Working from his home in Huntsville, Alabama, Rob Boirun has quietly been raking in a small fortune from the Internet, in fact his best month so far has been over $20,000. He runs and operates several websites related to DVD & DVD software and was able to successfully turn his one time hobby into a full time business and income. So how did he do it? Let’s let Rob tell us…

Miles: Hello Rob! Thanks for doing this interview with us today. Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?

Rob: Sure. I was born in 1972. I completed High School and attended some College. I began marketing online in 2001 mainly doing affiliate marketing and advertising.

Miles: How did you get started, what made you decide to start an online business?

Rob: While I was working for a respected CD/DVD Burning/API Software company I was asked if I knew HTML since they didn’t have a webmaster. I only had basic knowledge at the time and I said YES anyhow because I wanted the challenge of maintaining a company’s website in addition I could use that on my resume.

At nights, so I could enhance my skills, I started a news and information site on the industry that the company was in which happens to be BurnWorld.com. I already had many vendor contacts to get in touch with to receive the latest news and products for reviews. So I just started with that.

A few months later I was asked to research various affiliate vendors so the company could start an online affiliate marketing campaign. Having no idea what this meant I starting researching. After setting up with RegNow.com the company started to see some sales from affiliates a few weeks later. Since I was in charge of this I researched what sites these sales were coming from so I could contact them. What I found shocked me. The sites were complete garbage. So that motivated me to add a few links to my site that I was working on at nights.

I was getting a few dozen visitors per day so I was hoping for at least something. Day 1 – Nothing, Day 2 – Nothing, Day 3…… , Week 1…., Week 2…., Week 3… all nothing. Now I’m getting discouraged. But Week 4 changed things forever – 1 sale that equaled $9.94 in commission. This started a chain reaction and I was able to quit my day job one year later.

Miles: Wow, that’s fantastic! So what type of visitors comes to your website, who is your target market?

Rob: My market consists of Internet searchers for information on CD/DVD Burning products. The ideal visitor is one that is actively searching for hardware or software.

Miles: How do your visitors find you?

Rob: Search Engines are #1 and cross promoting with other sites is #2.

Miles: Do you get any help or have any employees?

Rob: Currently I have one outsourced worker for help with web site maintenance.

Miles: What has been your best month in income so far?

Rob: $20k

Miles: That’s fantastic. It looks like your hard work is paying off. How many hours a week did you work on your business when you were starting?

Rob: During startup this was an exciting time so I worked on it whenever I could which was probably around 25 hours, yes I even logged time on weekends.

Miles: And now?

Rob: Even now it’s an exciting time, since things are always changing. Now I probably only work on this site 1-2 hours a day and most of that is outsourced. However I have expanded to other sites and am always trying and testing new ideas.

Miles: What are some of your favorite blogs or websites that you would like to share with my readers?

Rob: SiteProNews, Matt Cutts’ Blog, SearchEngineWatch, MarketingTips.com.

Miles: What software programs do you use in your business?

Rob: I use the following programs…

• Dreamweaver 8 – for website creation/maintenance.
• WS_FTP – another way to get to my website content online.
• Microsoft Excel – for graphing visitors, sales, etc….
• SEO Elite – for tracking search engine rankings.

Miles: Great programs, I use all those myself, especially SEO Elite. So Rob, what is one piece of general advice you would give someone who is just starting out online like you were back in 2001?

Rob: First it takes an idea, and then it takes determination to make it happen. Just do a little every day, even something small that keeps you thinking about what you want to accomplish and eventually you will turn around and say ‘how did I get here?’.

Miles: Living the Internet lifestyle is great. What is your favorite part about working online from home?

Rob: Obvious reasons, I’m my own boss. I work when I want to and I am able to do whatever I want whenever I want.

Miles: Okay, so what’s your least favorite part?

Rob: The only thing I don’t like about working online is the lack of camaraderie. Looking back I did like having the co-workers around even though some smelled and were annoying most of the time.

