Today I've bought...

[Generalissimo]

A $2000 laptop.
A 20GB iPod.
A $1000 Projector and $200 screen.
Office 2003 Professional + Access.


See, website publishing does has it's rewards!

[moonshield]

nice, what kind of laptop? Thats a lot of purchases for one day.

[James]

Yeah it'd be nice to be able to do that.

Unfortunately we're not all rich like you :P

[Todd W]

Yeah it'd be nice to be able to do that.

Unfortunately we're not all rich like you :P

Or live at home with little to no expenses ;) ;)

I`m actaully thinking about selling my Alienware lappy I got a couple months ago.. I don't travel as much anymore and using it daily as a desktop isn't really what it's made for and i`d hate to have it just sit there.

What projector and screen did you get??

[Chris]

Whatever makes you happy.

[MarkB]

Why get an iPod when an iRiver is so much better?:p

[Generalissimo]

iRiver :o, you're not one of those MP3 loss-full format fans are you!

The laptop and projector will be useful for presenting Incka Media to advertising agencies.

[MarkB]

I rip my MP3s to a bitrate where there's minimal loss, thanks :)

I'm a fan of having a portable music player which actually comes with a remote control with LCD display, and decent battery life ;) iRiver IHF-140 40GB. Mmmmm!

[Generalissimo]

I'd much prefer an iPod thanks.

Laptop is a Dell, and before Chris, Chromate or Mr Dodge asks, I didn't use any coupons from your sites...

[Westech]

A $2000 laptop.
A 20GB iPod.
A $1000 Projector and $200 screen.
Office 2003 Professional + Access.


See, website publishing does has it's rewards!

Nice! So do you still want to give up on entrepreneurship and move to Cuba? ;)

[chromate]

Sounds interesting. Do you actually have any presentations on the horizon then?

[Generalissimo]

Nice! So do you still want to give up on entrepreneurship and move to Cuba? ;)


If the embargo wasn't on I'd be happy, I'm sure I could contribute something to their economy.

[Generalissimo]

Sounds interesting. Do you actually have any presentations on the horizon then?


I gotta wait for my laptop to come so I can make them. Mike is currently doing a VERY expensive piece of coding for me which will be as good as fastclick or casale media when it's done, so when I've made presentations and the ad network is ready, I'll go out to ad agencies with the presentation. I'm going to have a absolute minimum CPM of $0.75 for advertisers to pay, so I should get much better rates for publisher than casale and fastclick even if my fill ratio isn't as high.

[Shawn]

Todd,

Can you e-mail me or PM me? shawn at onemancreative.com.

I want your laptop.

[Todd W]

I gotta wait for my laptop to come so I can make them. Mike is currently doing a VERY expensive piece of coding for me which will be as good as fastclick or casale media when it's done, so when I've made presentations and the ad network is ready, I'll go out to ad agencies with the presentation. I'm going to have a absolute minimum CPM of $0.75 for advertisers to pay, so I should get much better rates for publisher than casale and fastclick even if my fill ratio isn't as high.

I like how you make it sound like anything is possible. ;)
$15,000 - Check
Laptop - Check
Projector - Check
Starting an adnetwork before your mom calls you from dinner.... priceless
:p :p

Just joking around ;)

Have you ever been in a conference room at a mild to large size corporation? Everyone that i`ve been in has had a projector and computer hooked up to it for use. Maybe things are different there?

Anyway, why do you think the ad agencys will take you serious or choose you over a company with a proven track record?

BTW- Why didn't you use a dell coupon did you want to pay more money?

[Generalissimo]

There was no dell coupons for any thing I wanted.
I prepare all of my own food apart from when from a take away.
I plan to get companies which have not advertised online before, as well as companies who do advertise online and are wanting to expand their reach.

[Chris]

No offense to Mike's coding skills, but the work he did for me had some pretty big mistakes in it. It all functioned, but the coding wasn't optimized nor was the database. The database in fact was completely unnormalized.

Its nice you have dreams, but to claim that you will have better software than Fastclick and that you'll be able to negotiate better rates than them comes off as very arrogant, delusional even. I don't think you fully understand the scope of what you're trying to undertake and I'd hate to see you end up losing all the time & money you've invested.

[Generalissimo]

I remember you were one of last of us publisher to join casale Chris, perhaps you just don't like change. I can make comments like that too, they don't mean anything, Mike's coding is good, and I'll make sure he gets the database optomized, etc, his coding for my other sites was very good, maybe not as good as the indian company I got to make my upload site, but still very good.

[Mike]

No offense to Mike's coding skills, but the work he did for me had some pretty big mistakes in it. It all functioned, but the coding wasn't optimized nor was the database. The database in fact was completely unnormalized.

Thanks ;)

Funny you should say that actually. Earlier today I was looking at the poetry site and I understand what your saying about the mistakes. I think that site (and your advice) has made my coding a lot different.

[Generalissimo]

We talking about online-poetry.com?

