Anand making $1,000,000 - anyone jealous?

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<< Staff (Assuming 5 staff) - $50,000*5 = $250,000 >>


$50000 a year?? Damn, that's a lot of money for writing reviews and playing around with computer stuff. And I thought my $10/hour job, $21000 a year job was good....

 

[burnedout]

I remember when Anandtech started. Way back when, on a 28.8 modem at home or the T-1 at work, I would visit Tom's or Anandtech for the latest on selected hardware info.

No need for jealousy. One receives what one puts forth.

 

[AndrewR]

Otis8 is right, GoldenBear. Anand has a terrific site, but part of the reason he is where he is today is because of WHEN he started. The reason for his success is NOT &quot;time online&quot; but excellence and consistency over the years which has bolstered his reputation in the online community and beyond. Anand does run a great site, but so do other people on the net. He started at the right time with the right product -- it's called &quot;first to market&quot;. Anand benefits now from what amounts to brand recognition (or name recognition).

If two cars were essentially the same, but one was a Ford and the other a Mercedes, which one would you choose (assuming warranties and all that are identical)?

Wish I were making $1,000,000 -- or even $350,000. Anand deserves some reward from all of his hard work though.

 

[StageLeft]

My God some of you people are WAY overly defensive! Anand works like a dog - but lets put it this way.

If he changed his name and started a website elsewhere and didn't make any mention of anandtech anywhere (or contacts or anything) but wanted to start from scratch do you think the amount of work he puts in now would ultimately lead to a $1 million website in such a short amount of time? Of course it wouldn't.

Anandtech's success is a combination of Anand's talent/hardwork and being in the right place at the right time. Anybody starting fresh with anand's determintation and brains and ambition would fine it very hard or impossible to do what he has done in such a period of time. As AndrewR said its &quot;first to market&quot;, he decided to make a hardware site (wasn't the first) and, unlike doing the same today, his hardwork had massive payouts compared to an equal effort put today which would make any individual hardpressed to make such money.

 

[ManSnake]

Nay, I am not jealout, I am happy for him, at age 18 he can be a millionaire, good for him!

I wish I was that good when I was 18!

 

[starlitt]

ACK! I haven't even made that much in my life time.

 

[GoldenBear]

<< but wanted to start from scratch do you think the amount of work he puts in now would ultimately lead to a $1 million website in such a short amount of time? >>

It wouldn't take a short amount of time. It wouldn't be any shorter than what it is now.

<< Anandtech's success is a combination of Anand's talent/hardwork and being in the right place at the right time. >>

It is about 95% the first one, and about 5% the second one.

Speaking from someone who has done this type of stuff for over a year now...If anything, it is easier to get a lot of visitors to your site today, and quicker. When Anand started he couldn't get much advertising on other sites, he had to rely on word of mouth on what a great site he had. Nowadays I could write a review on a new product, send it to about hundred sites, have them post it on their news page, and I'll get thousands of people. When I first launched my website I did the same thing as the above, and immediately got about 3200 visitors. By the end of that week I had an eleven page article up and got 20,000 page views (if you're curious it's this one http://www.gamingdreams.com/articles/evol/).

Time slowly caught up to me and I realized I couldn't write as much as I was that first week, and soon I had no chocie but to quit. The first week, like any other new job you get is fun, but as time went on it gets too repititive and the desire you once had is lost. If someone had the skills of Anand and launched a 30-page detailed, informative article today, I GUARENTEE they'll get a lot of people if they know what they're doing. AND, if they are somehow able to do that for just 5-6 months, they'll get a whole lot of visitors. Anand isn't competing against them, in fact, he's competing with them. Had it not been for Anand and his news page (which my article was posted on and which accounted for 70% of the hits I got), I wouldn't have gotten any people.

So please, don't tell me Anand had it any easier years ago when the internet userbase and computer junkie userbase was much lower. If you have the skills and desire, right now is the best time to start a website if you want quick results.

 

[Otis8]

Well, I will say that getting repeat visitors is easier when you have the only hardware web site out there. That compared to today's situation with 1000 small-beans hardware sites all repeating the same news and reviewing the same junk. Getting hardware to review alone is difficult enough for most hardware sites that it becomes financially impossible to compete content-wise with juggernauts like Anandtech. And as ad impression payments sink lower and lower, you need thousands of hits a day to make anything worth mentioning.

If you are able to write good stories, and get posted on the Juggernaut news pages, you can indeed do the job. I suppose that is the key to being noticed by the hardware population, isn't it? Or perhaps someone will come along and actually do something different with a hardware site for once..

 

[GoldenBear]

<< Well, I will say that getting repeat visitors is easier when you have the only hardware web site out there. >>

I say it's easier when you have more people who are interested in the type of things you do. I mean, if 90% of the people who looked for a computer enthusiast website went to Anand back then, number-wise that'd be rougly equal to less than 1% today. Hell I never heard of Anand back in 97, and I'm sure there's a whole lot of people who never knew him back then that visit these forums and his site everyday.