Miles: Ha! So you started marketing online back in 2001. How many months was it before you actually achieved a profit?

Rob: Profit? Probably four months into it. I was making money after one month but after hosting fees I was still losing money, but it’s only a few bucks so that was okay with me.

Miles: Have you authored any books or software?

Rob: I currently offer CD/DVD Burning Exposed! Which is an E-Book tailored for newbies to CD and DVD Burning or anyone that is just curious on the subject.

I also offer free CD/DVD Burning software called BurnOn CD/DVD which can be downloaded.

Miles: What motivates you now to continue building your business?

Rob: Not ever having to work for the man again. The man will only allow you to grow to a certain level, yet working for myself I can get to any level I want whether it forward, backwards, or sideways.

Miles: How often do you focus on improving your online marketing skills or knowledge?

Rob: You can never read or listen to too much good knowledge. I always try to find the most respected people in the industry so I can learn from them.

Miles: What has been your biggest online marketing mistake?

Rob: Charting off course to do what was thought to be the next big internet boom. I worked on something totally unrelated to my main goal hoping it would be better than what I already had, only to find out that I had wasted 6 months of growing of the original goal. If I kept my one track train of thought I would have been better off overall.

Miles: What do you consider to be the main keys of your success online? Why?

Rob: Partnering with the right people and sites. Without them I would not be where I am at today and of course determination to make this real.

Miles: What is one secret or tip that you would like to share with our Readers?

Rob: My one main secret to online success had been to get as many quality website partners as I can. This is not a simple link exchange; I’m talking about true partners that will link to you even if they don’t link back. I usually contact large companies and establish a good relationship with them and over time I have gained some seriously good one way links to my site, which without them I would not be as successful in the SERPS.

Miles: Well thank you Rob for sharing with us a bit about your business and your online success. I wish you much success for years to come!

Rob: Thanks Miles!

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview with Rob Boirun. More interviews are always on the way. Read through them all at the Interviews Page.

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Working out of London, UK, Harvey Segal has been providing resources (ebooks, tools, tips) for the online marketer since 1997. Harvey is probably best known in the online marketing community for being the ClickBank answer man although he markets several other unrelated websites and products as well. A few of Harvey’s current sites are SuperTips.com, The Complete Guide to Ad Tracking Programs, and The Complete Guide to ClickBank.

Miles: So Harvey, what made you want to get into this line of business?

Harvey: Hey Miles. Well, I wanted to work from home for myself so I started to look for home based business opportunities and came across the Internet back in 1997, then in its infancy.

Miles: How many hours per week did you put into your business back then in order to get it going?

Harvey: About 50 hours a week.

Miles: That’s not too bad. How many hours do you put into your business now?

Harvey: 50+ hours. As you can see I still spend a lot of time at work - that’s because I enjoy it and I’m always seeking to improve and innovate. Otherwise if you don’t enjoy your work then here’s a tip I often given out:

If you are spending 23 hours a day building your business on the Net you are facing a dilemma.

Your aim might be to have your web traffic, your customers, your orders to double, triple, and so on - but how will you cope with the corresponding increase in the requirement of your time as more emails, orders, and opportunities pour in?

Here is the solution…

You need to ask yourself this one question - continually.

It’s not

“How can I make more money on the Internet?”

It’s

“How can I fully automate every single aspect of my business?”

By making the second question your goal you will eventually attain the first. You will find there are many tools, services and ideas around to help you, for example:

• autoresponders
• mailing software
• automated order processing and affiliate payments (for example ClickBank)
• email filters
• canned email replies
• text replacement utilities
• automatic domain and hosting renewal plans

Start now - ask the question for every task you do today.

Miles: Wow, great advice! Where were you back in 1997 when I needed to hear that? So who is your market now? Describe to us your ideal customer or website visitor.

Harvey: Online marketers seeking to profit from Internet opportunities. Website owners and ClickBank users.

Miles: Would you mind telling us how you get most of your visitors?

