Made Mistakes, Learned to Build
2004-2005 (Age 13-16): From wrong choices to right path
At 13, I built a phishing page for Ragnarok Online—trying to hack player accounts. Asked people to submit their usernames and passwords. Inspired by similar sites I'd seen online.
That was wrong. I regret that part of my life.
But It Taught Me Three Things:
- 1. Technical skills can be used to build or destroy
- 2. Short-term gains vs long-term integrity
- 3. Ethics matter more than cleverness
I chose to grow up. Shifted from exploiting communities to building them.
Joined the Yakuzas RO forum as an active member. Earned trust, became a moderator. Learned community management the right way.
Ran legitimate Ragnarok Online private servers on my Pentium PC (512MB RAM!). Hit 16 concurrent users—made my computer lag like crazy, but I was building something people enjoyed.
Growth
"From exploiting players to serving them"
Built amyleafc.com, a fan site for Akademi Fantasia 3 contestant Amylea Azizan. Discovered something powerful: passionate fans donate to support their communities.
This was 2005. Patreon launched in 2013. I was 8 years early.
Likely sold the domain later. First taste of ethical digital asset flipping.
Key Insight
"Community + Passion = Willing to Pay"
Started Wrong (2004)
- • Phishing page (regret)
- • Exploiting players
- • Short-term thinking
Learned Right (2005)
- • Community moderator
- • Serving players
- • Building for value
"Made mistakes at 13. Chose to grow. That choice shaped everything that came after."
The Digital Marketing Underground
Learning from the best while still in high school
Where I Got My Real Education
While in Form 4-5 (age 16-17), I wasn't just in school—I was in the trenches with real entrepreneurs building real businesses.
I joined Digital Point Forums and underground digital marketing communities where I learned SEO, growth tactics, and how to buy and sell websites. I commissioned logos, traded domains, and absorbed knowledge from practitioners who were making real money online.
- →Buying and selling websites
- →SEO tactics from top rankers
- →Asset valuation strategies
- →Growth hacking techniques
- →Monetization strategies
- →Community building
- →Website valuations
- →Due diligence process
- →Exit strategies
Technical Skills
- ✓ SEO from people ranking #1, not from books
- ✓ WordPress development and optimization
- ✓ Hosting, domains, and technical infrastructure
Business Skills
- ✓ How to value and flip digital assets
- ✓ Community drives sustainable revenue
- ✓ Technical skills + business acumen = unstoppable
Product Management Before I Knew What PM Was
First time hiring developers, managing features, iterating products
I didn't know it then, but hiring developers, giving feedback, tweaking features, iterating based on user needs—that was product management. 10+ years before I had the title, I was already doing the work.
Music search and discovery site. Paid a developer (username: a3d) to customize and enhance it.
First time giving feature requirements, reviewing code changes, providing feedback. Didn't know this was called "product management."
Found a talented local PHP developer to enhance the existing script. Collaborated entirely through Yahoo Messenger—the pre-Slack era!
Built it up, sold it for £800. Lost contact with the developer after the sale. Those were the days before LinkedIn made it easy to stay connected.
The Yahoo Messenger Era
- • No Slack, no GitHub, no fancy PM tools
- • Just YM chats and FTP uploads
- • Lost contacts when YM shut down
- • The hustle was real
From Yahoo Messenger to Leading Agile Teams
When I led 20+ professionals at Astro using Agile/Scrum, I realized I'd been doing product management since I was a teenager—just without the framework, without the title, without knowing what to call it.
The First Big Wins
From £800 to $16,500: Learning the asset sale game
Sold jidox.com for £800 to a buyer I met through Flippa. For a Malaysian teenager, this wasn't just pocket money—this was validation.
Websites = Real Assets
Asset Sale Strategy > Just Traffic
I Could Do This For Real
What That £800 Did
- →Funded the next wave of sites (dukio.com, ps3crunch.com)
- →Gave me confidence to think bigger
- →Proved the build-to-sell model worked
- →Validated everything I learned from Digital Point forums
"That £800 wasn't just money. It was proof that a teenager from Malaysia could compete globally."
Strategy:Acquired undervalued tech news domain at auction. Improved SEO, grew organic traffic, optimized monetization. Sold at peak market value after 2+ years of value-building.
Transaction receipts on file. Buyer identity redacted per standard practice.
- • Building sites as a hobby
- • Learning from forums
- • Wondering if it could be real
- • Small Adsense revenue
- • Building sites as a business
- • Teaching others what I learned
- • Knowing it was real
- • Scaling to 20+ sites
When Sony Came Knocking
Standing for consumer rights alongside legendary hackers
dukio.com wasn't just a PS3 news site. It connected me to something bigger: the fight for consumer rights in tech, alongside some of the most legendary hackers in history.
