Since I rebought this blog I’ve tried to keep the post content solid and put out information about building a long term business, something I didn’t start doing for quite some time because I was always chasing the big thing. The main purpose of my company is to work on and setup more sites for my niche site empire, and although we’ll also be looking at one time income (like site flipping, for example) our primary focus is small money every day that will add up to a lot over time.

The problem with the “boring” way of making money is that people can’t really see the potential, with all the hundreds of other ways claiming to make you $50,000 per month or $20,000 per day. Why purchase an Adsense eBook that (realistically) tells you you have to work 3 months to start earning $1,000 per month when you have Product A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H telling you you could be making $15,000 per week with *insert method here* starting tomorrow?

So today’s post will show you the potential of what can be achieved with long term website development. I’ve done an interview with Trent Brownrigg, someone I’ve known for a year or so online. One of Trent’s primary business models is niche website development, and he also works on site flipping from time to time. Combine the two and you get a website that he sold for $48,000 – not a bad sum of money by any means, and a true example of the potential of starting a long term business.

The interview is shown below.

Hi Trent, thanks for agreeing to the interview. How did you get started in internet marketing?

TB: You are very welcome!

I actually got started with internet marketing sort of as a fluke. I had no idea what it even was and I certainly wasn’t searching for it or anything like that. I had just graduated college back in 2003 and was searching for a job in the major that I studied when I came across a work at home ad that looked interesting. It turned out to be some envelope stuffing scam or something like that so I never did it, but that was the point when I somehow started researching internet marketing and everything started from there.

What are the main ways in which you make money online?

TB: I like to spread out my income streams so I make money several different ways. I earn from affiliate marketing, network marketing, Adsense, selling advertising, site flipping, from my own products that I create, and sometimes from other ways. But it all boils down to SEO really. I say that because almost all the money I make from those various methods is from websites/blogs that I have gotten ranked highly in the search engines.

My basic strategy goes something like this… Find a niche, build a website, write some content, get backlinks, and repeat the process all over again.

You recently sold a niche website for $48,000. Could you walk us through the process, including the time it took setting that website up, your monetization methods and how you got backlinks?

TB: The site was in the work at home niche so it wasn’t really a “niche” website in the traditional sense of the word. It was actually the first real website I ever started. I had a few on free hosts before it that I threw up as a newbie because I didn’t know any better. But this one was the first site I bought a domain for and actually cared about. It started as a very simple one page website with some regular black text on a white background. Over time I added hundreds of pages and made it look a little better, but it was always a very ugly site. I used a WYSIWYG editor to build it and there was nothing fancy about it. Even to this day it’s still really ugly because the new owner hasn’t changed it much.

I was never worried about how it looked. All I cared about was getting it top search engine rankings so I focused on building backlinks. Regular link exchanges still worked really well when I started the site so I did a lot of them at first. Article marketing was also one of the main ways I built links to it. I am a big fan of article marketing because it has always worked for me. But I don’t do it the same way a lot of people do, which is blast out as many low quality articles as possible to a few top directories. Instead, I focus on writing high quality articles then I manually submit them to all the top directories and some average directories as well as submit them to any websites I can find in related niches that accept them. It takes a long time but it works, and I find that I can get a lot better results with far fewer articles that way.

I also did other things to get backlinks such as guest blogging, home page link partnerships, dofollow blog commenting, directory submissions, forum signatures, social sites, and other stuff like that. It also got a lot of natural links from other websites once it started ranking highly. I never purchased links or did any shady stuff that I had to hide. It was all done out in the open and for free. Pretty much the only money I ever spent on that site was for hosting and the yearly domain renewal. That’s how I do it with all my sites.

When I sold the site it ranked highly on Google for almost every major keyword phrase there is related to work at home, home based business, home business, and make money at home. And it still does.

It was monetized with affiliate links, Adsense, and paid advertising for the most part.

Listing it must have been hectic. Did you get a lot of interest, and what did you do to make your listing stand out?

TB: Listing it really wasn’t all that bad. I spent a couple days gathering all the information I would need for the auction, wrote it up, and listed it on Sitepoint (flippa). I didn’t do anything special to make the listing stand out other than write up a long description with all the information I could think of that anyone would want to know about the site.

I don’t really know how much interest it had because it wasn’t listed for long enough to see. It got a Buy It Now bid of $48,000 just two days after the listing went live. I also had a very well known internet marketing guru offer me $60,000 for it the next day but I had already started the transaction with the other buyer and I didn’t think it would be right to back out of the deal with him just because someone else offered me more money.

I was sad to see it go but it was time to move on. There are times when I do regret selling it but then I think about how nice the $48,000 pay day was!

How do you select a niche? It’s one of the hardest things for beginners, not knowing what to create a website about from the hundreds of thousands of niches out there. Could you give us some tips?

TB: There’s no real rhyme or reason to how I select a niche. It’s quite random. I’ll see something around the house or on TV or somewhere online that I think might be good for a niche site, so I write it down to research later.

Here’s a recent example: I used to hate coffee but on vacation a few months ago I started drinking it for whatever reason, and now I drink it every day. It got me thinking about how many people really do drink coffee and other drinks that are coffee based, such as cappuccino’s and other similar drinks. So, I started researching various related niches and came up with a bunch of ideas for websites. It turns out there are a lot of people looking to buy coffee makers, cappuccino machines, and other stuff like that.

I try to find niches where people are looking to buy rather than just looking for free information. Those are the ones that tend to be much more profitable. If it has some competition but not so much that it will be really hard to compete, and has enough of a market to be profitable then I’ll go after it.

Most people build sites in big niches like “Make Money Online” and simply can’t compete so they give up after a while. I have sites in that niche but I also have them in a lot of much smaller and easier niches to compete in. Finding a good niche isn’t very difficult. There are things all around you that could be turned into profitable websites. You just have to be on the lookout for them and do enough research to see if they are worth going after.

What is your opinion on some of the shadier ways of making money online, especially blackhat programs?

TB: I’ve never done them so I don’t really have much of an opinion on them. I guess I would just say to stay away from that stuff. There are plenty of legitimate ways to make money online that are much better in the long run so there’s no reason to go for the quick buck with blackhat methods.

Have you ever considered doing a large product launch in the internet marketing niche?

TB: Yeah, I have considered it in the past but not for a long time. That used to be one of my goals several years ago but now I’ve been an internet marketer long enough to realize it’s not something I want to do. I’ve done a few smaller information products over the years that made me a lot of money but it’s just not my style so I quit doing it. Not saying I will never create a product again because I probably will, but going for a huge product launch of “the next big thing” just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.

Thanks for your time Trent!

You’re welcome! It was my pleasure. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about what I do.

Hope you guys enjoyed the interview!

When I bought this blog from the old owner, interviews were one of the things that were quite popular on here (check out the category Interviews). I want to continue doing them, maybe not as often but I’d like to keep them around. If you like the interviews, do let me know.

And make sure you check out Trent Brownrigg – there’s links to a few of his sites that have solid information that will help you.

This is probably one of the most in-depth email interviews I’ve ever conducted (or received!) where Rhys reveals some brilliant golden nuggets. Also, be sure to check out his upcoming product Mafioso Marketing 2.

Enjoy

——-

How did you first get involved with Internet marketing?

I absolutely hate it when people ask this question to me. Most Internet marketers have this amazing, fascinating story of how they first got involved with Internet marketing, and mine is quite a bit different. My story is quite embarrassing. Now, I first started Internet marketing when I was around 12 or 13, and I was just an average, teenage boy on the Internet that loved Myspace.com. You all remember those days, right? Ha-ha. Now, on MySpace, you used to be able to put images on there, on your page. You used to put videos, widgets, and all that type of stuff. One day I was searching on Google for some images to put on my MySpace page.

Now, don’t ask how, but somehow, in those search-engine results, I came across the Marketplace at Sitepoint.com, and on there was someone selling a site that gave away these MySpace images. This site was making one or two dollars a day, something like that, and it was for sale for 50 bucks. I can remember saving up my pocket money at the time to purchase the site, and I did. And I’ll tell you now; I thought I was going to be a billionaire in the next year. I was sitting there with my one or two dollars a day, absolutely loving it. I could go down to the shop and afford any packet of sweets I wanted. You know those times where you look back in your life and think, what was I thinking!?… that is one of those moments.

Now, over a period of time, I obviously had to learn how to make more money from my site. The reality of becoming a millionare from that site, was thrown out the window. I couldn’t live on one or two dollars a day, unfortunately. I was searching around and came across the Warrior Forum. And this place was, really, one of the main turning points in my Internet-marketing career, so to speak. This is where I learned a lot of the stuff I know now, where I met a lot of really, really good Internet marketers, and it’s kind of grown from there. I’ve learned tons different methods over the years, failed a lot, and gained a lot as well. And now I am where I am now, owning a big Internet-marketing business at the age of 17.

How were you able to grow your business into a six-figure empire in such a short period of time?

To be honest, the reason why I would say I was able to grow my business so fast in a short period of time, was for the simple fact that I was able to set goals. Now, I know nearly every person in Internet marketing and other niches set goals. But the problem is that people set goals that are really, really high. For example, they might say “I want to own a million-dollar house”. Now, having goals like this is vital and really important, but the only problem when you have goals this big, is that it takes so long to achieve them.

When you’re going for weeks and months on end without achieving anything because you’ve only got that one main goal, you really get let down by yourself. You think that you are doing something wrong. You feel like you are getting nowhere. It stresses you out. These are problems that you don’t need in a business.

Not many people realize, but these stresses majorly affect your work. Because when you are stressed, your brain can’t be in full throttle. It affects your abilities to write or record videos properly etc. So what you need to do is set small, achievable goals that slowly get bigger, to get to your main goal. So for example, my main goal might be to purchase a massive house. But first, my smaller goal is to say, own a nice but cheap little car, then I want to own a $50,000 car, then I want to go and upgrade to an even more expensive car. All before I reach my main goal.

