Original Ideas Get The Best Results

Important: Apparently I was wrong in using Mack as my starting point for this post - please read his comment. However, I still stand by my point that originality in your business endeavours is the one that can bring you the best results.

Yesterday I decided to join The Z-List. As Maki and Becky pointed out in their comments (thanks guys) there’s more to the list than simply gaining links.

While I was getting ready to publish the post, I was thinking what a great idea Mack Collier had.

Note: For the purpose of this post I’ll concentrate my attention on Mack’s benefits (whether he inteded to gain such benefits or not).

Can you imagine the results he achieved with it? Every single list I’ve seen so far links to his blog. I mentioned in my introduction to the list that as it grows it takes various “identities”: everyone makes their own suggestions and various bloggers take the list from various sources. The point is that many of us on the list will be in many versions and not in others. However, Mack will be in, I would say, at least 90% of the versions (if not the whole 100%). Can you imagine how many incoming links he’s got? How many bloggers found out about him? And how many of us will become part of his everyday readers and, maybe, even add a permanent link to his blog in the blogroll?

This is the power of original ideas. While those of us who “joined” the list see pretty good results (in a matter of a couple of days my Technorati rank went up from 700,000-something to 200,000-something - I know it doesn’t mean a lot, but it has to be worth something) the one who benefited the most was Mack.

It was just a matter of seconds before I made an anology between this “small” accomplishment of Mack and the huge success stories like Google, the guys from YouTube, Microsoft and many others. How many others are trying to get a small piece of their market? I have seen at least about 5 versions of YouTube (even Google had its own version before they acquired it). And I can’t help asking myself how much longer will it be before other versions of Wikipedia will show up in the near future (if they haven’t already).

While it’s true that the internet is big enough for everyone, (and there’s various reasons for which others try to get into a certain market) I am willing to put my life on the fact that no matter what type of business we’re talking about it’s the person with the original idea that sees the best results (be it money or just popularity/fame). Of course, once a certain level of success has been achieved it’s questionable whether the original “patent owner” will be able to stay on top of things (think of Yahoo! before and after Google). The reasons for such a debate are various: incapacity to keep things fresh (others will very likely come up with ideas to improve the concept); anti-trust voices and actions (from the new competition) etc. With a good action plan, things can still be kept under control. That, however, is a different aspect of the story.

Now that I’ve realized this, it’s time I start thinking and analizing the market and come up with the new, original, inovative - call it what you want - idea (product or service) that will make me a billionaire so I can retire in my early thirties. This may take a while. In the meantime I’ll stick to writing on this blog (even if sometimes not as often as I wish). So check back.

Have you found your original idea to make you rich?

Posted in Learn from Others, Marketing and Promotion, Work at Home |