Chinese American Johns Wu ran into money problems while attending University of California, Berkeley as a Neurobiology major. So he started Bankaholic.com (a Web site owned by Blackshore Properties, Inc.) about 5 years ago to discuss financial issues like college loans, budgeting tips, and debt. The initial focus was focused on CD rates, which eventually expanded into other financial categories. Now Bankaholic provides rate information on savings products, such as certificates of deposit, savings accounts, and money market accounts, as well as insurance quotes and a comparison of the best credit card offers. In addition, Bankaholic offers consumers advice and information that allows consumers to comment and rate banks and their promotions through social networking features.

His wordpress blog ranked high in natural search for both deposit and credit card keywords. With the quality and volume of traffic, Johns Wu was able to convert the traffic to revenue with affiliate deals. This guy had a very high margin business, since he was the only guy running the site. He started a co-brand relationship with Bankrate in July 2008.

About a week ago Bankrate, Inc. announced it has acquired Bankaholic. Bankrate paid $12.4 million for Bankaholic, with up to an additional $2.5 million
earn-out payment available for the attainment of certain performance metrics in the next 12 months. That’s $15 million!!!

Bankrate will take over the operation and management of the Bankaholic Web site immediately. Johns Wu, the founder of Bankaholic, is the sole employee and will work with the company for a specified period of time during the transition.

Bankaholic on Fox News TV