What happens then, is these goals slowly happen, so you are like, yes, this works, I am able to achieve my goals; therefore I am going to really stick into this. I am going to really try my hardest and I am really going to try and succeed in Internet marketing.

Apart from building a business correctly, the mindset is something that is vital to growing your business. It DOES affect your work.

What are your main revenue streams?

My main revenue streams change all the time, due to the fact easier/faster ways of making money come out all the time. At the moment though, my main revenue streams are membership sites and building sites to sell in the future. Now, first, I just want to talk about membership sites. They seem to have kind of a bad name about them: that they’re going to take a lot of work, you’ve got to keep on thinking of new content, and you’ve got tons and tons of support to answer. And the fact is that it’s not like that at all. Memberships are really; really easy to do once you know how to do them correctly. And I do actually go about talking how I do this in Mafioso Marketing 2.

Personally, I have some membership sites that make me $1,000‑$2,000 a month, which I don’t touch. I don’t do anything with them. The work is all done for me. I get all the support tasks done for me and all the content delivered for me, and I don’t touch it all. Just think, if you have a membership site which is making $2,000 a month, that’s $24,000 a year. Requiring no work, its something that I recommended everyone do.

The other way that I’m making money, like I said, is from building websites to sell in the future. These sites don’t necessarily have to be in Internet Marketing either. I actually sold one of my sites for around $30,000 that I’ve been working on for the last 6 months. All the site did was deliver people “funny videos” every day. It was a fun website to build, for obvious reasons.

Again, I do talk about how I do this in Mafioso Marketing 2.

What is Mafioso Marketing 2?

Mafioso Marketing 2 revolves around the famous “MIF” formula, which stands for Monthly, Instant, and Future. There are tons and tons of products online that teach you to make money. The only problem with this is that not every product is suitable for everyone. That’s a simple fact.

You might purchase a product for $67, you scroll down to the third page, and you’ve got to invest another $1,000 before it’s even worthwhile. That’s $67 down the bin. You go on and buy another product for $97, and then you find out to do this one you’ve got to have 10 hours of work put into it every single day for the next two years. Again, that’s $97 down the bin. And all these $67 and $97, and maybe $1,000 or $2,000, they all add up and slowly but surely you are going to run out of money and not have a business.

So what I wanted to do is create a product where, if one method didn’t work for you, you could just scroll down the eBook and find a completely new method of making money online. And that’s what I did with Mafioso Marketing 2, using the “MIF” formula: Monthly, Instant, Future. In Mafioso Marketing 2, I explain a number of different ways to make money in a monthly income-way, instant‑income way, and a future‑income way.

Mafioso Marketing 2 is really one of the products that is going to really, really help you this year in making an online business, because you’re only paying a one‑time payment to get numerous different methods. And also, in the download page area, I do actually offer a number of numerous bonuses that are also going to make you a ton more money as well.

What is the best way to go about making “instant” profit online?

This is most probably THE most asked question that I get, because a lot of people are just starting out in Internet marketing, they haven’t got hundreds and thousands of dollars to spend, and they just want a nice, quick way to make instant profit online. Now, when people ask me this, I don’t tell them a method on how to actually make instant profit. What I tell them to do is to go and build an email list, because building an email list is most probably your most valuable asset that you’ll ever have in your online business.

With a mailing list, you can literally make instant profit on demand when you want it. And not only can you make instant profit; you could also make instant monthly profit. Because, with a mailing list, you could promote a membership site, of your own or as an affiliate, and then, instantly, you’re going to start getting membership commissions. And this is just killer. Sometimes I can promote a membership site and get like 40 people to sign up to a membership site, and that pays me, say, $47, for three, four months.

So, to be honest, I wouldn’t necessarily say that you should go around, first off, looking for an instant profit method to making money online. What you should first do is go around looking for ways to build a mailing list so that you can make instant profit on demand or monthly profit on demand.

Now, I’m not going to just leave that question there and say, “Build a mailing list.” I am actually going to tell you one of my favorite ways to build a mailing list. Now, personally, I know of hundreds of different ways that you can build a mailing list. You can do PPC, you can do ad swaps, etc. But the one that I recommend is doing giveaways, because they are ultimately the best way, when you’re starting out, to build a mailing list. You don’t have to pay for them. All you have to do is have a product of some sort, or a service.

To keep updated on when these giveaway sites are running, do a quick search on Google.

What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs out there looking to start their own business?

Being young and being in business is kind of different to being older and being in business. When you’re younger, some people do seem to look down on you. They kind of think that you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing, especially when you talk to friends and family about it.

They’re like, “Hmm. Are you sure you’re not selling something you shouldn’t be?”

My advice would be to just do what you’re best at, and carry on doing it no matter what anyone else says. Don’t let anyone else’s opinions or what they say get in your way. When somebody says something nasty or someone comments about how young you are and say “Are you sure you’re not doing something wrong?” just tell them to go away, in a nice way. Just say, “I’m running a business here. If you don’t believe me, that’s up to you.” Just be strict but firm with them, OK? Obviously, don’t swear at them and tell them all the names under the sun, but just don’t let them get in your way.

Also, you need to remember that you are trying to build a business. You’re not in it just for the money. Because I know a lot of people can go and just focus on the money first thing, and then, once they’ve got all the money, they’re stuck, they’ve got nowhere to go, because they haven’t got a business. Make sure that you build a business first, because once you’ve got the business foundation there, tons more money is going to come from that.

Thanks for the interview Rhys. Any final comments?

Keep up all the good work. I’ve been hearing a lot of good stuff about all the people out there doing and starting their online business. Like I said in the last question, just don’t let anyone stand in your way. Do what you’re best at and keep at it.

If you’re interested in purchasing my Mafioso Marketing 2 product, then you can go to the website below.

—> Click Here To Go To Mafioso Marketing 2

This is why I decided to interview Richard Binhammer (@richardatdell) who is one of the key people responsible for social media at Dell. You might have read a lot recently about how they were able to make $3 million dollars last year – just using Twitter alone! – so I’m sure it will be a great case study to work with

And what you’ll find is… there’s not much difference, whether you’re a Fortune 100 or sole trader. The rules of social media remains the same – it’s all about connecting with people. Enjoy

1. What is Dell’s main objective or goal for getting into social media marketing? What is Dell trying to achieve here?

I cannot say it any better than Michael Dell did in a Business Week article in the Fall of 2007:

“These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not. Do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from them. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.”

You might find this Q&A with Michael and Shel Israel to provide even more context and background:
http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2008/02/michael-dell-ph.html

2. How has Dell managed to turn its brand around by engaging in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and simply listening?

Our brand has always been about direct connections and customer relationships, as well as all about the power of the web. I think listening was a first step….a critical step, but so is learning, as well as engaging and having conversations, sharing perspectives and information….in all directions. I think the social networking sites help us be even more of who we aspire to be as a company.

3. How does Dell use Twitter as a marketing tool to help promote their products? How much has Dell made through Twitter?

We’ve been involved in Twitter virtually since it launched about two years ago. Current Dell involvement in Twitter includes:

• Direct connections between Dell and customers – listen learn and engage in direct connections with customers. There are ~ 200 Dell employees using Twitter to connect with customers for technical support, sharing information (@dellservergeek), collecting ideas from customers for the next generation of net books/Dell minis (@dell_mini), connecting with gamers (@JohnBatDell) and much more
• Subscribe to Dell info – customers can subscribe and get Dell news from our blogs/Ideastorm Twitter ( see them at dell.com/twitter)
• Dell offers from businesses – some of our businesses, notably Dell Outlet, publish their latest offers on Twitter. As you know, we’ve attributed ~ $3 million in revenue for Dell outlet from @Delloutlet Twitter presence, with more than 1,000,000 followers, and is a “recommended” Twitter presence to follow by Twitter. It occasionally makes “Twitter-only” offers available to followers. Also, some people following @Delloutlet offers have come over to www.dell.com and bought new equipment to the total of $1 million. You can learn more here http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/06/11/delloutlet-surpasses-2-million-on-twitter.aspx

You can find more about about Dell businesses on Twitter here: www.dell.com/twitter.

4. What is IdeaStorm? Does it help increase revenue?

Ideastorm is not about revenue….Ideastorm is about the wisdom of the crowds and innovation. It is about listening to what our customers want from their products and services or what they want from Dell . Dell’s Ideastorm is all about feedback and ideas from customers for us. We have implemented more than 340 of them in 2 years.

5. To what extent has the use of social networking tools (such as Twitter, Facebook, corporate blogging, IdeaStorm) helped increase the top/bottom-line for Dell? How effective has those tools and tactics been?

Well $3 million on Twitter answers part of that question, not to mention the numerous personal requests those of us involved in social media answer about products or services, many of them ultimately resulting in sales. Of course, it is always nice for us too when we run into Dell fans, actively engaging with their own networks and friends.

But equally important is the opportunity social networking allows all of us at Dell to further our direct relationships with customers, to listen learn and engage….make improvements to our business and just keep making Dell a stronger and better business all the time. It’s like having our customers walk the halls of the Dell everyday

6. What are the effects Dell’s social media efforts has had on things such as revenue, engagement level, brand mentions etc?

Dell’s social media efforts have been helpful in a variety of ways and are a component of what we consider to be effective business. As has been reported elsewhere we have seen negative commentary decline by around 30% points. We have identified processes we need to change or things we need to fix, sooner than might have otherwise come to our attention. And yes….we measure all kinds of things and have various metrics.

