Follow a millionaire entrepreneur as he makes his website wildly successful. | Hacker News Reader

Follow a millionaire entrepreneur as he makes his website wildly successful.

sinkfloat.com

11 pointspinksoda34 comments

You have zero credibility until you spill which sites you started.

Several sites that rank in Alexa's Top 50 and Top 500. I'm not sure if I want to reveal them at this point, for various reasons.

Wouldn't revealing your sources be beneficial in making this new project, SinkFloat, a success? I've seen several posts on HN move to the top because the person behind them was credible.

I'm pretty sure I don't believe you at this point, for obvious reasons. You come out making grandiose claims and then get cagey when somebody asks for even the most basic details? Would YOU believe you in our shoes?

I'm not getting "cagey" - I'm just not sure if I'm going to reveal my sites right now. Plenty of people know what I've created and you could probably figure some of them out yourself. Others you probably won't figure out.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503922675

That's my Facebook if anyone wants to add me.

You clearly have no concept of what it means to be a Top 50 or even Top 500 site.

yeah agreed

1, His latest "website" is using a gmail account for his old website talkburst@gmail.com....you'd think a millionaire entrepreneur would have his own email account

2. His old website only has a PR of 1 and doesn't even rank for it's own name on Google.

3. No other sites that he is connected with

TalkBurst isn't a success of mine. I own sites that rank in Alexa's top 50 and 500.

sure you do, that's why on your facebook page the only pages you link to are the 2 "failures"

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503922675

btw here is a list of the top 50 Alexa sites...and you aren't a founder of a single one of them:

google, facebook, youtube, yahoo, live.com, wikipedia, baidu, blogger, msn, qq, twitter, yahoo japan, google india, tao bao, google germany, google HK, sina, wordpress, myspace, google uk, microsfot, amazon, google france, bing, ebay, yandex, google japan, 163, google brazil, linkedin, flickr, mail.ru, fc2, craigslist, google italy, rapid share, vkontakte, google spain, livejasmin, conduit, soso, imdb, bbc, go, aol, double click, apple, sohu, blogspot youku

Damn, it's not in the top 50 anymore? That sucks. I haven't checked it in a while.

I didn't expect this thread to turn into a big investigation.

I suppose I can reveal a closed site of mine (one of my first success's) I was the sole founder of MovieForumz.com which reached a best rank of around 480ish (global) and had profits in the millions.

I'm a top ClickBank affiliate and part of the APEX program. If you are also part of APEX, you can can confirm my e-mail address in the leaked e-mail from them last year (they used CC instead of BCC).

MovieForumz.com sounds shady (and was http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://MovieForumz.com).

I wonder why you'd link to this. Everyone here tries to figure out if you're a hoax or not, linking to a (illegal) sharing site doesn't really help.

That's why it's closed.

When it was runnning, linking to copyright content(on sites like YouTube and DailyMotion) wasn't considered infringement. I made a strategic decision to shutdown after that changed (court precedents where set that could now be used against me)

LOL MovieForumz.com Alexa rank 9,684,222

I like how this "millionaire" uses some lame free wordpress theme. Then he goes and talks about how it took 2 days to create....

Yeah..

just a note, if you go to the top level of this directory on which the blog sits there's another site, which may of been the 2 days work. As a 23yr old still interested in where the millions came from...

Doesn't seem credible to me.

I did a little digging and this site and TalkBurst.com share the same owner. I'd hardly call TalkBurst a success from what I've dugg up. 4 twitter followers. Hasn't been around for more than a few months.

A WHOIS on TalkBurst and SinkFloat returns someone registered as TalkBurst based in China. Names don't match (domains are registered under TalkBurst), but the address matches:

Mr. Ma Lincong Secretary-General China Association for Standardization (CAS) P.O. Box 820 No. 2 Yue Tan Bei Xiao Jei Beijing, Beijing 100837 CHINA, PRC

Anyone have any info on this guy?

I'm interested in following his blog if he's telling the truth, but I'd like to see if anyone in the HN community can vouch for him.

