Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking giant Facebook, started work on his internet revolution at the age of 21, and is now a billionaire. So, at the tender age of 16, there’s no telling where Christopher Ah-Yoon, founder of entertainment news and reviews site filmflux.net, could be in a few years time. I decided to ask Christopher a few questions about his venture and what it takes to run a website.
What inspired you to create FilmFlux and how did you get the site going?
I think that today’s tech blogging industry is dominated by big, commercial machines like IGN who write stuff to deadlines for cash. Very often, their employees only see a film once, or play/test some software for a week before typing something into a post and hitting ‘publish’. I thought that I could transform my little site into something that had the potential to grow into a place where people could come and read stuff written by people who were actually passionate and interested about what they were writing about! I suppose I was ‘inspired’ by the need for a bit more transparency and honesty – and the saying ‘If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself’!
You’ve managed to accumulate over 1,300 likes on Facebook and 1,200 followers on Twitter. How does it feel knowing your site has reached such a wide audience?
Pretty amazing, actually! It’s definitely a nice feeling knowing that there are people out there who are hooked on the stuff you write and are willing to wait until you make something else they can read or watch. These people keep me motivated to keep the site going!
What would you say has been your biggest achievement through the site?
The fact that I’ve been able to keep it running for over two years now(!) It takes a lot more effort than it looks like to run it actually. A perk of being up so long is that companies actually reach out to us to send product samples sometimes, which we actually get to keep!
What advice would you give to anyone trying to start a website?
Keep persevering- for every person that skims over your posts and reviews there’s another who actually takes their time to read them. It’ll be difficult at the start but just listen to your readers and they’ll tell you what to do.
What can we expect from you guys in 2013?
A bunch of new, top-quality reviews, an overhaul of our site design and maybe even a movie (Replica) if GCSEs don’t keep us down!
Make sure to head over to filmflux.net for all the latest entertainment news.