More importantly, we continue to refine and work on measurement. I think moving forward some of the traditional metrics you mention may still hold weight, but not the same weight. For example, if someone from Dell tweets some news about our expanded recycling efforts, what is the significance of the retweets by others we may not even be associated with? How about links to Facebook page or direct2dell post, and what about the number of times that gets shared by others? I think those may tell you more than some of the items you mention – longer term, anyway.

7. Is Dell considering adopting other social networking tools such as Twitter reps, live streaming etc to further engage with customers and provide better support?

At Dell we are constantly looking to be where our customers are and we are experimenting and trying various things….all the time. It might take the form of better support, or connecting with customers, or sharing information and “accepted solutions” in the forums, or expanding ratings and reviews…time will tell

8. What are some of the main issues or weaknesses Dell is currently facing with its social media campaigns? How are you overcoming those problems?

I think the fact is we learn every day and constantly seek to improve. I don’t see this as “social media campaigns” as I noted before….it is about much more than the latest campaign when it is about connecting directly with customers, relationships and listening to the customer voice.

I think there is a challenge for any organization to have social media permeate in all the right places it needs to be …and we are working on that. I also think it’s a challenge to get it right. Just because Twitter or facebook is the latest and greatest does not necessarily mean someone or a part of the business *has* to be there. I go back to depends on business objectives and what you are trying to achieve.

9. What trends do you see in social media in the future? What new opportunities do you see that Dell will be able to exploit and benefit from?

More specific measurements and different quantifiable results.

I think social media opens opportunities we have not yet recognized yet for improving and building customer *relationships* through human and direct connections…that go way beyond traditional thoughts about CRM and relate more to community.

10. What advice do you have for small businesses looking to integrate social media into their marketing campaigns?

Listen first. Check out the resources readily available to you…give it time.

And, thank you Stanley for the opening, I am biased but check out: Social media for Small Business, powered by Dell on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/dellsocialmedia

He’s also the star behind Wine Library TV, an online video blog about wine that attracts over 90,000 views a day, as well as the author of the forthcoming book, Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion.

While the interview was pretty short, Gary was able to deliver some one-line golden nuggets (which he’s known for). So check it out

You can either listen to the audio version below or read the transcript. Enjoy

Right Click Here To Download The Interview (MP3)

(some mild profanity)

—

Stanley: Gary, start off by telling us a bit about yourself. Have you always been invovled with entrepreneurship/business/marketing from a young age?

Gary: Absolutely. At the end of the day, it’s a DNA play, right? You are who you are. I was selling lemonade in seven different lemonade-stand locations before I understood what business was. I was always selling baseball cards and other things of that nature.

So I’ve been on this kick from day one. It’s who I am, it’s in my blood. I’m a story teller. I love to tell stories about brands. I love to tell stories, period. I like painting pictures through the words, and that’s what I do.

Stanley: Do you think entrepreneurship is in the blood?

Gary: I do in a lot of ways. I definitely feel that people are born with some level of entrepreneurial skills, some more than others. For me, it’s definitely a big part of who I am and part of the way I interact and view the world.

Stanley: How did you first get involved with your father’s business with Wine Library?

Gary: He dragged my ass to the store! I had no choice! I was made to work at the store, and that was fine. I didn’t love it at first, I cried a lot. But at the end of the day it was what it was and I started getting passionate about wine. So even though it started off a little rough, because I wanted to run my baseball card business instead, it definitely ended up being a good thing.

Stanley: What did you initially do at Wine Library before the whole Internet thing?

Gary: I basically stocked shelves, then eventually became a cashier. Then I made signs and finally started selling wine on the floor to every customer that walked in, so I was a sales person.

Stanley: What was the experience like and how do you think it would eventually help you when you came to create Wine Library TV and get involved with e-commerce and social media?

Gary: Retail is hard—12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. This helped made all of this work much easier. It made me tougher and created a thick skin for business. It’s given me a work ethic and is definitely a foundation of my skill.

Stanley: How did you first get involved with e-commerce online?

Gary: I was in my friend’s dorm room, sophomore year of college. They dialed up the Internet [makes sounds of a dial-up connection] and the next thing I know is I see this shit. In an hour, I’m trying to sell baseball cards while all of my friends were trying to hook up with girls on the Internet.

Once again, entrepreneur glasses, right? You see something and you view it as a business. That’s what I did, it’s part of who I am, it’s how I roll, and it’s what I ended up doing. Immediately, I started pitching my dad for a year to build WineLibrary.com as a retail Internet website.

Stanley: What was the site like in its early stages?

Gary: A piece of shit. It was classic HTML garbage. I couldn’t ship yet to different states, so it was more informational. Slowly, but surely, we started getting into e-commerce and 1999 was when we started really pushing the envelope.

Stanley: Before there was social media, what marketing and promotional strategies did you use to help grow the business?

Gary: Traditional media—newspapers, magazines, radio—all of the things that have people’s attention. Now that’s all changed and all the eyeballs are heading in one direction, and that platform is the Internet, whether it’s mobile, streaming, video or written words. It’s the playing platform for the brand building business.

Stanley: How did you first get into social media?

Gary: I feel like, in a lot of ways, YouTube and Flickr were two of the early sites that made me realize how people communicated. In 2002-03, I started to see that blogging was very fascinating. I just started seeing different opportunities and things going on.

Obviously, for myself, Twitter in late 2006 was a huge opportunity. Facebook was out and I knew about it, but it was more for college kids and I didn’t want to be the creepy old guy selling wine. I feel like probably in 2004-05 I started dabbling with Flickr/MySpace and things of that nature.

Stanley: Did that prompt you to start your video blog, Wine Library TV?

Gary: My developer started watching ZeFrank, the show, and that was a big early video blog hit and I realized that it was really cool. I thought what he was doing was really neat and it gave me the idea to do a wine version with my own style.

Stanley: How did you start? Did you just get a camera and start talking?

Gary: Yes. That’s basically it. I just knew that it was what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be involved in the trenches, I wanted to create engagement and that’s what I did.

Stanley: What do you think was the key that got Wine Library TV to take off and go viral?

Gary: I think it was good content and a massive amount of market hustle on the back end. That combo is the combo for success. That’s what I did.

Stanley: Content is king, but sooner or later, no matter how much effort you put into creating the content, there’s got to be some promotion to get it out. What was your promotion?

Gary: I always say content is king and marketing is the queen, and she runs the household. My plan was to just get in the trenches, answer every e-mail, live in forums, leave blog posts. One step at a time. It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. That was it.

Stanley: What are some obstacles you faced when you first got started with the video blog?

Gary: I have no idea. It’s not how my brain works. I’m sure there were plenty. Maybe the wine industry wasn’t ready for that kind of style, but I just kept plugging along and hustling and never really looked back.

I didn’t pay attention to the obstacles. I just kept my eye on the prize and that was it. I’m building something here, a lot of people won’t get it, that’s fine. I’m very hungry to succeed, build a viewership, a culture, a movement. That’s what I try to do.

Stanley: You talked about hustle and I’ve heard you mention that before in your keynote speeches etc but what do you really mean when you say “hustle”?

Gary: I mean that most people underestimate work and I think that’s a huge mistake. It blows me away that people don’t realize how much of the overall success is based on working extremely hard. That, to me, is a huge missed opportunity for a lot of people and I continue to try to talk about it, to open up people’s minds to: “It’s not going to happen in one day. You’re going to have to work really hard and that’s the bottom line.”

Stanley: I think it was Diana Rankin who once said, “It takes 20 years of hard work to become an overnight success.” Would you agree with that?

Gary: I think there’s a lot of truth to those kinds of statements. On some level, it matters on your skill set, but at the end of the day, absolutely.

Stanley: Would you say that the first time being on the Conan O’Brien show was a tipping point for your business?

Gary: I think it definitely didn’t hurt. It built a lot of street cred on the Internet for me. It was almost what happened on the Net that day and the next day that was maybe more important. Because there were so many link backs, so many people watched it and passed it on. That kind of stuff.

Stanley: How did you get on the show in the first place?

Gary: They cold emailed me. They said, “We’re the Conan producers. We’d like to have you on. Are you interested?” I said, “No.” Just kidding! I said, “Absolutely!” and that was it.

Stanley: Do you think traditional, mainstream media is better or do you prefer social media? Which one do you think is more effective?

Gary: Whichever one gets you more eyeballs. I think new media is more cost effective than traditional media, but there are still a lot of eyeballs watching television and that has value. At the end of the day, it’s always going to be eyeballs. We’re all in the eyeball business, and I continue to try to be in places where there are eyeballs and I can get some work.

Stanley: Which would you prefer: Getting on the front page of, let’s say, The New York Times or the front page of Digg or StumbleUpon?

Gary: Probably The New York Times. I used to say Digg or StumbleUpon but the fact of the matter is the traffic is not necessarily relevant or sticky. Maybe StumbleUpon more than Digg, even—and I love Kevin Rose and I love Digg—but my experience has been that The New York Times has such brand equity that it leads to other opportunities.

Stanley: What do you mean by brand equity?

Gary: What I mean by that is, to me, brand is everything, like every single person’s brand, every single consumer products brand. Everything you’re protecting and everything you’re trying to build is “the” brand. Even though The New York Times is not a good business anymore, the brand still has a lot of power. So an endorsement on the front page still means something, even though the business itself is far less exciting than, say, the opportunities that StumbleUpon has in front of it.

Stanley: How instrumental do you think Wine Library TV has been to help grow Wine Library into a $60 million business?

Gary: It’s been a huge factor, especially because, as I phased out of day-to-day retail with Wine Library, it’s become more and more important that the social media aspects have picked up the slack. Before, I was the driving force to the business. Now it’s social media itself, and the show itself. It’s made me scale.

Stanley: Do you see Wine Library TV as a marketing tool to help sell wine or to enhance the brand. Or is it both?

