Comments on: For HotOrNot, betting on free is paying off

By: Zoltan

Zoltan — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:19:31 +0000

The revenue will definitely drop but it is a way to get more visitors and members. I assume profit is not that important for James now...

By: LonelyBloggers

LonelyBloggers — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:45:01 +0000

They'll do fine. The brand is strong enough to survive the transition and perhaps with some additional functionality the revenue won't drop off.

By: Top Posts « WordPress.com

Top Posts « WordPress.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:59:19 +0000

[...] For HotOrNot, betting on free is paying off It was three months ago when HotorNot, a San Francisco-based people-ratings-and-dating site, decided to drop its […] [...]

By: anon

anon — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:05:18 +0000

Jim and James are free to do whatever they want but clearly the better call is to let a $5m/year cash cow run itself. 98% of the US workforce works for dollars, not equity. How hard could it possibly be to find an employee or two to answer emails and reboot servers?

By: Markus

Markus — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:21:59 +0000

James is right a good ad sales force may be able to make him a bunch of extra money.

Google adsense is pathetic these days, if I hired a decent ad sales staff I figure I could make $30 million off ads pretty easilly with Plentyoffish.com. But turning a hobby site into a actual business is going to be hard for me.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:51:39 +0000

tim,

good question.

the revenues could have vanished, and the whole move would have a massive disaster.

but they are slowly making up lost revenues with ads, and it is still keeping them profitable. as they grow their sales force, hong thinks that ad revenues will ramp.

By: Andy Arnott

Andy Arnott — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:37:43 +0000

I'm glad to see that free sites like hotornot and plentyoffish are getting the respect they deserve, though neither one is revolutionary. I am trying to change the way singles interact online... though until I start posting a million dollar adsense check you will have to take my word for it. "No respect I tell ya, no respect"

By: tim

tim — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:17:46 +0000

Revenues tanked and now dependent exclusively on Google Ads. How is this a step in the right direction?

By: Dave McClure

Dave McClure — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:23:34 +0000

cheers to james for taking on more risk & super-[re]charging the business.

he's a great entrepreneur, and a great person, and he deserves all the praise in the world for disrupting & reinventing himself & HotOrNot.

you go girl!

By: LA Entrepreneur

LA Entrepreneur — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:10:34 +0000

I think switching to a free model is an excellent idea. HotOrNot actually invented an entirely new class of sites, and its their constant adaptation and innovation that has helped them survive so far.