Can You Make a Million Dollars With a Wiki?
*Update - Use coupon code JohnChow to get $10 off
The creativenesses of Internet entrepreneurs never cease to amaze me. Take for example Graham Langdon, 21 year old senior from the University of Connecticut. Like many college students, Graham has enormous college debts that he needs to pay off. He also wants to open the best bar in the world, right in the heart of Boston. How does Graham plan to pay for all this? He’s hoping The Million Dollar Wiki is the answer.
What is The Million Dollar Wiki?
The Million Dollar Wiki is basically a pay-per-page version of wikipedia. There will be a page for literally everything. However, instead of being open for anyone to edit, one person owns each page. Each page cost $100 and Graham plans to sell 10,000 pages so he can make his million bucks. Graham is off to a good start with the project. Since starting it two months ago, he has sold 158 pages and made $15,800. The FAQ gives a complete explanation on what the site is about and how it can make you money.
Every page is dedicated to a unique word or phrase. The content on each page is controlled by the page owner. Owners use the site, and specifically their page, as a vehicle to generate traffic, revenue or publicity. Other benefits include:
- Secure an exclusive niche in a growing micro-economy.
- Raise awareness of your website, product, or service.
- Cultivate a heightened web presence.
- Share traffic generated by the entire community.
- Join a resourceful community of motivated entrepreneurs.
- Receive storage space on our server for your page’s content.
- Link quality content to your relevant website for better SEO.
Make Money Online with The Million Dollar Wiki
Because you own the page for your chosen keyword, you can do whatever you want with it. Monetization of your page can range from selling products or service to putting on advertising like Google AdSense. You can also resell the page for a profit.
Ownership of the page is forever. In this case, forever is until 2022 - the hosting of the site has been covered until then. It’s Graham’s intention to keep the site up forever but it’s guaranteed to be up for the next 15 years. Some examples of Wiki pages created by users include:
There are a couple of case studies showing how the Wiki pages are making money for their owners. The Million Dollar Wiki offers several ways to promote your page. You could show up on the front page as a featured page, you could show up when a reader clicks a random page and you are also listed in the most popular pages. Currently, the most popular page is the keyword for Business, with 28,085 views.
The Power of Viral Marketing
Like the Million Dollar Homepage, The Million Dollar Wiki is based on the power of viral marketing. How well the Wiki does will depend greatly on how well Graham gets the message out about his project. Right now, he has the advantage because he is the first mover into this new space. After working the numbers - $100 over a minimum of 15 years - I decided to buy a page. I now own the Wiki page for Make Money Online.
I wish Graham luck on this project. I really hope he makes it because everyone loves an Internet success story. One thing for sure, paying $100 to own a Wiki page seems like a better deal than paying $100 for a little square.
*Update - Use coupon code JohnChow to get $10 off
- Posted in Make Money Online, The Net
- 156 comments what's your take?
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This is now filed under ‘Damn, I Should Have Thought of It’
Reply to this commentseriously. never ceases to amaze me how an idea can take flight so fast. Great IDEA. LOVE it. Just bought a page myself. Hahah I will release it to John Chow page once it is confirmed.
Reply to this commentYou know. This is like. Virtual Real Estate. This might be the park place of internet searches.
Reply to this commentYeah. Each time you see such new fast successful online venture, you say to yourself: why didn’t I think about it first? And then you start to brainstorm a little, thinking about how you could make similar achievement etc…
Reply to this commentBut I think that guy played a long time on wikipedia and finally, one day, the eureka moment happened to him. It could not be something that he came up with instantly. It must have involved time and wiki knowledge and a lot of desire to breakthrough.
I invite you to blogadollar.com Do you think it can become the next big breakthrough?
BlogaDollar has great chance to be next. good Luck
Reply to this commentWill we ever get rich?
Reply to this commentAgreed!!
Reply to this commentYep, sry too late :/
Reply to this commentIdea seems excellent. Maybe another one million dollar homepage in making?
Reply to this commentWhat’s even better about this idea versus the Million Dollar Homepage is that the potential income for the Wiki is infinite, he could make $1 Million or much, much more. At the rate it’s going he should have his $50K in school loans paid for in no time.
