SWAPD is officially seven years old today!
While discussing my health issues with @Rapunzel today, she reminded me that today is our birthday! Yes, SWAPD Industries is officially 2556 days old. Just like every other birthday post, let’s go over SWAPD and its history and current shape and form!
The overall design didn’t change much. Since we’re a forum-based marketplace, the general layout will always look the same. However, SWAPD 3.2 will introduce toned-down colors for the light theme, as seen below!
Our history (taken from previous HB posts)
The conception!
I have been flipping online assets for as long as I can remember, but I’ve reached a point in my life where I got tired of it. Additionally, it was also challenging to keep up with trends and the changes in the social media world. I was tired of losing my investments to algorithms 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 wondered 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 progress throughout the years!
It’s been seven long years. Even though I believe we could have done better, I am still proud of this community. A network of (mostly) skilled individuals who refuse to bow down to the matrix and work from the comfort of their own homes!
- 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, averaging 1000 transactions per month.
- We went from 2000 page views per month to almost 3 000 000.
- Currently, we have over close to 60,000 members!
- Our transactions are no longer in the 100-300 USD range. At times, we have clients spending XXX XXX USD in one shot. The global average per transaction hovers around 1200 USD.
- Some of our members became millionaires in just a short year of selling on SWAPD.
- Currently, we have members who can do 500K USD in sales in just 30 days!
- We have members who email us stating that their supplemental SWAPD income changed their lives.
- We have members who tattooed our logo onto their bodies.
- We have a range of highly professional and highly influential members on our website.
- Since we began tracking data in 2017, we’ve accumulated $38,295,311 USD in sales volume. However, the real number is close to FIFTY MILLION, if not over (because it took us a while to track the flow of money).
The battles!
Over the past years, especially since COVID-19, things have slowed down. However, we’re seeing a sharp rise in interest in our industry again, which is great news. Over the years we’ve fought so many battles, as everyone shuns us due to our niche.
Notable mentions of our battles:
- COVID-19 slowdown.
- Elon Musk getting rid of verifications.
- META following in his footsteps.
- Three complete PayPal bans, assets frozen. The last time we were banned, we were able to recover our funds.
- 100K USD frozen (stolen) by a criminal exchange called Paxful.com
- 93K USD frozen by Wise.com
- Being constantly labeled as scammers by CoinBase.com (blocking funds and accounts)
- Being constantly labeled as scammers by Binance.com (blocking funds and accounts)
- Being constantly labeled as scammers by CoinMama.com (blocking funds and accounts)
- Our entire company account (bank wires) was closed down for an investigation (Santander), and all clients’ funds were frozen. It took five weeks of lawyers, pleas, and letters to undo this, all while keeping SWAPD functional with private funds.
- Crazy AML/KYC laws that keep our lives challenging.
- The EU keeps dishing out new crypto laws.
- Had to switch to an LLC to comply with money transmitter laws.
- Accounting under an LLC is an extreme undertaking, and it’s very time-consuming.
- TrustPilot.com SWAPD Reviews - Now gone :D (because they don’t like our business model)
- AdWords tossed virtually all our ads (dishonest behavior)
- Every time we were mentioned in a notable publication, it was always in a gray light.
- Virtually no advertisers will work with us. Everyone considers us blackhat.
- Our company Binance/CoinBase/BitCoin.com accounts, all banned.
- Companies like Wise even went after all SWAPD employees and terminated all their personal accounts for being associated with SWAPD (nearly the same day).
- We’ve received many threats from very well-known law firms like Perkins Coie and White & Case, representing sites like SnapChat, eBay, Fiverr, Amazon, Forbes, Pinterest, etc. To be honest, there are too many to remember.
- We’ve been DDoSed countless times and have had attempts to exploit and abuse our system.
- In the past 2-3 years, competition has been growing like wild weeds, making it harder for us to stay relevant.
It’s all worth it, though!
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that running a marketplace forum could be so stressful. Despite all these problems, we’re still on the map, we’re still growing, and we have a 99% safety rating! This is truly a community-driven accomplishment. This website wouldn’t exist without you guys, and for that, we’re eternally grateful. Happy birthday to us!
