SWAPD is officially five years old!
Here I am, enjoying my Sunday morning, drinking my cheap coffee, and by accident, I’ve noticed that SWAPD.co was registered on March 26th, 2017. Yes, today is the 27th. However, the exact launch date isn’t precise as it took us a while to get going. So, we will officially consider the 26th of March our birth date. It has been a long and challenging journey, but we’re proud of our accomplishments. Let’s go over our history and the journey of SWAPD!
SWAPD design in 2017
SWAPD in 2022
The overall design didn’t change much. Since we’re a forum-based marketplace, the general layout will virtually always look the same.
The conception!
I have been flipping online assets since I could remember, but I’ve reached a point in my life where I got tired of it. Additionally, it was also difficult to keep up with trends and the changes in the social media world. I was tired of losing my investments to algorithm and policy changes. I was also angry with every scammer who got away with my money. This is where the SWAPD idea was born. As an avid user of various forums, I thought about how popular websites such as BlackHatWorld, DigitalPoint, or WarriorForum have been around for ages. Once forums are established, they’re hard to abolish. The communities and connections built within them last for years and open new doors and possibilities. This was enticing, and it’s what gave me the energy to pursue this idea.
The journey…
I wanted SWAPD to stand out, to be different. Because if you’re not different, you’re easy to copy. That led me to waste money buying premium content management systems that I’ve tried to rebuild into something unique. I’ve failed and wasted thousands of dollars on developers for projects that didn’t turn out the way I wanted to. And to be honest, the current model of our website and the core behind it is the result of me saying, “screw it, I give up, let’s just load up traditional forum software.” By no means I am bashing the current core we use. On the contrary, it turned out great, and it blew our expectations. It’s not an ideal system for our business model, but we make it work.
This is one of our first topics announcing our presence in this industry. I feel very nostalgic reading it. I remember it took us two weeks just to come up with the website name (no, it’s not Swap-DEE). The beginning was a mess. No policies and odd ticket procedures resulted that on average, each ticket had 150-350 replies before it was closed. Over time we’ve learned how to streamline things, and most transactions are closed in 20-40 responses or less. Additionally, at the very beginning, lots of the activity on our website was faked. No one likes coming to an empty site, so each of the staff members had 5-6 fake accounts that posted ghost listings. Yes, that’s not cool. But populating a forum from zero is next to impossible unless you have an army of willing clients ready to join.
Year after year, we’ve invested (little by little) into the platform, expanding its features. I’ve personally lost track of the expenses, but I know that in the end, we’ve probably invested XXX XXX into SWAPD. Constant upgrades and upkeep pile up quickly, but in the end, the investment paid off.
The staff!
Did you guys know that @MeG was here from the very beginning? @MeG and @shaunthomas were one of the very first SWAPD admins, along with @Jason, who is no longer with us. @shaunthomas is also no longer an admin, but he helped with the design initially and throughout the following years. We’ve had staff come and go, but the current team we have is the most solid group of people on earth. @Alpha and @Goofy were regular SWAPD clients before they became admins. Funny fact, for some reason, I gave @Goofy a tough time when he joined SWAPD, thought he was a time waster and was itching to ban him 
But his professionalism and kind nature proved me wrong. At the moment, we have a very exceptional that I am proud of. Let’s go over the people behind SWAPD!
- The always online guys: @Alpha @Goofy @Swapd
- The compliance (ID verification) dude: @NarcoBoss (also helps with tickets)
- Our billing department: @MeG - She also helps with daily duties.
- Our police force (moderators): @Mrstekdahl, @mae, @Brant, @Batman
- Our developers and guardian angels: @muhlisbc and @Communiteq (and a few others who are not registered here but work on our code and safety).
Special shoutouts to our previous mods, whom I am grateful for, @RandyMarsh and @Boogeyman!
And a big hug for our previous admin, @shaunthomas!
The progress throughout the years!
Five years is a long time, and to be honest, the following numbers and facts may not be impressive to some, but we’re proud of them. Keep in mind that our industry is relatively small, so exploding like Facebook will not be possible. Still, we feel that for our size, we pack a punch! Here are a few notable changes and accomplishments throughout our history.
- In the beginning, SWAPD earned a total of 400-500 USD per month. There was a time when we would close 8-14 tickets per month. These days, we average close to 30 completed transactions per day, inching slowly to 1000 successful transactions per month.
- We went from 2000 page views per month to almost 2 000 000.
- Currently, we have over 30,000 members.
- Our transactions are no longer in the 100-300 USD range. At times, we have clients spending XXX XXX USD in one shot.
- Some of our members became millionaires in just a short year of selling on SWAPD.
- At this very moment, we have members who can do 300 000 USD in sales in just 30 days!
- We have members who email us stating that their supplemental SWAPD income changed their life.
- We have members who tattooed our logo onto their bodies.
- We have a range of highly professional and highly influential members on our website.
- Last year, we did over 5 000 000 USD in sales volume. This year everything points to a substantial increase, and in 2022 we may double that number.
Conclusion!
Are we the best website in our industry? No. Is our website the easiest to use? No. Are there annoying problems throughout our platform? Yes. But the most crucial question is, are scammers roaming free on our website causing mayhem? No. While we do have problems from time to time, we are working hard to keep everyone safe. Our methods aren’t perfect, and we sometimes lose our cool when dealing with problems, but we try our best to keep con artists at bay. Unfortunately, we have no means of showing you the data on our end, but please believe me when I say that our policies and methods implemented over the past years significantly reduced the number of scams on our website. In fact, I can safely say that scams have never been lower on SWAPD. This time is the best time we’ve had in years as far as problematic members go. Let’s hope it stays that way. We will continue improving things on our end to reduce the problems even further.
I would like to thank all the members, new or old, for sticking with SWAPD and making this place your home. You guys are the core of this community, not some software, plugin, or a funky website name. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.
funny how it coincides with my 2 years birthday here ahahah