Felix and I: Building 100 Affiliate Websites in a Summer
In 2010, Jacob Filipp and his friend Felix set out to become millionaires by 30 by building a network of 100 e-commerce affiliate websites. Using datafeeds from merchants, they cloned product catalogs to outrank the originals on Google. Despite the tedious work and modest earnings ($1,300 on $1,800 expenses), they hit their milestone by December. The story captures the summer's heat, their social life in Toronto, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the era.
If you think this business was lucrative then you are mistaken. A successful cloned site would only make $100 per year.
- apodolny
For anyone reading this story as a cautionary tale on having children, you should know that this is not my lived experience of parenting (or the described experience of many of my peers). The way he describes it is the exact opposite of my experience:
> "if you feed me a BIG tablespoon of shit every day and then switch to just a little teaspoon daily, I won’t suddenly start liking the taste of shit."
I genuinely love time spent with my child. I had a similar experience to him and Felix in my 20s and am glad I did, but I'd never want to go back there. That was right for me then and I deeply feel that parenting (alongside a software engineering career I love) is the most joyful, rewarding place to be in my 30s.
- neerajsi
I don't get why the sleep deprivation continues. Seems like eliminating that would make a big difference. I have a six year old son, and since he was four it was perfectly fine for him to do his own thing for a little while if I needed a bit of extra sleep. I could see why you'd resent kids if they were constantly needy, didn't sleep, and you didn't actually enjoy their company. But for kids with typical development, this resentment maybe means that the parents aren't setting the right boundaries past age 3.
- ComputerPerson
>failing at online dating
I think people fall into the trap of thinking things are too good to be true (so they must not be true). This results in abandoned relationships that would have been better than 99% of those from pre-online-dating times.
This has been true for me, anyway. Every time I've entered the online dating scene, I've invariably realized 3 months later that one or two of the women I turned down for second dates were great matches.
- firefax
I decided to go ahead and click through, since this looks like it's just an expired certificate. It's a really great piece of creative nonfiction that evoked all sorts of emotions, some of which even managed to be positive.
And I'm going to go with my gut and not give my thoughts on love, and instead simply reflect on the fact that in the early days, there was no "swipe culture" -- you got shown the girl of your dreams, on paper. (In reality, there's looks, social class, and of course, the foundations of geopolitics.)
- nixonaddiction
people dont hire ambitious young women because theyre afraid theyll fall in love with them???