Johns Wu
Founder, Developer, Sole Employee, and eventual Seller of Bankaholic.com, a consumer banking portal, to Bankrate, Inc.
October 2008.
For nearly $15 Million.
From his LinkedIn profile:
“Retired Internet Marketer”
Before his 23rd Birthday.
If you’re an Internet entrepreneur or giving real thought to chasing that brass ring, the success achieved by Johns Wu, in less than 3 years, is the story that will keep you awake late into the night and get you up well before the sunrise. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this interview with one of the best Internet success stories you’re likely to read. And if you’re anything like me, it will have you sitting straight up in your chair and will leave you super charged to take YOUR business to the next level.
MO:
You and I crossed paths a while ago because we both had an interest in a certain domain name. However, I was well aware of your story prior to that email meeting. I’m about 6 weeks into blogging about entrepreneurs on MO.com; it excites me to know, based on your story, I’ll get to cash out for millions in just another couple years . . . ahem.
In all seriousness, your story has inspired and continues to motivate countless entrepreneurs and bloggers to make their run at glory and financial reward. First, how does that feel to know your success is being used by others to give them the drive they need to chase similar dreams? Second, is it realistic for folks to believe they can achieve such lofty results or did you just hit “the perfect storm” with Bankaholic?
Johns Wu:
I am thrilled that my story is inspiring others to build online businesses. I myself was motivated by ShoeMoney when that infamous picture of him [Jeremy Schoemaker] holding a big AdSense check was circulating the web.
As more and more commerce moves from real-life to the web, there will be countless opportunities for niche marketers to strike gold.
MO:
In your LinkedIn profile, you state you are retired. How accurate is that? My hunch is you’re still very much “online” and selectively filtering out opportunities and seeking out that next homerun. Am I close?
Johns Wu:
HA! You are very much correct! Entrepreneurs who heard of the Bankaholic sale often contact me on my LinkedIn, and I’ve been collaborating with people on various projects. I am far too lazy these days to do any actual “hands-on” development, but I am very active in “high-level” roles on many exciting projects.
I’ve been working on getting a GRAND SLAM in the works. My idea of a grand slam is: category killer domain + SEO [Search Engine Optimization] traffic + monetization. In the next couple years, I’m hoping to build a web property in the same league as Hotels.com and Wine.com. I’ve been in talks with domainers who own valuable portfolios, so hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later ;)
MO:
You have a very strong, and clearly proven, background in search engine marketing (SEM), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. These skills were a big part of your accomplishments in building out Bankaholic.com. Your banking portal became an acquisition target for Bankrate, Inc., primarily because you had built the property into a real powerhouse for generating big traffic in the highly competitive and lucrative banking sector online. You also had a good working relationship with Bankrate so they knew first hand what the traffic levels were and the type of conversion the traffic to Bankaholic.com was producing.
Do you believe your “blueprint” for generating big traffic to a website is repeatable in other competitive niches online? My focus for MO.com is to produce quality relevant content on a daily basis and to build and attract links to my site. So simple, yet . . . solid strategy? I know people reading this interview will be looking for that one big takeaway they can use to apply to their own online empire building. Here’s where you give us all that one cosmic silver bullet that knocks our traffic through the roof :-).