Instead of critising Mike's coding I'd be critising the css designer...

[Todd W]

We talking about online-poetry.com?

Instead of critising Mike's coding I'd be critising the css designer...

Stop taking the posts as an attack!

Chris has a valid point, 100k impressions a day on good code may work fine but 500k impressions a day on the same code may make it appear to be rubbish.

You are wanting to start an ad network, and have made it public knowledge so take the criticism with a grain of salt and move on. If you can't deal with people's opinions or impressions on you and your ad network then don't discuss them on a public forum.

Mike will learn from Chris's comments on db normalization, and code optimization. I look at my code from a year ago and ask myself what was I thinking! Not everyone starts out coding perfect and 100% optimized but they will learn, and only if they see that they can imrpove will they reach for it. Chris wasn't being rude to Mike, but simply letting him know there is room for improvement in his code design, and db structure. Mike obviously wasn't hurt about the post, and agreed to seeing some errors he had made. I continue to improve my coding design and I`m sure Mike does too. Having someone point out errors may seem like a bad thing to you but for us it's how we improve for the future.

[Generalissimo]

My php coding doesn't go far beyond php includes and db row echos...

[thebillionaire]

What I bought today:

milk bottle for lunch: $1.50 - my monthly revenue

Thanks to my site, gamesreloaded.com

[MarkB]

Sean, not to be too cynical, but what financial backing do you have to do this?

What happens if your advertisers don't pay up, and publishers are screaming for their money?

[Generalissimo]

Pay in advance.

[r2d2]

Who pays in advance? Advertisers? How ould they know how much to pay? Is this usual for this business?

[Chris]

I think its possible for you to start an ad network.

But you'll need to start small, and its obvious you don't plan on that. You're not going to be able to take on a big company like Fastclick thats publicly traded with millions in cash reserves.

You'd be better off picking a niche and keeping things small.

[James]

Instead of critising Mike's coding I'd be critising the css designer...
I don't see anything wrong with that CSS code.

I kind of agree with Chris on this one, Sean. Creating an advertising network is no simple task, and I hardly doubt that a 15 (or is it 16, now)-year-old could be taken completely serious in such a thing--people have enough trouble hiring young designers and programmers, which I've seen complain about such said discrimination time and again and again. You need to start with more than just one person, and you need to know EVERYTHING about the business, and you can never assume that you'll have so many advertisers that they'll actually be able to pay up-front, and you'll always have ad inventory left to fill.

This undertaking's about equivalent to pushing a boulder up a hill. You're don't know everything about the hill, and therefore can't do it as effectively as you'd hope to from the start. You're going to spend a lot of time doing it, and might get tired or bored with it and quit. And it's very very hard work, and even harder to start doing (centripicle force, and let's assume this hill's convex).

[Billyray]

Personally I find Sean's goals and ambitions inspirational. I have no idea if he will succeed or not but I know that if he doesn't have a go he definitely won't succeed.

Go hard young man you've got balls.

[piniyini]

I echo what Billyray just said, especially that thing about balls.

[James]

That kind of advice can get someone in serious trouble.

[piniyini]

Yes but Incka isnt asking advice, we're merely stating our opinions as this is a public forum. I'm pretty sure he will go ahead with his plans regardless of what we say

[AndyH]

Goodluck with the ad network.

You should probably start alot smaller, but prove us wrong. :)

[r2d2]

I say good luck with it too. Go for it.

As has been said though, I think the biggest obstacle will be getting people to take you seriously. I predict a lot of "Yes, that sounds great, now can we speak to your manager to sign up". How are you going to deal with this?

Whatever happens, it will be a huge learning experience.

Branson was 18 when he started Virgin records, I bet he had people on all sides saying 'Its too big a venture", "You're too young" etc.... Luckily he went through with it, but I bet he took on board peoples opinions to help ensure success.

[MarkB]

But Branson also had experience running his own ventures prior to that - and he started small too (though it didn't last long before it went wild;)).

I wish Sean the best of luck as well. I just hope he has a good accounting and legal team.

[Generalissimo]

That's something else, do any of you know any good UK based accountants for people in our industry, I'm sure Chromate and Mark must do, because I need to get my accounts done but because most of the money is not from trading and most is foreign, I think I might need a speciality accountants...

[MarkB]

I make no money so I never need an accountant :)

[Mike]

Branson was 18 when he started Virgin records, I bet he had people on all sides saying 'Its too big a venture", "You're too young" etc.... Luckily he went through with it, but I bet he took on board peoples opinions to help ensure success.

He started very young though, when he was at school he started his magazine. I think that could have been a factor which made people take him seriously.

Also he brought his cousin in (who I presume was older) and he chose and negotiated what to sell in Virgin Records...

[Generalissimo]

As we're talking about enterpreneurs, my favourite one is Stelios with his Easy group.

[piniyini]

Speaking of the Easy group and Stelios, I just bought an EasyMobile sim (http://www.toseef.com/200506-easymobile-sim) and they are well cheap compared to my previous network!

