I have no idea what Amy Hoy does, but I have some passing familiarity with Patrick's story. He knew the market -- i.e. the people who needed this -- and he saw that what was available was utterly crappy. Then he made something better -- as in vastly superior and actually functional. I vaguely recall some tale of what a nightmare it was to actually print the bingo cards from some site that existed at the time he began working on solving this. As someone else here said, he also did some heavy duty SEO/marketing.
So I really am skeptical about brainstorming a list of niche thingies to choose from, picking one, and raking in the dough. I do not really agree that "ideas are worthless, it is all about execution". But I don't think the language exists to readily express the difference between some completely superficial idea like listing off a bunch of niche markets and the deeper conceptualization that makes "an idea" valuable and executable. Clearly, Patrick had that second thing. His tale is not one of "I know, I am going to brainstorm An Idea and then rake in the dough!"
Ironically, I am routinely told that two of my sites can't be monetized at least in part because they are "too niche". I don't think that is necessarily true, but so far I have not found a solution (and I am willing to go do something else and let those go, if I can figure out what else to do that would actually work for me). I have no idea what Amy Hoy does, but I have some passing familiarity with Patrick's story. He knew the market -- i.e. the people who needed this -- and he saw that what was available was utterly crappy. Then he made something better -- as in vastly superior and actually functional. I vaguely recall some tale of what a nightmare it was to actually print the bingo cards from some site that existed at the time he began working on solving this. As someone else here said, he also did some heavy duty SEO/marketing.
So I really am skeptical about brainstorming a list of niche thingies to choose from, picking one, and raking in the dough. I do not really agree that "ideas are worthless, it is all about execution". But I don't think the language exists to readily express the difference between some completely superficial idea like listing off a bunch of niche markets and the deeper conceptualization that makes "an idea" valuable and executable. Clearly, Patrick had that second thing. His tale is not one of "I know, I am going to brainstorm An Idea and then rake in the dough!"
Ironically, I am routinely told that two of my sites can't be monetized at least in part because they are "too niche". I don't think that is necessarily true, but so far I have not found a solution (and I am willing to go do something else and let those go, if I can figure out what else to do that would actually work for me).
So I really am skeptical about brainstorming a list of niche thingies to choose from, picking one, and raking in the dough. I do not really agree that "ideas are worthless, it is all about execution". But I don't think the language exists to readily express the difference between some completely superficial idea like listing off a bunch of niche markets and the deeper conceptualization that makes "an idea" valuable and executable. Clearly, Patrick had that second thing. His tale is not one of "I know, I am going to brainstorm An Idea and then rake in the dough!"
Ironically, I am routinely told that two of my sites can't be monetized at least in part because they are "too niche". I don't think that is necessarily true, but so far I have not found a solution (and I am willing to go do something else and let those go, if I can figure out what else to do that would actually work for me). I have no idea what Amy Hoy does, but I have some passing familiarity with Patrick's story. He knew the market -- i.e. the people who needed this -- and he saw that what was available was utterly crappy. Then he made something better -- as in vastly superior and actually functional. I vaguely recall some tale of what a nightmare it was to actually print the bingo cards from some site that existed at the time he began working on solving this. As someone else here said, he also did some heavy duty SEO/marketing.
So I really am skeptical about brainstorming a list of niche thingies to choose from, picking one, and raking in the dough. I do not really agree that "ideas are worthless, it is all about execution". But I don't think the language exists to readily express the difference between some completely superficial idea like listing off a bunch of niche markets and the deeper conceptualization that makes "an idea" valuable and executable. Clearly, Patrick had that second thing. His tale is not one of "I know, I am going to brainstorm An Idea and then rake in the dough!"
Ironically, I am routinely told that two of my sites can't be monetized at least in part because they are "too niche". I don't think that is necessarily true, but so far I have not found a solution (and I am willing to go do something else and let those go, if I can figure out what else to do that would actually work for me).