Gary: It was strictly built for one reason: For me to be able to build brand equity that would lead to other entrepreneurial opportunities. It was never about selling more wine. It was always about changing the culture of wine, creating good content and discussion in an industry that needs it.

Stanley: What was the biggest mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

Gary: I don’t know. There’s something inside me that doesn’t allow the ability to really digest negativity or what I’ve done wrong. I’m sure I’ve done a million things wrong. I don’t really learn necessarily from doing things wrong, or maybe I do and I just don’t dwell on that, even to a point of being aware of it. That’s it. I don’t even know what else to say. It’s the way I’m built; I just don’t know anything different.

Stanley: You have about 700,000 followers on Twitter. What do you think is the right way to interact and engage with your followers?

Gary: I think one of the important things is to be authentic, whatever that means. I use Twitter quite a bit as a messaging tool to people about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it—different things like that. I do a lot of my interaction on email and instant messenger and DM.

I don’t publicly add people a whole lot. Other people do. I just think it’s different for everybody. I think you should work at the rate at which you’re comfortable, instead of the way I do just because I have a lot of followers.

Stanley: Do you think listening is important?

Gary: Listening is the whole game—that’s business. It’s all about listening and then giving. Nothing else matters. Your point of view is irrelevant. You need to have the pulse of society and what they want, and then you have to basically execute what they’re looking for.

Stanley: Do you ever monitor your brand by typing your own name on Google or Twitter search?

Gary: Every single day! It’s absolutely what I do. It’s the game.

Stanley: Wouldn’t some people call that egoistic or narcissistic?

Gary: I’m sure, at some level. I just think it’s more about paying attention to and caring about what other people are saying. To me, it just comes down to: If you’re listening, you have the ability to execute and give people what they want.

I think way too many people don’t listen, and if they think I’m looking up my name for vanity, they’re just not aware of what’s actually going on here.

Stanley: Do you think social media tools have been effective for corporate brands, like Dell? Do you think they’re using Twitter correctly?

Gary: They’ve sold $2 million worth of stuff, right? The funny thing, and I think it’s very fascinating is that I don’t understand, in any shape or form, Stanley, how people don’t understand that the game is changing. Platforms and media consumption have fundamentally changed and eyeballs are shifting. Everything has changed.

When television fall in the next three years, everybody will understand. It’s just laughable to me to even think that people would debate that social media is not good for everybody, from the lowest point of the individual to the highest point of the biggest company in the world.

Stanley: Do you ever plan on taking Wine Library TV to mainstream media?

Gary: It’s conceivable, but it’s going to have to be a really, really sweet deal and I’m not sure if anybody is ready to go there.

Stanley: What trends do you see in social media in the future?

Gary: More transparency, more interaction, more connection between users.

Stanley: What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs who are getting started in business, Internet marketing and social media?

Gary: Passion! It’s all about passion. Find the stuff you like the most and execute.

Stanley: Speaking of passion, why don’t you tell us about your upcoming book, Crush It?

Gary: I basically wrote, in my opinion, the blueprint of how to go about finding your passion, thinking about why your passion could be monetized, and the details of how to do it. I think I looked it at a very high level and I brought it to the very low level.

So I was at 50,000 feet swirling in the air and then ground level. I think that’s the important thing. Never be caught in the middle – never. I think you’ve got to look at it from the biggest level and then find out how to do it and execute in the trenches.

Stanley: I’ve got a question from Twitter: “What would you do instead of online video were to vanish or be banned today?”

Gary: I would be doing exactly what I’m doing right now, which is building VaynerMedia, building out other Internet properties. I’d leverage the written word if that communication was available. I would just adjust.

At the end of the day, I’m not emotional about anything. It comes down to one thing: Whatever the platform it is that’s executed and whatever is working, I’m going to figure out how to use it.

Stanley: A new platform which is really hot right now is mobile. Do you plan on going mobile any time soon, like with an iPhone application?

Gary: It’s the new playing field – the end. I’ve got to be a part of it and we’re looking at it very heavily. We’ve been slow to the game. I had an iPhone app that’s 90% done. I bullshitted and I haven’t executed. I deserve to lose if I do lose, but we’re looking at it very heavily.

Stanley: What are some future projects you have with regards to going mobile?

Gary: Corkd.com is my social wine network. We’re looking at mobile and we continue to view every single thing that’s going on in the world as a mobile play. Mobile has to be part of every strategy. If it’s not, it’s not a basic, smart decision, in my opinion. Mobile is a must – a requirement.

Stanley: You’re obviously a very passionate and confident person. Where do you get the confidence that one day, all of this will pay off? What drives you to succeed?

Gary: I come from a humble beginning as an immigrant. I’ve got a great family life, amazing parents. I’m massively competitive DNA-wise. I want to achieve big things. I feel a huge sense of responsibility for all the luckiness I have.

Stanley: Gary, thank you very much for taking the time out to do this interview. Do you have any final comments or let people know where they can find you online?

Gary: My final comment is I appreciate your hustle to get me on this interview, Stanley, and I wish you nothing but the best.

Stanley: Where can people find you?

Gary: No I’m good. I’m sure they can find it. I’m promoting myself plenty. I’m sure you’ll link it up and mention it. The bottom line is if I’m putting out good shit, they’ll find me and that’s what I’m focused on.

Stanley: I also want to plug your book Crush It: Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. When is that coming out?

Gary: October 13, 2009.

Stanley: All right. People can preorder the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I believe?

Gary: IndieBound, lots of different places, absolutely.

Stanley: Thanks again, Gary, for taking the time to do this interview. We really appreciate it.

Gary: Stay well.

—

You can check out Gary’s blog over at http://www.garyvaynerchuk.com and follow him on Twitter @garyvee

1. How did you first get started with internet marketing? And eventually site flipping?

Hey Stanley. I got started in internet marketing when I was 15 year old. After reading ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki, I realized that I need to make a life changing decision and I decided to make money on the internet.

My first business on the internet is by selling customized stuff on eBay and I wasn’t doing very good. After realizing I need to move on, I bought the late Corey Rudl’s “Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business On The Internet” which is a home study course. I started to get into niche marketing and made some money out of it selling $97 eBooks.

Then, there was this blogging trend when everyone has a blog and I decided to get into the blogging business as well. Unfortunately, I am never a good blogger and decided to sell those blogs away and I was shocked to be able to sell 5 blogs for a combine amount of $3,000.

And that’s how I got into the site flipping business.

2. What was your most successful site flip? What niche was it in? How much time and money did it take?

My most successful flip is really a fitness and diet membership site that I sold back in 2008 for $12,000. It’s not a lot of money but I only took less than 10 days to complete the website and recruited over hundreds of members that will pay the recurring fees.

After seeing the result of that flip, I managed to duplicate the success over and over again.

3. What types of sites should people flip? What types of sites should people avoid flipping?

There are a lot of sites that people can flip – from forums to blogs. I personally recommend people who do not know anything about site flipping to flip turnkey script sites. There are a lot of turnkey script sellers on the internet and sometimes you can even buy them for as low as $10 and best of all, you can use the same script over and over again on different domain names. Plus, it’s very noob-friendly.

The type of sites that people should avoid flipping is really…none. I personally believe that every site can be flipped. Even if the website is the worst website on the internet, you can develop the site for a few days and that website can be sold for a higher price that you could imagine.

4. How do you find the right niche?

I always pick the hottest niches like health, dating and money niches. I suggest newbies to go into the hot niches too because in hot niches – it’s impossible for you to go wrong.

Otherwise, you can always go to Clickbank and check out what’s hot and what’s not. If a lot of people are buying that stuff in that niche – you can always be sure that that’s the niche that you want to get into.

5. What is the number one mistake people make when it comes to site flipping?

There are actually 2 number one mistakes that people always make.

The first mistake is pricing their sites ridiculously high. I’ve seen some sites that have no traffic, no earnings and bad designs without any history selling for $1,000. For example, not long ago, I just saw a plain blog with plain designs, 6 blog posts, no earnings and no traffic was listed for sale for $450. Of course, that blog was not sold.

The second mistake is skipping the basics. You have no idea how many of newbie site flippers actually skip the foundation of site flipping. You need to learn to start from scratch so you know how to outsource the works easier and cheaper as well as how to build the best sites.

6. Many of the readers here at TUK are bloggers. What are the keys to flipping a blog?

Blog designs.

Blog’s value has dropped ever since the CPA marketing trend took over. But generally, if you can have a blog that makes $100 per month (easily attainable), good theme design, powered by WordPress – your blog should have a value of more than $1,000.

7. How do you grow your website after you’ve purchased it or built it from scratch? When is the right time to “flip”?

The best way to grow websites is to prepare a schedule of when you want to bring traffic to it and also a plan on how to make money of it.

For example, if you bought a product site which sells eBook in the internet marketing niche (big niche in the “money” niche), you can plan out how much you want to run PPC on it. The most effective methods to quickly grow it are to leverage other people’s mailing lists and forum marketing. You can run a WSO (Warrior Special Offer) on the Warrior Forum and after making some sales – you could flip it for big profits.

The right time to flip is very subjective as it depends on the market and types of sites which we will cover in The Site Flipping Code.

8. How are you able to demand the best prices when selling your websites? How do you write the best ad copy for your website listing in the marketplace?

Demanding a good price for your site is easy if you know what the main selling points of your websites are. Most of the time, you need to know what the buyers want in a site. Most buyers obviously love sites that are generating good earnings (passive would be even better) as well as good design. Some go for long term potential.

Another great way to demand good price is to increase the number of bids in your auction listing. The more bids you see, the higher chance that the buyers will want to “buy-it-now” bid your site. Of course, you will need to know how to fish for more bids. One method that I like to use to fish more bids is to give away review copy of whatever that I am selling on my site to bidders only. This prompt interested buyers to bid.

