Saw this on another forum. Shipyourenemiesglitter.com, launched on January 12th, quickly went viral (Time, Yahoo, NY Daily News etc) and now for sale with bids at £70k last time I checked. The power of a good idea!
https://flippa.com/3783970-20-000-in-sales-and-2-5-million-visits-in-4-days-hugely-popular-viral-site?utm_campaign=ShipYourEnimiesGlittercom&utm_content=ShipYourEnimiesGlittercom%2BVersion%2BB%2BCID_1235dfdc970488cabd1bb3dcf80a63a0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=ShipYourEnemiesGlittercom
From the sales listing:
"Site Description
ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com is a website that allows users to purchase an envelope filled with glitter that is sent to one of their enemies for only $9.99. Although the idea is a bit farfetched, it’s caught on in a big way. After being launched on January 12th of this month it has seen over 2,500,000 visitors, received over 415,000 mentions on Facebook & Twitter & has been featured all over the world both online, in print, on the radio, on TV & even on late night talkshows.
After being online for only a few hours, the website had received over 2,000 orders generating just over $20,000AUD. Somewhat overwhelmed, I then decided to take the ability to order down despite receiving thousands of emails & tweets from people wanting to purchase.
Business Model
The website’s purpose is for people to send glitter to people they dislike or people they just want to play a funny prank on. A user comes onto the website, fills out a very simple form, pays the $9.99 fee via PayPal & I receive the recipient’s name & address. From there, I print out an A4 letter which basically tells the person receiving the glitter that they’re a terrible person. I then fold up the letter with glitter sprinkled all over it, put it in an envelope & ship it off to the recipient.
The new owner may decide to print out the A4 letters wholesale and improve the margins, same deal with the envelopes & glitter – however, I’ve just been purchasing everything from a local store.
Monetization
The website makes money every time a user purchases a glitter filled envelope. Each purchase is worth $9.99AUD. I’ve calculated that the total cost of shipping an envelope filled with the glitter & the A4 letter to most places in the world from Australia ranges anywhere from $2-$4. That leaves $5.99 to $7.99 profit on each order.
Time Requirement
The new owner will have to decide whether or not they want to ship the envelopes themselves or outsource to a 3rd party. I have received hundreds of emails from people who would like to ship for us for a small fee. I’ve also received emails from manufacturers & factories that have the capabilities to do this on a very large scale. I’ll share these with the new owner, and if the new owner decides to outsource, the monthly time requirement will be close to 0.
If the new owner wants to ship the envelopes themselves, then the monthly time requirement will be a bit more and will be based on the speed of putting glitter into envelopes, sending at the post office etc.
Marketing
The only marketing that has been done was when I launched which included sending out a Tweet from my own personal Twitter account. I also posted the website to Product Hunt. From there, coverage of the site exploded. The great thing about this website & the marketing surrounding it is that the readers on the publications that post about the site love it! On most of the publications the story has been their most popular of the day & many outlets have continued reporting about the site multiple times.
Just a few of the major online media publications that have written about the site include:
http://time.com/3669922/ship-your-enemies-glitter-founder-suspends-website/
http://www.newser.com/story/201303/glitter-bomb-site-founder-wants-to-quit.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/founder-ship-enemies-glitter-selling-service-article-1.2079916
https://www.yahoo.com/makers/website-will-glitter-bomb-your-enemies-for-8-108007543220.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/01/15/glitter-mail-creator-complains/21830849/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/14/ship_your_enemies_glitter_the_founder_explains_himself.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3040931/how-the-e-commerce-gag-ship-your-enemies-glitter-became-a-viral-hit-and-then-a-nightmare
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2911067/22-year-old-creator-website-lets-send-glitter-enemies-selling-just-24-hours-launching-site.html
https://flippa.com/3783970-20-000-in-sales-and-2-5-million-visits-in-4-days-hugely-popular-viral-site?utm_campaign=ShipYourEnimiesGlittercom&utm_content=ShipYourEnimiesGlittercom%2BVersion%2BB%2BCID_1235dfdc970488cabd1bb3dcf80a63a0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=ShipYourEnemiesGlittercom
From the sales listing:
"Site Description
ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com is a website that allows users to purchase an envelope filled with glitter that is sent to one of their enemies for only $9.99. Although the idea is a bit farfetched, it’s caught on in a big way. After being launched on January 12th of this month it has seen over 2,500,000 visitors, received over 415,000 mentions on Facebook & Twitter & has been featured all over the world both online, in print, on the radio, on TV & even on late night talkshows.
After being online for only a few hours, the website had received over 2,000 orders generating just over $20,000AUD. Somewhat overwhelmed, I then decided to take the ability to order down despite receiving thousands of emails & tweets from people wanting to purchase.
Business Model
The website’s purpose is for people to send glitter to people they dislike or people they just want to play a funny prank on. A user comes onto the website, fills out a very simple form, pays the $9.99 fee via PayPal & I receive the recipient’s name & address. From there, I print out an A4 letter which basically tells the person receiving the glitter that they’re a terrible person. I then fold up the letter with glitter sprinkled all over it, put it in an envelope & ship it off to the recipient.
The new owner may decide to print out the A4 letters wholesale and improve the margins, same deal with the envelopes & glitter – however, I’ve just been purchasing everything from a local store.
Monetization
The website makes money every time a user purchases a glitter filled envelope. Each purchase is worth $9.99AUD. I’ve calculated that the total cost of shipping an envelope filled with the glitter & the A4 letter to most places in the world from Australia ranges anywhere from $2-$4. That leaves $5.99 to $7.99 profit on each order.
Time Requirement
The new owner will have to decide whether or not they want to ship the envelopes themselves or outsource to a 3rd party. I have received hundreds of emails from people who would like to ship for us for a small fee. I’ve also received emails from manufacturers & factories that have the capabilities to do this on a very large scale. I’ll share these with the new owner, and if the new owner decides to outsource, the monthly time requirement will be close to 0.
If the new owner wants to ship the envelopes themselves, then the monthly time requirement will be a bit more and will be based on the speed of putting glitter into envelopes, sending at the post office etc.
Marketing
The only marketing that has been done was when I launched which included sending out a Tweet from my own personal Twitter account. I also posted the website to Product Hunt. From there, coverage of the site exploded. The great thing about this website & the marketing surrounding it is that the readers on the publications that post about the site love it! On most of the publications the story has been their most popular of the day & many outlets have continued reporting about the site multiple times.
Just a few of the major online media publications that have written about the site include:
http://time.com/3669922/ship-your-enemies-glitter-founder-suspends-website/
http://www.newser.com/story/201303/glitter-bomb-site-founder-wants-to-quit.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/founder-ship-enemies-glitter-selling-service-article-1.2079916
https://www.yahoo.com/makers/website-will-glitter-bomb-your-enemies-for-8-108007543220.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/01/15/glitter-mail-creator-complains/21830849/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/14/ship_your_enemies_glitter_the_founder_explains_himself.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3040931/how-the-e-commerce-gag-ship-your-enemies-glitter-became-a-viral-hit-and-then-a-nightmare
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2911067/22-year-old-creator-website-lets-send-glitter-enemies-selling-just-24-hours-launching-site.html
