Play the odds
BookofOdds.com

What are the chances you will be struck by lightning while reading this sentence? We can’t say for sure, but you can probably find out at BookofOdds, which lists over 250,000 odds for flight delays, lottery winnings, and other minutiae. With thousands of active visitors (the site does not report exact page views through Alexa or Quantcast), the site is curiously popular in Russia. The international flavour and diverse topics makes it a prime candidate for advertising revenue. “We have some revenue in all active categories of monetisation: syndications, advertising, sponsorships, and research,” says site founder Amram Shapiro. “We have raised some funds and plan to raise more in the near future for a total of about $2m. We expect to be cashflow positive by the first quarter of next year.”

Nathan Beckord, at business consultant VentureArchetypes says: “Assuming their odds-making methodologies are robust and trustworthy, they could repackage and sell a premium version of the service to people who would value this aggregation – journalists, researchers, students. They could parse the content into separate channels and charge to run focused queries.”

Know families’ value
AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

It’s perhaps the worst business model ever: create a blog with pictures of goofy family members in awkward poses. Yet, AwkwardFamilyPhotos is incredibly successful – and site founders Mike Bender and Doug Chernack are as surprised as anyone. According to Quantcast, the site attracts about 15 million page views and has an active “viewership” of around 3 million visitors. While, Bender and Chernack are tight-lipped about how much money the site pulls in, the site already sells T-shirts and mugs through Zazzle.com and hosts banner ads from such big brands as KLM and Hyundai. “AwkwardFamilyPhotos must produce the products with customers’ pictures on them to a level of quality expected for the price and the experience as presented on the site,” says Patti Freeman Evans, a research director at Forrester Research. “If they do that and they have the right financial set up, they can be viable.” Nathan Beckord, of VentureArchetypes in San Francisco, goes further, noting that Bender and Chernack could buy all rights and syndicate content in advertising campaigns for household family brands, such as Kraft Foods.

Follow a pattern
Ravelry.com

Social networking for knitting fans? Seems like a surefire recipe for disaster. But Ravelry has garnered a loyal following, jumping from four million visitors in August 2009 up to a current level of about seven million, says Quantcast. Sarah Bible, who runs customer support, says they used an invite system and blog links to raise awareness. Most revenues come from banner ads and selling patterns. Nathan Beckord says Ravelry needs to invest in e-commerce for selling knitting patterns and accessories, and create a lead-generation model where users click on links to other sites, such as Amazon or knitting supply stores. Robert Fuest, a financial analyst with Landor & Fuest in New York, says Ravelry could create a revenue-sharing model and partner with a knitting company to create more traffic and ad revenue opportunities.

Take stock of the site
Woot.com

Retailers know the secrets to success: offer a wealth of products, encourage “market basket” buys where customers add ancillary items, and an aggressive price stance. Woot.com contradicts just about every axiom. The site offers just one product a day at a deep discount, but has legions of fans. “Woot’s business model is inherently limiting,” says Patti Freeman Evans, explaining that the site is also challenged by the fact that major e-tailers such as Amazon also offer a deal of the day. However, Woot.com has expanded to offer separate sites for wine, children’s merchandise, and T-shirts as a way to increase revenue. “While Woot most likely does not want to dilute the novelty or user experience of the concept, they could conceivably explore a variety of cross-sell opportunities,” says Nathan Beckord, such as selling a raincoat with a market basket for boots. Since sell-outs are common, Beckord says customers who miss out could see ads for competing products. Page views are staggering, a high of 193 million per month, according to Quantcast, which could lead to major ad revenue streams.

Understand web genetics
DNA11.com

DNA11 sells a kit so you can sample your own DNA – by swabbing the inside of your mouth – to create a custom work of art. Site co-founder Adrian Salamunovic says current revenue is “in the millions” for 2009, and the company has 15 full-time employees. Salamunovic says 100,000 people visit the site regularly, but are mostly just curious about how it works; yet, if just a small percentage buy the artwork the company can remain profitable. Salamunovic says the site does not need to invest in as much marketing because of the unusual market niche, with people seeking out the site on their own. Robert Fuest says the challenge for DNA11 is to figure out how to continue once the novelty of art from DNA wears thin: “They need to define their market and get the message out to the right folks. Channelling members and then to further turn them into customers has to be their strategy to turn DNA11 into a viable and successful business.”

Have grand designs
HotUKDeals.com

Poorly designed, but useful to thousands, HotUKDeals is based in the UK and appeals to visitors looking for coupons and voucher codes to use at local shops. With an average page view count in the six-figure range (according to Alexa, which lists the site as number 82 on a top 100 list), the site makes most of its revenue from commissions on coupons when users click on links and use ads. The site is democratised in that any user can post information about deals or vouchers. One way that HotUKDeals has expanded and raised awareness of late is by offering a series of blogs that explain more about the deals and offer buying advice. Dealspwn.com, Playpennies. com, and BitterWallet.com have all helped the site leverage the main coupon site and increase traffic, which has risen from a few hundred up to about 50,000 per month on a regular basis. In order to build on its success the site must now concentrate on matching a Web 2.0 design, look and feel that makes it more attractive to deal hunters.

Build a simple model
Awfulplasticsurgery.com

Shocking and funny, this site taps in to our inner feeling of Schadenfreude with plastic surgery disasters featuring our (favourite) celebs. Unsurprisingly, given the general celebrity obsession, the site has grown from 250,000 views per month up to 350,000 in just a few weeks, according to Alexa, likely riding the wave of Fark.com and other sites that cover “news of the weird” and the dark side of the web. Some photos are funny, some tragic, and some not safe for work. The site makes most of its money from Google ads that link, inevitably, to plastic surgery and enhancement sites that appeal to the obvious demographic: young men.

Keep on the ball
Ballreviews.com

Easily the strangest site in our round-up, Ballreviews has an awkward design and sells just one product: bowling balls. Yet, despite these obvious limitations, for some reason it is a high traffic generator with about half a million visitors per month and an incredibly loyal following of users who post detailed reviews of bowling balls. The site is rather complete – it lists just about every bowling ball ever made. In many ways, it is the perfect example of targeted e-commerce: high traffic, high user involvement, and direct sales on the very product that draws people to the site in the first place.

Find a friend in need
MizPee.com

Here’s a site that might make you double-take: yes, it is for women who need to find a toilet, and fast. Peter Olfe created the site in 2007 when he was in San Francisco, after trying to find a bathroom. In 2008, MizPee had several thousand visitors per day, but has suff ered recent setbacks with the advent of iPhone apps that appeal more to the mobile user. Olfe says MizPee has thousands of registered users but lacks the funds to take the site further. MizPee may have a limited appeal but it is actually ahead of an emerging trend. The internet is venturing into the physical world with location-aware applications – e.g. you arrive at restaurant and a coupon appears on your smartphone. Nathan Beckord says MizPee could partner with services such as Loopt, Yelp, and Gowalla and become more legitimate by offering its database and licensing its registered user base (with permission) to travel portals.

Use animal instincts
Stuffonmycat.com

Here’s another site that is far outside the norm. The blog features pictures of cats with random things placed on their fur, presumably just to be odd. Most of the pictures are not even funny, yet this site is another fast riser, with more than a quarter of a million visitors a month, according to Quantcast. Yet, the site has found a way to make money by asking visitors to pay to post their own cat pictures – called a “shout out”. Stuff onmycat also does an excellent job of raising its profile by incorporating Twitter feeds and Facebook postings that lead back to the site and therefore increase visitor counts.