Insider Secrets to Making a Million Dollar Web Site!

Written by Zac Johnson
social social social

A few days ago I released my first post on “How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months!“, along with the picture of my $306,373.24 check. Due to the massive exposure and questions generated from the post, I thought I’d bring you the second installment to How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months! This time we will go with a Q&A theme.

What is the web site you made all this money with?
The site I was able to have so much success with is MySpaceNow.com. There is no programming on the site at all, and it’s made up of over 10,000 pages of content, such as images, myspace layouts and social networking applications/flash. Yes… you can imagine how long that took to put together. However, when you are seeing results, you just want to keep making your project bigger and better!

What is the current status of your site?
My myspace resource site is still running and still turning a decent amount of profit each month. The traffic is lower than it used to be, but that’s expected. I was one of the first to get into the “myspace resources” niche, and now it is more saturated than ever.

What is/was your site traffic?
I first started the site from scratch and with no traffic. The first method of advertising, were a few text links on a couple of my other sites. Next was to get the word out on MySpace and other social networks. Once the users started to grab content and link back to my site, it was golden. The high point for site traffic was around 185,000 uniques per day. Currently the site receives around 15,000-20,000 uniques per day. Yes, this is quite a drop… but as mentioned above, I haven’t focused on this site in over a year now.


Having Multiple Dedicated Dell Servers to Manage Traffic was a Must.

When was the last time you updated the site?
I’ve been quite busy with many other projects, so realistically, I haven’t touched or updated the site in nearly a year. Meanwhile the site still receives several thousands of visits per day, while also earning several thousands a month. My only maintenance is monthly servers fees, which are much lower than they were back when I was working on the site full time.

How did you make so much profit over costs?
The myspace site I created was a huge viral success. Once a few sites picked it up, the traffic was tremendous, and search engines were sending me a ton of traffic as well. Since I did not have to worry about marketing costs, I could focus on providing content, managing ad space, and making sure the site was always accessible. The main costs in running a site like this (outside of the hundreds of hours of time spent), are server costs. Over $100,000 was spent on shared hosting, buying new Dell servers and hiring a server management team to make sure everything was always running.

What were your advertising and hosting costs?
As mentioned, the site was pretty much all viral. After running the site for several months with no advertising costs, I decided to give Google Adwords a shot. I was able to target towards some pretty cheap traffic, since my Quality Score was super high, and this was a niche market that wasn’t oversaturated (yet) and click prices weren’t insanely high. Marketing through Google Adwords brought in over an additional MILLION clicks. Even after $27,721.89 in adwords cost, the site still had no problems clearing seven-figures. Hosting costs ranged per month from $300 (when first starting out), to up to $10,000 a month, before buying my own Dell servers and hosting myself.


I was able to generate over 1 MILLION clicks using Google Adwords!

What other ad networks did you use on the site?
In my last post, I focused on some of the big earners from the site, which were Yahoo Publisher Network, NeverBlueAds, CasaleMedia and ValueClick Media. Other earners on the site were Interclick (which is another cpm banner network), Miva (which provides screensaver/wallpaper downloads), Google Adsense (generated nearly six-figures in revenue), AuctionAds (I posted multiple times on my earnings with them), WidgetBucks (another new program, which I also posted earnings on)… along with a few other networks. All of these advertisers combined generated over seven-figures in revenue for the site… which clearly covered the hosting costs, making this a seven figure profitable site.

You made a lot with Yahoo, but what about Google Adsense?
Originally I had no expectations for the success of this site. I was providing a service and it exploded quickly. Once the traffic was flowing through the site, it was time to test different ad placements and to see what worked. Luckily, the Yahoo Publisher Program had come out (and accepted my site), just a few weeks after my site went live. I was originally running Google Adsense, then started running Yahoo Publisher Network instead. After comparing numbers, Yahoo was providing much better numbers. I would continually rotate advertisers on the site and see which performed best. While Yahoo earned nearly seven figures alone on the site, Google Adsense accounted for nearly six-figures in revenue as well.


Google Adsense in itself generated almost $100,000 in Extra Revenue.

Would you have sold your site if you had the chance?
The opportunity to sell this cash cow of a web site did come into play around the 7th or 8th month of it’s existence. I wrote a post about this a while ago, which was called “To Sell or Not to Sell“. While I was offered nearly a seven figure package deal for the site (more/less depending on performance), I’m still glad I never accepted their offer. The parent company that was interested, was purchasing up a bunch of Social Networking Resource & Entertainment sites… which they then all turned into crap sites. I also heard that this company screwed many of their “partners” on payments owed from their buyouts.

