Wow, good for them is all I have to say

i know this site for years, nice job!

congrats to the founders!

It’s funny how so many comments at TechCrunch are claiming $20m is too low… I’d say that was a decent offer if true.

[...] ShoeMoney® - Skills To Pay The Bills - By Jeremy Schoemaker wrote an interesting post today on 40 Million is HOTHere’s a quick excerpt Hot Or Not has been purchased by Avid Life Media for a reported 20 million dollars. Big congratulations to founders Jim Young and James Hong. I originally met James at a TechCrunch party last fall. Very cool & down to earth guy. He was telling me about the explosive growth that hot or not was experiencing due to Facebook and other super high trafficked social media sites. Hot or Not has a great story. Basically 2 buddies built a site for fun where people could rate people based on their looks [...]

I’m wondering how they were making millions of profit each year?

it’s great to see that if you stick at something long enough, the web will pay out a small fortune!

That is amazing. It doesn’t seem long since they launched and I remember thinking it seemed like a smart idea. It has certainly paid off for them.

Personally I felt that if they were bringing in 5 million per year and of that, half were profits, 20 million was a little on the low side. They probably could have generated more by keeping the site unless they have something else in mind to invest the 20 million in.

Easy, simple concept…yet extremely successful!

It just goes to show you…put your simple ideas into action. They don’t have to be complicated to be popular and make money!

Wow, sounds like a hot site, lol. What an awesome thing to have bragging rights on. We’re definitely in a new generation, our kids and grandkids are going to be web fortune heirs!

I was actually reading about Jim and James yesterday in a book …. great concept and great result for these guys!

Congrats to them! It’s amazing what a little, simple idea can turn into.

40 million is surely hot. I am surprised to see that they credit facebook and social network sites that much. It was just a unique idea and innovation is good money

That’s insane! 5 million a year in revenue and then they get paid $20 million for the site, I know there are still a million ideas like that left, I just have to find one. That just frickin’ insane!

I think what you said in your past video applies. Do something that you love to do. This is what Hor or Not owners did

wow $20 million from a site is just great. James’s parents must be really happy now

this is a great story … I remember using hot or not in the past … My buddy met his wife on there!

[...] Actualización 2 Más sobre el tema, también en Shoemoney. [...]

Thats a pretty cool success story. Everyone has heard of it!

That’s about $20 Million more then the Paris Hilton movie with a similar title made!

congratulations they have made it!

wow.. how do you even go about asking your parents to weed out porn on your site? lol

Wow. That’s impressive.

Now I will do the same with http://www.FavoritePart.com

Incredible! I hope that I can get someone like you Shoe to write a post just like that about me. Do you know if they had an investor?

It’s amazing what these two buddies did. And to think it all started from something they thought was a fun and cool idea. It makes me wonder what next new idea is going to appear next and who will be responsible for it? It takes just a bit of creativity and a dash or innovative thinking to create something new and exciting. That bit about paying the parents was pretty amusing, too!

So, the parents lost their job?

Thats funny that his parents had to weed through the porn. This is my dream, develop a site, it gets hot and sell it off for millions. Awesome job they did in my opinion.

You’ve got to love the internet

It’s nice to see a very simple idea with strong execution get rewarded. There are a ton of small ideas that could make loads of dough, as long as their implemented properly. Ideas are obviously important. Execution is much more significant.

[...] Shoemoney la página fue empezada por 2 amigos. Enseguida metieron un proceso de revisión para quitar las [...]

Wow thats a good amount

thinkin for a good idea for which theme should be started

I blogged about it on my blog when a source rang me as the deal was going through, was a great business deal for them

I remember when Hot or Not started…it was huge in the office! The people who invented that site were like pioneers for the Social Networking sites and the boom that we are in…I think they sold for too low! Hopefully they still have some sort of profit sharing agreement or something!

Execution of your idea is the NUMBER 1 thing…it is so important not to just sit around himming and hawing…just do it!

Wow. I’m impressed by that. I was trying to figure out what kind of revenue that site brought in. Not bad–now they’re rich.

I remember being shown that site when I worked at Ask Jeeves in 2000… it’s been around FOREVER!

[...] like it or not, the top bloggers around the blogosphere do this. Just take a look at a few posts here, here, here, and here (yes, I’m not with all the “here(s)”). You may even build a [...]

i actually thought the site had more potential and could be worth up in the low xxx millions. Surprised it sold for so less, although the popularity has kinda died down since the site is a couple years old if they sold it in its prime i guarantee they could of got a lot more, and 40 million isn’t really a whole lot of money nowadays, im guessing it coudl buy 20-30 years of good living

They did well to get that for it as there are so many competitors out there, just shows you that there is great money to be had with sex sites

40 million is too hot.