How did Sherdog Get Started??

geissler56

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Pretty much the title says it all, no where in the FAQ does it say what year it was started and how it got to be so big now. Of course i have only been coming to Sherdog since 2005 and joined it a while later, and i have seen a lot of threads on the same thing, over and over. However i have never heard the story how it was started and how it got so big...anyone else interested???
 
it started with Jeff Sherdog and man has it evolved even since i've been checking the boards in 04

thats about all i could tell you
 
oh yea and if any mods or admins do check this thread...i liked having 20 posts per page better than 10- go back to the old way!
 
I believe sherdog actually started the internet,...


I think it was started in late 01, but i'm not sure the history of the site.


20 PPP, man if i could i'd have like 50 or something, have you checked in your user CP, i think 20 should still be allowed but the forum defaults were lowered.
 
oh yea and if any mods or admins do check this thread...i liked having 20 posts per page better than 10- go back to the old way!

You can change that in your user Cp. Edit options, thread display options.

EDIT: BTW, I posted this well before 12:09. My stuff is lagging out hardcore. It still says I'm viewing create a thread in customer service when I view my profile.
 
just from my feeble memory of an interview I read a while back....... The site was started by Jeff Sherwood in 1997. I believe at the time he worked at a jet plane factory (this is by memory so I could be wrong) and as the site took off he left his job to devote full time to the site. Garret Poe (Garret the admin) became part owner in 2000. In 2007 the site "partnered" with Crave Online (truth is they sold it to them) and Jeff and Garret stayed on to run the site. Or I could be totally wrong and if that is the case, my apologies.
 
Good thread, Great insight to how it all started.
 
just from my feeble memory of an interview I read a while back....... The site was started by Jeff Sherwood in 1997. I believe at the time he worked at a jet plane factory (this is by memory so I could be wrong) and as the site took off he left his job to devote full time to the site. Garret Poe (Garret the admin) became part owner in 2000. In 2007 the site "partnered" with Crave Online (truth is they sold it to them) and Jeff and Garret stayed on to run the site. Or I could be totally wrong and if that is the case, my apologies.

Correct answer when Jeff started the site it was a small hosted site now the site is currently ranked not that Alexa is a great ranking tool but is ranked at 1,701. Making this a very highly viewed site. I seem to remember at one time someone stated not sure but something like 6 million unique visitors each month.

I seem also to remember just to get an idea of how much at one time it cost to run the site it may have been Garrett who told people this they where running something like three dedicated servers an was costing something like 1,500 a month to run at that time. They where not making a lot of money running the site if at all only in the last few years did the site really take off.

I think I was told about the servers in 05 had a similar question and Garrett went and answered the question. Sometimes Garrett will come by and answer these question it may be possible he will come by and answer some of the question that are not related to the money they make on the site.

Alexa Web Search - Results for www.sherdog.com

If you want to have some fun you can watch the history of the site unfold.

Details
sherdog.com - Site Information from Alexa

Wayback machine.

Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The history of this site stops at 2000 but as was posted there was a site before that time in 97. It was possible that the site was down for a short time that is why the Wayback machine only started tracking it in 2000.
 
Very nice post ^^^. A lot of good information.
 
Pretty much the title says it all, no where in the FAQ does it say what year it was started and how it got to be so big now. Of course i have only been coming to Sherdog since 2005 and joined it a while later, and i have seen a lot of threads on the same thing, over and over. However i have never heard the story how it was started and how it got so big...anyone else interested???

I will tell you some of the things that make this site fly are the fighter stats early on they saw a need to keep stats on fight results. That turned out to be a huge idea. Right now I think they have over 25,000 professional fighters listed on the database way beyond anyone else I would think. I am pretty sure that tool is the most visited on the site. The other was advertising they do run ads. I have seen the google ads for Sherdog a few years ago not so much now but a good way to get the news out about the site. The other thing is people who go to the site they get good word of mouth.

A lot of new people are likely signed that way but the biggest is the fact that the mods play a big part in the sites success. Almost anytime of the day the mods are on the site keeping the site well managed. One of the biggest things is the fact there always seem to be tons of people on the site. You could reply to a thread and get 10 answers in less then 20 mins and that part is also big because there is always tons of people posting on this site like crazy people it's not odd to see many people with 4,000 or more posts rabid fans and OT posters LOL.

