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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 ↗ HN
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

24 comments

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minalecs
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
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.
minalecs
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
Yeah, but unfortunately if it is time sensitive, the approval process required by the Apple market is a huge hinderance.
keiferski
Charlie Sheen? It's already been done.

http://livethesheendream.com/

If not, that site is filled with good ideas.

JFitzDela
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
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
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!

pbhjpbhj
That site is in a story on OK Magazine - http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/03/charlie-sheen-quotes-live-...

3 other such sites are listed in the comments. I think he missed the boat already.

JFitzDela
No question I'm late to the game, but I suppose I'm just banking on the, "it's a big internet," notion -- thanks for pointing this out, though!
salemh
Always execution. It CAN beat out the first movers. If you can make this work, please detail it more in the future.
mikerhoads
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

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keiferski
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
>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".

mikerhoads
The lawyer contacted me and asked if they could have the domain (and hinted that they would be willing to pay or trade tickets/merchandise). I just gave it to him. There was never any inkling of strong arming or a forceful shut down on their end.

Conan sent us a signed thank you later about a week after the domain transfer went through.

JFitzDela
Excellent thoughts -- I'll plan to include placeholders for simple ad placements that can be sold directly, and will definitely have contact info in the footer.

The Facebook page is also a great idea; I'll get it created and try to auto-post user creations to the page.

Thanks!

imrobert
You could pick a relevant affiliate program (check out Commission Junction) and promote it.
JoachimSchipper
> 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.