$100,000 - $1 million an hour?
You may have heard about Howard Sterns half a billion dollar contract with Sirius. An article on MSN Money points out this is about $93,000 an hour. Think thats crazy? Oprah’s deal with XM satellite radio works out to $705,000 an hour. Even after staff and production costs, this is a lot of money.
In the United States, if you make $93,000 a year you are considered very successful — if you make $705,000 a year you are at the very tiny top of the iceburg. Few people even think about bringing in that kind of revenue an hour.
Why did I bring this up, and what the hell does it have to do with web publishing? Here is why its important — your name matters. Howard Stern and Oprah aren’t the only people who have been able to create massive leverage through their own name. Sport stars, musicians, and celebrities do it every day simply by appearing or endorsing a product. But your not a celebrity, and neither am I.
Here is what you should learn from this: don’t forfeit your name for a quick buck. You might be trading a quick $100 here and there today for an easy $100,000 5 years from now. The internet is filled with here today, gone to tommorow “gurus” who are more than eager to sell low-quality products to boost their short term earnings. You might fall for buying their e-books once, but you won’t a second time. Do any of them stop to consider how much more they could make developing and endorsing high quality products? Instead of slash and burn customer aquisition they could build up a portfolio of clients who earn them revenue again and again.
Oprah’s loyal viewers watch her TV show, buy books from her bookclub, and subscribe to her magazine. This would never happen if their first “Oprah” experience was a bad one.
I’ve been tempted to link to products on my blog with affiliate codes or do link exchanges, but up until now, I haven’t. Does it matter? May be not, but for an extra couple of hundred dollars a month (if even that), I’ll pass.
Here is my advice for you, do something only the ultra-successfull have figured out: invest in your name; it will pay off exponentially for years to come.
Whilst I can see your point, not everyone (and I include myself in this group) wants to be “known”.
Sure, I want my sites to be known, but I would never leverage my own name to get them there.
One of the key things about running a real, sustainable business is to set your business up so it doesn’t rely on you. If Oprah stops doing her show, for example, her biggest source of income (I assume) dries up.
Oprah and Howard Stern are the exception, not the rule that young entreprenuers who want that “easy $100,000 five years from now” should follow.
Structure your web publishing operations so that you can walk away and the business doesn’t suffer. Peter T Davis explains this better and relates it to blogging here: http://www.petertdavis.net/150-blogs-are-not-a-business/
I do agree that you shouldn’t sell out now (or ever), but you shouldn’t make yourself central either.
Regards,
Ozgression.
Comment by Tim — February 18, 2006 @ 2:56 am
[…] would-be your web business people I have just finished reading and responding to this blog post. It reminded me of something I read in the best selli […]
Pingback by Ozgression » A word of advice for would-be your web business people — February 18, 2006 @ 3:12 am
Hey, I made a reply to your comment on your blog:
http://www.ozgression.com/a-word-of-advice-for-would-be-your-web-business-people/
As for that Peter T Davis post, he’s wrong. Just ask Weblogs Inc. While I’ve plastered my name on this blog I could easily have someone else update it with the latest news, or guests write articles. 20 years from now my name could mean as much as Betty Crocker (who actually never was a real person.)
Comment by Andrew — February 18, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
Interesting post, I agree for the most part. I have some sites that are “quick money” sites, and some that I consider to be long term investments. I won’t realize any profit from the the long term investment sites for a few years, but I expect the payoff to be considerable eventually.
Regarding blogs, I think they’re one of the least effective way to make a living online. However, it is often easier to produce quality content on a blog you are interested in as opposed to some site that is a $ generator. It all depends upon your resources and personality, I suppose.
Comment by Adam Sharp — February 25, 2006 @ 1:15 am