Why did you wait until now to post your check?
I’ve never been one to look for attention, or brag. The intention of posting my check was not to impress anyone, but to stress to everyone the possibilities before you. Yes, the check was received back in 2006. However, keep in mind… this blog is still less than a year old. I have literally spent the last year debating on whether or not I wanted to be put in the spotlight, if I was to post this check. But I decided to take the risk… my intention is the same as always, I want you to succeed, make money online and live the dream that us affiliates and ppc marketers are living.

Why didn’t you post your resource site in your original post?
The main reason why I didn’t like my resource site in my original post is because this is a blog, and it’s purpose is to keep people coming back and giving them more. A lot of people were leaving comments, asking what my site was. You were not being ignored… you were part of the process. Not only have I released my site information, but also how I promoted the site, my advertisers and actual earnings numbers.

Is this your only big and successful web site?
I’ve been making money online for over 11 years now, since I was 15… and have never had any other job. A one-hit-wonder I am not. Over the years I have adjusted to every market change there has been. I’ve done freebie sites, permission based email marketing, ran my own ad network along with my own network of entertainment sites. Was this site one of my biggest and fastest money makers? Yes! I saw an opportunity here and made the most of it. I am now focusing on several other different niche areas and projects.

Aren’t you worried people will copy your site idea now?
They say being copied is one of the highest forms of flattery… well, when you own a web site, and you’ve been copied… IT SUCKS… but, I’ve been copied plenty of times before. There is still plenty of money to be made in this market, but it’s also plenty saturated! You want to make a resource type site? I say “Go for it!”.

As mentioned before, I’ve been making money online for over a decade now, (since I was 15!) and have some close friends that advise me on what I should post and what I should not post on my blog. There are risks associated with everything. Some have warned me about giving away too much information. However, if I didn’t meet up with these people in the past, that took their time to help me along the way, I wouldn’t be where I am today… I only wish to do the same for you and all of my blog readers. Yes, it may be risky providing the amount of information that I do, taking risks and trying different things is how I got to where I am today. I’m willing to take that risk to benefit my blog readers.

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125 Replies to “Insider Secrets to Making a Million Dollar Web Site!”

  2. Your story is amazing Zac, and very motivating.

    I am a bit surprised that MySpace didn't complain about trademark or copyright infringement with the name of your site. Perhaps they saw you as building on their efforts, not competing. Curious what your thought are on that…I've always heard to avoid this scenario, but it sure worked for you.

    Congratulations!

  3. Good post. Answers a lot of questions people had. If you wouldn't have told the site, like you said no one would have figured it out since it's so saturated right now.

  6. You say there is no programming involved but the site has flash "create an image" scritps on it. One of the sites I own is an online label maker site and I have been looking to upgrade it for some time, I wrote the current label generator script but It doesn't use flash…

    If you could send me a shout out via email on who I can contact to pick up a version similar to the one your using I'd much appreciate it. If not thats ok too, great job btw! Impressive sites.

    1. Any flash applications on the site were purchased from designers, specifically for myspace resource sites. I don't have their contact information any more, and didn't request these to be programmed/made… they were simply offered, so I picked them up.

  7. Excellent post here Zac. I commend you for revealing the site and answering these questions on your blog. I don't know of any "guru" marketers who would have done this without charging for access to the info…my hat's off to you man.

  8. This was one of the most entertaining blog posts I've ever read… and I mean "entertaining" in a good way. I rarely read a full entry on ANY blog, but I did on this one. Great post, Zac, and it's great to see GOOD, solid, INFORMATIVE posts like these from you.

    Congratulations on the success. I'm impressed with your results and I would have never guessed that you've been online for that long. That's quite a record! 😉

    Clint

  9. Very informative post. From a tech side, what sort of load balancers were you using? Was it really all static content? That would mean you had to manually edit (or edit via some script) each of your 10K files when you added/changed a new monetization scheme. You sure you didn't use some sort of template inheritance?

    Just curious how you scaled out a project like this with all static content. Sort of a strange setup. Congrats on the success!

    1. I'm not sure on the load balancers. They were ordered quite a while ago and managed by my server team.

      As for maintence of the site. The only thing besides straight html was a few .txt codes I had on the pages. This was setup only to manage certain ad areas, like the side menu areas. I also used a mass "find and replace" program to edit all pages, which wasn't often. Uploading 10,000+ files took forever!

