The site, owned and almost exclusively ran by Al Mackin, has operated as a forerunner of what the industry now call social networking sites since its launch in 2001.

Originally conceived as a showcase for user’s clubbing escapades, it has matured in tandem with its audience to take in restaurant reviews, concerts, bars, property pages and more besides.

Its popularity has grown with its subject reach and, according to Mackin, the site recorded its busiest month ever in March, registering 289,501 visits from Manchester’s relentless social animals.

To get to grips with the story behind the move from Whathappened to WHLN, and the continuing growth of the site, How-Do took time out for a quick catch up with Mr Mackin. Here’s what he had to say.

Mackin on a mission: eyeing up new cities

There are two reasons. Firstly the name Whathappenedlastnight no longer has a relation to our core business.

Re-branding as WHLN keeps our current visitors happy, since we abbreviate to that anyway, and it solved the issue of the out of date name.

Secondly I believe that a website like this should be organic, in terms of its features, so I've spent a lot of time on development, improving the site.

I froze the code last August with the aim of rolling all my ideas in to one big project, which meant that during development I could look at a bigger picture. Now the development's nearing an end, it makes sense to roll the re-name in with the re-launch.

In true organic style the re-launch will be slowly rolled out across the different sections of the site and the restaurants guide was the first to be upgraded. The rest of the site should be upgraded within two months.

What new features will this offer for users?

There's a lot more collaboration tools in there, we get a lot of reviews and you can now respond to each review, as well as agree or disagree with it, and you can report reviews if you believe they are in bad taste.

The older 'clubbier' brand

Certain sections feature a 'context sensitive sidebar’, which feeds you snippets of news, reviews and the most popular restaurants, plus a sliver of self-promotion.

The look and feel of the site is a bit more Web2.0 – cleaner and crisper - with a general polish to improve the user experience.

Also I sat back and looked at new advertising slots, and I've come up with a load of quirky little places around the site for Manchester businesses to advertise. They're medium-term, slow-burn slots and I think the quality of the traffic will be very good, plus they're well priced per click.

Are there any developers or agencies involved, or is the re-launch all your own work?

The development and fixed content is all me. Everything else is submitted by the people of Manchester - 5,700 reviews, videos, mixes, 90,000 photos and more.

whln: now a citywide social scene

What are your plans for WHLN going forward? Where do you want to be in a year's time?

I'm slowly moving it to other cities - not quite at the pace I wanted, but we've launched key sections in Liverpool and Newcastle and I hope to take these cities further in 2008.

There's plenty of room for growth in terms of traffic and revenue, but in a years time I'd like to see further expansion sideways to give even more stability to the business.

I went through the highs and lows of the original dot com boom and there are lessons to be learned, especially when it comes to costs.

I’m always on the lookout for an investor or partner who could help take this business further, so hopefully the end of this development cycle will free me up to look at funding again, although the present climate looks a little harsh.

http://www.whathappenedlastnight.net/

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