MightyBigTV.com brings together ratings and reviews of current and old Television shows.
Interview conducted by Nathan C. Kaiser on Monday, September 10, 2001 in New York, NY.
<div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000261"></a><b>I am here with Sarah Bunting of TomatoNation. Can you please give us an overview of your site and what you are trying to do? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
I originally started writing for the web in 1995 by accident. At the time I was working as a CD editor at the now defunct electronic publishing division. They sent me to Comdex, when I was 22 years old; I had no idea what I was doing, had never been to Las Vegas, and running through the Tropicana running around taking notes of meetings that I had no clue about. It was such a surreal experience, particularly since Las Vegas doesn't necessarily lend itself to "real" business rhythms of having breakfast at 8:30 in the morning, because you are passing slot machines in the lobby. <BR><BR> I put together an email journal that I sent out to my friends trying to record the strangeness of the experience. A friend of mine forwarded it to her boss, Adam Curry, who was at that time running MetaVerse. As it turns out, he was also in Vegas, and she asked him about my email, and they decided I should be writing a column for them on the MetaVerse. Which is how I initially got started writing Op-Ed type pieces. That column was called "Notes from the smoking section", and ran for about a year. <BR><BR> MetaVerse was then bought by OnRamp, and I was right sized out of a job. They did continue to use my content to woo corporate advertisers. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000262"></a><b>You didn't own your content? </b> </div>
<div class="IntACont"> Well, I never signed anything, so at this time I am still unclear as to who owns the content. That material is now up on TomatoNation and I don't think anyone cares enough to come after me. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000263"></a><b>Is OnRamp still a viable company? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
I don't think so; they may have merged with ThinkNewIdeas, which is still an active company. They are currently doing Busch Gardens sites, etc. I was told that I no longer had a column, which they were paying me a little honorarium for. It wasn't something that I relied upon, but I did want to continue doing something along these lines. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000264"></a><b>You wanted to continue doing Op-Ed pieces. </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> I tried to get work in print, but working in print in New York is very dependent upon connections, of which I didn't have many. Also, my writing is really too sarcastic for print.
<BR><BR> At that point, I realized that I was going to have to do my own thing, and started this site called TomatoNation. Which is named after my tattoo. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000265"></a><b>So it wasn't the reverse order? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> That is correct. Everyone thinks that I got the tattoo to commemorate the site. It is actually the other way around. I was using one of those free homepage builders that you receive with you ISP. My original address was home.sprynet.com/~bunting.etc. It was quite bush league, and ugly, because there wasn't much you could do with these builders. I use to bill myself as "The Fastest Loading Site on the Web", because it was all text based.
<BR><BR> At first there was one guy, not related to me, reading the site. Then a couple of my friends started reading the site. I used to belong to this bulletin board called Mediarama, where I mentioned it. I was able to get a dozen new readers from there. Very slowly, the site started in October of '97, it has been a gradual growth. <BR><BR> The real mandate was to put up a new essay each week. I have been able to post on Mondays, about 49 to 50 weeks a year. I have also launched an advice column, mostly because I consider Ann Landers, Dear Abby, and Garrison Keller complete hacks. <BR><BR> I figured I could do it as well, and now it has taken over the entire site. My overall goal is to pretty much make people laugh. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000266"></a><b>What is your target audience, do you have any demographic information? </b> </div>
<div class="IntACont"> I don't have any real way to measure that. I sense that it is 75 to 80% female, but I do have a wide range of ages, focused on the 18 to 35 age group. There are also retired men who read the site as well as Junior High girls. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000267"></a><b>What does the content usually deal with? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
Well, there is no one thing. It tends to be whatever is getting on my nerves when I sit down to write the piece on Monday afternoon. <BR><BR> Occasionally, I will do a vanity search on Google to see who is mentioning TomatoNation. People usually list the site as a Feminist site, it turns out that I also have a huge pod of fans in Norway. There are about a dozen sites in Norway that link back. I had a friend translate them, and they mention me as a Radical Feminist. I guess it doesn't take much to be considered radical in Norway. <BR><BR> Other people consider it observations about life in New York. I don't particularly feel that it is a feminist agenda, I write about myself, I happen to be a feminist. I also write about movies, and other things. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000268"></a><b>You don't want to label yourself as this type of site or another. What about the number of viewers and impressions you receive per month? </b> </div>
<div class="IntACont"> As of a month ago, I was receiving about 300,000 page views a month. I am currently selling advertising through FastClick, which generates very little cash per month. My primary source of income is my other site MightyBigTV.com, which is significantly bigger, and takes up a considerable amount of my time. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000269"></a><b>How did you drive that 300,000 page views per month? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
I think that whatever that line is, that 90% of life is showing up. That is a really big factor, because the readers could rely on me to post something new each and every week. I wasn't going on a lot of vacations; I was dedicated to putting up original content every week. Whether people were reading it or not, that people would find it. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000270"></a><b>You didn't do a lot of marketing. </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Exactly, when the site it was so ugly, that I wasn't willing to go out there and promote the site. Now that I have had it professionally done, I am much more willing to send out information about it.
