ipranked.com has been part of the internet since 2007. After only one month of internet presence, the web site site was featured on national TV and received rave reviews for the content and interpretation (pranks).
National TV Exposure
After being featured on National TV in May of 2007, ipranked (with the help of FLV Hosting and a small investment from friends), the website was able to continue with peak performance and many continue to upload videos to our video sharing web site; however. Due the swift success of the web site, ipranked lacked a successful business model and the goal of the site was out of control and never really established. “We were overwhelmed with the immediate success of a video sharing web site and instead of concentrating on “just” video pranks we allowed ourselves to get caught up in the ‘next youtube” fascination and content became more than just pranks,” says Ron Tebo founder of ipranked.com. Ron continues to say, “The site was out of control and we lost our niche’ market. I’ll be the first to admit that we never established purpose of an action and the site spiralled in a different direction.”
Cost
The overwhelming cost to maintain a video sharing web site was to much and the expenses for ipranked began to be too much. “In the beginning (March 2007), FLV Hosting really came through and allowed us to move forward on their servers at minimal cost knowing the site was about to be featured on national TV. However, after the national exposure the cost became too much and we had to close down the site due to the enormous expenditure. After all, this was early 2007 and to host on multiple video sharing servers was expensive and our budget was depleted.”
Many Changes
Due to the lack of a business model and the quick success of the site (unbeknownst to us), we did not have time to implement a business model and negating this variable ultimately denied our long term success. “We were inexperienced and to be honest we had no idea of the magnitude of success”, says Ron Tebo founder of ipranked.com. “The site was recognized by a major talk show and the next thing we knew …we were in front of millions of people talking about the web site and the videos. We had to act fast and transfer all videos to multiple servers and our cost began to balloon.”
Now what?
We will continue to move forward with ipranked using the robust software Wordpress and we will allow users to submit pranks via the web site by completing the form. As it stand right now, the site will NOT be a video sharing web site; however, a site about your pranks and pranking ideas.