We live in a society where people are always coming up with new ideas and innovations. These ideas are often brilliant, and really contribute to the overall benefit of our society. But then there are those businesses that are just “out there”. Below, we are going to show you the top 10 strangest businesses that managed to earn millions despite being different.
10. Million Dollar Homepage
How silly would it be to sell 1,000,000 pixels at a dollar a piece on a website called the “Million Dollar Homepage”? It sounds fairly dumb as most people would agree. But this didn’t stop 21-year old Alex Tew from transforming this idea into a real money making process. Today, he is a millionaire and the website itself is still up and running and has not turned into an “online museum” so to speak.
9. Santa Mail
Okay, here is another brilliant idea: pretending that you’re Santa Claus and charging parents $10 for every letter that you send their kids. Also note, each letter is signed and sent from the North Pole itself. It sounds really bizarre when you think about it. Well, Byron Reese didn’t think so and he ended up selling about 200,000 letters throughout the course of his businesses career. In the end, it made him about a million dollars richer.
8. Doggles
Wouldn’t it be nice to sell goggles for dogs on the Internet? Most people would see this as a failed plan but this didn’t stop a team of people from becoming millionaires off of this “grand” idea. The website is still up today and you can even go in and purchase your own set of Doggles for your pet.
7. Laser Monks
Laser Monks is basically an eight-monk team that resides in the hills of Monroe County who are responsible for refilling ink cartridges. Now at first glance, this may seem like an idea that wouldn’t get too far off of the ground. And judging by the fact that these monks probably didn’t have much business experience, it would be hard to predict that they earned a whopping $2,500,000 in 2005. Keep in mind that all of this money goes to the church (so they say).
6. Antenna Balls
You can’t sell antenna balls online. There is absolutely no way. The profit margin simply isn’t there. There aren’t enough people who are interested. These are some of the comments that Jason Wall heard before he started selling antenna balls on the Internet. Today, he is a millionaire.
5. Fit Deck
A lot of people like playing cards and a lot of people like working out. But have you ever considered mixing the two? Well if you haven’t, that’s okay because a former Navy SEAL by the name of Phil Black has already cashed in. He created a deck of cards that had exercise routines on them and sold them online for about $20 a pop. In his highest grossing year, he ended up earning about $5,000,000. Most can agree that this is much more than the military pays.
4. Positive Dating
How interested would you be, if you were HIV positive, to be a part of a website that shows you other singles who are also HIV positive? Well if you like the idea then you can thank Brandon Koechlin and Paul Graves for it. They created a website that basically linked HIV positive people who were interested in dating. In 2006, sales were at about $110,000.
3. Designer Diaper Bags
A 34-year-old mother named Christie Rein was tired of walking around with diaper bags so she created a freezer bag for holding the diapers. She did this because she didn’t want them to be scrunched up in her purse. However, she did want something stylish, sleek, and compact so in 2004, she sat down with her husband and came up with something that would leave people in awe. In 2005, she amassed about $200,000 in sales and today she offers diaper bags in about 22 different styles and each one goes for about $15.
2. TruGamerz
Chances are good that a faux-suede padded cover for a video game controller isn’t something that would attract a gamer’s attention- especially if it had gel thumb pads for the analog joysticks. And while this notion seemed to be true, it didn’t stop the sales of such an item from taking off and earning more than half a million dollars.
1. Lucky Wishbone
All of us know what a wishbone is. If you don’t know, it’s basically a bone that has two sides and you, along with another person, pull on it. The person who has the largest side when it breaks is allowed to make a wish. Now, this is all fine and good, but nobody really ever believed that it could be turned into a money making machine- except for founder Ken Ahroni. He created the Lucky Wishbone Co. in 2006 and his annual sales soared well over one million dollars. Today, he is producing more than 30,000 wishbones every day.
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