Like most Dartmouth students, Michael Mothner '03 can be found working late into the night on his laptop. Looking closer, however, one finds that he's up to more than his term paper on Internet advertising for his Economics 45 course -- he's busy running a start-up business 700 customers strong.
Mothner, who has a long history of starting business ventures such as car washes and web design services, has been hard at work with WPromote.com for over a year and a half. "Basically, what I do is collect information from companies and individuals with websites and get them listed on nearly 200 search engines, such as Google and Altavista," Mothner said.
Starting as a software program, WPromote.com has evolved into a subscription website promotion service. For a monthly fee, Mothner regularly updates the listings, adding new information to the search keywords and categories, and can guarantee his customers listing status within 48 hours.
"Right now," Mothner noted, "it's just a part-time thing with just me doing it. My goal is to be able to expand WPromote this spring and summer to having a few employees and a much larger customer base."
His current roster of subscribers -- who reside in nearly 50 countries and all American states -- range from a giant German pharmaceutical company and the world's largest palette manufacturer to local law firms and generic online stores.
The business is expanding rapidly, according to the economics modified with computer science major. "I see an increase in subscribing customers of about 10 percent per month, without slowdown," Mothner said. "With a little more time invested in this project, my customer base should grow a lot quicker."
While presently putting in several hours each day of the week, Mothner is confident that he can give more man-hours to help the company expand.
Mothner plans to work on WPromote.com at least for a year after graduation this June to see where it takes him. "In the worst case scenario," Mothner predicted, "I have a unique piece of experience to put on a resume down the road. Either way, I'm looking forward to working full time."
WPromote.com competes directly with Internet giants such as MSN. "It's a great business to be in. It's very exciting. With values of honesty and integrity, I have been very successful. Business ethics is something I take seriously," Mothner said as he tapped away at his computer, making the latest changes to the service.
