My Muse

[amac]

While I was reading 4HWW, I was working on a muse, but it wasn't called a "muse" at the time. A few months after finishing the book, my friend and I finally launched it... in May 2008. The start up costs so far have been $3k. I expect that by the time it's paying me a monthly income, it will have cost me less than $10k-$15k because I'm doing it right by boot strapping and finding free and viral ways to market the site.

It's a website called www.skillwho.com (http://www.skillwho.com) where people can share and find skills and talents from their friends, friends of friends, and local area. There's also a community where people can network and discuss.

It's been about 3 months and we've got 5000 members, 170,000 monthly pageviews and $600/month in banner ad revenue. (These numbers are doubling every month or two, so they'll be out of date if you read this post too far into the future.) :-) I only need to grow 100 times to have a functional muse! :-) I have guerrilla marketing strategies for that though.

I've structured the company to have no employees, no office, hardly any expenses except a few hundred per month in hosting and 1-2 contracted support staff. We also don't need a sales staff because Google Adsense pays pretty well. I'll just focus on getting more traffic and using Google's PPC ad feed for revenue.

I'm hoping to have replaced the salary from my full time corporate job within 12-24 months. What does everyone think of my muse?

Warm regards,

Amac

[Lucas]

Quality man. I like the design and it looks quite functional. 600 dollars in revenue per month is really not that bad.

Keep pushing, you got a lot of the harder stuff out of the way.

I like your about me page too, and I see you;re from cleveland. I am from a burb there. Rockin.

[amac]

Thanks Lucas. Yes, the hard part of developing and getting those first few thousand users is done. It took a year of development; 1-2 hours per day when we could find time outside of our full time jobs.

I really feel like if this growth continues we'll be at $10k-$20k per month within 12-24 months, which could enable me to begin the actual 4HWW process.

I'm actually from a burb in Cleveland too, called Orange Village. It's on the east/south side about 15-20 from Cleveland. Which burb are you from?

[Lucas]

Thanks Lucas. Yes, the hard part of developing and getting those first few thousand users is done. It took a year of development; 1-2 hours per day when we could find time outside of our full time jobs.

I really feel like if this growth continues we'll be at $10k-$20k per month within 12-24 months, which could enable me to begin the actual 4HWW process.

I'm actually from a burb in Cleveland too, called Orange Village. It's on the east/south side about 15-20 from Cleveland. Which burb are you from?

Awesome man, I wish you luck on that. I am sure it will happen.

Isn't Orange near Chagrin Falls? I am from Chardon. Crazy.

[nghs22]

bloody class mate. bloody class. you embody what i want to be

[AntonTheKhan]

Thanks Lucas. Yes, the hard part of developing and getting those first few thousand users is done. It took a year of development; 1-2 hours per day when we could find time outside of our full time jobs.

I really feel like if this growth continues we'll be at $10k-$20k per month within 12-24 months, which could enable me to begin the actual 4HWW process.

I'm actually from a burb in Cleveland too, called Orange Village. It's on the east/south side about 15-20 from Cleveland. Which burb are you from?

Hi, it looks really good considering that you have made headway into a niche already taken by Craigslist and the like. I would suggest that you create an additional monetizing strategy. Why not offer a premium (paid that is) membership where members and advertizers can get additional perks, exposure, etc. Tat's where the money is.

[badhank]

from site:
"Postal Code |___________|" (<-thats a box)
"Show People Within: |_50_Miles___|"

so, am i on a canadian version of the site, as i would expect miles to be Km? can i use it as a canadain? dont USA ppl use a zip code?
maybe you can give some examples of how to use it or a tour? it looks a little overwhelming, i dont know what im getting myself into here

[amac]

Thanks Anton. Yes, Craigslist is kind of a competitor, but they don't offer the personal touch. We hope that this will be our niche. Adding social networking to the Craigslist concept. Facebook is already doing this too, but there's still room for us! :-)

Regarding the premium membership, that's a great idea. We're doing something like that now, if you check out our "Featured Profile Program" on this page http://www.skillwho.com/ads.aspx.

Hi, it looks really good considering that you have made headway into a niche already taken by Craigslist and the like. I would suggest that you create an additional monetizing strategy. Why not offer a premium (paid that is) membership where members and advertizers can get additional perks, exposure, etc. Tat's where the money is.

[amac]

Sorry badhank, we're just in the USA for now. We have plans to expand to Canada and other countries, but right now the US is taking up all our time! :-)

from site:
"Postal Code |___________|" (<-thats a box)
"Show People Within: |_50_Miles___|"

so, am i on a canadian version of the site, as i would expect miles to be Km? can i use it as a canadain? dont USA ppl use a zip code?
maybe you can give some examples of how to use it or a tour? it looks a little overwhelming, i dont know what im getting myself into here