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I came across an interesting article today about a neat little iPhone application called Trism. Started as a side

project a few months ago, the author is quitting his day job and getting into iPhone game development after earning an incredible $250,000 in the last two months (and selling at least 50k copies of his game for $4.99).

The Opportunity

In some related news, T-Mobile and Google announced the release of Google’s first mobile phone, the G1. Google plans on having their application marketplace be totally open, which is quite a different model than that of Apple who place tight restrictions on what applications can be listed.

There is a tremendous opportunity for application developers and thinkers to build great mobile applications, and make a ton of money in the process.

But I’m Not a Programmer!

I always assume that will be the first objection I hear. If you have a great idea that is not a good enough excuse for me. Find someone on Craigslist, Elance, or a keen computer science student at the nearest university.

I am amazed at how frequently new business markets are created on the Internet. It is not too late to get involved in the mobile space. If you have an idea run with it! and if you need some help you can always get some friendly advice in our forums.

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When you think of Microsoft, what words usually come to mind? For me they include: stable, compatible, standard, profitable, boring, successful. I’m not an Apple ‘fan-boy’, but I certainly don’t see the creator of Windows as a company nimbly releasing game changing products. For a ton of reasons they can’t be that company, but they can certainly try to shed that image. 

1. Do Something Different

Everyone has likely seen the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads. These have been wildly successful for Apple from both a brand and sales perspective:

Microsoft has kicked off a $300M retaliation effort which has generated a tremendous amount of buzz both on the web and in traditional media. Personally I think that the fact there are so many people discussing how much they either love, or hate the campaign is a great indicator of success.

If you have about 6 minutes to spare, watch both commercials that have been released so far, the first one is edited for television:

The second commercial has some elements of the first but goes into a much longer uncut scene. A number of bloggers have gone into more depth on this trying to find symbolism in the elements of the commercial; the shoe needing to fit is like having to adapt to windows, all the pool toys are Microsoft colors and the fact  pool ‘never warms up’ can be likened to a cold image, but take a look for yourself before coming to any judgements:

Look back up to my title; I called them one of the world’s least nimble companies. After watching those ads are you left feeling that Microsoft doesn’t take risks? have a little fun? care about users? The ad’s make Microsoft look like the nimble software start-up next door, and not the world’s largest IT shop.

2. Get People Talking

Criticism across the web centered around “not getting it”. Had Microsoft released commercials touting the reasons why Vista is a superior choice to Apple’s OS X, the tech nerds would have dissected their comparisons line by line, regular folks wouldn’t care, and no one would be talking about it.

3. Keep Them Wanting More

As a result of all the “what the hell is this?” style posts, these videos have had millions of views, a ton of press, and keep people interested in what is coming next. Even if you think these commercials are the most pointless pieces of video ever created, I can almost guarantee that the continuity to the next one will keep you watching, even if it is so you can talk about how much you hated commercial number three.

Bravo Microsoft, bravo.

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I got a note from Yahoo! about an hour ago announcing that their buzz site is now open to the public. IF you recall my previous post on the topic, Yahoo! is in position to be a serious competitor to popular news site digg.com.

If You Own a Site, Sign On

Yahoo! buzz allows users to submit news stories, and these stories are voted up by the sites’ community of users. By submitting your own stories, or placing buttons on your site that allow your readers to submit you can help drive traffic to the site.

Only time will tell if buzz can defeat digg.com, but for mainstream users and non-techies, it may just have what it takes.

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Dave Hermansen did not own a bird or a cage when he bought bird-cage.com, an online store, for $1,800 three years ago. He simply saw a website that was “very, very poorly done”, and begged the owners to sell it to him. He then redesigned the site, added advertising and drove up traffic. Last December, he sold it for $173,000.

This article caught my attention because it got me thinking about my own online ventures. I am constantly scanning the Sitepoint Marketplace looking for deals, solid sites in low competition niches, and topics that interest me. Is website flipping the new house flipping?

Anytime I buy a site it’s because I have a long term vision for it so I can’t say I fit this description entirely, but it is a great way to earn a living online. If you have experience with growing websites, it is entirely possible to make thousands of dollars a month by flipping websites.

Here’s What I Would Do

I’m more of a long term kinda guy, so I doubt I’ll get into this, but I thought I’d use a real life example from my own experience in case you are thinking about giving it a try. I just bought a website on SitePoint that I’m exited about growing and running (i’ll give the url once we’re all done fixing it up) and I’m confident we could make atleast 3 times the purchase price with less than two weeks of work. Here are the key ingredients to make that happen from start to finish:

1. Research and find a niche that does not have a clear front runner, is underserved, or could use some high quality entrants
2. Scour the site listings at SitePoint, check eBay, put up want-ads, contact site owners, and do whatever you need to do to get a pre-established site in that niche for a good price
3. Revamp the site adding in features you know consumers in that niche will want
4. Ensure existing search engine placements and rankings are preserved (if not improved)
5. Redesign the site, refresh the logo, and get it up to professional web standards
6. Resell the site for millions

Ok maybe not #6, but 1 through 5 are exactly the steps I follow, and I’m confident that with my new site I’d get atleast 3x my investment. If you’re like me and you’d rather have steady regular income versus lump sum payments you could replace #6 with ‘market & monetize the site’. Finding ways to make money from your newly improved site can do wonders for your wallet long term.

Anyone out there have experience flipping sites?

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