Contents

• Fishing for Millions with the Net [1]
• ECommerce – The Billion Dollar Engine [3]
• How Jeffrey Bezos Became the Internet’s Biggest Billionaire [5]
• Pierre Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll make Billions with eBay [7]
• BizChair.com makes Sean Belnick a Multi-millionaire [8]
• Making Millions with Social Networks [10]
• Mark Zuckerberg – The Youngest Self Made Billionaire [11]
• Kevin Rose and his Million Dollar Bookmarks [12]
• Plenty of Millions for Marcus Frind with PlentyOfFish.com [13]
• Sharing Platforms worth Millions of Dollars [15]
• Chad Hurley – The Million Dollar Videos [15]
• Alexander Levin – Millions of “ImageShack-ing” Dollars [16]
• Matt Mullenweg Wordpresses his Way to Millions [17]
• Tapping the Community Talent [19]
• Angelo Sotira & Jake Nickell – The Millionaire Artists [19]
• Andrew Gower Runescapes with Millions [21]
• Servicing Millions, Earning Millions [22]
• Blake Ross & David Hyatt Browse for Dollars with Mozilla Firefox [22]
• Jay Westerdal’s Million Dollar Domain Tools [23]
• Conclusion [24]
• References [25]

Earn Money from Website – Learn the Secrets of internet millionaires

- By Dr. Harvard Brown

© http://www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

It is a common understanding that making a fortune for oneself demands a lot of hard work, nurturing a trusted network of contacts, cracking profitable deals, building long lasting customer relationships, setting up far reaching distribution channels and most importantly decades of sustained perseverance. The Internet literally turned this common sense understanding on its head. The Internet is making multi-millionaires out of teenage boys who did not sell their product to a single customer, did not build a network or a distribution channel and did not spend even 10 years in earning their millions.

In recent years, the number of Internet billionaires has been on the rise. There were 10 billionaires from the Internet industry in the Forbes 2006[ii] list while the number has risen to 18 in the 2009[iii] list. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, became a billionaire at the age of 23 making him the youngest self-made billionaire on the planet.

Zuckerberg is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of young entrepreneurs who have made it big on the Internet. Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com made $60 million in just 18 months. Chad Hurley sold his creation YouTube to Google for $1.65 Billion within one year of its launch. Andrew Gower’s personal worth is £99 Million thanks to the online game Runescape that he created while still an undergraduate. Angelo Sotira and Jake Nickell became multi-millionaires by creating platforms for audience interaction on the Internet. Finally, the biggest fisherman of dollars, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos has been featured in the Forbes list of World Billionaires every year since 1999 and still maintains his position as the biggest billionaire of the eCommerce industry.

How have these people managed to earn so much money in such a short time or at such a young age?

Have they used innovative business strategies or razor-sharp marketing tactics?

Have they earned their fortune as a result of their vision or as a matter of luck?

Or do they know a secret about the Internet which others do not?

This report aims to answer these questions and much more. Specifically, it will describe the way in which some of the iconic names in the Internet industry have become millionaires and billionaires. The report is divided into 5 sections, each dealing with a specific nuance of Internet which has been exploited by these entrepreneurs to make their millions. For more details visit www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

The first section ‘eCommerce – The Billion Dollar Engine’ explores the various ways in which the Internet was used as a platform for eCommerce enabling people to buy and sell online.

The second section ‘Making Millions with Social Networks’ focuses on the Internet as a platform for enhancing social connectivity and how it helped social networking torchbearers to earn millions.

The third section ‘Sharing Platforms worth Millions of Dollars’ looks at entrepreneurs who became millionaires by creating platforms on the Internet that allowed any individual to share his personality with others in the form of videos, images and views.

The fourth section ‘Tapping the Community Talent’ concentrates on Internet entrepreneurs who have become millionaires by creating a channel for talented individuals in the community to participate and gain from eCommerce on the Internet.

The fifth and final section ‘Servicing Millions, Earning Millions‘ zooms in on entrepreneurs who have made their million dollar fortunes by developing new age Internet based services.

[i] “Internet” Wikipedia.com. 12 Feb 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet>

[ii] “The World’s Richest People” Forbes.com. 13 Feb 2006. Forbes. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Technology_Rank_1.html>

[iii] “The World’s Billionaires 2009” Forbes.com. 11 Mar 2009. Forbes. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_The-Worlds-Billionaires-Internet_5Rank.html>

Total world retail sales have grown 36.5% from US$6.37 trillion, to US$8.69 trillion from 2001 to 2005. However, the internet sales have outstripped all other sectors by recording a growth of over 200% during the same period.