  10. Zac….this is a top notch follow up post. You must have had a ton of email questions and you did the stand up thing by adding this post. This is amazing how you can work your azz off and then produce a residual income for a period of time. This site is becoming my favorite more and more with the type of information that you provide here.

  11. I also had a very high United States traffic rate… around 90-95%. I know a lot of people were kicked out because of their foreign traffic. I was also in touch with my manager often, to make everything was always in compliance.

  14. That’s a bit better Zac. But I would rather a post that talked about how you thought of the idea to do this where most people ignored the myspace resource site -this is what makes you a genius and the kind of posts I would like to read.

    For the most part, we all should have an idea of the “maintenance” required to run a big site, get servers, update, advertise, etc. Maybe, I’ve out grown your “teach the newbies approach”, but I think it would be better if you started catering more to a little higher level. You know the people you’ve actually helped, like myself, get started on the road to riches.

    But I digress. I’m speaking for purely selfish reasons anyway.

    1. I'm probably not finished posting on this topic. As for the and the concept of how I come up with ideas for my sites, that may very well be a future post of it's own.

  16. You obviously love what you do that's why you are very successfull. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Master Zach.

    1. That's a very good question… where did you get content? You bought it ready? Or hired some creative people? Or just "borrow" it?

      Pleas answer.

      Thanks in advance &

      Best Regards

      1. Zac,

        Do you think this is the best way to go? and what does it normally cost to outsource a design/layout?

        1. I tend to stay away from programmers on some projects, just because I can get a method that takes longer, finished before them. I would work on the sites constantly and stay up all night. I hate relying on other people to get work done… which usually takes longer or is done the wrong way. Depending on the project this can change.

          If I had to do it again… I would try and set something up to make it easier to add content and have more of a community around the site.

  20. Can I ask how were you able to build 10,000 pages of content? did you hire people or what?, I have a 100 page site and it took two months to build.

  23. Great work, I like how transparent you are. You are one of a few blogs who actually wants to help and makes sense of things, others really dont.

    You had me awake all darn night, all i could think about was why I have not been more active, I just realized that I should stop thinking about it and just do it.

    You are a good guy, it will take you really far my friend.

    1. Sammie, I too have been pondering the same thing…. what can I build/make?

      Just doing it is is the key though.

  24. Mate I think your doing a great job. Flaunting your wealth is never appreciated, but this is just proving your super affiliate status. It increases the value of your blog.

  25. Zac – Thanks so much for the transparency. You, John and Shoe are really amazing for giving us all starting out a glimpse of what is possible!

    Thanks again!

  26. Zac – great stuff really! I am still hoping for that idea to hit me over the head… I think I may have had it today – so I will let you know in 4 months if it works out *grins* Really appreciate your insight!

    I really wish that I had a $10,000/mo server bill too 😉

  27. It's pretty amazing that you've been making money for 11 years now onlne. I was trying to convince my wife about that time that we should get a dial up connection and get online period, much less be making money. At least we are doing that now. Very inspirational!

  31. Very motivating! I wish I understood technology better. I alwasy like it when an individual is able to turn a great profit instead of a large corporation!

  32. That check is more than double the amount of Shoemoney's famous AdSense check – very nice. Thanks Zac for posting this series of posts, it's always nice to see what is possible. When I read through the kinds of stuff that you had to do such as ordering in over a dozen dedicated servers that kind of scares me a little but I remember that you've been in this game for 11 years so I doubt you were doing that kind of thng back then. Very inspirational 🙂

  33. Wow–Great sucess story. I hope one day my site can earn me even 1/10 of what your site is doing now. Congrats

  34. Wow – isn't it amazing how some people will just never get it?

    Referring to Joe and Kelly D's comment above. I find their comments were simply rude, uncouth and uncalled for … very sad people like this feel the need to say anything at all.

  35. Hi Zac, thanks for the generousity for posting such details on how you succeed, it pales so many other marketers out there whose only goal is to sell, sell, sell.

    One question, when you started your myspacenow site, how did you come up with the those rich contents? What method or tools (or outsourcing) did you use if any?

    Thanks

  37. hey zac if you ever get to read this am just kie you….am just 15 and trying to make it online ……a mentor like you will help me so if you can get in contact …that will be nice

  39. Holy Moses! You are one brilliant mo-fo. Thats why it pays to be first in line 🙂

    I'll keep an eye out on the next big thing!

  40. This is a very good article. I used to run a couple myspace resource sites when the niche was still popular. I feel like traffic for myspace sites have been dropping greatly though as other social networks are starting to become bigger. Very informative article though, I've been looking around for a while for something like this.