Reply to this commentyea it could be infinite. then again wouldn’t the value go down? I mean… it’ll be just like any other wiki.
Reply to this commentThe value is built into the popularity. If this works and it becomes the next big internet sensation, then all the pages will have very good chances to rank well. That’s where the value comes in.
Reply to this commentMaybe…
Reply to this commentor maybe not…
Reply to this commentSadly, I heard about the website when only two pages had been sold. I didn’t believe in it then, and thought that it was a stupid idea!
… I stand corrected.
Reply to this commentIt’s highly possible.
Reply to this commentWHAT AN AMAZING IDEA!! If John Chow thinks its worth buying a page, sign me up for five!
Reply to this commentNot only does this site get the John Chow review me traffic effect but it also gets a resounding ensorsement from the man himself which as you point out could be more valuable than anything else.
If John’s jumping on the bandwagon then I’m sure the droves will follow
Reply to this commentfor five…wow
Reply to this commentAgreed! *=)
Reply to this commentGive me money for 5
Reply to this commentidea looks great! good luch to Graham
Reply to this commentyeh looks like it hsa the potential. If it’s already made $15k in two months who know how big this will be in a year. I don’t think I would buy a page from him but I’m sure lots of other people will!
Reply to this commentGENIUS! Such a simple idea….most of the great ones are just that. Good luck to him!
Reply to this comment$100 might sound like a lot initially, but given a minimum of 15 years, you’re only paying at most $6.67 a year for that page.
Reply to this commentwhen you put it like that how could you not buy a page
Reply to this commentGreat Plan
Reply to this commentThis is an amazing idea… and yet so simple. I’m buying at least one…
Reply to this commentI admit that he will most likely make his million bucks. The question is, what makes it amazing? The fact that he will make the $, or the fact that it is actually a *good* idea?
DevDad
Reply to this commentI got a page!! Guess which page I got??
Reply to this commentGuess which page the anonymous guy got? LOL!
Reply to this commentHilarious!
Reply to this commentI hope you can track how many affiliate sales are a direct result of that page… it would be interesting to know.
Now, I’m just waiting for the smart bastard that decides to buy JohnChow webpage on that wiki for a cheaper way to get mentioned on this site
Reply to this commentIf he would offer the option to pay by PayPal I would have bought a page…..
Reply to this commentSame here. Its disappointing to see only Google checkout as a payment option.
Reply to this commentMaybe he wants to make refferals on Google checkout.
Reply to this commentIt’s a great idea, but in terms of content it’s pretty boring (from a reader’s point of view).
Reply to this commentYou obviously haven’t seen the letters to businesses page
http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/Letters_To_Businesses
Reply to this commentGood find.
Reply to this commentI don’t think he has to worry about taking paypal. Its genius!! Google checkout doesn’t charge a processing fee, and anyone can pay via Credit Card. My hat goes off to him!!
Reply to this commentAn anonymous Google evangelist are you?
Reply to this comment
Reply to this commentDarn Tootin!
I use google for my directions
I use google for my sattelite photos
I use google for my searches
documents and spreadsheets oh my!
Now if only I could buy the google page on Million Dollar Wiki, but trademarked names aren’t allowed. I got a good one though. A real good one. Here’s a hint. A cow might be involved.
Reply to this commentI may just have to pick one of those pages up. Buy the right keyword and as long as he continues to publicize his site you could have a good advertisement for quite some time.
Reply to this commentThat’s the gamble - how long (and well) will he publicise his site for. And will this continue if he reaches his financial target?
Still, as Michael points out above, it’s effectively $6.67 a year for a page and this means it’s not too much of a gamble!
Reply to this commentGood one excellent idea
http://desiarticles.blogspot.com/
Reply to this commentI think the same.
Reply to this commentIt’ll be interesting to see if this actually takes off or if there’s an initial interest that slowly dies away.
Either way I guess from a monetory point of view if Graham hits his target I’m sure he won’t care!
What is interesting is if a domino effect begins and people feel they have to sign up simply to avoid not being on there.
Reply to this commentI think this thing is going to snowball.
Here’s why.
