If you’re a Facebook user, you may have heard of a game called Farmville. A repetitive simulation game that involved planting and raising crops, Farmville was nonetheless Zynga’s most popular game. While other people were content merely to play the game, local entrepreneur Chan Peng Joon earned over USD$1.2 million by selling guides to it.
“The way I look at it, it’s a gold rush. There will be a small minority who strike gold, while the rest lose out,” says the 27 year old, describing his philosophy behind online marketing.
“The best way to make money is not to dig for gold, but to sell the rest the shovel.”
Peng Joon first got involved in the world of online marketing for online games when he was a World of Warcraft player at Warrick University in the United Kingdom. After getting good at the game, he wrote a guide that taught new players how to make gold and level at a faster rate.
From there, he branched out into Farmville, becoming one of the first entrepreneurs to capitalize on the social game’s immense popularity by writing a guide for it.
“It’s all about selling solutions to problems, and the problem with Farmville is that it’s a boring yet addictive game. It’s part of the human psychology that they want to keep on playing.
“People are willing to pay money to get better at the game, but my guide teaches them how to save time without buying those items.”
Peng Joon’s guide to saving time within the game without buying in-game items quickly became a massive hit among the online gaming community.
At the height of the Farmville craze, Peng Joon was earning around USD$10 000 a day, with tens of millions of page views on his personal website.
But how does he make the money? In Peng Joon’s own words, he describes it as viral marketing.
“To really make my product grow exponentially, I need affiliates, people who can sell the product for me. In return, I can give them commissions. People like websmasters, who own websites and can put up banners and advertisements.”
Having secured an early advantage due to his online presence from World of Warcraft, Peng Joon sent his existing affiliates a broadcast and they quickly jumped on the idea.
Even legal action from Zynga itself did not slow Peng Joon down. Zynga sent Peng Joon and his affiliates cease and desist letters warning them to stop selling his online guide. A court ruled in favour of Zynga, and Peng Joon was forced to settle for USD$13,000.
But he was not barred from selling the guides, and in his book, it counted as a win.
Before he was an online marketing guru however, Peng Joon was working as a software consultant in what he describes as a traditional, conservative company. He worked 10 hour days and described himself as the most hardworking employee there, but his superiors refused to promote him due to his young age (he was 20 at the time).
“My pay was really bad, around S$1800 a month,” he said. “But I guess it was a good thing because it drove me to seek out other jobs.”
From less than S$2000 a month to over a million a year, Peng Joon has indeed come a long way. “I believe in this business because things like age and experience is not a factor. There is no glass ceiling,” he said.
He owes his success to a couple of factors. Firstly, a burning desire to be involved in the online marketing business.
“You must have the ‘why’. Most of the time people are absorbed in the ‘how’, but the ‘why’ is more important. Once you figure out why you want to be in this business, the way to do it will come naturally to you.”
He also has a word of advice for those intending to follow in his footsteps.
“Don’t allow someone else to tell you that you can’t do something. With every great business idea, you will have friends, family members, relatives telling you why you shouldn’t do it. But that’s no reason to believe them.”
Peng Joon describes the perks that come with his success. “This life has enabled me to travel when I want to, to wake up without an alarm clock. That’s the kind of freedom I have.”
Via TheMaverickpaper.com
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