Jenni is an interesting part of Internet history. The 10 million "hits" number is likely just that, server hits. Which she could've easily done considering that most of her viewers would've typically been sitting there waiting for a still cam refresh every 30-60 seconds or whatever her bandwidth could stand at any given time.
I would say she did at least 100,000 in uniques though, and during the peak when she was on Letterman and such, probably more like 200-250K.
She never really cashed in on it though. She's one of those people who I believe initially truly was not motivated by money. And I'm not sure she ever really was about the money even after she finally figured out she could make a lot of it. And the few people she trusted and received advise from on both business and technical levels were morons.
That site was up for 2-3 years before she charged ANYTHING. She would occasionally change servers and URLs just to save on bandwidth and make everyone find her again in the early days. There were no banner ads, no memberships. All those impressions just going to waste! Used to drive me crazy just thinking about it.
When she finally did start charging I think it was just to survive, she had a bandwidth bill from hell no doubt. Plus she found it hard to maintain a regular job because inevitably she'd get recognized at work.
She was the first and original "cam girl" and inspired a whole new genre of site and online wanking activity. She's a fascinating story. She could've easily made a couple of million with her traffic and parachuted out with enough money to be comfortable for the rest of her life. But I suspect, she has relatively little in the bank and few assets to show for it and will likely now go get a day job and move onto another phase of her life.
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12-10-2003
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