I just heard a great interview with one of the founders of HotOrNot.com

I had assumed that this was a fly by night operation that bordered on a simplistic dating site. I had actually thought this thing had died 4 years ago.

The interview with James Hong is available on TalkCrunch.com. James is one sharp guy! Hot or Not was getting 40k visitors a day from day one. Currently adding 30k new users a day.

HotOrNot started out on a $400 Celeron computer. James and his partner moved the site to RackSpace shortly after launch.

After 5 successful years of 500k/month they turned the site free due to downwad trends. They doubled traffic. Now they are monitizing from ads and virtual products.

Now, James is busy extending the brand. Keep an eye out for HotLists.

James plans to allow users to rate anything, use these hotlists to create communities and serving up what he calls ‘enjoyable’ ads that are super targeted.

Stay tuned!