With my full time work, I don’t get as much time idly surfing the web the way I used to. But thanks to a Facebook friend… okay, several Facebook friends… I heard about ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com (caution, NSFW). Visit their website and read their very irreverent FAQs for a good smile. For only AU$9.99 (Australian dollars), this company will ship glitter anywhere in the world, to anyone you want.
I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think of this business model?” This is so much easier and less messy than collecting up some dog poop, bagging it, driving to someone’s house, covertly placing the bag, lighting it on fire, ringing the doorbell, and then running away as fast as possible.
Founder Mathew Carpenter (@matcarpenter) thought he had a great idea, but when news of this week’s website launch went viral quite literally overnight, the website crashed. Just 24 hours after the launch, Carpenter is trying to offload the site.
ShipYourEnemiesGlitter with 1m visits, 270k social shares, $xx,xxx in sales, tonnes of people wanting to order. 24 hours old. For sale.
— matcarpenter (@matcarpenter) January 14, 2015
Don’t worry! Apparently everyone else was thinking, “Why didn’t I think of this business model?” as well. There are so many copycat sites that popped up out of nowhere, you can still get your revenge. Check out these sites:
– #SparkleSlap. Just like ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com, but not. For $7.95 US through PayPal.
– MailAGlitterBomb.com will do the job for US$9.99, and you have the option to include a custom message to the recipient.
– SendYourEnemiesGlitter.com is the most shameless of all the copycat sites. This one is charging—wait for it!—only $4.99 you can also send a customized message.
– PaybackGlitter.com is $7.99 and also uses PayPal.
– The Glitter Bombers is a Canadian company that starts at only $4.99 CAD, and guarantees the letter will be in the mail within 24 hours.
Frankly, I’m not sure I’d blindly hand $5-10 to a website like that. But I’m sure enough people are for these websites to succeed.
I’m still kicking myself for not jumping on this bandwagon. Really… I could get myself a stack of stationary and a Costco-sized bottle of glitter and have the money roll in, right?
Carpenter is STILL trying to offload his site: https://flippa.com/3783970-20-000-in-sales-and-2-5-million-visits-in-4-days-hugely-popular-viral-site
For the REAL Glitter Bombers check theglitterbombers.weebly.com
Mat had no idea what he was getting into!