The Man Behind WeRateDogs

If you are at all familiar with the Twittersphere or you've even seen Tweets, then you must be familiar with the Twitter feed, WeRateDogs. And while you might be familiar with @dog_rates, you might not know the mastermind behind it. 

That mastermind's name is Matt Nelson, and he's only 21 years old. His success at such a young age relies on his adorable subjects (dogs) and his hilarious sense of humor. 

If you've never seen WeRateDogs and go to explore it, you'll find tons of pictures of adorable pups - all with hilarious captions. The dogs are all rated on a 10 out of 10 scale, but of course, since dogs are flawless - they all get above a 10. 

Nelson came up with this idea in November of 2015 while sitting at an Applebee's with his friends. While he had had the idea of starting a humorous dog-related page before, this was the first time he voiced his idea out loud. His friends said "go for it" and Nelson made his first post right there in Applebee's. Nelson tweeted a photo of a dog he had taken a picture of at the golf course he managed, rated it, and said goodnight.

When he woke up in the morning, Nelson discovered his page had 3,000 followers. The numbers kept growing, and Nelson, tasked with overnight fame, kept building his page.

Of course, it wasn't all doggy smiles and tail-wags. More and more people were submitting photos each day and Nelson was trying to keep up with it by posting about 15 - 20 times a day. Going to class full-time, managing a golf course, and running a hugely-successful Twitter page began to overwhelm Nelson. He turned to a social media marketer, John Ricci, to help him out with the account.

With Ricci's help, Nelson began to make money from his Twitter account - and eventually realized that to continue his profit and success, he would have to drop out of college. 

Since dropping out, Nelson has successfully turned WeRateDogs into a monetized business that makes him six figures a year. This seems like everyone's dream, right? Money, dogs, and, well, more dogs.

WeRateDogs even has an online store where you can buy goofy, dog-themed products (for you and for your dog). If you haven't already, you should go check out the page! Hey, maybe even your dog will be featured (and get a 13/10 for being such a good pup).