With the growth and popularity of Web sites such as YouTube, Myspace, and Facebook it is becoming easier to start your own Web site, and for Michael Arakian, 20, and Sion Davoudi, 21, both finance majors here at Glendale, this has become a reality.
“We have always been thinking of a Web site to start, a funny video site like www.ebaumsworld.com, or something in that area is what we were originally aiming for,” said Arakian, but as they sat down and began to brainstorm their ideas it suddenly struck.
With experience in business 106, Written Business Communication, and business 120, Business Law, Arakian said, “it has helped me a lot with writing more effective and professional e-mails, and has helped with my knowledge of the legal aspects. We are also in the process of becoming an LLC (limited liability company), so it was good timing to take business law this semester.”
“I was watching sports on TV one night and it hit me: a sports video site like YouTube where you could upload your own videos and share them with the world. So I told Sion and he was up for it,” said Arakian.
As the two started to put their dream into action they realized it was a lot easier than they had predicted.
They agreed on the fact that they were going to make a sports-based version of YouTube and that they were going to call it sports-tube.com, a site through which users would be allowed to upload their own sports videos, comment on others, and watch them all.
Starting with the idea of the site last January, Arakian said, “three long months went into this process before being able to launch it on Mother’s Day.”
Now just a few weeks later their site is up and running “at about 98 percent (completion),” said Arakian.
In order for the two to start their own site there was a fee of $40 per month for the domain server and additional cost for the advertisement of the site, but with the growth of the site over the last few weeks Arakian predicts that their domain fee will rise to about $200 to $300 due to the increasing number of views per day and storage space.
As of now www.Sports-Tube.com is being advertised all over the Web on different sites such as Google, Myspace, Facebook and many other sports message board sites.
The two said they have already started making some money.
Revenues are beginning to come in from other sites that are using Sports-Tube as an advertisement opportunity. Through a series of Google-based advertisements random ads come up on Sports-Tube on the right hand side of the screen. These advertisers pay for ad placement, so Arakian and Davoudi collect the extra revenue.
With the site up and running for a month now, the number of videos has grown to about 1,300. These include popular UFC fights with Kimbo-Slice to videos of Kobe Bryant jumping over an Aston Martin.
Arakian also estimates that about five or six new videos are uploaded every day from users. The two started with about 700 that Arakian and Davoudi had to upload themselves before the release of the site.
Although the site is already live there is still much work involved. “I spend about four or five hours a day uploading videos. It’s been harder lately with finals coming up but I try and manage my time,” said Davoudi.
As of now, Arakian and Davoudi are wrapped up in the duties of running their own Web site, and with a site like this that is very easy to use and enjoyable for any sports fan it looks as if the two are in for a bright future.
“Anything’s possible. If you have the drive, desire, and are self-motivated you can do anything,” said Arakian. “The YouTube guys did it, we did it, you don’t have to be an Ivy League school graduate or be a computer geek to make something of your own.”