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Why Take My Advice, Anyway?
Posted by Scott on 28th September, 2007 | 35 commentsIn 1994 I started a computer hardware reviews site called SysOpt.com in high school and by 1997 (Freshman in college) I was earning $100,000/year from banner ads. In 1998 I launched a second site, ResellerRatings.com. I continued operating the sites until 1999, when a company called Andover made an offer to buy them (those are the guys who bought Slashdot.org). A second company, EarthWeb, got into a bidding war with Andover and eventually bought the sites for several million dollars (which, of course, I ended up with only a portion of due to the deal being structured as mostly stock and everyone, like lawyers and uncle sam, got their share). As the dot com crash got underway, EarthWeb sold the sites (and all of its other sites except Dice.com) to Internet.com, and in typical fashion, Internet.com slashed the sites’ budgets and eventually shut down ResellerRatings completely in 2002 because they had no idea what it was or how to operate it properly.
So in 2002 right after Internet.com shut ResellerRatings down, I contacted them and negotiated a deal to buy it back for pennies on the dollar. From there, I hired a small development team to help me redesign the site’s backend and UI, and began monetizing it using a shopping engine powered by Shopping.com. ResellerRatings now generates seven figures in revenue annually.
Stepping back to 2001, I created a software product called PhotoPost. PhotoPost adds a photo gallery to any website, and optionally integrates with a pre-existing forum like vBulletin (fantastic forum integration is PhotoPost’s most famous feature). Since its launch in 2001, PhotoPost has sold about 10,000 licenses at around $129 per license.
Along the way, I also launched TechIMO.com in 2001, a tech support community site (that is home to an awesome bunch of tech savvy and friendly users) that receives 1 million unique visitors per month, and Dealighted.com in 2006 - a time saving hot deals aggregator that receives 600,000 uniques per month.
I have website marketing, monetization, and development experience to share, which until now has been a well guarded secret. I think it’s better to share and collaborate than to keep secrets, don’t you?
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Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 1:18 am and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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“I think it’s better to share and collaborate than to keep secrets, don’t you?”
Yes, I do. Thank you!
Yes but few really every share and collaborate real secrets but rather more on giving vague tips.
Nice site, Scott, and it’s great to see you sharing your expertise here.
Yes, better to share than to keep to yourself.
Cheers
Mick
Now if only he will share some of that wealth!
Nice site, Scott. Hopefully I can find this information useful some day and make myself some extra revenue.
[…] About page, aptly titled Why Take My Advice, Anyway? gives a good brief history as to his success online. He started his entrepreneurial trek on the […]
[…] Why Take My Advice, Anyway? […]
love hearing about how people made money online. i’d rather hear how they made money as opposed to how to make it. seems more real when its in the past. keep posting and i’ll be sure to check ur blog from time to time
I like and use PhotoPost. It is great.
Hi Scott,
I am already enjoying reading your blog. I look forward to learning more about how to make it big online. Thanks for sharing.
What a great introduction post….looks like I’ll be a long time subscriber. Thanks!
Superbly well written articles. Keep producing more of the same, and good luck with the blog.
damn you have tons of experience. i am looking forward to your advice on generating memberships and traffic to new sites.
Come on.
Your skill is in coding. Do you share that with us on your blog?
It’s your ability to code that made you millions. Why don’t you share with us that?
About business building, anyone can share the tips, as it takes years to build any business.
However, if there is a tip that can make anyone earn big bucks in lesser time with lesser effort, that would cost money to share. Even fund managers charge you for their services, so that they can help you make money from your investments.
There’s no free lunch in this world. The only free things in life are things you don’t want, and give them away to people who want them.
Hi Scott, it’s nice to be in here. Hope I can learn a lot from your blog, especially how to monetize a blog and earn revenues. Good Luck
“It’s your ability to code that made you millions. Why don’t you share with us that?”
That’s oversimplifying it, don’t you think? If all you needed to know was how to code and then you’d be set, don’t you think every developer would be running their own successful business? Knowing how to code is one very small piece of the puzzle.
“However, if there is a tip that can make anyone earn big bucks in lesser time with lesser effort, that would cost money to share.”
I want to tell you how to work smart, how to get on the right path to success, but you do have to work. This isn’t a get rich quick blog. That said, I’m including several tips that you can implement today with no effort and make more money tomorrow (Tacoda, Adsense forum best practices, CPM guarantees with Kontera/Intellitxt, plus lots of other suggestions you can implement right away).
Thank you for the excellent post, not many people would share that. I’ll be coming back regularly for more.
Great story! I really enjoy reading about how people became successful. Makes me want to work harder.
While you were making $100,000 in 1997, I was a junior in high school working for a small tech company making $12/hour
Thank you for being a part of the online community. I look forward to learning from you.
I’ve been using many of the PhotoPost products for years. I’m a happy customer, you’ve done well for yourself, Scott.
Thanks - I hope to share some of what I’ve learned along the way here.
Hey Scott, Found you thanks to the great John Chow….great articles here so far, looking forward to more!
[…] for further reading. When you read the aptly titled post by the site owner Scott Wainner ‘Why Take My Advice, Anyway?‘ you will quickly realise why, as Scott is a guy who has been there and done it all and […]
Scott,
I’m certainly looking forward to learning more real SEO and other tricks of the monetizing trade and applying them to my own web sites and sites of the clients for whom I design and build.
A definate inspiration. Gave me strength to broaden my goals. Thanks!
really great man.
subcribe your site instantly.
[…] to double my website’s revenue? This seems like an outrageous claim, until you checkout the official About page of the blog and read the short bio on Scott’s entrepreneurial journey so far. Here’s a […]
What more can I say, great site! I did also subscribed to your site right away.
Thank you:)
[…] by attilachordash on March 6, 2008 Scott Wainner - an old timer, professional internet revenue generator and recent maximum healthy life extension advocate (the ideal target group) - wants you (in this […]
WOW man just read About Us page. Just great history you have.
BTW i envy you
I also love to hear how people make money from internet. Have read Chow and Shoe story, and your are equally impressive. Great.
[…] W Revenue dot com - when you’ve created million-dollar business, people want to hear about it. Scott Wainner’s new blog delivers. […]
definetely intereting, thanks
[…] { About } […]
If I could - I could ask you to be my teacher
I know , I can’t afford your fees 
great article on “conquering decision paralysis” it saves time and energy (= money) for people like me (apparently a potential maximizer?) who have already read “blink” and “how we decide” very true and well read! I’m in.
thanks-