Table 1: World Retail Sales (US $ Million)

Source: Franchise International[i]

Ecommerce in the US is growing at a rapid pace across major economic sectors. It is gradually increasing its share of the total sales in the economy. Online selling is becoming quite common for motor vehicles and parts traders, health and personal care stores, food and beverage stores, and gasoline stations and electronic and appliance stores.

In 2007, the share of ecommerce in the overall retail sales was 3.2% but it grew by 18% compared to 2006. The highest growth was seen in Motor vehicles and parts dealers and Non-store retailers. For more details visit www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

Table 2: US Retail Trade Sales (US $ Million)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau[ii]

Table 3: US Electronic Shopping & Mail Order Houses (US $ Million)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau[iii]

According to the Top 500 e-retailer guide, online retail sales in the US increased to $178 Billion in 2008 from $126 billion in 2007. The top 100 e-retailers contributed over half of all online sales. In 2008, 27 companies achieved revenues of more than a billion dollars as compared to 21 the previous year.[iv] For more details visit www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

The Internet has radically changed how people interact with each other, how companies conduct their businesses, how people search for information, how funds are transferred, how universities impart education and how people buy and sell goods and services.

However, the biggest impact of the Internet on people’s lives has been in the way people earn money. The Internet has become a platform that allows people to become entrepreneurs and run their own businesses. It has broken down all traditional entry barriers for starting a business such as availability of physical space, start-up capital and manpower. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

Many of the biggest internet billionaires started as a one-man company operating from home. This is one of the most powerful aspects of the Internet. Not only does it provide a source of income to people, it is literally churning out millionaires and billionaires. To take an example for contrasting Internet versus traditional business – Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric is reported to have made $720 million over his 20 year stint. On the other hand, Jeffrey Bezos became a billionaire in just 5 years with Amazon.com. Ecommerce is thus a billion dollar engine.

In this section, we will look at three success stories – Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon.com, Pierre Omidyar of eBay.com and Sean Belnick of BizChair.com – and find out how they earned their fortune online.

[ii] “E-Stats” Report. Census.gov. 28 May 2009. U.S. Census Bureau. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/>

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Brohan, Mark. “The Top 500 Guide”. InternetRetailer.com. June 2009. Vertical Web Media. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=30594>

2 (c) BizChair.com makes Sean Belnick a Multi-millionaire

“To start, pick one element and do it better than any of your competitors. Once you have successfully established your initial position, you can grow from there.”

- Sean Belnick

BizChair.com is an online retailer specializing in selling chairs – office chairs, school chairs, church chairs, bar stools, computer chairs and other furniture items like tables, desks, cabinets, and sofas. The site has been recognized by Inc. 500 and Internet Retailer as one of the fastest growing Internet companies. Some of the big names in the client list include Microsoft, Google, American Idol and the Pentagon.

Sean Belnick was just 14 years old in 2001 when he wrote the code for the site BizChair.com by locking himself in his bedroom for 3 days. The only investment was $500 for advertising, $100 for hosting the site along with technical advice from his step father who was already working with a furniture manufacturer. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

Sean was already fascinated by selling products on the internet. Even as a child, he used to sell Pokemon cards on eBay[i]. Sean observed that retailers would call his step father to place orders and the items were shipped directly to the customer[ii]. Sean immediately got the idea of developing a website where customers could directly order the items bypassing the retailers. Thus BizChair.com was born. Initially, Sean simply uploaded the catalogs of furniture manufacturers on the site and when customers placed an order, he would simply forward the order to the corresponding vendor and get it delivered. Today, BizChair.com has a 327,000 sq.ft. warehouse which houses over 25,000 different types of products from over 200 manufacturers and even sources its products from Asian countries like China.

Even though Sean was a millionaire before he went to study business at Emory University[iii], he demonstrated keen understanding of business and competition. BizChair.com was the first retailer to offer free shipping of goods and a 60-day money back guarantee, a strategy which has kept the company ahead of its competitors. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

Table 6: Growth of BizChair.com and Sean Belnick

Source: Wikipedia.com[iv]

Making Millions with Social

[ii] Webber, Liz. “The Chairman of the Board”. Inc.com. 25 July 2007.Mansueto Ventures. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.inc.com/30under30/2007/the-chair-man-of-the-board.html>

[iii] “Interview with Sean Belnick”. Retireat21.com. 12 Feb 2010. <http://www.retireat21.com/interview/interview-with-sean-belnick-making-millions-selling-business-chairs>

[iv] “BizChair.com” Wikipedia.com. 12 Feb 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BizChair.com

However, social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter changed the scenario completely. Now people can connect to friends, family, colleagues, partners, and customers through a single interface and share relevant information with each group. Social Networking has grown exponentially in the last decade as revealed by statistics for some of the top sites.

