The year was 2003 and I was in my second year of CS undergrad. I saw a cool utility in AOL instant messenger that recorded the username of every user that looked at your profile. I cloned it and added it to my profile. A few of my dorm mates liked it and asked me to put it in their profile. Even more people came asking and I made a simple website (buddytracker.us) where you could add the utility to your profile. I did no marketing but every profile using buddytracker had a hotmail like link to get your own profile tracker. The first month I had 30 users, the second 500, the third 5000, then 50000. The following year 3 million people had added a profile tracker. It was a life changing experience allowing me to pay off my student loans, travel and take a non-traditional career path. I work on side projects to this day and AOL is where I got my start.
At the time there were websites where you answered surveys for a chance to win an iPod. Questions like Burger King or McDonalds? Etc. They paid $0.50 for each user that started a survey and $2.00 for each completed survey.
Oh jeez. Installing PS1 mod chips for friends and coworkers is what leveled-up my soldering skill.
I never accepted money for it, initially did one just for the challenge. Then when word got around work, I had a bunch of well-placed people who owed me favors. Good times, good times.