The Players
graf_chokolo (Alexander Egorenkov)
Reverse engineered the PS3 hypervisor, publishing notes on previously undocumented internals. Feb 2011: Police executed a search of his residence (per press reports). Sony sought approximately €1 million in damages. Later: Security Engineer at Palantir (per public LinkedIn, Mar 2025; not independently verified).
geohot (George Hotz)
Jailbroke the iPhone, then the PS3. Sued by Sony (Jan 2011); settled (Apr 2011). Founded comma.ai (aftermarket driver-assist; privately held). His PS3 jailbreak video previously surfaced ps3crunch.com via YouTube's now-deprecated "As seen on" module, contributing measurable referral traffic.
Me
Malaysian blogger running PS3 sites. Hosted files. Got legal letters. Stood by principles.
U.S. Copyright Office
git.dukio.com cited in 1201 rulemaking comments
Historical Mirror
graf_chokolo's hypervisor research preserved in open repositories
YouTube "As Seen On"
geohot's video surfaced ps3crunch.com via automated module (now deprecated)Video
Last updated: October 2025
- →Hosted his hypervisor keys on git.dukio.com
- →Created grafchokolo.com as his hub
- →Distributed the "Hypervisor Bible" after his raid
- →Supported the movement for consumer rights
- →geohot's video linked to ps3crunch.com
- →Massive traffic boost from the connection
- →Part of the same jailbreak movement
- →Covering his lawsuit, supporting the cause
Feb 2011
graf's house raided by police
€1 Million
Sony sued graf_chokolo
Malaysia
I received Sony's legal letter
Sony's lawyers sent me a cease & desist for hosting graf's hypervisor keys. I had to take down git.dukio.com and grafchokolo.com. Scary? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
This was about the right to jailbreak your own purchased console. Like the Right to Repair movement today, we believed:
If you buy it, you own it
Your hardware, your rules
Right to modify
Consumers shouldn't be locked out
Stand for principles
Even when corporations push back
The Movement's Impact:
- ✓ graf's research became the legendary "Hypervisor Bible"
- ✓ Anonymous launched #OpSony to support the cause
- ✓ Jailbreaking is now legal in many contexts
- ✓ Helped establish consumer rights precedents
What Fighting Sony Taught Me
The Lessons
- • Sometimes you stand for principles, even when risky
- • Community matters more than individual gains
- • Being part of something bigger than yourself
- • David doesn't always win, but fighting matters
The Reality
- • Sony had billions, we had principles
- • Legal letters are scary at any age
- • Had to take down the files (they won legally)
- • But the movement won culturally
"Was it fun? Hell yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Some fights are worth having, even when you're outmatched."
Where are they now? geohot founded Comma.ai (self-driving). graf_chokolo continued security research. I built 60+ domains and led Fortune 500 teams. Different paths, same hacker spirit.
The Setback That Made Me Stronger
When everything almost stopped
ps3crunch.com was my fastest-growing PS3 site. Strong traffic, engaged community, growing revenue. Then it was subject to an unauthorized transfer.
The site appeared for sale on Flippa while I was locked out—sold for a few hundred dollars. All that work, all that community building—gone.
That Moment Taught Me Three Things:
Protect Your Assets
Legal and technical security matter
Diversify
Never put all eggs in one basket
Resilience Beats Perfection
Keep building, keep moving forward
My Response
Most people quit after setbacks. I built bigger.
Built from scratch with everything I learned. Better SEO, better community features, better monetization. The scam taught me how to build stronger.
Bought an established PS3 site. Learned from the scam—this time I made sure everything was legally protected and properly transferred.
Setback → Setup
"The scammer took one site. Within months, I had two better ones. That's not revenge—that's resilience. And resilience always wins in the long game."
Built for Love, Not Just Money
19 years of loyalty to Real Madrid
2006: Real Madrid's epic comeback season made me a Madridista for life. Almost 20 years later, I'm still a loyal supporter.
While building PS3 sites for revenue, I also built Real Madrid communities for passion. Before Facebook groups existed, I created websites to connect Malaysian fans.
Malaysian Madridista community hub. Local fans connecting over shared passion.
Official-style Malaysian fan site with news, updates, and local supporter info.
El Clásico coverage. The greatest rivalry in football, told from a Madridista perspective.
"The best entrepreneurs build for both—passion AND profit. When you combine them, magic happens."
For Profit→ PS3 Sites, Flippa Sales+For Passion→ Real Madrid SitesStill a Madridista after 19 years. Some loyalties never change.
60+ Domains Built
From GeoCities to Mobile Apps. Every site, every lesson.
Plus domain flipping and brokering for friends. At peak, managed 60+ domains simultaneously.
Mobile app built as full-stack developer. Got me hired full-time. Built with AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code).
Full Circle at 34PS3 Jailbreak News, Tutorials & Downloads. Found my niche and built engaged community.
