I Can Has $4000 A Week?

I m in ur internet cloging ur tubes Now for some Friday fun. As you may know (and silently feel embarrassment for me over), I’ve been not-so-secretly coveting lolcats, especially the site I Can Has Cheezburger?

Well, for you lolparty-poopers, did you know you can make about $4000 a week with lolcats? Yes! At least, according to the Unusual Business Ideas That Work blog:

Eric Nakagawa, a software developer in Hawaii, posted a single photo of a fat, smiling cat he found on the Internet, with the caption, “I can has cheezburger?” in January, 2007, at a Web site he created. It was supposed to be a joke.

This joke, which Nakagawa monetizes with advertising (or, should I say, loladvertising?), now brings in anywhere from $500 to $4000 per week.

While posting pictures of lolcats is fun, it’s hardly a scalable business if he has to find the photos, caption them, select the best ones, and publish them every day.

So Nakagawa intelligently built the ICanHasCheezBurger Factory, a tool that lets viewers submit their own pictures, caption them, and vote on their favorites. The most popular ones are then published on the main blog, while he gets to sit back and collect the money. Talk about automated lolgenius!

In fact, I know a friend who, during one sunny day, uploaded 2GB of photos. TWO GIGABYTES. Holy lolcat!

I don’t know how long the lolcat trend will continue. But if you look at how media and entertainment is going the way of niche markets, perhaps niche blogs like I Can Has Cheezburger and Cute Overload will be around for quite a lolwhile.

Author: Mike Lee

An idealistic realist, humanistic technologist & constant student.

2 thoughts on “I Can Has $4000 A Week?”

  1. What kind of idiot with no shame at all would upload 2 gigs of kitty pictures for lolcats? What nonsense. Why, I never heard such a silly endeavor in my life. Does she NOT have a day job? Brains? Hobbies? More pressing concerns in this hard knock life? Hm?

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    There’s a “Cute Overload” site??

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    I’m only clicking there to, *shrug,* check it out. You know. See what all the fuss is about. Cute overload. Psh. Where’s the appeal in photos of cats captioned with butchered grammar and syntax? Meh.

    So. Cute Overload……

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