The Net's teen sweepstakes king

Kansas City, Kan.-based Scott Lynn is the undisputed king of Internet sweepstakes Web sites. His site, TreeLoot.com, was ranked by Media Metrix as the 50th most visited site on the Web in August.

Media Metrix reported 3.4 million unique visitors to the site. Lynn puts the number at closer to 4 million and says TreeLoot serves up 500 million ad impressions a month. That translates into an expected $10 million in gross revenue for the year 2000.

Not too shabby for a 19-year-old.

"I was doing contracting work for Internet companies when I was 13," said Lynn. "Back around 1992 people were still running ISPs (Internet service providers) out of their garages. Pretty much everyone in the Internet business in Kansas City was under 25."

The premise of TreeLoot.com is simple. Visitors are encouraged to click on a "Money Tree" by a wise-cracking monkey bearing a striking resemblance to the children's book character, Curious George. The more you click, the better your odds of winning.

The site offers a monthly prize of $25,000 along with prizes of smaller denominations available on a daily basis. TreeLoot awards an average of about $1,000 a day as well as several hundred stuffed monkeys.

Lynn estimated that most people spend between 10 and 15 minutes on the site each day, but there are several listings on the site of winners who have spent more than 600 hours playing the game.

"Some of these people, you wonder what they do for a living, if anything," Lynn marveled. "We honestly think people are playing the game at work. Our busiest time is at lunch hour and during peak hours of the workday. Employers must love us," he added satirically.

The patent for TreeLoot's click-to-win technology is currently pending.

Lynn says the site, which he launched in May of 1998 for "a few thousand dollars," has been profitable for all but the first three months of its existence. Despite the temptations of a booming Internet economy, Lynn says he will "never" put his company in a position where it's not turning a profit.

"There are a lot of young people out there with a lot of money but I don't think they really know what they're doing," said Lynn. "I think the next five years will show a lot of changes."

Jupiter: 'He will make money'
A recent study from research firm Jupiter Communications supports Lynn's ideas. It concludes the recent trend of sites like CBS' iWon.com that use sweepstakes and other giveaway promotions "will end up chronically unprofitable."

But Lynn's reliance on a pure advertising-based revenue model should help him avoid the problems of other sites using sweepstakes.

"Those guys will continue to attract a segment of the population," said Jupiter analyst Melissa Shore, referring to TreeLoot.com. "He will continue to make money because there are plenty of people who consistently enter those types of offers, just like there are always people who enter sweepstakes through the mail."

After sinking most of his initial earnings back into the business, Lynn has recently begun to enjoy his newly acquired wealth. He just bought his first house, a five-bedroom home in Kansas City, Mo., and he's an avid collector of original works by Picasso and Matisse.

"My mother always drew when I was young. She got me into stuff like that," he explained. "I used to draw when I was younger but now I'm too busy, so I just collect."

CarHunt.com in the works
Lynn says he works about 15 hours a day. The grueling schedule isn't likely to let up anytime soon.

His company, Virtumundo Inc. is about to launch a new game site, CarHunt.com, that will use a "click-to-win" system, similar to TreeLoot's, and award prizes of one to two new cars each month.

In addition to his business ventures, Lynn is also a political science major at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

"I'm just going to college for the hell of it," Lynn said. "Not because I want a career. It's just interesting to me."

Even at only 19, Lynn already has a keen grasp of what is likely a major reason for his success.

"I never did this for the money," he explained. "I did it because I enjoy it. I would still be doing it without the money.