Niche Discovery BreakthroughMy biggest hit. Peak revenue site during the empire years.
USD 400K+ Revenue YearBought expired Google News approved domain. Instant authority and traffic.
Growth Hack GeniusMy first asset sale for £800. Validated the build-to-sell model.
£800 First Asset SaleMalaysian Madridista community hub
Built for passionOfficial-style Malaysian fan site
19 years of loyaltyThe greatest rivalry coverage
Passion projectFast-growing PS3 site (lost to scam)
The setbackBuilt after scam. Resilience in action.
Comeback siteStrategic acquisition post-scam
Learned protectionTech and gadget news site
Peak era siteStrategic acquisition: $1,051 → $16,500. 14.7× return through SEO and value-building.
14.7× Asset SaleEarly tech blog covering gadgets and games
Long-running siteNews portal during peak years
Peak era siteDotA maps and gaming community
Gaming communityMusic search and discovery
ExperimentationSociety and religion discussions
Niche explorationNetwork portal project
Testing modelsMedia group portal
Scaling tacticsAF3 fan site with donations
First monetizationPersonal blog covering football, tech, cars, life
Exploration phasePlus domain flipping & brokering for friends
"Built to sell. Sold to scale. Every domain was a lesson. Now building apps with AI."
Corporate Evolution
From solo hustler to leading teams (including Fortune 500)
After generating USD 1M+ managing 60+ domains as a solo entrepreneur, I took everything I learned and applied it to top Malaysian brands and Fortune 500 companies. The hustler became the leader. The tactics became the strategy. The one-person show became 20+ team members.
- →AI-powered Raya greeting card with WhatsApp chatbot → 6,000 leads @ RM7 per lead
- →25% customer engagement increase through marketing automation and CRM
- →End-to-end SEO and website operations for fwd.com.my
- →Comprehensive digital campaigns with A/B testing, Power BI, and Looker Studio
- →Led team of 20+ professionals (PMs, engineers, UI/UX) using Agile/Scrum
- →RM17.8M ad revenue (20% increase) across 8 brands
- →30% user retention increase through personalized content recommendations
- →Doubled organic traffic for Syok.my and StadiumAstro.com
- →Comprehensive digital product transformation roadmap
- →RM600K → RM1.3M revenue through innovative product development
- →Kedai Suria e-commerce: RM60K in 3 months (RM1K platform budget!)
- →Tripled organic traffic: 400K → 1.6M visitors
- →Programmatic audio buying for 100M monthly streams
- →#7 Music App Store ranking
- →80% reduction in cost per sales-qualified lead
- →Contributed to RM800M market cap gain with kipleLive launch
- →HubSpot onboarding and sales automation implementation
Growth & Product
Technical
Leadership & Strategy
The Arc
"From solo to teams, back to solo (with AI). The tools changed. The hustle didn't. Now building apps at 34 with 21 years of wisdom."
Full Circle: Building Again at 34
From Product Leader back to Builder—now with AI superpowers
After years leading teams at Astro (20+ professionals, 8 brands) and FWD Insurance (Fortune 500), something interesting happened.
I started building again. Not managing builders—being one. Mobile full-stack development. Apps, not just websites. And this time, I had superpowers.
Mobile app for Trading Card Game enthusiasts. Track prices, manage collections, connect with the TCG community. Supports Pokémon, One Piece, and Magic: The Gathering.
Released
Nov 17, 2024
Latest Update
Dec 31, 2024
Platform
iOS (App Store)
Version
1.03
Key Features:
- • Real-time TCG market price tracking
- • Price history and trend analysis
- • Collection management tools
- • Tournament & event discovery
- • Community features (collectors network)
- • Gamified experience (badges, challenges)
Connected to TCGKL Convention
Malaysia's biggest Trading Card Game & Collector Convention (Oct 31 - Nov 2, 2025). Supported by Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture (MOTAC) & Tourism Malaysia.
This app got me hired full-time as a mobile full-stack developer. Still shipping. Still building.
How I Learned Full-Stack Development So Fast
- →Cursor
- →Claude Code
- →AI-assisted development
"Learn in weeks what used to take months"
- →Worked with Software Engineers
- →Learned from UI/UX designers
- →QA testing processes
- →Agile/Scrum methodology
"Leading builders taught me how to build"
- →Product thinking from PM years
- →Technical foundation from 60+ sites
- →User empathy from communities
"Experience compounds with AI tools"
The Full Circle
"From websites to apps. From solo to teams, back to solo (with AI). The tools changed. The hustle didn't."
21 years later, still a builder.
Let's Build Something
Mobile Full-Stack Developer. Father of two. 21 years of building. Let's talk about what's next.
© 2025 Amir Ariff. From mistakes at 13 to mobile apps at 34. 21 years of building. The journey continues.