Writing a good copy is essential but a listing copy is very different from a sales page copy. The main thing that you need to remember when constructing a listing copy is to be straight to the point and as simple as possible. Lesser words are always better because trust me, no one wants to read a six thousand words listing copy. Use some basic HTML (if you don’t know HTML like me, get NVU which is a free HTML editor) to give the headline and sub-headline some striking colors like dark red or blue. Make sure you use paragraphing wisely.

9. Tell us a bit about The Site Flipping Code. Who do you think this product is for?

The Site Flipping Code was born when Jani G (my business partner for this project) knew that they were a lot of people approaching me to ask me questions related to site flipping as well as paying me big bucks just to coach them on how to make money from site flipping.

Because of this incredible demand, we decided to create The Site Flipping Code which is both of me and Jani’s biggest ever launch.

The Site Flipping Code is really the best product on site flipping on the internet currently in our opinions because it is broken down into many different courses that cater people who have no idea how to make money online to experts who know how to program a powerful website. Most importantly, the theories and strategies that are outline in the course are proven to be effective after we went through many trials and errors that took us over 6 months to test!

10. Thanks for your time. Do you have any final comments?

You’re welcome Stanley.

I know a lot of people have yet to take action even though they want to make money on the internet. My advice is, just do it.

Just take action and do it. If the outcome is successful, then, that’s great because you can make money…and maybe even lots of money. If the outcome is a failure, you still gain something…experiences and lessons. A lesson that will teach you not to repeat the same mistake again. So, there’s really nothing to lose if you take action.

I started out with nothing. My parents do not believe in me. My friends think I’m lying. My teachers think I’m crazy. But so what? You shouldn’t care about what people think about what you think. You know what you want and it’s your own destiny to pursue it.

Thanks everybody.

Update: Great follow-up responses posted by Desmond below in the comments section

It’s just fitting to interview a successful young entrepreneur for a young entrepreneur blog. Trust me, Carl knows his stuff when it comes to making money online. So I highly suggest you to go grab a drink and listen to this interview (43 minutes).  The stuff he delivered are pure gold and can literally make you thousands of dollars. Some highlights include:

• How Carl got started with blogging
• How to get to #1 for the ultra-competitive term “make money online” on Google
• Top 3 ways to build quality backlinks to your website
• Ways to monetize and make money from blogging
• How to convert first-time readers into loyal subscribers
• Getting on national TV & newspapers
• The importance of getting a mentor
• How to come up with blog post ideas
• How to balance between school and business
• The system behind “The New Article Marketing” that generated 500 visitors in one day
• And more!

You can either listen to the audio version below or read the transcript. Enjoy

Right Click Here To Download Audio Version (MP3)

—

Stanley: I’m here with Carl Ocab from CarlOcab.com. So Carl, how did you get started with the whole blogging thing?

Carl: It started on a sunny Sunday afternoon when my cousin and I were playing this certain online game. We’re were playing it for five hours straight and then suddenly someone knocked on the door and it happened to be my dad. He said to us, “Come on, guys. You’ve been playing that game for like the whole day.”

Back then I was around 12 years old. We have to spend our own allowance to buy the Internet pre-paid card because broadband was not yet popular here in the Philippines. On top of that, we had to pay for the card for certain online games so we basically just threw away our allowance for that game.

My dad joked with us, “What do you get from playing that game all day? Although it’s okay to play but the whole day you’re wasting your time and money.” He asked if there was a better thing to do because it was summer and we had the whole day to ourselves. At that time my dad was doing some basic Internet marketing and he introduced us to one field, which is blogging.

The next day we started. We threw up a couple of blogs on Blogger.com and then copy and pasted content from other sites and then plastered a couple of ads inside. In the next week or so we were able to create around 20 blogs. Then we showed it to my dad and he said, “You’ve basically wasted your time. You should have just played instead of copying and pasting content and making these kinds of blogs.”

Later on, bloggers spotted those blogs and they were deleted. It was just a waste of time. After a month, my dad bought me my first domain which is about the game my cousin and I were playing. We installed WordPress on that using Fantastico and then added a forum.

We were just posting everything we knew about that game—tips, tricks, hacks—basically everything we knew about the game. We suddenly noticed that our search rankings on Google were naturally coming and then people were starting to comment and contribute in the forums. After a couple of weeks, we started seeing clicks in our AdSense account and that’s where it started. After three months, we received our first AdSense check.

Then I started to think of other stuff to do because the last blog we had the earnings started to plateau. I started thinking about diversifying. I thought of a new domain and that’s when CarlOcab.com was born.

Stanley: What year was that?

Carl: It was February 4, 2007. Basically, I was just blogging about personal stuff—what happens in school or, “I saw my crush in school today and she talked to me.” After a week, I noticed that no one was reading my blog. Of course, who would care what a 13 year old has to say about his personal life.

Using my knowledge from before, I looked for another niche. I was blogging before about technology, the new iPods and about health although I switched again because I didn’t know anything about health. Then I switched to very weird niches like a celebrity niche about Britney Spears being bald.

Come on, a 13-year-old boy would blog about celebrity news or gossip news? I kept browsing and I passed this make money online blog that has a little banner that says, “Advertise here for $50 a month.” It struck me because $50 a month was more than my online gaming blog was making every month.

What if I start my own make money online blog and share my journey, my vast experiences? That’s when CarlOcab.com was born. After a couple of days, I posted my goal which is actually to be number one for the keyword “make money online” on Google. It just so happened that some people didn’t like that.

They were criticizing me saying, “Come on, Carl. You’re just 13 years old. You’re going around for that highly-competitive keyword that tons of SEO gurus are trying to rank for.” At least that’s what they said. I don’t know if they took action or anything. I didn’t listen to those criticisms. Instead, I took it as a challenge.

After five months, I got to the front page. After the seventh month of my CarlOcab.com blog, I got to number one. That’s where people started saying, “Look at this 13-year-old kid. He’s number one in Google for the keyword “make money online.” That’s it.

Stanley: What strategies did you use in the initial stages of your blog to help get to number one on Google for the term “make money online”? How did you get those backlinks?

Carl: There are two things:

1. On-Page Optimization
2. Off-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is the stuff you do to your website. For example, placing the right keywords on the title tag. What I’m optimizing is “make money online,” so the keywords in my title tag are “Make money online with a 13 year old.”

A few people know that if you place the keywords in the title tag on the first few lines, Google gives more weight to it. For example, “Make money online with a 13 year old,” gives more weight than “13 year old making money online.” That also works in the H1 tag. The higher you place the H1 tag on the code of our website, the more Google gives weight to it.

The off-base optimization is building backlinks. The top three ways I build backlinks to my website are:

1. Link baiting
2. Free Wordpress themes
3. Contests

Link baiting is making something that is newsworthy or can attract links. For example, the tag line of my website which is “Making money online with a 13 year old,” that gave me thousands of backlinks. When people see it they say, “Look at this 13-year-old kid blogging about making money online,” and then they give a link back to my website. Most of them, fortunately, use the anchor text “Make money online” when linking to my blog.

Sometimes in the early days of my blog I gave away three WordPress themes. In the footer part of those WordPress themes, I have a link back to my website that says, “Make money online.” I got a couple thousand of downloads there and a couple thousand backlinks.

In the later part of my blog when it got to the front page, what helped me get to number one was when I started to open contests. I asked for sponsors, their prizes or cash prizes, products. Then for people to win those contests, they have to blog about the contest itself and link to my blog so those are free backlinks right there.

Stanley: How much traffic do you actually get from ranking number one?

Carl: From the keywords alone, “make money online,” I get around 250 to 350 unique visitors per day. It’s not that much but that’s targeted traffic right there.

Stanley: Right. Where does your other traffic come from?

Carl: Mostly on Google on long-tailed keywords and then on other blogs and social networks like or Digg or StumbleUpon.

Stanley: In the earlier stages, what strategies did you implement to help grow your blog readership?

Carl: The number one was basically the traffic I get from the search engines. Right now I’m working on my blog for only 30 minutes a day. What people don’t know is that I spent the whole day on my blog when I first started in the first three months of my blog. I spent the whole day blog commenting, making those WordPress themes because I made them myself and then just basically connecting with other bloggers. For example, I have this blog post. The other bloggers I knew then, I e-mailed them and then told them about this certain post. One of the most popular posts in my blog is the “69 Ways to Drive Traffic.”

Stanley: What obstacles did you face in the beginning and what lessons did you learn from those?

Carl: One of the obstacles I faced on my blog was to keep up with posting. You have to think of what posts to write. I’m not really a good writer. I just learned on my way to blogging. The other obstacle was the technical stuff. At first I didn’t know anything about HTML so I had to learn that by myself. Like they say, if you want to start blogging, if you don’t have the money, you have to spend the time to do the things you don’t know. If you have the money, then you can outsource things.

Stanley: What are your top ways to monetize a blog and make money from blogging?

Carl: There are two categories:

1. Direct
2. Indirect

The direct way is by selling direct advertisements. People contact me directly to advertise on my blog and then I place their banners on my blog and they get traffic.

Another direct way is when I sell sponsored reviews on my blog. People and companies contact me and then they give me information about their product or their website and then I publish a review on my blog. One interesting thing I did when selling sponsored reviews is I hired a person who reviews the site for me. He gets a cut from what the company pays.

Before I was the one doing these sponsored reviews and, man, it really takes a heck of a time to review. You have to check the product. You have to read it if it’s an e-book or manual. If it’s a big website, for example a social networking website, you have to really get the feel of the website to review it in a useful way. So instead I hired a reviewer who does the sponsor reviews for me.

