Lessons from OneMillionDollar.link
OneMillionDollar.link started as a stupid idea: what if I made the most expensive link on the internet? The concept was simple—there's one link on the page, and if you want to change it, you pay. Each time someone does, the price jumps 20%. It started at $1. I thought maybe it'd hit $15 and die. As I write this, it's at $340. Turns out the internet still loves absurd experiments.
The Five-Second Rule is Real
People's attention span is genuinely five seconds. If your explanation takes longer, you've already lost them. While building this, I ruthlessly cut features that would've added friction. Every "wouldn't it be cool if..." got killed unless it passed the five-second test. Simplicity isn't just a virtue—it's survival.
Build for Virality, Not SEO
Google is a lost cause for new projects. App stores? You'll drown in the crowd. The harsh truth: if your product doesn't naturally generate social media content, you're done after day one. Nobody's typing your URL into their browser. Design your product to be screenshot-worthy, meme-able, shareable. Make it a content machine first, a product second.
Success Invites Chaos
The moment something takes off, the internet will try to break it. I got DDOS'd within 48 hours—completely unprepared. Lesson learned: assume success and plan your infrastructure accordingly. Also, change your default admin panel URL. The brute force attacks came fast and furious.
SQLite Can Handle More Than You Think
Even after getting hammered by attacks, SQLite held up fine. People love to prematurely optimize to PostgreSQL, but honestly? WAL mode SQLite handles more than you'll ever need. Keep it simple until you actually can't.
The Internet Misses Weird Stuff
People are exhausted by the sterile, corporate web. They're nostalgic for the weird, playful internet of the 2000s. You could literally make a page of CSS beavers dancing and people would show up. There's a hunger for joy and absurdity that's being completely underserved.
Simple Story, Perfect Execution
A filmmaker friend once told me: tell a simple story extremely well, and you'll have a good film. He pointed to Mad Max—barely any plot, just flawless execution. The same applies to building things. Don't overcomplicate. Do one thing ridiculously well.
Design Actually Matters (Unfortunately)
If you're building for a Turkish audience, one broken button means you're getting roasted. And despite what engineers think, aesthetics matter immensely. Craigslist works in the US because it got there first. If it launched in Turkey today with that UI, it'd make nothing, not $600 million.
Nobody's Coming to Save You
When the project took off, I emailed journalists, influencers, tech media. Webrazzi (Turkey's TechCrunch), Serdar Kuzuloglu (a prominent Turkish tech journalist), everyone I could think of. Radio silence. Zero responses. If you're waiting for gatekeepers to validate your work, you'll be waiting forever. The cavalry isn't coming.
The TikTok Test
I said social media comes first, right? Now when I evaluate ideas, I unconsciously ask: "Would I make a TikTok video about this?" It's a weirdly effective filter. If you can't imagine creating content around your idea, maybe rethink the idea.
It Was Never About the Money
I'm grateful to everyone who participated in this ridiculous experiment. For me, it was proof that you can still build weird things on the internet and people will care. That belief matters more than any revenue. And judging by the messages I got, it inspired others to try their own wild ideas too. That's the real win.
10/2024