turkeyclub421
Newbie
- Apr 21, 2019
- 9
- 9
Hi!
My name is turkeyclub421.
I used to frequently lurk this forum in 2004-2008. I can't seem to figure out what my username was so I'll start fresh.
In 2005, I created the first "all-in-one" MySpace bot. For about a year it would earn $500+/day in software licenses sales via PayPal. I created the initial version in Visual Basic .NET to promote my band. All it did was scrape friends from a page and then add the friends. It was crude. I started selling it on eBay as a digital download for a few bucks and realized the potential very quickly. I hired a programmer from a freelance programming website and ultimately spent tens of thousands of dollars over time building and updating the software. Within a few months of operating, other internet marketers (usually 1 or 2 person teams/companies like myself and my programmer) started developing and selling their own MySpace bot software suites. Maybe one of you are reading this now! This created a small but highly competitive market among these small online software companies. All racing provide the best and fastest bot with the most features. Common features would be extracting friend IDs from specific pages or friend lists, automating friend requests, automating comment/message/bulletin posts, etc.
MySpace began adding graphical letter/number character CAPTCHA codes to their Friend Request function after every 3-5 friend requests each day. I was determined to find a way to bypass these CAPTCHA codes. MySpace wasn't an incredibly secure or well built platform by any means. I had a collection of about 25 dummy accounts that I would tinker with and I quickly discovered that if you triggered a CAPTCHA code then you could clear it by sending a message. For whatever reason, after the message was sent, it would forget about the CAPTCHA code that it was demanding of you after your previous 3-5 friend requests. You could then resume the automated process of sending friend requests. I designed the software to send a message to the same account (yes, MySpace let you send messages to yourself) and then delete it from your inbox before the user ever knew it was sent. Thus clearing the CAPTCHA. So it worked like this: send 3-5 friend requests, send a message to self, delete message, repeat as many times as needed. This bypass method alone kept the software selling successfully for several more months.
Ultimately I sold the company on a similar forum (I wont name it) for about $25k. In hindsight, this was low as it was making approximately $10,000/mo. I was a senior in high school and wanted to enjoy the time I had left, I guess. I felt that I had a good run and I was a bit nervous that perhaps what I was doing wasn't entirely legal. If you boiled it down after all, it was a spam bot. But hey this was 2006. This was the wild west of the web! I had other ideas for similar software for other social networks as well but I wont go into them now.
Unfortunately, MySpace sent the new owners (they also hit a few other competitors too) a cease and desist within a month or so of buying the company. Unbelievable, I know.
I had a few other small projects after this but never was able to reproduce this type of success with IM.
I eventually found a steady job as a professional web developer for a small firm Ive been working with for, jeez, almost 10 years now. I work from home and the pay is decent. I shouldn't complain. But I will...
It's hard work. I'm constantly stressed out and trying to feverishly make deadlines. I wear many hats including front end developer, support rep, project manager, marketing/seo consultant, user interface designer, etc. I don't feel like the company is configured properly and I can't get them to change. It's a long story and I've already told a story so I won't go into it. My point is, I want to find financial freedom back where I started looking for it 10+ years ago. I'm leaning towards affiliate marketing as I did have a few small affiliate sites back in the day that showed some potential. Is it still possible to find niches and make steady streams of passive income with generating content for affiliate sites? I'd love it if anyone steered me in the right direction. I'm not a complete newb but it's been a while since I've got into IM.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about my story or myself today.
Thanks for reading!
-TC
My name is turkeyclub421.
I used to frequently lurk this forum in 2004-2008. I can't seem to figure out what my username was so I'll start fresh.
In 2005, I created the first "all-in-one" MySpace bot. For about a year it would earn $500+/day in software licenses sales via PayPal. I created the initial version in Visual Basic .NET to promote my band. All it did was scrape friends from a page and then add the friends. It was crude. I started selling it on eBay as a digital download for a few bucks and realized the potential very quickly. I hired a programmer from a freelance programming website and ultimately spent tens of thousands of dollars over time building and updating the software. Within a few months of operating, other internet marketers (usually 1 or 2 person teams/companies like myself and my programmer) started developing and selling their own MySpace bot software suites. Maybe one of you are reading this now! This created a small but highly competitive market among these small online software companies. All racing provide the best and fastest bot with the most features. Common features would be extracting friend IDs from specific pages or friend lists, automating friend requests, automating comment/message/bulletin posts, etc.
MySpace began adding graphical letter/number character CAPTCHA codes to their Friend Request function after every 3-5 friend requests each day. I was determined to find a way to bypass these CAPTCHA codes. MySpace wasn't an incredibly secure or well built platform by any means. I had a collection of about 25 dummy accounts that I would tinker with and I quickly discovered that if you triggered a CAPTCHA code then you could clear it by sending a message. For whatever reason, after the message was sent, it would forget about the CAPTCHA code that it was demanding of you after your previous 3-5 friend requests. You could then resume the automated process of sending friend requests. I designed the software to send a message to the same account (yes, MySpace let you send messages to yourself) and then delete it from your inbox before the user ever knew it was sent. Thus clearing the CAPTCHA. So it worked like this: send 3-5 friend requests, send a message to self, delete message, repeat as many times as needed. This bypass method alone kept the software selling successfully for several more months.
Ultimately I sold the company on a similar forum (I wont name it) for about $25k. In hindsight, this was low as it was making approximately $10,000/mo. I was a senior in high school and wanted to enjoy the time I had left, I guess. I felt that I had a good run and I was a bit nervous that perhaps what I was doing wasn't entirely legal. If you boiled it down after all, it was a spam bot. But hey this was 2006. This was the wild west of the web! I had other ideas for similar software for other social networks as well but I wont go into them now.
Unfortunately, MySpace sent the new owners (they also hit a few other competitors too) a cease and desist within a month or so of buying the company. Unbelievable, I know.
I had a few other small projects after this but never was able to reproduce this type of success with IM.
I eventually found a steady job as a professional web developer for a small firm Ive been working with for, jeez, almost 10 years now. I work from home and the pay is decent. I shouldn't complain. But I will...
It's hard work. I'm constantly stressed out and trying to feverishly make deadlines. I wear many hats including front end developer, support rep, project manager, marketing/seo consultant, user interface designer, etc. I don't feel like the company is configured properly and I can't get them to change. It's a long story and I've already told a story so I won't go into it. My point is, I want to find financial freedom back where I started looking for it 10+ years ago. I'm leaning towards affiliate marketing as I did have a few small affiliate sites back in the day that showed some potential. Is it still possible to find niches and make steady streams of passive income with generating content for affiliate sites? I'd love it if anyone steered me in the right direction. I'm not a complete newb but it's been a while since I've got into IM.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about my story or myself today.
Thanks for reading!
-TC