So I would say keys of success to get Sherdog like effect.

1) When building a site find a nitch like what Sherdog did fighter stats. If your site is about cars keep stats about street races or car races. It does not even have to do with car racing stats it could be about part prices or race car driver names anything that people would be interested in.

2) Active site make sure you get some friends or brothers or sisters posting on the site people like going to a site that is doing something at first.

3) Mods getting others to be a part of it select a few people who you can trust to understand the admin console in vBulletin in Sherdogs case or PHPBB or whatever forum you select. If your site is busy you need a number of people to keep the site from getting out of hand. I would not be the least bit surprised if they banned over 50,000 people or more from this site.

4) Advertise it is not a bad word getting people to go to your site helps build it. Sherdog I have seen their sites logo in cages and rings as well as google ads. Starting with google adwords or Yahoo text ads can help promote the site. It cost money but it is likely the best way now because of web clutter to get people aware of your site. Word of mouth helps get friends or classmates on your site posting. Trust me this is the hard part getting others to be part of it.

5) Last but not least keeping the site running whatever you do the site on the site has to stay running as much as possible. This site rarely do you see it down for more then a few hours. This site has the mods around to keep the admins like Garrett aware of the sites status.

Other things that where important but not as much was fighter posting. Tons of popular fighters used to post a lot on this site. People like Bas Rutten, Rampage Jackson and many more there is a few threads out there with a list of fighters that posted on Sherdog. This is not as important as it once was but it help get people signed on the site.
 
Tell me, would owning a site of sherdog's stature be something to make a decent living off of at this point? If so, is it the type of thing to become wealthy off of? What about the mods, do they get any compensation for their time spent?
 
Tell me, would owning a site of sherdog's stature be something to make a decent living off of at this point? If so, is it the type of thing to become wealthy off of? What about the mods, do they get any compensation for their time spent?

I have a feeling many of these questions will go unanswered because the money thing is very touchy with the Sherdog heads. I have a feeling there is now good money in the site with it's connections to ESPN and Crave it is likely a good profitable business.

When you realize under their management they have been very careful to remove questionable content. They have a well run operation.Case in point they manage ESPN's MMA operation in that they likely get paid at a level that a reporter for ESPN would be paid if not better.

A Sports reporter for ESPN makes well above the national average by a lot. I would not be the least bit surprised if that business alone is not worth 250,000 or more a year. The site itself is likely another 1/4 of million a year.

I figure that business expenses for this site with reporter pay and expenses it is likely still a high 5 figure to 6 figure payday for Jeff and Garrett. But the real value is likely when they have been rumored to sell the site that likely brought in a lot of money I figure 2 to 3 million dollars if not more.

As I stated earlier their fighter database has the most value in the site that part alone brings a lot of value to their business. I do known that they do pay reporters because someone who post here said they pay him 50 bucks to cover local MMA shows in his area. This may have jumped to a 100 per event because this was a while ago.

About Mods who knowns that will likely go unanswered because there may be some mods who earn a small pay where others do not.
 
About Mods who knowns that will likely go unanswered because there may be some mods who earn a small pay where others do not.

Some mod for the money, personally i do it for the chicks :icon_chee
 
oh yea and if any mods or admins do check this thread...i liked having 20 posts per page better than 10- go back to the old way!
you can change the settings under user cp , that's what I did
 
Tell me, would owning a site of sherdog's stature be something to make a decent living off of at this point? If so, is it the type of thing to become wealthy off of? What about the mods, do they get any compensation for their time spent?

Timing is everything.


Mods are just users who agree to volunteer so the site will remain as good as it was when we came .... or better. We're successful in varying degrees based on each of our capabilities, tolerance and effort. The admins try to select trustworthy mods by observing our contributions over time and failing that, sanity and maturity.


That method is obviously not fail proof.
 
If you want to have some fun you can watch the history of the site unfold.

Wayback machine.

Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The history of this site stops at 2000 but as was posted there was a site before that time in 97. It was possible that the site was down for a short time that is why the Wayback machine only started tracking it in 2000.

LOL @ the original Sherdog site :icon_chee

This site (and the internet in general) has come a looooooong way since then.
 
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