Everyone who buys a page wants to get to the top of the most popular page. In order to do that, they’re going to have to promote their page a little bit. So every customer has an incentive to get out there and plug MDW and talk about it.
A year from now this site is going to be enormous.
Reply to this commentIs there anything really limiting him to 10,000 pages sold? Unlike the Million Dollar Homepage, he won’t ever run out of little pixels to sell…he could monetize this site by selling “pages” indefinitely!
Reply to this commentHahaha has anyone seen the page for toilet brush?
http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/Toilet_Brush
Reply to this commenthe he good one
Reply to this commentcool idea, this. $100 might seem too much at first, but hey, your page’s gonna be up for EVER(guaranteed for 15 years, atlest). The
Reply to this commenthttp://www.milliondollarwiki.com/Letters_To_Businesses
page really is good, BTW.
I enjoyed this one, too! Pretty hilarious, and almost all of them are true.
DevDad
Reply to this commentI seen the spam all over myspace and thats when i stopped hoping he would achieve the goal
Reply to this commentYou SAQ the spam. Sorry, it’s just a pet peeve of mine.
Reply to this commentEr lol SAW not saq… dangit!
Open mouth, insert foot.
Reply to this commentI love what that happens! I always have a type when I correct someone!
DevDad
Reply to this commentWell - I’m trying it out… Just registered the Wordpress Wiki with them…
Reply to this commentJust registered the Photos page. Following John’s lead, I put in some descent content and links to affiliate programs.
I won’t be able to track how much affiliate revenue comes from MDW, but I’ll be able to measure how many clicks the links get as they go via my site.
I’ve also linked to my articles to get some traffic, which I’ll also be able to measure.
I can’t see myself using MDW as an information source like I do WikiPedia, and don’t believe others will either. I expect the majority of traffic will be ‘novelty’ related - people interested in the concept and just checking it out. The Million Dollar Homepage doesn’t offer any value, it’s all about the business model.
Also, if Google do de-value or prohibit link value from the entire site because it’s not “organic”, then a large part of the $100 value will be eroded.
Without those two factors, $100 would be a sound investment. As it is, it’s a bit of a risk. But nobody ever does anything worthwhile by avoiding risk!
- Lee
Reply to this commentAnother good post.I get pulled by this site again and again.Thanks.
Reply to this commentgood post.
Amazing Picture video articles
My only concern would be that it is capped at 10,000 pages like he says. That’s what creates value for each page in my opinion.
That being said, I picked up two myself, lawyers and work at home. I agree with Cash For Comments, the site could end up being the cream of the crop for 10,000 keywords and for $200 it’s more than worth finding out.
Reply to this commentWhat is the reason for any substantial number of people to use this as opposed to wikipedia? It seems that this site will provide useless, sales-driven information.
DevDad
Reply to this commentThe site still got PR4 and doesn’t rank well on Google. There are better ways to spend time and money, and those are not called agloco
It’s sad that all you do lately is promote pyramid games… time to get creative again. Just my 5 cents.
Reply to this commentIf you have decided to spend $100 on it, than do it fast to get maximum traffic. Don’t wait till it picks up.
Reply to this commentI think that this is best way to go. If you’re going to do it at all, spend the money now, and just go for it. $100 isn’t too tragic to lose, anyway.
DevDad
Reply to this commentSounds like a great money making idea to me. Best of luck to him.
Wish I’d thought of it first though….hehe.
Steve
Reply to this commentThat is an intriguing idea. It also points out that not everybody goes to College just to Party. This site will be interesting to watch.
Reply to this commentThis idea is really good.
Reply to this commentI don’t now about this one… I checked the Million Dollar Homepage and Agloco on Alexa. Their traffic spiked like crazy immediately after they were launched (checked launch dates from Wikipedia). Million Dollar Wiki has been simmering at the bottom of the Alexa graph for two months now.
It doesn’t follow the traffic pattern of a net hype, but who knows? Good luck anyway to those who bought pages!
Reply to this commentGreat idea but he really should have set it up to allow bids for some of the more sought after pages. I mean, for anyone to purchase his Wiki page on “Make Money Online” for a lousy $100 was selling himself short. If he had allowed everyone to compete for that page alone he could have gotten a huge profit.