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Im a little late to this conversation, but I say good on you Sean.

To get out and start pitching a venture to other people, other businesses, will in itself give you great experience. If you can learn to sell effectively off-line, you will always be in demand. It is generally the marketing and sales directors of the major companies that make the money not the IT directors.

[James]

I say good luck to you, also. Just know what you're getting into.
If it works out, and I'm earning any money myself, I'll buy you a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or something. ;)

I kind of think that it's a somewhat massive leap to break into creating an over-all ad-network instead of 'niching it'.

[r2d2]

But Branson also had experience running his own ventures prior to that...

Hasn't Sean?


He started very young though...

Hasn't Sean?

Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying it will be easy or anything. Just taking a different viewpoint on the subject.

[Mike]

Hasn't Sean?

I think starting a magazine while your 14/15 is a little different to running a few websites. Don't get me wrong, websites bring in good money, but running a magazine at that age is an amazing achievement and will have made a lot of people know that he was being serious about things.

Even though I had big doubts when Sean first mentioned this, after talking to him ages ago I've got the impression he has a good idea on what he is doing and I'm sure he will do well with it.

[Generalissimo]

I'll buy you a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or something. ;)


Make sure it's Vegan ;)



On the topic of magazines, a while ago me and Mike were discussing starting one, it didn't amount to anything, but we did consider it...

[chromate]

WOW! This thread really took off while my back was turned :)

I know Incka's (sorry, generalissimo's) been planning this for some time. It's great he's driving through with his plan. Some people are worried about him failing. I'm not. He's young, but in some respects this is a good thing. If he fails, what does he stand to lose? Not a lot really. A few thousand perhaps. It's not like he's going to be getting any big loans at his age - unless from family or friends. He has a roof over his head and food whatever happens.

I remember when I was about 9 years old, I tried to start up a business with my friend selling computers. At one point we even went around knocking on people's doors trying to give them a sales pitch. :o I cringe when I look back! :)

It's best to go after your dreams when you're young and don't have financial and family commitments to maintain. What's the saying? Every long journey begins with one small step?

I actually thought about starting an ad network myself at one point. But then decided against it because I realised I would have to work so hard at getting companies to advertise. Yes - I am lazy :) But starting my own network is not something I would rule out for the future. However, I would start out ultra small. We're talking only one or two companies in the same sector and a handful of quality publishers (2 or 3). Also targeted to the UK. Certainly wouldn't be trying to compete with Fastclick over night :)

I agree with Chris, I think it is possible to start an ad network. But I also agree that you have to start small and build build build.

I suggest targeting a SINGLE niche to start with. This is because it will be much easier to bring companies on board if you have other advertisers from the same sector already performing well.

BTW, I'd be happy to help out / discuss your plans if you want. Just PM me.

[moonshield]

Sean also has his profitable sites to fall back upon. If the network does not work out he still will be living well. It will be awesome when its online.

[Generalissimo]

Basically I am starting small, it will take years to get up to fastclick's level, my plan is to start with my own site plus a few others from webmasters I'm friends with or are on forums like this and contact me, when I did a small test thing back in october I had loads of webmasters PMing me on sitepoint from just a small ad in my sig, including one's which has an alexa rank in top 2500, so I'd start serving maybe 1/2 mill ads a day or so, just with a few advertisers, and working constantly to get more ads and publishers and build it up. I'd probably start with a 'niche' of entertainment sites, with a few non-entertainment ones like the book one I'm building.

[James]

hat's the saying? Every long journey begins with one small step?
I think it's: "One Sean to rule them all, one Sean to find them, one Sean to bring them all
and in the darkness binds them."

Okay, you've put more thought into this than I thought you did, and are going slower than I thought you were. If you start this up then I'd like very much for you to succeed. I was just kinda thinking that if you somehow messed up, and overlooked a detail, it could put you in DEEP debt.

[mini]

Incka/generalissimo, keeps your spirit and enthutisatics high, you'll need it all the way. You have nothing to loose, you are still young, you have no children or mortgage, I think you should go for it.

However, on the other side, please do not underestimate your competitor or whoever you're trying to beat. No offence, but in Australia, an ex psychiatrist tried to build a better search engine than google, when I read that in the newspaper I was laughing my head off and told myself that she has no idea what she's talking about. She has no idea how big google is, 2 years on, we have not heard from her or her what so call search engine which is supposedly better than google.

Anything is possible, just make sure you do your research properly and have something to fall back on. In Australia 1 in 3 small businesses failed within the first 2 years. I'm sure you know what it takes to build a network ads and have done your research. There'll be a lot of hard works required and you definetely need more than a dream and spirit to make it happen. You should take everyone advices with an open mind, but at then end of the day, you are the one who thinks for yourself and make the decision about which way you'd like to go.

Good luck! Keep us updated too, it can be an inspiration for others if you succeed :)

[aj8]

Very best of luck! Go for it.