I'm beginning to have some doubts:

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=pinksoda

Type Brian holt scammer on google and you will find even FBI stuff on Brian. He has been stealing a lot of design, code and peoples privacy for years, no one can find him to shut him down for good. People report this criminal, robber and misery guy ASAP.

Toti

"I’ve founded many websites that went on to be wildly successful. When I say wildly successful, I mean millions of dollars."

People who actually have been that successful tend not to be so bluntly, hideously arrogant about it.

Tip to the author: people don't like braggers. They do, however, like honest, useful advice. And they don't care if you're a millionaire.

You wouldn't listen to someone about being successful who had $1 in their pocket.

I would actually. I honestly would. I'd evaluate what they have to say according to my own sense of what seems sensible and reasonable, but I'd listen to them. I'd listen to anyone. Maybe that's just me. I treat everybody as someone I can learn from. If nothing else, they have experiences I can learn from.

More generally, people are very happy to listen to people who aren't successful, but are trying hard to be, and sharing the wisdom they accumulate along the way. Plenty of great bloggers share just such wisdom. Steve Pavlina is a good example. He started off blogging what he learned, sharing his experiences (including his own low point in prison, if I recall rightly). Then he became successful, partly because of some very popular articles, but also because by the time he wrote those articles he already had a library of other good stuff for people to read and enjoy. He didn't lie to begin with to get people to listen. People listened because he wrote really great articles. (They've gone a bit odd and spiritual the last few years, but that's a different story).

Here's the advice: people listen to people who are passionate, who are trying hard, and who are honest, more than people who are 'successful' but none of these other things. Think I'm wrong? Try it both ways and see how far you get.

No one's lying here. You're very pessimistic.

Distrustful, perhaps, because I've seen a bunch of other people try to pretend on HN to be something they're not, and because your site offers little evidence to support its claims.

If I see some proof that I am wrong, that you have indeed founded several million-dollar websites, then I will personally write you a public letter of apology and donate $100 to a charity of your choice.

Arrogant: Someone who is arrogant behaves in a proud, unpleasant way towards other people because they believe that they are more important than others.

I wouldn't say that quote demonstrates arrogance, because the tone is matter-of-fact, not condescending or superior. I think word you're looking for is, perhaps, gauche.

I never knew arrogant meant precisely that. Thanks.

Although what he wrote certainly is gauche, I think what I was going for was actually closer to ... goes through thesaurus ... 'vainglorious'. Or just 'boastful'.

> People who actually have been that successful tend not to be so bluntly, hideously arrogant about it.

...because they tend to be older, wiser, and more mature. People new into success can be kind of grating if you let it grate you, or you can just smile and be happy for them and understand they'll almost certainly grow to be a little more gracious and humble later. People only brag when they're still impressed with themselves about something and aren't taking it as a given. It can be grating if you let it, but it's probably better to just smile if someone is still really impressed with the money they made or winning a marksmanship competition or coding up their iPhone App or whatever.

> And they don't care if you're a millionaire.

Actually, people do care if you're a millionaire. Especially when you're giving business advice. Track record matters. A lot.

Whenever I see claims like this, I just have to wonder: Why haven't I heard of you before this? If this guy has really produced a string of "wildly successful" websites, shouldn't he be somewhere on my radar, or at least have some Google results talking about him? Shouldn't he be at least as prominent as, say, Leah Culver?

There's plenty of folks who makes sites that just bring in money without publicity. Making money and publicity don't always go hand in hand.

Yes, but popularity and publicity do go together. He's not claiming to have made money out of private deals — he's claiming to have created several "wildly successful" sites.

A site with a list of other websites isn't going to be worth a million dollars. It won't be worth a thousand dollars.

Google lists other sites but they have a little more kick behind it.

If you read the blog, it was released early with only a small portion of the overall idea. I already know exactly how I'm going to make it profitable.

Somebody stop Brian Holt. This guy is a criminal. Has stolen movieforunz and other sites by spamming. He claims to be a professional but its a kid with nothing more then a set of typing skills, and very snake like attitude. Be carefull. Type Brian holt scammer on google and you will find even FBI stuff on Brian. He has been stealing a lot of design, code and peoples privacy for years, no one can find him to shut him down for good. People report this criminal, robber and misery guy ASAP.

Toti

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