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
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Trackbacks
- Today Is Not Over Yet » Can You Make a Million Dollars With a Wiki? - August 8, 2007 at 7:15 am
- Million Dollar Wiki-My Awesome Blog - August 8, 2007 at 2:15 pm
- Million Dollar Wiki.. | Irish Internet Entrepreneur - Smemon - August 9, 2007 at 4:43 am
- В кой блог да коментираме - August 9, 2007 at 8:20 am
- Ideas que dejan mucho dinero | Bitperbit - August 9, 2007 at 2:49 pm
- Miscellaneous Ramblings for 8-10-2007 | John Chow dot Com - August 10, 2007 at 11:25 am
- Adsense-Optimized Wordpress Themes | John Chow dot Com - August 11, 2007 at 4:45 pm
- John Chow dot Com Million Dollar Wiki Blog Contest | John Chow dot Com - August 12, 2007 at 9:01 pm
- Business Blog » Blog Archive » M&S looks soggy - August 13, 2007 at 5:43 am
- Win a 24inch LCD monitor from LG - SE Optimization - Search Engine Optimization - August 13, 2007 at 7:05 am
- Tatraplan - August 13, 2007 at 8:38 am
- DINHEIRO EM CASA | Conselhos e condutas para ganharmos dinheiro online. - August 13, 2007 at 2:02 pm
- The million dollar wiki « La Scatola di Pandora - August 13, 2007 at 6:01 pm
- Million Dollar Wiki Million Times Overrated? | Entrepreneurial Blog of Matt Huggins - August 14, 2007 at 12:17 am
- Business Blog » Blog Archive » Be true to yourself–and leverage the power of the many - August 14, 2007 at 4:08 am
- You can sell anything. Just do it. - Jarkko Laine - Insanely interested - August 17, 2007 at 2:01 am
- Make Money Online with The Million Dollar Wiki | John Chow dot Com - August 17, 2007 at 5:47 pm
- Learn All The Blogging Secret With Limadang Dot Com » Blog Archive » The Million Dollar Wiki Myth (why it will never work) - August 18, 2007 at 1:27 pm
- What’s 0 Worth: From AdSense To Million Dollar Wiki | Rich Minx - August 22, 2007 at 4:15 am
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This is now filed under ‘Damn, I Should Have Thought of It’
seriously. 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.
You know. This is like. Virtual Real Estate. This might be the park place of internet searches.
Yeah. 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…
But 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
Will we ever get rich?
Agreed!!
Yep, sry too late :/
Idea seems excellent. Maybe another one million dollar homepage in making?
What’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.
yea it could be infinite. then again wouldn’t the value go down? I mean… it’ll be just like any other wiki.
The 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.
Maybe…
or maybe not…
Sadly, 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.
It’s highly possible.
WHAT AN AMAZING IDEA!! If John Chow thinks its worth buying a page, sign me up for five!
Not 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
for five…wow
Agreed! *=)
Give me money for 5
idea looks great! good luch to Graham
yeh 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!
GENIUS! Such a simple idea….most of the great ones are just that. Good luck to him!
$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.
when you put it like that how could you not buy a page
Great Plan
This is an amazing idea… and yet so simple. I’m buying at least one…
I 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
I got a page!! Guess which page I got??
Guess which page the anonymous guy got? LOL!
Hilarious!
I 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
If he would offer the option to pay by PayPal I would have bought a page…..
Same here. Its disappointing to see only Google checkout as a payment option.
Maybe he wants to make refferals on Google checkout.
It’s a great idea, but in terms of content it’s pretty boring (from a reader’s point of view).
You obviously haven’t seen the letters to businesses page
http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/Letters_To_Businesses
Good find.
I 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!!
An anonymous Google evangelist are you?
Darn 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.
I 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.
That’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!
Good one excellent idea
http://desiarticles.blogspot.com/
I think the same.
It’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.
I 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.
Is 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!
Hahaha has anyone seen the page for toilet brush?
http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/Toilet_Brush
he he good one
cool 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
http://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
I seen the spam all over myspace and thats when i stopped hoping he would achieve the goal
You SAQ the spam. Sorry, it’s just a pet peeve of mine.
Er lol SAW not saq… dangit!
Open mouth, insert foot.
I love what that happens! I always have a type when I correct someone!
DevDad
Well – I’m trying it out… Just registered the Wordpress Wiki with them…
Just 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
Another good post.I get pulled by this site again and again.Thanks.
good 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.
What 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
The 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.
If you have decided to spend $100 on it, than do it fast to get maximum traffic. Don’t wait till it picks up.
I 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
Sounds like a great money making idea to me. Best of luck to him.
Wish I’d thought of it first though….hehe.
Steve
That is an intriguing idea. It also points out that not everybody goes to College just to Party. This site will be interesting to watch.
This idea is really good.
I 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!
Great 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.
Someone on DigitalPoint was doing the same thing last year. Can’t remember the name though.
Wow, 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.
Thats sure, John always makes good deals
.
Why doesn’t someone make a $100,000 wiki and only charge $10 a page?
Looks like someone thought of that. Check out ownapage.com
haha I doubt they will sell very many pages
Wow.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 $$.
eeeh thay are trying… what to say, they should hire better graphics designer
Not 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
Johns endorsement is good enough for me, I purchased a page.
Thanks John.
Exactly, with John’s weight behind this it will be an amazing success.
John,
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.
I 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.