<BR><BR> But the old site was updated weekly, and people to this day will panic if a Monday goes by and I don't make an announcement on the mailing list. That is part of their Tuesday morning; there is mail from the notify list, they read the column. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000271"></a><b>So you have a very loyal following. </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> It is very small, but there is a core group. Every once in awhile I will write an article about my cats, which tends to brings in the new users. People tend to forward those to their friends. I try to not do that very often, because it is a little cheap.
<BR><BR> A big part of it was that my updating the site was extremely reliable, and that the web has grown significantly. There has been a proliferation of weblogs and journals, which all come and go. There is a whole section of journals that were pretty big and are now gone. Just this consistency has helped me a lot. Of course the reason I like to think that they stayed is because the writing is good, sharp and funny. <BR><BR> It isn't like I haven't had off weeks. There are parts of the archives that I consider quite bad. Half the battle was to get something up on the site, whether or not it was as funny as I wanted it to be. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000272"></a><b>Where would you like to take TomatoNation? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
I like to compare it to the poetry arm of a publishing house. It doesn't actually make money </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000273"></a><b>It is your "loss leader"? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Exactly, but it has led to other work for me. People have come to me and asked if I would like to this. A lot of times that is unpaid work, but it allows me to get larger exposure. I also met my current business partners through TomatoNation.
<BR><BR> Tara had a very similar sight in tone; "HissyFit", and we decided to join forces and created MightyBigTV, which is much bigger than TomatoNation. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000274"></a><b>What exactly is MightyBigTV? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Of course. Or tag line is "We watch, so you don't have too." We provide humorous summaries of TV shoes, both horribly bad, and those that are extremely popular. </div>
</div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000275"></a><b>Who are the lucky individuals who get to watch the bad shows? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Well, we have a whole stable of freelancers who do the watching for us. </div> </div>
<div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000276"></a><b>Are they paid? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Yes, they are. The site makes money from advertising. The market is terrible right now, and we are simply trying to dog paddle and keep our heads above water. A lot of sites have gone under, and we are still hanging on. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom">
<a name="QA000277"></a><b>How have you gone about generating advertising revenue? Do you sell all space yourself, or do you go through a broker? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> We actually use ChickClick, and we recently joined with 24/7 Media, which has been great. We have been trying very hard to fill all available positions. We have millions of pages, all of which are being viewed. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000278"></a><b>What type of revenue has MightyBigTV generated?
</b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> On our best month we generated $56,000 in income, which was a year ago. That was also at 55-60% of the traffic that we now have. That was when money was sailing around, which is obviously no longer the case. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000279"></a><b>And about how many impressions are your receiving? </b> </div>
<div class="IntACont"> About 30,000,000 a month. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000280"></a><b>How were you able to drive that type of viewership? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
The site began in September '98 solely focused on Dawson's Creek. Over the period of a year, we decided that if people will come and make fun of Dawson's Creek, they will also be more than likely to make fun of everything else on the WB. Who new the "West Wing" with Rob Lowe would do as well as it has? We thought that was going to be a bust. <BR><BR> We launched with twelve shows, and looking back, I am surprised that no one had capitalized on this market in a more calculated manner. There are millions of people who watch TV in spite of themselves, they realize that it is just "Felicity." They are asking themselves: "What am I doing, I should be reading a book." <BR><BR> Even though this is true, they still want to talk about it with others, and we have become the online water cooler for all of these shows. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000281"></a><b>You have since expanded into all manner of shows: comedy, drama, fantasy, etc. </b> </div>
<div class="IntACont"> Correct, with all of this we have been featured in Variety, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Weekly with no effort on our part. We don't do PR, we are just to friends working out of our apartment. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000282"></a><b>How did you go about recruiting the freelances that provide content to the site? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont">
Most of them were people we knew from around the net. We have met them in any number of places. I met one person, who became my assistant at a standup comedy class. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000283"></a><b>How much do you usually pay your freelancers, and how do you structure it? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> There is a flat fee, which we set at such a level that we wouldn't have to decrease it if the market began to tank. There is also a bonus system based upon how fast you can get it published. </div>
</div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000284"></a><b>What are your plans for MightyBigTV? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> We were hoping to launch MightyBigMovies. We would like to create MightyBig franchises; branching into newsstands, movies, music, books, etc. In this market, it is just too difficult to do. We could get the impressions, but we just don't have the ability to finance this type of growth plan. </div> </div>
<div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom"> <a name="QA000285"></a><b>So your current operations and your future plans have been terribly impacted by the downturn in online advertising. </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> Yes, we went from a period of printing our own cash to doing anything to survive in about two months. We are very lucky in that we didn't have much of an infrastructure to dismantle, but our plans to provide benefits, office space, etc. to our assistants is on hold. </div> </div> <div class="IntQCont"> <div class="Bold StepFrom">
<a name="QA000286"></a><b>How else have you had to change your operations? </b> </div> <div class="IntACont"> We have had to become quite a bit more selective about the shows we are adding to the site. We are doing all of the proofreading which takes a considerable amount of time, and we also need to focus on the core business issues. </div> </div>
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