The indirect ways I make money with my blog is I first capture the e-mails of my visitors on my blog. Later on, I send them affiliate offers. I sometimes exchange broadcasts with other Internet marketers and then we both get the lists.

The other indirect way is when I get invited to speak on other marketing seminars. At the moment though, I don’t ask for a fee. I speak for free and then they give a little token and then I get to promote my company, Rich Kid Media, on the stage. It’s pretty good practice I think.

The third, which is probably the most profitable way I made money on my blog, is via selling my own products. A product I sell actually right now is “The Ultimate Blogging Theme.” This theme of my blog helped me rank number one on Google for the keywords “make money online.” The thing is it’s Google friendly and it’s advertising optimized because it’s tried and tested. I’ve been testing it for the whole time on my blog. It’s customer friendly and reader friendly.

Stanley: Where can people purchase that theme?

Carl: You can go to www.UltimateBloggingTheme.com.

[Alternatively, you can purchase a copy of my book eMillions on Amazon for just $16 and you can get this blogging theme as an added bonus for free! Details at http://www.emillionsbook.com]

Stanley: Roughly how much of your revenue comes from direct and how much does it come from indirect?

Carl: On the direct way, on my blog alone I get around 40% and then on “The Ultimate Blogging Theme” I get around 60%.

Stanley: Just now you talked about speaking at events and seminars. How has speaking at events impacted your life and your business?

Carl: It’s kind of great, actually, because I get to meet a lot of people and most of them are business people. My language is kind of influenced or different than before. Sometimes I get kind of stressed out because I have to prepare for the presentation and everything. Overall, it’s totally awesome. I get to develop my self confidence and practice along the way.

Stanley: Do you think it has helped you with your personal brand and generating readership for your blog?

Carl: Yes, definitely. Every time I speak, for example like on topics for personal branding, the sample I use is my blog on search engine optimization. I still use my blog as a sample. What I do that most speakers don’t do when I’m with them is I give out a free report especially for the audience, which is where I capture their leads and then drive the traffic to my blog.

Stanley: How do you overcome the nerve of speaking in front of a large audience?

Carl: This may be really overrated but practice, practice, practice. I remember my first public speaking school. They critique us while we speak. For example, they say, “You speak about this topic,” for example, cancer. Then while you speak at the later end of the class they critique live.

Then I have this classmate in that school that when she speaks really gets so nervous that she has this paper guy and she crumples it while she’s speaking. That’s really hard training. I don’t practice just once or twice. I practice almost every day before a seminar or a talk. So it’s really practice and a lot more practice.

Stanley: I know you’ve recently been feature in national newspapers, TV and media outlets. How do you become featured in those and generate large amounts of traffic?

Carl: Stanley, I don’t mean to brag but they naturally come to me. When they come to me, I don’t look eager for their interview or their feature. It gives them an impression that they really have to get a hold of me because I’m someone who is valuable and my time is valuable. They really have to look and get a good schedule of me. I know you know this, Stanley, because girls do that to guys.

Stanley: Has it generated a lot of traffic to your site?

Carl: Yes. Recently I was featured on a national channel here. It’s on pretty late actually, around 10:00 p.m. It gave me around 1,000 or 2,000 unique visitors which is pretty cool but it didn’t convert.

Stanley: What are your tactics to try to convert first-time readers into loyal subscribers who stick to your blog for a long period of time?

Carl: Actually, on those 2,000 I converted three of them to buy my “Ultimate Blogging Theme.” Basically, it was just giving away free stuff. I gave away the free report on my blog which is the “Kidblogger’s Master Plan.”

When a couple of them replied to the broadcasts, I sent them other info which is about online branding and then funneled them and gave them the special discount for the “Ultimate Blogging Theme.” It’s basically giving away free stuff and increasing their desire to get more information and more stuff from me.

Stanley: What books do you read and who are your role models?

Carl: My favorites are really the basics—Cialdini’s, Psychology and Influence. I don’t remember all of them so good thing I’m beside my bookstand. I finished Mark Joyner’s “The Great Formula.” There is a great one called “Words That Sell” by Richard Bayan. It’s like a thesaurus of words. It makes them more enticing. For example, good, and then it looks for a more enticing word than good. Another one is “Power Sales Words” by Vicky Oliver. Then there’s “Zero to One Million” by Ryan P. M. Allis. Do you know that one?

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: Then there’s, of course, the “eMillions” right here beside me.

Stanley: Who are some of your business role models who you look up to for inspiration?

Carl: You’ve interviewed this guy, right? His name is Joel Christopher.

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: We met back around 2008 or 2007 when Jack Humphrey blogged about me on his blog. Joel Christopher happened to be a loyal reader there. He saw me and then contacted me and said, “Carl, I saw you in Jack Humphrey’s blog and I was surprised that you were a Filipino,” because Joel is a Filipino who is based in Texas.

“What if we meet when I go back there?” So we met and then he proposed that he be my mentor. Did you see Joel Christopher’s pictures?

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: I weighed around 140 pounds when we met. I can say that our relationship was really productive. After a year, I weighed 160 pounds. Every time we meet, he always treats us to pizza, chicken—everything. Seriously, Joel is a hardcore, very intelligent guy.

Stanley: Has having a mentor helped you in your business?

Carl: Definitely. Actually, I really suggest that everyone get a mentor. A mentor is your shortcut to success. It’s your guide. On the first days of my blog, my dad was my mentor. Actually, until now, he’s still my mentor. He coaches me and guides me on the stuff I do. You don’t have to do the things that don’t work.

Mentors give you the shortcut. Later on, Joel Christopher mentored me on how to grow my business into more of a five-figure business. Mentors really have helped me big time in my business.

Stanley: You seem to be able to get many quality guest posts on your blog. How are you able to attract so many guest bloggers to your blog?

Carl: On my blog, I have this text on the side where it says, “Guest posting is available.” I get those quality guest posts because, basically, a lot of people visit my blog. I get a lot of guest post submissions but I don’t post them all. I qualify them. If you want to get guests posts and your blog isn’t that popular or not many people visit it, you can e-mail people and invite them to guest post on your blog.

Of course, list out the benefits of them guest posting on your blog. For example, they get to have permanent backlinks to your blog or you broadcast them to your list. As always, you have to list out the benefits.

Stanley: What about guest posting on other people’s blogs to generate traffic? What is your view on that and how do you go about doing that?

Carl: I have an article about that on my blog. It’s called “The New Article Marketing.” Instead of submitting your article on hundreds of article directories, you can be more productive actually by submitting it on one specific, popular blog in your niche.

I forgot to say that guest posting is one of the ways gives me the most traffic. I remember guest posting on this one popular blogger before and I got around 500 days instantly on the day my article was posted.

Stanley: How would you go about approaching a big blogger to pitch them your guest post?

Carl: The first thing you have to look at is you need to include the article on the e-mail itself. I get e-mails that say, “Carl, I want to guest post on your blog.” How can I see their guest post if it’s not attached? Of course, always personalize your e-mail. Stanley, did you want me to discuss how I hunt for bloggers?

Stanley: Yes, sure. Go ahead, Carl.

Carl: The idea is simple. You submit your blog to this guest blogger and then they post it on their blog. Instead of you submitting your article on tons of article directories, you submit it in one blog and then you get targeted traffic. If it’s a popular blogger and an influential blogger, your article has a chance to spread on other blogs and to other readers of that blogger.

You get quality links instead of submitting it on article directories. Here’s something you should know about popular bloggers. Your post is accepted. The first thing is you have to know the blogger and, of course, the blog. When you e-mail them, you have to somewhat relate to their blog or personalize the e-mail.

For example, “Hey, Carl, what’s up? I read your blog a while ago. I liked that article about making money online by filling out surveys.” Don’t just go e-mail him, also participate on their blog by commenting on their post. Observe what style of posts are popular on their blog so you can get a good response when you guest post on that blog.

Then go ahead and contact the blogger and tell them, “I read your posts and observed that the topic about cats is popular so maybe I’ll guest post about cats. Attached is the article so you can have a look. Tell me what you think about it. If you have other topics you want me to write about, tell me so I can write about it.” That’s it.

Stanley: What inspires you to come up with new blog post ideas for your blog?

Carl: Actually, my blog is more like sharing my experiences, my journey. For example, I made a reciprocity post that people naturally reciprocate. I learned this when we visited a school.  When we entered there, they were giving out these forms to apply at their school.

Then there were presentations and everything. After the presentation, instead of them asking us to fill out the form what they did was give us lunch and then this tasty danish. After we ate, then they asked if you could please fill out the survey spot on the school, blah, blah, blah.

Then what happened there was instead of some students throwing the surveys away we were all filling it up after the lunch. That experience gave me an idea to create a post on my blog. I titled it about reciprocity. I get my post ideas and daily experiences. Sometimes I combine ideas of other bloggers.

For example, this post from blogger A and this post from blogger B and this post from blogger C. You combine all their ideas and then it generates a new post. It’s unique because you combined ideas and then you added your own.. I also use sites to find what other bloggers are blogging about. For example, www.WhosTalkin.com, are you familiar with that?

Stanley: No, I’m not really. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Carl: This thing is just launched last year and I think this should go big time soon. When you do a search on www.WhosTalkin.com,, for example your name, Stanley Tang, it gives results on other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and other blogs too. It’s a good tool. I also use my Google Reader to surf other blogs and what they’re talking about and that’s it.

Stanley: How do you balance your time between school and business?

Carl: It’s really about scheduling and then following that schedule. I have a nifty tool in the iPhone that’s a calendar. It alarms when you have to follow a schedule. If you don’t have an iPhone, before I used notes and I always bring a little notebook and then it’s following that schedule.

Stanley: Do you ever procrastinate?

