PERSON: Jason Fyk
Employer
WTF Magazine
Position
Owner
Biography
Jason Fyk, founder of WTF Magazine and FunnierPics.net, owns a business that generates about $275,000 a month.
Three years ago, Fyk was bankrupt, in jail, and borderline suicidal. He used Facebook to turn his life around.
Fyk’s financial troubles dated to 2005. Fyk had been working in real estate. As the months went by, the market turned. Eventually, it caused him to go into a “financial tailspin,” as he puts it. With a wife and a young child to support, he scrambled to find a new way to generate income.
Some friends approached him about starting a website, and he snatched up the domain WTFMagazine.com. The acronym, they decided, would stand not for What The F—- but Where’s The Fun, and the site would be a home for original, entertaining content. Fyk likens his business to College Humor. Shortly after WTF launched, Fyk found himself behind bars. He’d driven to Baltimore to interview an American stunt group, the Adrenaline Crew, for a story. They were all hanging out in a parking lot, about to drive to the interview location, when a drunken brawl broke out. Startled, Fyk said, he stood off to the side and began filming the fight on his smartphone. When things got serious, he stopped recording and tried to break up the fight. Instead, he got blamed for allegedly planning the altercation and found himself charged with attempted murder. Still, Fyk was thrown in jail and had to spend the little money his family had left on a lawyer. Two months later, the charges were dropped and Fyk was released from prison, broke. Fyk tried to think of ways to make a lot of money quickly. His jail story was so strange, he felt it might make for a compelling book. But he wasn’t an established writer, and he knew the only way to sell a book would be to build a following. Fyk now owns about 40 Facebook pages and controls more than 28 million “likes” in total. The pages reach 260 million people on Facebook and the “distribution” list sends his website tens of millions of pageviews a month. This earns him multiple millions a year in advertising revenue, which he pairs with other businesses, such as social-media consulting. He employs 16 people and has a ghostwriter working on a memoir.
Fyk, 40, is now a self-made millionaire who’s built his fortune almost entirely on Facebook. It’s a rewarding business, but not without its challenges. He’s found he must play a constant game of cat and mouse with teenage hackers and digital thieves on the social network. Additionally, he must run his business on a field of battle that is constantly shifting because of Facebook’s habit of routinely — and mysteriously — tweaking its algorithm.
— businessinsider.com
Three years ago, Fyk was bankrupt, in jail, and borderline suicidal. He used Facebook to turn his life around.
Fyk’s financial troubles dated to 2005. Fyk had been working in real estate. As the months went by, the market turned. Eventually, it caused him to go into a “financial tailspin,” as he puts it. With a wife and a young child to support, he scrambled to find a new way to generate income.
Some friends approached him about starting a website, and he snatched up the domain WTFMagazine.com. The acronym, they decided, would stand not for What The F—- but Where’s The Fun, and the site would be a home for original, entertaining content. Fyk likens his business to College Humor. Shortly after WTF launched, Fyk found himself behind bars. He’d driven to Baltimore to interview an American stunt group, the Adrenaline Crew, for a story. They were all hanging out in a parking lot, about to drive to the interview location, when a drunken brawl broke out. Startled, Fyk said, he stood off to the side and began filming the fight on his smartphone. When things got serious, he stopped recording and tried to break up the fight. Instead, he got blamed for allegedly planning the altercation and found himself charged with attempted murder. Still, Fyk was thrown in jail and had to spend the little money his family had left on a lawyer. Two months later, the charges were dropped and Fyk was released from prison, broke. Fyk tried to think of ways to make a lot of money quickly. His jail story was so strange, he felt it might make for a compelling book. But he wasn’t an established writer, and he knew the only way to sell a book would be to build a following. Fyk now owns about 40 Facebook pages and controls more than 28 million “likes” in total. The pages reach 260 million people on Facebook and the “distribution” list sends his website tens of millions of pageviews a month. This earns him multiple millions a year in advertising revenue, which he pairs with other businesses, such as social-media consulting. He employs 16 people and has a ghostwriter working on a memoir.
Fyk, 40, is now a self-made millionaire who’s built his fortune almost entirely on Facebook. It’s a rewarding business, but not without its challenges. He’s found he must play a constant game of cat and mouse with teenage hackers and digital thieves on the social network. Additionally, he must run his business on a field of battle that is constantly shifting because of Facebook’s habit of routinely — and mysteriously — tweaking its algorithm.
— businessinsider.com
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