Innovation - The Secret of Giant Success

Surf the Web for more than about five minutes and you’ll start to recognize a pattern: there are a small number of great sites that do fantastic things… and a very large number of me-too sites that try to make money by doing the exact same thing.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those me-too sites. I’m all in favor of competition and sometimes a me-too site can offer features that improve on the original. They might make less money than the original but even if they only make a fraction of the first site’s income, that can often be enough for the copycat site’s owner.

But when you come up with a brand new idea, you can really clean up.

As you might already know by the buzz here at Revenews, I’ve just launched a new site: www.500words.com. The idea is very simple. I’ve put 500 words on a page and publishers can sponsor a link from that word to their site. The links stay up for two years, give traffic and provide a novel approach for visitors and sponsors. For a slightly larger fee, publishers can also add their own keywords.

Within three days, 300 of the original words had been sold. I’ve also been inundated with requests for the script I used to create the site and will be launching the sale of this product shortly.

My point here is not self-promotion. It’s also not to debate the value of a site created by my software. That has already been done here, here and here.

The fact that people are interested and bought it is really the point. I happen to think it is a great idea.

Others think it is stupid and worthless.

Well, wake up folks. People buy stupid, worthless stuff every day. How many have supersized their french fries needlessly? (Even against doctor’s orders…) How many have spent hundreds on exercise equipment that ends up serving as a clothes rack? How many have bought stacks of video games at $50 each, playing them for a week and then letting them stack up to the ceiling? The point is that the free market is a huge place and there is room for all kinds of creativity. People are free to spend their cash on whatever they want. And if the market speaks, we had better listen. We are not the gatekeepers of other people’s money. We are the marketers. We are the innovators.

What I really want to point out is that there are great ideas lurking around every corner. I didn’t sell those words because they were particularly valuable. I sold them because the site had created a buzz - and that’s what happens when you create a new idea online.

The Web is a very gossipy world. Whenever something new and exciting happens, word gets around very, very fast. Links are posted, emails exchanged and people start asking each other if they’ve seen your site. In no time at all, you’ve got more traffic than you could have possibly imagined. That viral marketing is the real power of the Internet.

Coming up with innovative ideas isn’t that hard. The idea for 500words.com was inspired by derivatives of MillionDollarHomepage.com. I saw what I liked about those sites, recognized where they were weak and came up with a whole new idea. I produced something new.

As you’re surfing the Web, ask yourself what new ideas you can come up with. Make it exciting and innovative, and you’ll generate a ton of interest.

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