  41. Just one question you all should be asking. How did he get, license and pay for all of that content? He obviously didn't make it himself, and it's got to be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of images, widgets, etc. and the celebrity images are unlikely to be actual legally licensed images.

    What's the scoop on the content, there Zacster? That would be the biggest expense by far, if obtained legally – much more than even the server/traffic costs.

    If you can reveal how to get Metric Tons of content for free or little cost, THEN you'll be doing all these posters a favor.

  42. Good post Zac….I don't think skill can be copied. The internet is so huge, you are right. It contain enough for everyone.

    Problogger and John show pretty much talking about the same thing and they both making money…

    Sometime it seems they live across the street from each other…

  45. That's awesome. I'm impressed by how much you've been able to make, you're really an expert at monetization strategies. I'll be reading your blog closely to try and get my own sites to the point where I can wave about a check like that 🙂

  50. This is one of those "seeing is believing" moments. When I first saw that check, I thought it was photoshopped. Then as I read on with the story, it all started to make sense. There are so many amazing ways to make money online. Your idea makes people think "WOW.. how come I didn't think of that??"

  51. First of all, this blog is simply amazing. Second, I would just like to say that my jaw dropped when I saw the picture of your checks. Thanks for the post, and I hope that someday I'll make as much as you.

    <abbr>FishyFiction’s last blog post..Surprise Chicken Sandwich</abbr>

  52. Wow! Very inspiring! I thought about creating a Myspace layout site awhile back but that was already when it was over saturated so I moved on to other things.

  53. Wow I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I am new to this blog but it's already proving to be a really interesting read. 10,000 pages of content is pretty hard going. You obviously worked really hard and it's paid off big time. Good on you. Would be nice to see some of your other sites. I was feeling fed up today but your blog really inspired me and it's got me super motivated again. Thank you. : )

    <abbr>FamousAndRIch’s last blog post..Why A Regular Job Is Not For Everyone</abbr>

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  59. Hey Zac!

    I'm totally impressed by your incredible results. I've checked out your site and I must say it looks great.

    Well, as I check it with Alexa toolbar, it doesn't seem to be extremely high traffic website. However, you have made huge profit in a short period of time and that's what matters.

    CPA Offers and PPC Ads are the most effective monetization models for such websites and as I'm looking at your site, I can see that fact.

    Thanks Zac for sharing with us your case study and unique results giving us a better picture of creating resource websites.

    To Your Success!

    Hooshmand

    <abbr>Hooshmand Moslemi’s last blog post..Niche Review Templates</abbr>

  61. This is really nice … I think this is the Best thing to do.

    But for Herbals my website is the Best Online herbal Store 😛

  63. You are great, and thanks already open to us about this success, so everyone can learn from your experience.

    David

  64. I have never read about your blog on how to make $$$ online….

    I would try to read it first… But that's an amazingly huge amount.

  69. Wow that's crazy that you generated 1 million clicks from ad words. Thanks for sharing these tips.

  70. What an amazing story Zac. Hopefully I can have my own success story just like this one day. Fingers crossed.

  72. Hmmmmm…Read this even thousand of time make me so darn happy. Don't know why. You are so solid providing the way you get into it. You are much inspired me Zac…

  73. Thats alot of money in such a short time…Trying to learn from zac and execute.

  76. That check from yahoo was in 06 and this post was made in 08. That's an archievement you made 2 years ago.

    thanks for sharing, a very motivating success story.

    – ample web design

  78. Cool post your earnings are extremely impressive with a lot of hard work I am confident I will get there one day. Great post, keep up the good work!

  80. You really one of the most successful earner from internet. I wish I can make such this type of amount ever.Really feeling to jealous on you.

  81. Very good facts. Thanks because it’s the good way. And give me good idea.

  82. You have this popping up with visitors that have Mcafee Site Advisor Installed:

    http://www.myspacenow.com may cause a breach of browser security.

    Why were you redirected to this page?

    When we tested http://www.myspacenow.com, it attempted to make unauthorized changes to our test computer by exploiting a browser security vulnerability. This is a serious security threat which could lead to an infection of your computer.

  85. Lucky you!…I can imagine the power of 20k content pages….its' like 20,000 doors open for visitors and search engine spiders to come to your site. Yeah yahoo's ppc payouts have normally been higher than Googles'

  86. Zac, you are really one of my inspirations.. You rock! John Chow, John Tyler, Shoemaker are the best… All of you have million dollar websites and it such a great thing that you share your experiences to us. Thanks a lot.