Table 7: Number of Registered Users (Millions)

Source: Facebook.com[i], Web Strategist[ii], ComputerWorld[iii]

These social networks are having significant influence on the daily lives of people. Marketers are using them with great success as a medium to reach and target specific groups of people. Politicians are using them to influence public opinion during election campaigns. In addition, the general public is using them as an instant source of news and happenings around the world. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

Social networks also make money for many people who are constantly in touch with their customers or partners sharing information about product releases, events and conference proceedings and developing long lasting relationships. The founders of these social networks have become millionaires and billionaires with more and more people adopting their platform for personal and professional communication. According to Computer World, people in US spend 11% of their online time on social networking sites and 43% of all Internet users use at least one social networking site[iv].

Some of the popular social networking sites are Orkut.com, Classmates.com, Bebo.com, Reunion.com, Ning.com, Xanga.com, Friendster.com, Hi5.com, Yahoo! 360 and Flickr.com.

In this section, we will look at 3 unique individuals – Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.com, Kevin Rose of Digg.com and Marcus Frind of PlentyOfFish.com – and find out how they made millions online.

[ii] “A Collection of Social Network Stats”. Web-Strategist.com. 19 Jan 2010. Web Strategy 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/01/19/a-collection-of-social-network-stats-for-2010/>

[iii] Curve, Harrington. “ComScore 2009 social networking stats”. IDG News Service. 10 Feb 2010. Computer World. 15 Feb 2010. <http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=B8790C25-1A64-6A71-CEDC88EAA45BCE6F>

[iv] Gaudin, Sharon. “Social Networks Cutting into Family Time”. ComputerWorld.com. 16 June 2009. Computer World. 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134444/Social_networks_cutting_into_family_time>

Mark Zuckerberg – The Youngest Self Made Billionaire

Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Facebook.com, the fastest growing social networking site in the world. He has the distinction of becoming the youngest self made billionaire when he broke into the Forbes World Billionaire list of 2008 with a net worth of $1.5 billion. He was only 23 years old at the time. He was also named one of the World’s Most Influential People of 2008 by Time Magazine. According to Forbes 2009 Billionaire report, Zuckerberg lost $600 million[i] during the year due to stock market fluctuations and just missed that year’s list.

Another Bill Gates!

Mark Zuckerberg has been compared to Bill Gates quite often for his talent. Born in 1984, Mark was brought up in New York. He showed an inclination to computers and software programming since his school days at Ardsley High School and later at Philips Exeter Academy. He built communication tools, games, and a music mp3 player which got Microsoft and AOL interested in recruiting him[ii]. However, Mark decided to join Harvard for further studies. For more details visit www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

The Story behind Facebook.com

Facebook is a commonly published book in most schools and colleges which includes the head shots of students, faculty and staff members for purposes of mutual introduction. Mark decided to develop an online version of this. So he wrote the code for Facebook from his dorm room and launched the site in February 2004. Initially, the site was only limited to Harvard members but then Zuckerberg spread it to other Ivy League schools such as Stanford, Dartmouth, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and others. By the end of the year, there were more than a million registered users.

Over the next year, Mark opened Facebook to all educational institutions and for anyone with an educational domain email id – alumni, faculty members and college students. Since late 2006, Facebook was opened to the general public and anyone interested could create his or her profile and connect with others[iii].

Facebook attracted investors in the form of Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and former CEO of Paypal and attracted Microsoft which invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the company. This helped Mark and his co-founder friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes to purchase the domain Facebook.com and set up their office in Palo Alto, never to go back to Harvard.

Today, Facebook.com has become the most visited site after Google and is available in more than 65 languages and over 400 Million users. Zuckerberg has no plans for going public and has refused several buy offers. With internal valuations of Facebook at $8 billion and with 60% of the shares, Zuckerberg is definitely a billionaire by all means even if he does not figure in the Forbes list.

