Care to show the website that generated over $10K in ad revenue?
Genius. Try 100 things, have one work, then give out that information for free to many people who could build the same thing in a few hours.
Re:Ask YC: What would you do with 50K
by run4yourlives on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @12:20PM
(#183469)
He didn't put a time line on things, but 10K a year is relatively common. 10K a month is a different matter altogether.
Yup. 10K a month and I'd be in the Bahamas by now.
I'd suggest the opposite, actually. Not going full time means that you'll go half-assed on the startup.
Really what I think it does is force you to focus on what's really important. Either way you're always going to feel that there is much more work to be done than you have time for. Having less time will just let you do the core tasks. Then you can see whether or not the core idea gets traction. If it turns out not to be a successful idea(which is most likely) you'll have wasted a lot less time.
A large number of famous startups have started this way--Facebook, Yahoo, Google, craigslist, eBay...
It is incredibly easy on the vast internet to work on things that may be interesting, different, unique, cool, but in the end don't attract a big enough audience to pay the bills and beyond. That's why I think it's dangerous to go full time until you have some site with significant traffic & growth rates.
In my experience this has been the better path. I worked fulltime on an ad supported site for 3 months, plunking 10k into it(and living expenses), and got about $200 in return.
Another site, which I built in a day, has generated over $10K for me in ad revenue. It's a big crapshoot and going full time probably won't increase your odds too much. Wait til the traffic is big enough, not your desire.