Andrew_Bassett - 4:18 pm on Mar 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

I must admit, this is a spinoff of ronburk's thread.

With all the talk of constantly adding content, nobody seems to talk about the fundamentally different ways of adding content.

Idea 1: Linear expansion
This is the idea where you sit down, drop your head, and pump out x new pages per day on a consistent basis. Maybe they're useful, maybe they're not, but your rate of expansion is somewhat fixed. You'll have 20 pages, then 40, then 60, and so on.

Idea 2: Exponential expansion
This is the idea where you say to yourself "OK, I'm going to have 30 pages in my first few months, ~1,000 in year 2, ~40,000 in year 3, ~3,000,000 in year 4, etc."

Idea 1 is the most touted around here, but idea 2 has more potential. In order to actually DO idea 2, you need the following:
- Technical knowledge on how to make a scalable website
- Ideas on how you're going to get your content (I can't write it all myself, and it's too expensive to hire someone, so maybe there's ANOTHER way...)
- The constant shift of power (make a community-driven site, delegate tasks to your trusted members and give them fancy titles, and turn your web SITE into a web APPLICATION). Make people feel like they NEED to visit your site every day (you all know the feeling)!

Those who bang away at idea 1 will, for the most part, be the bottom-feeders of AdSense. Those who have a vision and a plan for idea 2 have the best fighting chance at living off AdSense.

So if you're thinking about becoming an AdSensei, you need to seriously drop idea 1 and think about idea 2. Anyone can build a megasite; you might need to learn a programming language, develop a fancy data-mining algorithm, and study internet addiction, but anyone with an idea, some free time, and the burning desire to make it exist can build such a website.