A Man, an iPhone, and the Cloud

Tag : Cell Phone Conference Call

In some ways, it is the story of the American dream: husband andwife from a small Iowa town embark on a project as a hobby; projectslowly builds a following; and, before you know it, the projectbecomes the most popular entity in its niche, turning a sideproject into a profitable business.

However, when this project is a Web site, business can beunpredictable. Being the top dog in your space simply means youhave the most hits, visitors, or whatever metric on which youchoose to base success, it does not mean you know how many hits arecoming your way at any given time or what will lead to majorvisitation spikes.
 
Just ask Douglas and Brooke Porter, whose Apple iPhone School is among the Web’s most popular destinations for folkslooking to get the most from their super-trendy cell phones. Just aguy who had tried to start a few gadget-oriented sites utilizingGoogle’s AdSense program, Douglas Porter says he neverexpected iPhone School to take off. In fact, he wasn’tinterested in doing much with his new iPhone other than using it aspackaged. But some people he knew online were changing somefeatures -- “you can call it hacking,” says Porter --so he threw together yet another site, this one mixing blog contentwith news, videos, demonstrations and the like.
 
Using AdSense once again, the Porters saw their site evolve quicklyinto a revenue-generating machine. Apple iPhone School grew fromsomething generating a few cents per day to something generating afew dollars per day (enough to pay an iPhone bill), culminating inits current state. “It’s gotten to the point whereit’s an income,” says Porter. Due to its tremendousgrowth, the Porters are starting to look at putting otheradvertising on the site. “If you use any statistic Web site,like Alexa ... we beat every other [iPhone-only site] that there isin stats,” says Douglas Porter, “which is incrediblebecause I’m here in Ankeny, Iowa.”