John 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!
Yup make that money son! only two types of people make money online
What two types of people?
Sounds 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.
Now 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?
Wow – he goes to my school.
I will be interesting to see how this one goes. It’s a great idea !
It 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.
I 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.
mannnnn what a smart kid…. im laboring here for nothing, while he fulfills his dreams
You should try to think sth. like this.
I’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.
New 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
Everyboby loves John!
Almost…
I am interested to see if he makes it. My guess is that the project will run out of steam, but not until it hits six figures…
He would need to have a lot of traffic coming in to his page in order to have that $100 investment worthwhile for all the buyers.
Well, as long as you make your page look nice, MDW will put you on the home page rotation, so anyone can get a great amount of exposure.
I’m still so impressed with this idea my brain is about to explode
I’m really thinking about buying a page. I can’t decide if it’s worth it.
Hmm. You can only resell via eBay and they take 20% of the cut. And you can only sell a page once all 10,000 are sold. I wonder if that will ever happen.
It’s possible, why not.
Genius! I know he will succeed in making his million! Maybe I will even buy a page!
I also bought a page. The Self Improvement one.
Now let’s sqeeze the juice out of this business.
Good move, good luck!
Page has been bought and blog framed within the page. Will be interesting to see visitor numbers once the John Chow affect is over.
I wonder why he chose that domain name though? Why not something more professional and enduring like wikipedia did.
I bought a page. Next goal is to stumble it.
Thanks John Chow!
WOW… it is crazy how people just come up with theses concepts and make money off of them.. Great Post!
I’m rather disappointed that John actually supports such a scheme! Like someone mentioned, it may do well on a short-term basis, but in the long term, I’d reckon people will just stop visiting and he will be the wiser! TBH, I don’t even think it would sell 10,000 pages – ever. Can’t believe people buying a single page for $100 – when hosting is dirt cheap nowadays, I do realise its about traffic too, but like I said, I’m sure we won’t see a lot of people visiting the Wiki soon. Another “Bla.st” on John’s face. Sad.
I was just there and found some interesting pages. Don’t know if I’ll buy any though.
Outstanding idea!
I have to agree with You.
What are people doing with their pages? Just placing ads on them to other websites? What’s the benefit of doing that, other than having a link from the website? The Wiki isn’t the most obvious thing to navigate, so are you relying on people finding your page through search engines and advertising your page?
Other than for novelty, I’m unsure if anyone would visit that Wiki to actually search for information.
I’d pay $100 to have a page linked on a ranking 8-9 or alexa under 1,000 and a page that’s highly popular. However, Google likes natural links, no sold ones. The way I see this, the only person benefiting from these $100 sales is the owner of the site. Anyone can develop a page for free, get a domain for $.99-$9 and host it for another $3/month or so and advertise whatever on that page(s). In fact you can get as many pages as you needed. Other than the amazement that people are actually paying money for this, I don’t see how it benefits the buyers.
Milliondollarwiki
In theory this sounds good. But who is going to won’t to visit a page all the time called
The million dollar wiki?
Would you visit Google all the time if it was
MilliondollarGoogles? or how just call it
http://www.comehereandmakemerich.com thanks for money
ha-ah
Good for business, bad for readers and users.
you are right Jason what is the benefit for normal users having this?
Exactly — why would any user sit through a site solely made up of advertisements? This is silly.
Yes, quite. It has nothing in it oriented to readers other than novelty. And even then it’s pushing it. I was logged on for a couple of minute before I got pissed off with it.
…until Google bans the entire domain for spamming and link buying.
I agree. This million dollar concept came out around 2005. Any more information on this ’student’ raising money? Photos? Bio? A blog?
Wow, 21 and going to be millionaire soon! I want to be the youngest internet millionaire!
All brothers & sisters, help me!!! How? Perhaps pay me a visit at
Internet Marketing Blog .
and you’ll know how old i am.
So when does Google basically take all ranking ability away from this website?
What is the different compare to submit an article to a site (or a thousand sites) free with a link back to your domain? Or submit your page to free ads-classified sites?
I am amazed with his site traffic performance but when the time milliondollarwiki.com reached 10,000 pages, who see you?
Whats stopping others from replicating this idea?
making a new wikisite and selling pages.
Great idea!
But I was thinking of its ranking in SEs.
To make a considerable effect (in terms of promotion), it has to come up there in first page.
I don’t see it in Google – with even ‘wiki “Make Money Online”‘, ‘Makingmoneyblogging wiki’, ‘”Blogging For Money” wiki’, ‘Embroideredpoloandgolfshirts wiki’ or ‘Business wiki’.
Maybe its too early to expect page 1.
why so many people want so much to throw away $100 just to make 1 guy a millionaire ? all this guy needs is people, who believe, that if they do not buy a page, they will loose something … so many people above said, “anyway, $100 is not so much to loose, only $6 a year” – and that is what this guy is counting on… he is milking the online community off million dollars for god’s sake! why would anybody want to visit a site, where a page is dedicated to a toilet bowl, and the only thing on the page is a affiliate sale icon for a toilet cleaner ? another agloco type scam promoted on these pages … well, as long as the scammer pays $400, why not …
Lots of jealousy in this neck of the woods. He had the idea. Its working. 7K after a JC review. Will I buy a page, no. Is he creative? Yes.
Out of all the “million dollar” ideas (after the original one) this one is probably the best one by far, and definitely seems to be having the most success!