Sep 08 2007
How To Create A Million Dollar Idea
There have been a number of different people showing off their ideas and their business which were created from scratch. Whether these businesses are created for products, services, or information, there are a few things to keep in mind while you are thinking about becoming the next internet genius. These ideas that I am explaining are those like the creator of Whateverlife.com. She is a 17 year old high school dropout but lives in a $250,000 house and is making over $70,000 a month from her website. Her business involves providing a free product to the general public; Myspace layouts. Keep that idea in mind as you continue reading through this post. This is one instance (of many) that there can be a lot of money made by creating something that consumers are interested in.
Great, She Got Lucky
That could be true, but then you need to look at a few other services which I am sure you are familiar with. First of all, YouTube is a very familiar name to almost everybody now. If you created YouTube a few years back, you would have yourself about $1.5B now. Not bad for implementing a free service to people. Also, Google’s current market cap is $165B. That is not a typo either, that’s $165,000,000,000. Granted Google does a lot more than “free stuff” now, but when they started they were simply a free service for the general public.
What Does All This Mean?
When I realized all of this I was jealous that I did not think of these ideas, which seem so simple. The point is that in order for you to create a million dollar idea, you need to come up with something that people are very interested in, and something that users need. Here are a few simple ideas, a couple of which I have covered already.
Sliced bread (check out the video)
Myspace layouts
Internet videos
If you watched the video, you will have noticed that many of these success stories come from combining things that were already invented. Bread was invented, and so was slicing; put them together and you have sliced bread. Before YouTube became as big as it is, there was no a simple way for users to connect videos with the internet. Both were available, but it was YouTube who combined them.
Be Creative
There are many different ideas out there that are potential money makers. It is your job to find something that the consumers need, and as you can see, each of these successes have been from providing something free to users. Think about what the consumers need and do not have. A great example is the new VOIP system. VOIP is voice over internet protocol, which also means making phone calls over the internet. This is the newest idea I can think of, and Skype was fortunate enough to think it up.
Free Rather Than Paid
Your odds are far greater at succeeding when you provide a free service or product to consumers than if you make them pay for one. Work on selling your knowledge whether it be in the form of a uniquely programmed website that creates a bridge between the gap for the consumers. You need to create the sliced bread, the video and internet relationship. After doing that, you are on your way to being very successful.
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Good post Jeremy. You’re definitely right about the free product - so long as you don’t undervalue your site/content. I find that using an existing idea like MySpace and then being creative with that - like coming up with “MySpace Layouts” is something that us entrepreneurs should be doing - ie. looking at the market and see what we can add to existing sites/products.
I agree. I’ve gotten a few emails asking why I have not created a million dollar idea, and it is because I am not as creative as some of these entrepreneurs. Thanks for the comment.
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I like your point about combing things that have already been invented. That’s very true.
Thanks. I have been thinking about combining two already invented objects/ideas/items to create something that would make a consumer’s life extremely easy, but obviously I have not succeeded in doing so as of yet. I am constantly trying to come up with something though. Hope to see you around more often. Thanks for commenting.
Good advices, but if you have an ideea and you don’t know how to implement it, that’s the problem.
You’ve made some good points, particularly when it comes to combining existing services and creating something free to consumers or open source.
A note to all the entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs reading this, especially if you have ideas that use online media to create communities and deliver breaking news/info, check out the Knight News Challenge - http://newschallenge.org - it’s a contest that funds people with big ideas and little money, and helps them make their dreams into a reality. Anyone around the world can enter.
Hopefully that was helpful to someone!
Thanks for the insight and the opportunity. Best of luck to you!
Jeremy
I am looking for some creative ways to make my website hiphopmusicspace a success with advertising & google adsense, if you have any ideas so far as content please send me a message.