Im talking about the websites that get millions of visits each day and make millions per month. From what I have seen it is a combination of: Great branding/name. Mass publishing Real office headquarters with employees Broad niche What you guys think ?
Well, all you said is right, with something more: a great IDEA behind all that. Just like Youtube or facebook.
Certainly , great brand names like Facebook, Twitter, You tube attracts huge amount of traffic;makes million per month. Quick service, unique features, Established and broad niche also helps to achieve this.
I would say the least critical is a big office or headquarters with tons of employees. The smallest start-ups have become million-dollar names that control the online world- all they did was come up with something new. Yes, it is definitely a combination of great branding, a catchy name, and a broad niche (meaning introducing something that masses worldwide can relate to and understand) If I had to choose two factors that make these brands what they are, I would say innovation and timing. @rdogg- you looking to start the next Facebook?
You guys are talking about "billion" or "tens of billions" dollar websites. To make a million dollar website is not as hard as creating a new "Facebook" or "Google". All you need is about $300 per day revenue, and if you you monetize each page on your website at $0.01 per day on average, you would need about 30,000 pages to become a millionaire. You can generate those pages by running a forum website or any type of members website, blog, or strait up content. If you would make the pages manually yourself, you can post about 40 pages per day with about 300 words per page and within 2 to 3 years you should have your million dollar website. I would recommend a combination of all the outlined methods above to speed up the process to under a year. In fact, I am actually doing this right now as we speak. You will not be able to get away with a 10 page website or a blog you post to once per week. I am talking about dedication, and always keeping your goal in mind. Once you build a single million dollar website building another 10 won't be an issue, or 100. Now, how do you build a "billion" dollar website? Did somebody say you need a "nice" office? I tend to agree with that... Billion dollar websites are all image... Take a simple idea thousands done before you and wrap it up into a "billion" dollar image, whola! But one step at a time, lets make that million dollars first before we get ahead of ourselves!
Enough people hungry for what they offer. A million dollar company looks like a narrower niche, like Toms Shoes; a billion dollar company looks like Amazon.
I agree with Stephan_Iscoe and would add that almost any single word keyword domain name would have potential to be a multimillion dollar business.
i think the biggest thing is monetization. Like facebook, if they were just using adsense or something, they never would have made money. But with the way facebook allows people to target ads to their audience, they make a fortune in advertising. My biggest failings with my main site was to put the apps, and all of the features first, sparing no expense in their development, and left monetization as an afterthought. I have lots of great ideas... just not profitable ones.
I think a "Real office headquarters with employees" is irrelevant.... Mashable was set up by a Scottish teenager in his bedroom, Whatsapp is made up of only 10 employees, facebook was set up by just 1 guy, Most websites are ran by only a few people.
Agreed, even small niches can be very valuable. Even though going broad may mean more money, it doesn't mean everyone can achieve it.