Carl: Yes. Actually, that’s one of the biggest mistakes I made online. I have this project with my mentor Joel Christopher that was very long delayed. He asked me to write this certain book. A month after, I still haven’t started it and then three months after I’ve only done the table of contents and then a year after I was just half way through.

I’ve wasted a lot of time there. When Joel introduced me to the funnel that we are going to do. I found out how big the project is and how much time and money I wasted. So procrastinating really is something you have to stop. You have to stop procrastinating now, not tomorrow.

Stanley: I have a few more questions left. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? What’s your ultimate vision?

Carl: Ten years really is so far and we don’t know what will happen. I know that in the next few months something big will happen because I’ve stopped procrastinating and finished that book. We’re preparing it to launch along with other up sells and stuff so that’s one thing you have to watch.

I also have something for the blogosphere near December. This is something pretty personal. My goal is that when I turn 18 years old that I’d buy an H2 Hummer. It costs around $30,000 in the U.K. and the shipping cost is $10,000 or near that and the tax here to the Philippines is 100%. So on my 18th birthday I have to have $100,000 to pay this off. That’s my goal.

My vision is a charity. It’s to have kids in the Philippines who didn’t have a chance to do what I do. It’s kind of sad that here in the Philippines that when you drive along the highways or the streets you’ll see kids—one year olds, four year olds—I think being forced to beg for money.

It’s really sad because they were not given a chance to do what they want to do, what they can do. The ultimate vision is to help them to succeed in life, to help them study and finish college.

Stanley: I just have one last question for you. Are you planning on going to college? Do you think education is important?

Carl: Yes, definitely. Unlike before, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, they dropped out of college and became successful. Now your competition has PhD degrees or they finish college. For example, the Google guys are from Stanford. Your competition has the intellect and the thinking of their courses and they finish college. I definitely recommend that every one of us, Stanley, you should also finish college.

Stanley: Don’t worry. I will finish university, Carl. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Do you have any final comments you want to add?

Carl: One thing to succeed online is you have to have a clear vision and you have to turn that vision into a plan and how you are going to get around that vision. The last thing is to take action.

And one of the questions I asked him was “What are the key main ingredients to success as an internet marketer?” He brought up some fascinating answers which I felt it was worth sharing. Here’s Stu’s take on the four main keys to success (scroll down for audio version):

1. Understanding The Lifetime Value of Your Customers and Prospects

A lot of people miss the boat on this. If you develop a strong relationship with your customers, you’re then going to be in a position to be able to take that one-time sale into multiple purchases. You hear it time and time again that it’s much easier to sell a product to somebody who already knows, likes and trusts you. Those are you customers, especially if you do your job right.

If you’re there just to screw your customer, then obviously that relationship’s not going to be where it needs to be. You want to always have the customer’s best interest in mind. When you approach business with the mindset that you’re there to help your customers, serve your customers and provide value to your customers on a regular basis, then you’re in a good position to build those lifelong relationships.

When you understand the lifetime value of a customer, you approach business completely differently. You’re no longer focused on the first sale. In fact, Mike Litman is famous for saying:

Amateurs focus on the first sale.

Professionals realize that the first sale is just the beginning. In fact, if we break even on the first sale, we’re happy with that because that gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the value that we can provide that particular customer.

As such, the next time around when we offer products and services, the conversion rates are going to be much higher because that customer knows the types of value that we can provide. So understanding the lifetime value of customers is critically important.

2. Understanding The Value of Continuous List Building and Relationship Building

This works for both online and offline businesses. In fact, I have a good friend of mine who runs an offline restaurant.

One of the things he came to me and said was, “Stu, listen, I know you’re involved in marketing. I was wondering if you could take a look at my business and give me some ideas and tips and thoughts on what we could do to improve it.”

I said, “Sure. What are you doing currently to market your business?” He said, “Well, we spend $3,000 a month on radio ads, we spend about $2,500 on print ads and we spend about $600 a month on these door hangers, which are almost like flyers that go on people’s door handles.”

I said, “How many people do you get in your store as a result of your radio ads?” There was silence. He had no idea. “How about your print ads?” Again, the same result. “OK, well, what about the door hangers?” He said, “That I do know.”

I said, “Great, how many people do you get into your store as a result of your door hanger?” He said, “The last campaign that we did we got 21 people.” I said, “How many door hangers did you get printed?” He said, “Ten thousand.” So he spent $600 to get 10,000 door hangers printed and only 21 people came back into the store. That’s roughly $30 per customer to get them into the store.

I said, “How much on average does each customer spend when they come into your store?” He said, “Around $15.” You can see that he was losing $15 a customer to get those people in the store. What we then did was advised him to start building his email list.

So how does an offline store build their email list? Well, they set up a ballot box and each month he has a contest. People write their name and email on a ballot, they put it into the ballot box and each month he draws for a prize. Typically, it’s like a pita party or something like that. At the same time he’s building his list because those people are also entered into our preferred Pita Pick Club because the restaurant provides pitas.

Essentially now what happened is that he has built a list of just over 1,500 people and each month we do promotions for him and each month we generate significant sales that cost him nothing. I remember the first promotion we did for him, he called me back and said, “What did you just do? I can’t believe it! We’ve generated more in our first hour than we have typically in our first day.” He was extremely excited. That’s the power of building a list.

You constantly want to focus on building a list and nourish that list and spend time with that list. Remember, those names are real people. You want to invest in those people by providing good value. If you just constantly bombard them with promotions and sell, sell, sell, and your focus is very self-centered, then you’re not going to have the kind of conversions you could have if you focused on being of value to that list.

So number-one is realizing the value of list building but then the second part of that is understanding that it’s a relationship process. You want to nourish that relationship by adding value to those people. You want to constantly be list building and focusing on building the relationship with that list.

3. Knowing That The Only Way You Will Make Sales Is If You Sell Products and Services On A Regular Basis

It is tough for a lot of people, myself included, when you have to realize you have to send promotions at some point in time. Doesn’t that contradict what I just said earlier where you don’t want to bombard your list with promotions?

Yes and no. You want to continuously provide value so you want to provide tips and resources and give them good content, but at the same time you also want to send different promotions for different products and services. The most profitable are going to be promotions for your own products and services so that means you want to look to create your own products and you want to be continuously developing new products so that you can offer them to your list.

If you don’t have your own products, start off by offering affiliate products. Become an affiliate for other people’s products that you know, like, or trust or have received value from yourself and continuously set up a schedule for mailing out your own promotions. The only way you can grow your business is if you continuously market and sell different and products and services to your particular list.

If you don’t do it on a regular basis, then you’re really going to be shooting yourself in the foot. So look to create a regular promotional schedule where you’re sending out promotions on a regular basis.

4. Have Long-Term Visions and Goals

Many people are fly-by-night marketers where they don’t know what they’re doing this month and next month or even a year from now and as a result their business is very ad hoc, it’s very sporadic. The way to build a successful long-term business is by having long-term goals.

Goal setting can sound flakey at times but if you don’t know which direction you’re headed, how can you ever get there? Even if you don’t know it exactly, have some type of an idea of how you want to build your business, what you want your business looking like in one to five years from now and start moving in that direction.

If you want to listen to the original audio version because you’re lazy to read you’re more of an auditory learner, here it is:

Despite his success, Steven hasn’t lost touch with others – something that many of those doing well online are accused of. I sent emails to a few marketers, some accepted but most ignored me – Steven responded in less than a day from when I private messaged him on the Warrior Forum, and replied to my emails with the questions in less than thirty minutes! The interview is posted below, and it’s our first one – feel free to add any comments or suggestions. =)

JP – Jason Pereira (me)

SW – Steven Wagenheim

JP: Hey Steven, thanks for agreeing to the interview. How did you get started generating income on the internet?

SW: I got started when I lost my corporate America job back in 1999. I actually didn’t start right away. I spent several years trying to find other employment, but after not having any luck, in January of 2003, I turned to the Internet. It was a long hard climb. My first 5 months I made all of $28 simply because I had no business plan and no direction. I had a lot of learning to do to get me to where I am today.

JP: How much on average do you make per month, and where does that income come from?

SW: Right now, I am averaging about $11,000 a month. That income comes from a variety of sources such as eBook sales, membership sites, Adsense and freelancing my article writing and copywriting services. I have a rather odd business model as I don’t do just one thing. I also have a vast number of products that I promote. So if you look at my income and then see what I do to get it, it’s really not all that impressive. It’s just a lot of little pieces added together to make a decent whole number.

JP: Our readers are constantly on the lookout for high quality products that will help them add to their income. Could you tell us a little more about your “Make Money Today” WSO report?

SW: Well, it’s really very simple. I show people how to capitalize on the latest hot trends of the Internet. I show them how to find them, how to determine which ones are good, how to write content for them, and essentially give them a promotional model that is dirt cheap in order to profit off these trends. In actuality, you can do this model with absolutely no out of pocket expense. That’s the thing I like best about it. Plus, this model can use just about any income generating program such as Amazon, CPA offers, Adsense, or even Clickbank affiliate products. It’s very versatile.

JP: What’s your philosophy on succeeding online? Can anyone do it or do you need a lot of luck to get started?

SW: Luck is the last thing you need. There is no luck at all involved. It comes down to three basic things, niche research, a solid business model and either the skills to do the required work or the money to outsource it and have it done for you. In other words, there is no quick and easy button to push. It takes work and commitment and if you’re not prepared to put that into your business, don’t quit your day job.

JP: You’re a very reputed and established member on the Warrior Forum, with over 10,000 posts. How has this added to your income?

SW: Well, it’s gotten me a lot of respect, especially since I am constantly making posts sharing a ton of valuable information for free. In return, people check out my signature, see what I have to offer, opt into my lists, and many of them purchase my products. My income, since coming to the Warrior Forum and being a contributing member (that’s the key) has more than doubled. But it took a lot of hard work and commitment, just like anything else.