Chart 1: Facebook.com vs. Competition

[i] “Notable Drop-offs”. Forbes.com. 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/10/global-financial-loss-billionaires-2009-billionaires-dropoffs_slide_3.html>

[ii] “Mark Zuckerberg” Wikipedia.com. 15 Feb 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg>

[iii] “Facebook”. Wikipedia.com. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook>

Kevin Rose and his Million Dollar Bookmarks

Kevin Rose is one of the icons of the Internet era. He is an entrepreneur who has several Internet companies to his name. He became famous as a co-host for the popular techie show on TechTV, The Screen Savers. However, Kevin Rose is most well known for his site Digg.com which allows people to discover and share content on the Internet. Kevin Rose, with a net worth of $60 Million, was also featured on the cover page of Inc Magazine and Business Week[i].

Kevin Rose was born in 1977 in Redding, California and was brought up in Las Vegas. Since the age of 8, he was interested in computers and at the time he also developed a CDROM with shareware for people. He took up computer science in the University of Nevada but left studies to follow his dreams in the online world[ii].

After working for several dot com startups, he moved to television after the bubble burst in 2000. On his television shows he used to inform his audience about the latest technology and various little known advances in computing. Rose created the Podcasting Company called Revision3 after leaving television. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

Digging with Social Bookmarks

Kevin was struck with an idea of developing a site which featured news stories controlled by its users. Essentially, the users of the site would discover content on the internet and share it with other users of the site. The users would be the editors of the site. However, the actual content would still reside at the original location but only the links or bookmarks would be shared. This is the essence of social bookmarking.

Chart 2: Digg.com vs. Competition

Kevin got the code for the site written by a freelance developer, rented some server space and purchased the domain name Digg.com, launching it in December 2004[iii]. The company then grew with capital infusion from Omidyar Network of $2.8 Million and Highland Capital Partners of $28.7 Million. With Kevin holding 30-40% of the stock, Digg.com made him a multi-millionaire. For more details visit www.earnmoneyfromwebsite.com

As of Jan 2008, it was estimated that Digg.com has 2.7 million registered users[iv]. Kevin releases a highly popular weekly podcast along with Alex Albrecht called Diggnation which features the best stories shared by Digg.com users across the world. The show has been on-air since 2005 with more than 250,000 downloads per episode.

[i] Lac, Sarah and Jessi Hempel. “How this kid made $60 million in 18 months” BusinessWeek 14 Aug 2006. Bloomberg. 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_33/b3997002.htm>

[ii] “Kevin Rose”. Wikipedia.com. 15 Feb 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_rose>

[iii] “Digg”. Wikipedia.com. 15 Feb 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digg.com>

[iv] Graham-Cumming, John. ”How many users does Digg have?” JGC.org. 29 Jan 2008. John Graham-Cumming 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.jgc.org/blog/2008/01/how-many-users-does-digg-have.html>

Making Millions with Social Networks

Plenty of Millions for Marcus Frind with PlentyOfFish.com

Markus Frind is the founder of PlentyOfFish.com, a free online dating site which is popular in United States, Canada, UK and Australia. With a net worth of over $10 million[i], Marcus Frind is another Internet millionaire under 30 years of age to have been recognized by Inc Magazine. According to statistics, there are 50,000 new photos uploaded everyday and 11 million registered users on PlentyOfFish.com[ii]. It is also the No.1 dating site in Canada and United Kingdom.

Born in 1979, Marcus Frind graduated in computer science from British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1999. After working for a few years with dot com companies, Marcus wrote the code for his site as an exercise to teach himself the programming language ASP.NET and launched it in 2003.

He managed the site independently till 2007 after which he hired 3 people for customer service[iii]. During the initial years, the site grew slowly as Marcus kept on adding features only after learning about them. First it was the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) orientation, then the ability to upload images of clients, and then addition of Google Adsense for earning revenues followed by more SEO for building traffic to the site. In addition, it also helped that the dating market was booming at the time when he launched the site.

Chart 3: PlentyOfFish.com vs. Competition

Currently, most of the administrative work is done by the 100+ volunteers. The site earns money through advertising revenues on almost complete auto-pilot. Today, Plentyoffish.com is one of the biggest Adsense earners among all Internet sites with revenues of more than $10,000 per day. For more details visit – Earn Money Online Free »

[i] Chafkin, Max. “And the Money comes Rolling In” Inc.com. 1 Jan 2009. Mansueto Ventures. 15 Feb 2010. <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rolling-in.html>

[ii] “PlentyOfFish”. Wikipedia.com 15 Feb 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlentyofFish>

[iii] Frind, Marcus. “How I Started a Dating Empire”. PlentyofFish Blog. 15 Feb 2010. <http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2006/06/14/how-i-started-an-empire/>