Reply to this commentSomeone on DigitalPoint was doing the same thing last year. Can’t remember the name though.
Reply to this commentWow, I wish I thought of it! And very smart to go up and buy a page John. I’m sure you’ll receive some referrals from that page.
Reply to this commentThats sure, John always makes good deals :).
Reply to this commentWhy doesn’t someone make a $100,000 wiki and only charge $10 a page?
Reply to this commentLooks like someone thought of that. Check out ownapage.com
haha I doubt they will sell very many pages
Reply to this commentWow.that was fast
I guess it is so easy to copy business model. Nice idea for directory owners. With better layouts, better PR, I guess you could make some $$.
Reply to this commenteeeh thay are trying… what to say, they should hire better graphics designer
Reply to this commentNot a bad idea, but he should use a few of the bucks that hes made and redesign the site a little bit. It doesnt look that professional for such an expensive service
Reply to this commentJohns endorsement is good enough for me, I purchased a page.
Thanks John.
Reply to this commentExactly, with John’s weight behind this it will be an amazing success.
Reply to this commentJohn,
It would be very interesting if you could track how much revenue you generate with this Wiki page and then post a follow up when you have made the $100 back.
Reply to this commentI own a couple pages on MDW, My girlfriend and I jumped on it when I found an article on digg. Needless to say this site is only a couple months old and everyday moves up higher in alexa and with more page views per person shooting through the roof. I have almost paid off one of our pages through google adsense and affiliate programs. For the most part I just spend an hour or two putting up some good content and just let the pages produce for its self. It is not bad idea in a cost/reward sense (time = little, reward = 15 years). In the future I would like to expand into other niches using MDW and the community involved.
Reply to this commentJohn said 158 Pages sold … the number is now at 174 … wow … he’s already made up the money for the review!
Darin
P.S. I just bought 1 myself!
Reply to this commentYup make that money son! only two types of people make money online
Reply to this commentWhat two types of people?
Reply to this commentSounds like it will be an idea that takes off initially, but won’t hold much value later on. Not that the owner of the site will mind, since I’m sure he’s already made enough of an impact to pay off all debts etc.
In the long run, who is going to go searching through a wiki that is just a collection of ads. The information won’t really be useful when compared to a conventional, high quality wiki or search engine, and so isn’t going to be enough to hold peoples’ attention for long IMO. Just as happens with all ventures that have used variants on the MillionDollarHomePage model.
Superb idea for paying off debts though.
Reply to this commentNow that’s one of those that I wish I had thought of, but now that the idea is out there, I can think of a couple ways to increase the sales volume (besides the reviewMe):
1) Offer a secondary auction site. This may prove a little tougher to cut out eBay as a middle man but then you can capture the comission.
2) Bundle similar names and provide a slight discount
3) Set up a referral system (it might reduce per-page profits). This system is proven for exponential growth but with a ceiling.
4) Any other ideas?
Reply to this commentWow - he goes to my school.
Reply to this commentI will be interesting to see how this one goes. It’s a great idea !
Reply to this commentIt appears to be another novelty fad. I remember not too long ago when John took Bla.st to new heights. The excitement seems to have dwindled drastically despite the fact that Bla.st is quite a piece of work.
This Million $ Wiki will take off really well in the short term. In the long term, it is anybody’s guess.
Reply to this commentI guess I agree with you. After this hype is over, no one visits the site again. And he will pocket the $1million happily if this pulls off.
Nevertheless, he deserve some bucks for this simple yet brilliant and innovative concept.
Reply to this commentmannnnn what a smart kid…. im laboring here for nothing, while he fulfills his dreams
Reply to this commentYou should try to think sth. like this.
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Reply to this commentI’m amazed is that people are paying for a page. The Internet never ceases to amaze me. I wouldn’t buy one but I agree that a page is better than a little square.
Reply to this comment
Reply to this commentNew Ideas (or i should say new evil strategy) as John Chow himself has.. I have written an article about Why I Love John Chow Dot Com.. Just check it on my site
Reply to this commentEveryboby loves John!
Reply to this commentAlmost…
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