanted item, any price paid is better than nothing and putting it in the bin).

So it's not just about making it better, but the perception that its better and the users wanting a better service. At the end of the day, the only real people affected are businesses or power sellers, but then that is the price of putting your product out to millions of potential customers - which is realitively low in comparison to real auction houses or local advertisements which do not reach as many people. As I imagine a small % of users would actually complain about the prices, I dont think that alone is the issue.

People need to be realistic. Sure, people have done amazing things online, but people should look at ebay and think walmart, and then imagine setting up 1 store in an attempt to compete with walmart and become 'the next walmart'. You're competing against a giant and markets arent too welcoming to new comers in a monopolised market.

For every $ you put into adwords, they could probably chuck in $$$,$$$. Basic economics.

 

Ya, most (if not all) of these big wigs were just lucky in a large way. They came up with something new and "profound" and once the fire started, it spread! Take ebay for example. There are loads of sites like it (ubid, etc.) which probably would have been huge and rich if they had been first, but they weren't. So if you want to have success like the big wigs, my advice is... be creative!

 

Innovation is an important key, and taking an existing concept and making it better is innovation too. Originallity is very important, not only on the concept, but also on the ways to getting success: submitting links to directories isn't that originial, and by the way, I have the impression directory links aren't that effective anymore, nowadays.

Another thing I think is very very important, is simplicity. Someone mentionned it earlier, but further nothing seems to be said about it anymore. Take a look at google or myspace: actually, those sites are very userfriendly. Next to that, the designs of the site are simple but beautiful too.

Next to those things, there are a number of other factors. This includes, but is not limited to, dedication, knowledge, (possibly) available resources, ...

@MrSandMan: Once a site gets extremely big, it can't be beated anymore, at least not in a short period. There have been many tries to get a better ebay, but ebay is still the unbeatable marketleader at this very moment. But your example does illustrates perfectly that innovation on a smaller level can lead to success.

What I do think, even though I don't know much about it, is that all the current "big dogs" started small. Not with specialized teams for SEO, security, support and whatever, but just a few people doing it on a small scale but with dedication.

 

Well then i have an idea dude why not turn your social networking site into a social networking site for webmasters soley or for gamers? myspace would have nothing on that! That would also be inovative and if you run with this idea i want credit for coming up with it

 

MySpace launched from a Friendster dispute within its users and the site. At the time Friendster was clamping down on its users by not letting them change their profile pages, or inject other bits of code to make their pages more "personal".

The owner of Myspace (I forget his name), launched myspace with the idea that users could be more free to do what they want with their personal pages. From that he sent a PM to all his friends at Friendster, which included people with over 200k friends that they sent a messages. From that Myspace was launched and just grew out of more freedom than that was available at that time when Friendster was more popular.

craigslist has been more of a slow growing deal, as they had been around but only in recent years have they started to jump mountains.

Ebay has a patent that projects their products and gives it a bigger edge over what was happening at the time of their launch, just like Google..

All these companies did not care about SEO at the start, as you have seen they put time into making a unique product, and even getting more protection with patents (for some) to give them some breathing room.

Think about your users, and make it unique in some way, then dont let your competitors copy you.

The ideas in the businesses above are some of Warren Buffett basic thoughts on investing in companies.


* ssry for the typos Im really feeling out of it today!

 

That is a unique idea dude