Anand is one of a kind, if he wasn't, you'd see dozens of other sites out there with the content that Anand provides. You'd also have seen lots of sites jump on the same bandwagon he did. But that's not the case. And don't talk about age or anything, as Anand was about 14 when he started all this..

 

[Josh]

I don't think he pays his staff $50,000 a year, that's highly doubtful. I'd go for the range of 15K-25K, whatever it may be, Anand doesn't get $1,000,000 in salary every year. My estimate would be around $250,000 - $350,000

 

[GoldenBear]

If you guys are REALLY interested in what he makes...

http://www.anandtech.com/shownews.html?i=6785&amp;t=w

The link to the article doesn't work anymore, but I remember it said he made $250,000 in it.

 

[Russ]

If Anand were to start today from scratch, and put the same level of dedication, drive, planning and care in to the venture, you jealous little snarfs would be having exactly the same discussion four years from now.

Russ, NCNE

 

[GoldenBear]

Exactamundo.

 

[Josh]

Russ has the got the right idea

 

[Mday]

more like envious, but whatever....

 

[GoldenBear]

<< My point was that everybody has opportunities, the difference between the successful and the others are what the person does with his opportunities. We've all &quot;Stumbled&quot; upon these opportunities and most of us have &quot;Stumbled&quot; away from them. >>

I think what you don't get is that Anand didn't GET the opportunity, he MADE the opportunity. No one went up to him and asked, hey do you wan to start a hardware site? He did it all on his own. By your logic, YOU currently have thousands of opportunities right there for you, you're just not picking it up..

 

[jaydee]

I'm not jealous because of the money he makes. I'm jealous because he loves what he does for a living (the amount is just a bonus). If I was envious of anything else of him, it would be his hardware, and trips to IDF, and Comdex.

 

[hans007]

there is a ton of luck involved. Dont be so naive for you guys who dont think there is luck involved. SUre he worked hard, but all of you guys who think he is god, he didnt MAKE this oppurtunity, he TOOK the oppurtunity. If he did it now he wouldn't be nearly this popular considering there are a billion hardware sites now. Right time, and right place, plus working hard is success. You cant just work hard at something it will not produce success. Micheal dell is a good example too.

 

[GoldenBear]

Have you read ANYTHING I wrote? I suggest you go back and do so..

 

[Zorba]

GoldenBear: There is an amount of Luck and &quot;Right place at the right time&quot; in every business. I've started two businesses, worked hard on both, first one failed because of bad luck (just starting on the other one).

The luck came from the fact that people actually wanted to read his K6 article. If no one wanted to read it, it wouldn't have mattered how hard he worked. Right place at the right time came in when he wrote an review at the right time about the right thing to get hits. Do you think that he would've gotten half as many hits in the first week if his review was over a new mobo or modem?

In the business world there are a thousand variables that must all fall together. Hard work is a big one, but not the only one.

BTW: I am not jealous of Anand at all. I think he deserves everything he has.

 

[GoldenBear]

Yeah, there was timing in it for Anand that lead to it..BAD TIMING.

Psst, read what I wrote for more info.

 

[Russ]

<< there is a ton of luck involved. Dont be so naive for you guys who dont think there is luck involved. >>



hans007,

Outside of the accident of birth in to a rich family, or winning the lotto, we earn our own &quot;luck&quot;. Sorry if you haven't figured out how to do so.



<< worked hard on both, first one failed because of bad luck >>



Zorba,

Yeah, it's always bad luck when the business fails. In the eleven years I've been on my own I've seen dozens come and go, and they invariably blame it on &quot;bad luck&quot;. Unless some natural catastophe caused the demise, you'd better be looking elsewhere for blame than &quot;luck&quot;. Being honest with yourself will go a long way toward making your next venture successful.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Duckers]

I do agree with Russ that if it weren't this site it would be another venture that he'd be successful with.

Too bad none of us can prove that.

 

[Zorba]

Russ: I can give you a thousands reasons why that business failed. Some reasons were bad timing, bad partner, and just plain bad luck.

But, Russ, you know you'd be lieing if you sat there and said that some luck had nothing to do with successful busines (at least in the beginning). I do, however, agree with you that we create our own luck and opportunities. I personally believe that some people don't put enough on luck, and other put way too much on luck. Like I said before there are a thousand variables that go into a successful busines, and I do believe luck is one of them (even if it is a small part).

I also agree with all of you all that are saying Anand could be successful if he started now, instead of four years ago, but the road to get there would be much different.

 

[veryape]

Goldenbear,all I can think of to say is that you are truly ignorant to the facts.