200 people a day from around the world now add their awkward family photos to the Web site started by Mike Bender and Doug Chenack, www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Mike and Doug talked about the past year since they hit on the idea during a visit home and saw their Web site turn into an overnight, viral sensation. Today, they’re drawing 100,000 unique users daily and 15 million impressions a month and turning the photo blog into a profit machine with on-site advertising, movie tie-ins, merchandising and a soon-to-be-published book.

I’m at South By Southwest this week and it’s a nonstop showcase for Web publishers who've turned great ideas into good businesses, mostly using advertising as an element.

Awkward Family Photos started last spring when Mike got the idea during a visit with his dad and the two friends started scouring the Internet to see if it might be fodder for a successful photo blog. They found 10 family photos in a little searching that captured the idea of “awkward” and the site was born.

A friend at a radio station posted a link to their site, and within a week, they were shocked to have a million impressions, phone calls requesting interviews from national TV and magazines, photo submissions pouring in from around the world, offers for business deals from rock bands, greeting card companies and book publishers.

The key, they said, is the awkwardness. “We wanted to encourage people to give us their private family photos. We both loved the word awkward. There’s no negative connotation. Everyone has had an awkward moment and we’re awkward people.”