FatCatReport.com » Success Stories

What the Buck? – YouTube Comedy Show

fatcat — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:55:30 +0000

Until I read this story in the New York Times, I never thought of YouTube as a way to make money online. The story is about Michael Buckley, a 33 year-old comedian from Connecticut and founder of YouTube comedy show, What the Buck?. Buckley is a member of the YouTube Partner Program, a relatively new revenue sharing program. After his comedy show started bringing in more through the Partner Program than his job as an administrative assistant, Buckley quit and started working on the show full time. Buckley posts 3 times a week, and each episode has an average of 200,000 views. What the Buck? currently brings in more than $100,000 a year.

YouTube’s Partner Program works by putting ads inside and around your videos. YouTube makes money when users click on the ads, and they split a percentage of the profits with you. The ads inside the videos, called layovers, have the added benefit of generating revenue if a third party places the video on their site. YouTube has always let third parties host their videos but until they implemented layover ads, they had no way profiting from this arrangement.

Apply to the YouTube Partner Program.

Watch What theBuck? on YouTube.

JohnChow.com – Successful Blog

fatcat — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:00:17 +0000

JohnChow.com, the blog of founder John Chow, is a true testament to what can be accomplished with some smarts and an internet connection. Chow is one of my favorite bloggers, not only because his posts are so informative, but also because of how effectively he has marketed and branded himself. As of October, Chow’s blog was earning more than $34,000 a month ($400K/year). If you want to blog for profit or just for the hell of it, or you have any type of site you want to promote, I recommend subscribing to Chow’s RSS feed.

Chow also offers an e-book on JohnChow.com that is a must read for any aspiring blogger. It outlines how he went from making zero to $27,000 a month. Long before I created FatCatReport.com I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog. After reading Chow’s e-book, I was sold on the idea.

Visit JohnChow.com.

PlentyOfFish.com – Popular Dating Site

fatcat — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:38:38 +0000

Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com, is an inspiration to anyone who ever dreamed of creating something big from the comfort of their own home. PlentyOfFish.com is a lot like other popular dating sites out there, except it’s free. The site makes all of its revenue from advertising. For a business that Frind started in his spare time without investment capital or a staff it is awfully successful — it brings in about $25,000 a day, which is more than 9 million a year! Even with over 1.5 million unique visitors a month, Frind still only has one employee — the site essentially runs itself, since most of the content is user-generated.

PlentyOfFish.com is evidence that you don’t need a huge advertising budget to create a successful online business. You just need to learn and understand internet marketing, which anyone can do. This is what I like most about Frind’s story.

Visit PlentyOfFish.com.