Wow...$10 Million a year from 10 hours work a week, a story from NY Times but happened locally right in where I live, Vancouver. What a dream job!!!
For anyone inclined to daydream about a Web business that would all but run itself, two other details may be of interest: Mr. Frind operates the business out of his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, and he says he has net profits of about $10 million a year.
Scobleizer apparently knows Markus and realized his work way back in 2006, and revealed what the secret is to make Markus so successful.
What’s the secret to his success? Ugly design. I call it “anti-marketing design.”
Huh?
He says that sites that have ugly designs are well known to pull more revenue, be more sticky, build better brands, and generally be more fun to participate in, than sites with beautiful designs.
Ahh, yet another example of anti-marketing marketing.
Was he joking about it? Not really. The site was designed to be easy to use, fast to load, and uncluttered. I believe these are the keys truly to his success. Look at Google, Craig's List, or even Amazon and eBay. None of them look pretty but all designed in simplicity and fast.
Markus picked ASP.Net because, according to what he says, it's trivial and easy, and gets the job done. His stuck with what he knew and got really really good at it attitude is also saving his a lot of time and using these time to concentrate on things that are more profitable. He did spend a lot of time studying SEO, which is probably another big factor to become the #1 Adsense user in Canada.
Does it ring a bell to you? It does a lot to me!!