JP: What’s a hot niche you’d recommend article marketers attack right now?

SW: There is no such thing. Any niche with a demand can be made profitable. All you need to do is think about the problems that you have in your everyday life and then see if there is a solution out there that exists. If so, sell it as an affiliate. If not, and you have the smarts to come up with one, create your own product and sell it yourself. If it’s good enough, word will spread, you’ll get affiliates, and you’ll make even more. This isn’t rocket science. It all comes down to demand. If people want it badly enough, they’ll buy it, especially if it solves a burning need and/or problem.

JP: Have you ever used or tested blackhat methods in aspects of your online business?

SW: No. I don’t even know what they are. So I can’t even comment any further on this. I run my business using standard methods. They work just fine for me. I’m not passing judgment on black hatters. It’s just not for me.

JP: Do you run a high traffic and well promoted blog of your own? If yes, what is it? If no, why not?

SW: My blog gets modest traffic. I don’t really promote it actively. You won’t even see a forum link for it. If anybody is interested, the URL is:

http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/

Right now I have about 265 articles up there so there is plenty for people to read and educate themselves on. I cover many topics including article writing, copywriting, marketing and business planning. There’s a whole education there for free.

JP: Last but not least… if we could “exploit” your brainpower, please share a way that people can start making money from scratch within the next week.

SW: The easiest way is to do the following:

1. Go to Clickbank marketplace. Find a good selling product with a gravity between 30 and 70. This way you’re not going against too much competition.

2. Contact the product owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you want to promote it. Nine out of ten times, they’ll say yes.

3. Go through the product and write a review of it.

4. Get a blog at blogger picking a name that’s relevant to the niche.

5. Post the review of the product on the blog. Make sure you put your affiliate link to the product after the review with a strong call to action to check it out.

6. Write a series of articles on the topic and submit them to Ezine Articles. In your resource box, have a strong call to action to your blog where the review is.

That’s it. It’s simple and won’t cost them a dime. I make as many as 20 sales or more a month for some products and it doesn’t take a lot of time. The key is writing a good article and a good review.

If your readers have trouble writing articles, they can pick up a copy of my Complete Article Writing and Marketing Guide here:

http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html

This isn’t rocket science. After a while, you’ll be doing this in your sleep. It’s that easy.

JP: Thanks again for the interview, I’m sure our readers will benefit from your knowledge. Good luck in your business ventures, and I hope your success increases tenfold! =)

SW: Thank you Jason. It was a pleasure.

That’s our first interview – the story of how a currently successful marketer got started, his tips on doing well online and a step by step method revealed on how you can start making money within the week. Steven’s proof that going at it hard and not giving up works, so make sure you follow suit!

JP – Jason Pereira
DH – Dean Hunt

JP: Alright Dean, no fluff. What’s your number one tip for getting insane amounts of traffic to a brand new website, one so new them nameservers have barely propagated? I’m talking quality traffic here.

DH: My number one goal would be to be different to all the other sites in your industry, stand out from the crowd. For instant traffic, guest posts and guest blogging are by far the easiest and quickest way to drive traffic.

JP: Sweet. If you don’t mind us asking, what’s your current largest website/project, and how much time/revenue did it take to get it to that level?

DH: I buy and sell and create new websites all the time with my business superstar partner Barry Dunlop, so the answer to this probably changes on a monthly basis… but right now we are working on our first real product launch (www.webtrafficorgasm.com), and that is estimated to be a 7 figure success for us. That said, it has taken us almost a year to fully prepare for it, so it wasn’t a quick success by any means.

JP: My readers are skilled in their own ways, but a lot of them are similar to me, just starting off online. What skills would you recommend developing to succeed at the online game?

DH: Writing is a pretty important skill right now, after all, without the ability to write, you can’t create content, and the Internet is pretty much nothing but content. I am not saying you need to be the next Shakespeare, but you need to be able to convey your thoughts on paper. For me though, I would say creativity is by far the most important skill… yes, it is a skill, not a talent you are born with.

Archive.org has archived over 85 billion web pages, long gone are the days where we could put up a page about dog grooming and start making easy money. You need one of two things to make serious money these days:

1) Big ass budget

or…

2) Big ass creativity/imagination

JP: I promised you an interesting interview, so here we go. If there’s one thing you could see vanished from the face of internet marketing forever, what would it be? We want to know what you really think

DH: Probably hype. I am sick of reading so much hype for utter crap products and information.

JP: What would you say is the best method for building buzz that you’ve used over the years? Do you have any examples of just how effective buzz marketing is?

DH: My content has been on the Digg homepage more times than I can even remember, I have been on the homepage of pretty much every major social site on the Internet, and featured on thousands of blogs in over 20 languages. So it works! In fact, I had over 2 million unique visitors to my network of websites in 2007, and by advertising/marketing budget for the year was ZERO.

In terms of method: Having a blog is a good starting point, but I find that simply pushing people’s boundaries and assumptions is a great way to create buzz.

For example, on my blog at www.DeanHunt.com my feed reader says “6 billion readers“, now obviously that is a spoof/practical joke, but it grabs people’s attention. I also wrote a sales page for my services, but instead of writing the normal rubbish, I wrote things like “you cannot afford me, seriously, don’t even bother trying to hire me”.

Amazingly, I get more job offers from that than I did previously.

I also brand my blog with Killer Bunnies, nobody knows why I do this, there is certainly no logic to it, but it intrigues people, it is different, and people talk about it.

JP: It’s rare I get to pick the brains of an expert in the field, so I’ll have you answer a slightly selfish question. I’ve got two main projects undergoing: a blogging magazine, and of course TUK. Do you have any tips maximizing the potential of both of them?

DH: Both are heavily content based, so you are going to live or die by your content.

Here are some quick tips:

With your article and blog headlines, if you want success on sites like Digg, you will need more sensational headlines. One technique is to use curiosity based headlines, so give them a snippet, and make them click for more. e.g “You are not going to believe what I just found in my inbox” [JP: *cough*]

Another powerful technique is to write content in list format. There are literally hundreds of reasons why list based content works, and if you look at the Digg homepage, I can pretty much guarantee there will be AT LEAST one list based story on there.

Here is another hugely powerful content trick:

Do the opposite!

For example, I was writing a self improvement blog post last year, and I decided to do the opposite, and call it “10 Step Guide to Being a Loser”. It got me 746 backlinks, hit the Digg homepage, and over 54,000 visitors.

One last quick tip, don’t be afraid of pushing the boundaries. This includes being controversial from time to time. It is better to have people call you an idiot than ignore you on the Internet, because if you are ignored, you will go out of business… FAST!

I wrote a globally successful blog post last year entitled: “Self Improvement Advice from the Devil” it was a monstrous success.

When I was promoting my free buzz marketing reports, I didn’t give them some crappy guru based name like Buzz Marketing 101 etc… In fact, I decided to call the huge bursts of traffic to my websites “traffic orgasms”, hence the website: WebTrafficOrgasm.com I knew it would get people’s attention, and for every complaint I have had, there have been 10 people email me to say that they wouldn’t normally read marketing reports, but they were intrigued by the name.

I once wrote a blog post about creating headlines, and I called it “How I Grew a 12″ Penis by Eating Carrots”. Whenever I fly all over the world to hang out with the biggest names in the industry, they always talk about this blog post. Despite reading hundreds of blog posts and articles every week, they will never forget that one blog post. That is powerful branding.

JP: If you could choose one luxury in life, and just one, what would it be? I’m talking about the dream car, the ultimate house, the private airplane, you get the idea.

DH: Financially I have got everything I wanted, so my luxury would be to have more time. More time so that I could start playing golf again (I used to be semi-pro), more time to hang out with friends, see my family etc… don’t get me wrong, it is not like I work a 60 hour week, far from it, but I will always value time over money.

JP: I read that you liked football in another interview. Any favourite team? Being an Arsenal fan, I’m specifically interested in which English team you support

DH: Yikes, if you are an Arsenal fan, it is probably best that I don’t tell you who I support. Let’s just say that I was born in a Manchester hospital.

JP: Many have recommended a John Chow review as a bridge to get your website from the soggy end of the pond into the glorious castle. For some, however the $500 that’s required is simply impossible to come up with: do you have a more cost effective solution for getting a website’s name out there?

DH: I have already touched on this, but guest blogging is the answer. Why pay $500 when you can probably get on the same blog for free with a guest post? Simply write a good quality article, and email your 20 favorite blogs, and see if they will accept it as a guest post. Include your url in the footer, and hey presto, you have an authority backlink, authority, recognition, and traffic.

JP: You’ve been featured on the frontpage of Digg numerous times. Do you have any tips on getting there?

DH: I have covered a few of them already, but novelty content is another sneaky exploit that you can use. I aim to make 10-15% of all my blog posts novelty content. I have been on Digg homepage with “the world’s best urinal”, “The Ultimate Clock for Geeks”, “The Amazing World Clock” and many more. ANY blog can have off-topic blog posts, and they are also a great way to fill gaps. So next time your friends send you a viral email, or a funny photo, put it on your blog.

JP: Thanks for the interview, good luck with your online ventures

DH: Many thanks, keep up the great work, and for all of your young entrepreneur readers, don’t forget to check out www.retiredat21.com and www.retireat21.com for young entrepreneur advice and secrets… oh, and if anyone was wondering what the upcoming BIG project is… sign up to www.buzzprofits.com and I will ensure you all get on the Beta notification list.

Gracias

And that’s Dean Hunt.

Hope you guys found the interview interesting – there is a lot of decent information out there that will help you guys when thinking of launching/promoting your own Internet projects. I assume Dean will be checking this post occasionally, so if you have any questions for him leave them below and who knows, you might get some very revealing answers