The Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic serial cyberentrepreneur Itzhak Schier, who is known as ZiQui to some, just could not resist leaving Brooklyn and going back to the Former Soviet Union where he had spent thirteen years. And of course, he took his best project, The Million Word Site, back with him, this time to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where he partnered with a successful offshore web development firm to expand it by redesigning and relaunching The Million Word Site along with other projects.
While he sometimes misses kosher pizza and pastrami sandwiches from Brooklyn, Schier has quickly become a part of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community, from which the buzz about his redesigned site is just starting to reach the rest of his international community, and from there to spread across cyberspace and the real world. After all, his new home town has special significance to his fellow Lubavitchers – the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, grew up in this industrial city, where his father was chief rabbi until his exile at the hands of the Communists. And he himself remains the same – it is hard to believe that this burly, bearded black hatted and clad stereotypical Chassid is actually a highly creative and very nonconformist cyber-pioneer.
As for the Million Word Site, so far major design changes are coming almost every day as the new international design team, with offices in London as well as Dnepropetrovsk, are busy with getting to just the right new look for this blockbuster site. And Schier, whose Jewish values include a deep commitment to making sure every site user gets value for his or her purchased words, no matter how many or how few, is busy attracting new users while working with his present WordMasters to make sure all get the most out of the site.
The Million Word Site itself is a microcosm of the Net, offering subdomains, SEO, links to user sites, onsite home pages, social networking features, and even the possibility of buying and selling words among site users. It is unique in that only one user can buy any given word or phrase and then use it on the site to increase exposure, or even just to hold on to in the hope another user will want to purchase it. Once a word is gone, Schier will not sell it again. Only the user can, at his or her chosen price. While it is not recommended as an investment scheme, ZiQui says: “There Is no end to the fun and social value of the site – buying and selling words will bring people together and make connections in a way that no regular networking site can. It will also become a pastime and a hobby for some – the site will be up as long as there is an Internet and our sales commissions will be very reasonable, so people can enjoy this forever. And if someone makes even more than I do from this site – let it be!â€
Words are now priced at $12.95 while renovations are taking place, but Schier expects to raise prices to the full $15.00 level as soon as the site is fully redesigned. Experts look forward to the reintroduction of the Million Word Site, as it is and remains one of the few fresh ideas in the world of page driver sites, as it goes so far beyond anything else that is out there. Finally, the pixel sites have been superseded by a worthy successor.