    Regards,

    Mark

  88. Wow, I can't believe my eyes even if I can see the check, is this absolutely true?? At that rate, you could be an instant millionaire within only 6 months time. Even the most expensive hosting site will be worth it if you earn that amount of money. Gosh

  90. Wow, this post makes me green with envy! I feel like this is something I could do if I could just get ahead of the curve in finding internet trends. That's the real secret of your success–how did you figure out how to get into that market before it became saturated? I'd love to read a post on that.
    My recent post Voip- MPLS- Phone- and Internet Service

  91. I don't like the idea of posting a photo of your check but I guess it works for most people. However, I do like the fact that you shared how you were able to reach the status that you have now. Congrats!

  92. gud for you.. are you the only one doing the myspacenow.com at first? i hope i will have a problem like you..having to deal with so much traffic..

  93. great job and inspiration post. Hard work always pay. !0,000 pages is not an easy task. Your post are very informatic with real life experience. Many one will get benefited.
    My recent post Download Facebook photo album with FacePAD

  94. Very interesting & inspiring article. My site has been almost two years old and the income does not come close to a tiny percent of what you receive. Thanks for sharing!

  95. Good for you the site generates a very decent income.. you could own a house in just for months. Can i ask something? Do you have a team to also update the post or you are always solo in making the site?
    My recent post TEAM PACQUIAO BUS READY TO ROLL

  96. Good idea it opened my eyes to whatever
    My recent post Introduction to Internet Marketing 6 November

  98. Zac

    I stumbled apon your site and WOW am I glad I found it.

    I love reading your posts and you definitely know what you talk about.

    Congrats on your success and sharing your knowledge with us 🙂

    Are the contents on your myspace site free to use?

    Regards
    Werna

  99. Such an extraordinary tips. I really appreciate for tips for making a website a million dollar one!

  100. This post is really very exciting and interesting. It has given me lots of pleasure and I would like to bookmark this site.

  102. Its thrilling to read the post . Very good article to know that how people are making money around the world. It also gives some insight of doing business like blog marketing. I am surprised to know how you made contents of 10000 of pages that too good quality content.
    My recent post 10 Tips to Increase Blog’s Traffic

  103. I think it's interesting that this site does well even though I've been feeling like MySpace is on its way out… Do you think it'll make a comeback, or are enough people using it that you're not really worried either way?

    ~Laurie

  104. Prof. Zac,the post is great.However,Achieving this stature in this part of the world would be great.You remain my MENTOR.

  105. That's amazing how you made so much money so quickly on your site! Congratulations! Life is about timing and making the right moves at the right time, and you obviously were smart enough to do that and ride the Myspace wave when it was still picking up momentum.

    -Lizzy

  106. Wow. That is really impressive! There it is… proof that you can make money online.

  108. Hi Zac,
    Interesting post, I guess you did the right thing at the right time, all the same it's pretty inspiring stuff for us mere mortals.

    I would hazard a guess and say it probably would not be possible to attain this kind of success today with a social networking site unless it had some major financial backing, there just seems to be too much competition that it would not be possible to overcome, especially since the big G has joined in.
    I reckon it's time Uncle Sam put a leash on them.

    All the best
    Anna
    My recent post Can your face break out from someone kissing it a lot?

  109. Good post. Answers a lot of questions people had. If you wouldn't have told the site, like you said no one would have figured it out since it's so saturated right now. Superb.
    My recent post Magnifying Glass 10x

  110. Really I liked what you shared here…I really want to know that how you made such a good impressions?
    My recent post How To Show Google+ Feeds In Facebook Fan Page Tab Via Cercoe

  111. After 7 year long painful and shocking struggles to start to make any money online, now I've decided to get up again and finally win the game of making money by means of internet marketing.

    By the way, I have been extremely skeptical about making money as an affiliate for years. However, this post as well as the real life experience of another internet millionaire who's recently helped me recover from all the pain and failures by teaching me the right millionaire mindset and little known internet marketing strategies are now making me confident and encouraged enough to make it.

    By the way, I'd like to learn your real story on your journey to becoming an internet marketing millionaire and also why you'd like to become one.

    Please, feel free and welcome to visit my blog and post your comments there.

    In advance thanks a lot.

    Bruno Babic

    My recent post Naked and shocking truth of my 7 year painful struggling to net my ever desired millionare playboy lifestyle based on running an automated online business REVEALED: “Here I get up again to finally win the game of making money online”

  113. Thanks for a great post Zac. I'm just entering the wonderful world of Affiliate Marketing and trying to cut through the bull. Outstanding and Motivating!

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