Question from member:
By the way, while we are on this topic I was wondering if this board originally had a business model before it started or was it just thrown together in a whim for purposes of allowing people to converse about aas in an open forum and exchange info and stuff. In other words, was this the direction of the board from day one or did the original founders have no idea how big AR would become and the potential/intentions to make a steady profit. Just curious to hear a little background on AR from a business perspective.
Anabolic Review.com was started by me in 2001 to drum up more business for my supplement company www.allsportsnutrition.com which I started in 1998 while attending college. I had a retail store that I opened before that with a little over $1,000 in supplements literaly. The space I rented was in the back of this broken down shack that used to be a drive through hamburger joint turned cell phone shop. I had 300 square feet at most and a sign (tiny metal sign) outside that would give my customers who used to shop with me out of the trunk my car an idea of where I was. Business started booming for me in this little space and a friend of mine got me turned on to buying domain names and websites. I created allsportsnutrition with huge dreams of becoming a big time supplement dealer. Little did I know, EVERYONE was thinking the same thing! As the internets supplement companies grew by the day, I finished my website and paid the over priced fee that the guys required to do this ****ty little site. Some how, I was ranked 1-5 on most of the search engines for very popular key words. Again... business was booming! Life was good.... Sold the retail store for 75k (remember, I only had 1k in it) and opened a bigger, more professional store. During the transition of the big move, I wanted to use some of the remaining money from the sale to better my website. Unfortunelty, I had no idea that by doing so would completley screw my web positioning. We LOST all rankingThe internet business was BAD, but the new store I opened was Booming! Great! What can I do to get the internet back up and running? I tried and learned my lessons with the high priced web position companies (they saw me coming a mile away), I re-did my website with big hopes (that failed) and then realized that the only way to keep a real base of customers was to NOT have to rely on web position. I thought about what it was that I could do to get a certain type of customer in my online store. Someone who is not a weekend warrior getting ready for the summer, someone who takes training seriously and doesnt let the seasons change his training habbits, and someone who will do whatever it takes to get a good selection of products at a good price.
Bottom line.... my thoughts turned to those who used AAS. Anyone who was serious enough to use AAS, would be (hopefully) serious enough about their training ALL year long. (which meant sales ALL YEAR LONG) I had "known" someone in highschool that used steroids along with some HORRIBLE advice and though about how it would be nice to offer a FREE site to those people who needed to learn the proper way to use steroids WITHOUT the charges that EVERYONE but a very small handful of sites charged. If you didnt know, before me, there were VERY VERY few sites who were free. Now free sites pop up everywhereanyway..........
I decided to put the two ideas together and offer a place for users to learn and chat as well as buy supplements at awesome prices from the website sponsor, www.allsportsnutrition. (back then the prices were higher and the supplement business was not whored out yet. It was a business that would actually pay the bills although that is not the case now in this industry) I took some money from the profits of the retail store and invested about 15k into a small website. For those of you who remember... it was very small and ****tyBUT it was FREE. A good group of guys found the website and created an awesome message board forum without allowing bitching, moaning, complaining, and flaming. Sales were slow, but the website became a huge addicting hobby that WAS NOT doing anything but causing more bills. Supplement sales trickled in VERY slowly and picked up very little speed as we moved on. I had purchased some 200 awesome steroid domain names and my prize name, steroid.com several years ago and fell in love with my favorite past time (working out) and growing my new website.
LOOONG story short, (I am tired of writing) The website now gets between 7-15,000 VISITS a day from over 100 Counties and continues to become the best source of AAS information in the world. The supplement business is great as far as customers and orders, but is not a profitable business anymore due to all of the websites (like myself) who sell product for **** near nothing. It makes me a nice living, but it is always rocky as far as growth. We now have our own line Solid Muscle, Inc. which is TOP quality and low priced to help our customers stay faithful to us. This is now doing increadible even though it has only been around for 5 months or so. Anabolic Review will alway be a hobby, but to answer any questions........
This website was started with a business idea, but never knew it would grow to this level. We grow every year and I suspect that in 5-10 years, this website will be unmatched with providing quality information to the world on our favorite gym hobby. We started with hopes of being a huge supplement dealer and still have those plans. Day by day we get closer and with the support of our members, we will be there sooner than anyone would think. IF not.... oh well. It was one hell of an expericence and unless someone comes along and offers a ton of money
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Originally Posted by aXe
ive been on the board for almost 2 years and it still rocks!!!
Great Job Brian
