How and When did MG start

Long story, maybe too much detail then needed. Obviously, some info is confidential, so we are a bit vague in areas, but were not secretive about our success that you guys helped us achieve.

MG started when I sold 3dfiles and tweakfiles to Zdnet now Cnet. They only wanted TweakFiles in the 3dfiles deal because they didnt see the potential for the website, nor for Jim even though they seemed to respect everything else I said and did and explained it in detail.

So, about a year before they closed our websites and sent us packing Jim started the concept. MajorGeeks name came from Jims Mom saying to him "you know, your a major geek" and the light went off and Jim started the concept on the side and worked on it for about a year. I thought I was burned out and took a year off and soon realized you must keep busy and the stock market crash made me realize I better get back to work before I become a dinosaur. I contacted Jim about this idea (which I never liked the name or colors though it grew on me) who thought I was not interested and gladly accepted me as his partner. The original concept was more networking tools and not all you see here today. I suggested we went for a broader audience and did anything that enhances or improves your PC experience. Jim liked that and off we went. After all, geek is not a bad thing anymore, its a badge of honor. The risk here was unlike previous websites, we outside contracted some help with artists and databasing and this cost thousands and thousands. Unlike 3dfiles and tweakfiles we did not start this just to have fun, we did it to make a living AND have fun. But, the dot com era was over and starting a website when we did was considered stupid. We figured we would take a stab at it and literally started making money within months of what could have closed us down since we were not making enough to pay for the servers and our time. Another 6 months of no income and we probably would be a different, smaller site, if at all. Like most businesses, the first year was basically a huge loss, but we got lucky. We had an audience from before and they came and told their friends. Without them, I doubt we would have ever made it to here. People got what we were doing and they came. We got a few magazine plugs. We got a few major website links and even Tech TV. Our readers showed they were an intelligent, mature audience that advertisers desperately want. They clicked ads. They bought stuff. We knew we were onto something when we were contacted by companies looking to buy us for relatively small sums (thought we are not worth much) which happened years ago when someone sees what they think is an up and coming website, the smart move is get them on the way up. Well, I like to think of it that way Naturally, were having way too much fun to sell it and the last experience from selling pretty much sucked and still stings. TweakFiles was never finished and MajorGeeks is probably years from what we want it to be. Another lucky area was that spyware became the new thing and generated traffic for us as well as other security issues like viruses and firewalls that combat the new, larger then ever, threat .

Currently we are at roughly 500,000 hits per day, our goal being 1 million per day. We have users from all over the world, though USA readers are the target of our ads and the core of our business as advertising now really is as close to home as possible. It is just Jim and myself, but we have great message board moderators and Kodo even spell checks my reviews. We are currently contemplating and deciding if we can afford to bring in someone as an independant contractor to take a load off in a certain area, not saying much else. We would also like to cure cancer, bring world peace and basically take over the world, in any order.

Anything else holler, thats all I can think of from what you asked.

 

Damn straight. I believe in it. Before this I had a Teamsters job for 12 years and I was one of a few out of 30 who thought the union was a scam. I would get dissed for working too fast or washing my vehicle. I think I had the only waxed vehicle in the fleet. Good money, good benefits, good retirement, if lower to middle class makes you happy. I also left with a bad back, wrist and knee that neither the company, nor my government seems to want to help me with. To this day, the comp insurance company fights my chiropractic visits even though the settlement was pay for life. Yes, you did not read that wrong. I had a hearing on it. Eventually, I would have had to retire early. I do miss weekends off though Only person who will help you is yourself. I will say, if your stuck in this rut of a decent job with decent pay where you could get hurt or disabled, keep your health and family closeby, a job like that can be replaced. I cant replace my lower back, knee or wrist... not like it was. Thats why you see I am pro corporations often. I knew what I signed on for and was lazy. Figured at 18 bucks an hour I was staying put. The company has some blame in my injury, no doubt, but I should have left. I would like to preach about getting off your butt, but I would be a hypocrite. If it was not for computers, I would still be there driving trucks, loading airplanes.

I learned a lot. 3dfiles was a pot luck deal. Tweakfiles as a spinoff I knew had potential. Jim was the only guy I met who worked liked me. He is scary dedicated. We were lucky in someone I consider a friend, Vince Brody, Gamespot founder, who signed off on letting us do MajorGeeks as we had a no compete clause at the time. The ZDnet and GameSpot people are a top notch crew. So, now we exist to show them what TweakFiles could have been and to have a job, but we appreicate the opportunity to do it.


Anyone who uses tools for their profession knows that the right tools and a little experience is what you need. Hopefully the word keeps spreading.

 

Hey 4x mate less of the OLD...I'm still a youngester


Tweakfiles was a great place full of smart geeks and some funny ass characters ( still MIA is Aussie Andy.. one smart guy and missed by many ) but things change and in MG the evolution of what TF's could have been is on track, great job Tim & Jim

 

Re: Good memory !!!

Memo's still around on a few boards I frequent and still with the same advice and humour

 

Dont have the demographics on hand, some is hard to track nowadays. Compared to Tweakfiles, we are probably where we were before Tweakfiles got sold off. Less really, but because traffic went up due to a link on GameSpots main page daily. So, were where we were at basically.