Shoutout to @EastBayExpress & @MosReeves:
On a breezy afternoon in downtown Oakland, Matt Werner sat in a cubicle-sized office as he managed his music website, the fancifully titled Thizzler on the Roof. Lying on a round table behind his desk were multiple copies of a mixtape promoting Thizzler.com‘s biggest project to date: The Bay Area Freshmen 10 Class of 2013, a compilation of the hottest up-and-coming local rappers.
Wait, let’s backtrack. Werner manages his website … in an office building. “The office isn’t that expensive,” he said modestly. “[Thizzler] isn’t a huge moneymaker. The main business model is selling advertising on the site. Obviously, it’s working.”
Despite Werner’s self-deprecating honesty, Thizzler’s growth from a small personal blog to a sprawling, graphics-rich site that logs 400,000 views per month should inspire WordPress and Tumblr geeks everywhere. (Thizzler’s YouTube account averages an impressive 2.7 million streams per month.)
Make sure you grab a copy of this week’s East Bay Express anywhere in the East Bay, and read the full article below.
