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A New Model For Getting Rich Online
In 2001, he took to cataloguing on his SeatGuru site all the seats on his usual United Airlines flight, rating them for best legroom, the most recline, access to video and audio entertainment, and proximity to different types of laptop power sources. Soon, at the request of people who read his site, he started taking information on other flights. He now keeps track of seats on 34 airlines.
Daimler and his wife now work full time on SeatGuru, which gets 700,000 visitors a month. About half of the site's revenue comes through AdSense -- $10,000 to $20,000 a month -- and the rest comes from ad deals that Daimler makes with companies directly.
  Andrew Leyden works from his bayside home, checking on how much money he makes from ads on his Web site. (Photos By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post) |
Tracking clicks and the money they earn itself has become a passion for Leyden. "In the middle of the night I'll wonder how much I made," he said, so he'll check his page's status every 15 minutes.
The money that comes in acts like microfinancing for many sites, said Kim Malone, director of AdSense. "We're enabling creativity, 5 cents at a time."
Friedly, for example, started his company in Washington in 2001 to make it easier for contractors, scientists and researchers to find, download and purchase public documents. He reluctantly signed up to put ads on the site. "I was skeptical because when you sell something, you want to focus on the product, not refer people to other Web sites," he said.
But with more than 10,000 hits a day, the income started adding up. "I was surprised by how much we made. It was an excellent supplement to the business, because we didn't have to do a lot."
Friedly has since started PatentStorm LLC, a site where businesses can search patent records, without outside investment. "In essence, Google has turned into a venture capital or an angel investor in my business."
But if Google giveth, it also taketh away, Friedly said. As people put up more sites that compete with his for traffic, the number of hits on his main site has declined.
