The “Evolution” of the iFroggy Network
So, J.R. asked me if I had a list of when I launched each site in my network.
As I’ve noted, the first domain I bought was ifroggy.com. That was on 1/1/00. Right after Y2K hit and all the computers stopped working.
Somewhere after that (early 2000ish), I launched iFroggy.com. It was a “web portal” that I tried to do as many things as I could on. Most of it wasn’t done particularly well because it just can’t be done by one man. I loved Yahoo!, so I tried to make my own Yahoo! Not really a good idea. At any rate, I also had a few smaller sites. PSM Web Design (later called PSM Web Development and now, iFroggy Design), DN Solutions (selling domain names - later “merged” with PSM Web Design) and Patrick’s Stock Market Services (paid subscription or direct order stock market publications - I had a few subscribers). It wasn’t the iFroggy Network, though. Just individual sites.
I launched other sites later. This is more or less when the network concept began. I am not sure where I got the idea from. But, I launched eStockPickers.com, which featured a weekly stock pick that I made. I also launched vGeeks.com which was a general tech site. Tech news and reviews, etc. SportsForums.net, as well. I’m not sure if the sites mentioned in the last paragraph (besides iFroggy Design) were a part of the quote, unquote iFroggy Network, but if any of them were, it was not for very long because DN Solutions, PSMS and the old iFroggy.com site would have closed soon after, if they were open at all. Once the iFroggy Network was started, ifroggy.com became the network homepage, no longer a “web portal”.
As you can see, eStockPickers.com and vGeeks.com are no more. I decided to stop them for various reasons. Two other sites that opened and closed (later when I had other sites, as well) were StockTeens.com (investing community for teenagers) and eSportsSection (sports commentary). I still own those domains, however, except for StockTeens.com with eventual plans to have sites at them.
At any rate, the early beginnings (at various stages and not neccessarily alltogether) of the network were iFroggy Mail (which was the one holdover from the old iFroggy.com site - later closed because it was too much of a hastle), SportsForums.net, eSportsSection, eStockPickers.com, vGeeks.com and QuickZip. Besides the sites mentioned above, I have not closed any other sites. It’s not something I do or like to do, but the early stages were tough(er). Learning, realizing what worked and what I didn’t have the time and desire to do.
Over time, I launched sites as I had ideas and liked concepts and it has worked pretty well. We are now 16 sites strong and are as successful as we have ever been, but continuing to grow. For me, it isn’t just about money, it is about quality sites and creating quality. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
As far as actual launch dates, let’s give it a try. All of the current sites:
iFroggy Network: Late 2000 or early 2001.
iFroggy Design: Fall 1998.
iFroggy Hosting: Probably Spring or Summer 2003.
iFroggy Domains: Seems like it would be Summer or Fall 2003.
SportsForums.net: I wish I knew the specific date. It was before February 11, 2001. See, what most people don’t know, is that SportsForums.net actually had an incarnation before what you see now - before the posts on the database we have now, which launched on March 23, 2001. We used HomepageTools’ (they still have the same design as they did back then) free UltraBoard service and when we left it, we lost the posts and users on it (there weren’t that many). I just e-mailed them to see if my account is still there, but I highly doubt that it is. At any rate, I think it launched in late 2000, but it could have been early 2001.
KarateForums.com: May 21, 2001.
MAWarehouse.com: December 15, 2004.
MarianoRivera.com: April 4, 2004 (04/04/04).
phpBBHacks.com: It was in the first week of April 2001. April 6, 2001 is the day that we celebrate on because I am fairly sure that was the day. We launched the second version of the site (the version you see now) on February 2, 2002 (02/02/02).
PhotoshopForums.com: March 3, 2003 (03/03/03).
WebDevReviews.com: January 1, 2004.
DeveloperCube: Originally February 24, 2003. But, it wasn’t with me. I acquired this site and relaunched it as part of the iFroggy Network on January 28, 2004.
QuickZip: No idea. I am not primarily responsible for this site (the only one in my network this can be said for) - the developer of the software (Joseph Leung) is. I can’t even guess when it launched, really. Sometime in 1999, possibly. I invited him to join the iFroggy Network in December of 2000. So, December 2000 or January 2001 seems like when he would have officially joined it.
BuyBlenders.com: November 20, 2004.
BuyCheeses.com: December 21, 2004.
Canon Camera Shop: March 4, 2005 (03/04/05).
So, in an approximate time line (earliest to latest), it’d be:
Fall 1998: iFroggy Design.
Late 2000/Early 2001: SportsForums.net.
Late 2000/Early 2001: iFroggy Network.
December 2000/January 2001: QuickZip.
April 6, 2001: phpBBHacks.com.
May 21, 2001: KarateForums.com.
March 3, 2003: PhotoshopForums.com.
Spring/Summer 2003: iFroggy Hosting.
Summer/Fall 2003: iFroggy Domains.
January 1, 2004: WebDevReviews.com.
January 28, 2004: DeveloperCube.
April 4, 2004: MarianoRivera.com.
November 20, 2004: BuyBlenders.com.
December 15, 2004: MAWarehouse.com.
December 21, 2004: BuyCheeses.com.
March 4, 2005: Canon Camera Shop.
It is kind of interesting that none of the sites I have now were launched/added to the network in 2002.
So, there you have it. A trip down memory lane. Fun.
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March 13th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Thanks Patrick.
Great, that is exactly what I was looking for. Very interesting.
Any reason for selecting "iFroggy" as your network’s name?
March 13th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Thanks.
I liked it. At the time, I didn’t have the "network" idea in mind… I was just looking for a good name for my "web portal". I spent some time on it… collected a list of names (most of which were garbage - I still have the list around somewhere) and I picked iFroggy out of the pile because I liked it. Turned out to be a pretty good choice.
March 13th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
Good story.
March 15th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
Wow that’s a lot of websites. I don’t think I could maintain that many with my current job (but I don’t think that’s a problem for you since your sites are your only "job" ;)).