Harvey: Sure. My two content sites (ClickBank Guide and Ad Tracking Guide) are promoted mainly though forums by providing answers and advice to the many questions raised about these topics. In fact I have written a book about how to use forums profitably called Forum SuperTips.

Other than that I do little advertising - promotion comes from distributing free books on useful marketing topics and allowing affiliates to rebrand them for free.

Miles: Do you currently outsource any of your work?

Harvey: Having recently tried out a freelance company with a project to write some programming scripts I would certainly consider future outsourcing of work where feasible. An example would be research type projects to provide material for my content sites.

Miles: What are some of the PC tools you use to make your work a bit easier?

Harvey: I use NoteTab for text processing; used for emails and web site building. Search and Replace for file lookup and changes and ShortKeys to use abbreviated commands to input commonly used text.

Miles: You started marketing online back in 1997, how many months before you achieved a profit?

Harvey: As my expenses to start out were low it was not too many months to show a small profit but possibly 2 or 3 years to get a decent income.

Newbies today should be able to improve on that with the resources which were lacking then such as…

• Fast and cheap access to the Internet
• A wealth of free information, guides and forums on every aspect about marketing
• A huge variety of software tools

Miles: Yes, things are certainly different now. For someone just starting out online today, what’s one piece of general advice you would give them?

Harvey: There’s only one place to start - visit the free Internet marketing forums. Here you can ask questions about any aspect of marketing or software tools, seek answers to problems, get site reviews, ask for opinions on products or affiliate programs and so on.

Miles: What do you like/dislike about living the Internet Marketing lifestyle?

Harvey: I like the ability to work from home at any time I choose. The field of online marketing offers an unlimited variety of ways to succeed on the Net if you have a creative mind. The least favorite part would be trying to cope with information overload and turning down possible profitable ventures in order to stay focused on a set goal.

Miles: Yes, I know what you mean. It can be hard when you have too much information thrown at you, yet you still need to keep up on your market. How often do you read or spend time online learning about your business?

Harvey: I improve my online marketing knowledge by reading ebooks but even more by visiting forums and spend on average 1-2 hours a day.

Miles: Do you have any favorite books that you would recommend to others interested in this line of business?

Harvey: For success I would recommend - Unlimited Power (Anthony Robbins): the positive mindset is a must for a potential netrepreneur.

For marketing I would recommend - 33 Days to Online Profits (Jim Edwards/Yanik Silver): a well written and thorough guide covering all aspects of Internet marketing. As well as Mini Site Profits (Phil Wiley) - a book that inspired me to start creating minisites on niche topics.

Miles: Have you authored any books/tapes/reports?

Harvey: Yes, I have authored a number of books, some free some paid, which can all be found at Supertips.com.

Miles: What motivates you now to continue building your business?

Harvey: I would like to create the ideal viral system which would bring in sales with little need for on-going promotion. I believe my latest ebook The Ultimate SuperTip will be the answer, so my future efforts are to continually refine this system.

Miles: What has been your biggest online marketing mistake?

Harvey: Heavily promoting a company which offered products free after rebate. So a customer would pay for an item then after about 3 months get the money back after sending in the appropriate claim forms.

How could such a company survive you wonder? Well I tried to convince myself it could, despite reading many complaints from customers who had problems getting the rebate, and it eventually folded leaving thousands of customers out of pocket and owing money to affiliates like myself.

What I learned was that you must deal only with reputable companies and not be swayed by ventures that don’t sound right: and take heed the moment a company says there is a problem sending you commission.

Miles: Great advice. What do you consider to be the main keys of your success online?

Harvey:

1. Persistence.
2. Accuracy and attention to detail.
3. Ability to simplify the written word in articles, sales copy and ebooks.
4. I provide speedy and helpful responses to anyone who emails me.
5. My sites and books contain quality content with no hype.

Miles: Well Harvey, what is one secret tip that you would like to share with our readers before we end this interview?

Harvey: I have 101 tips on all aspects of marketing. But to choose one it would be that if I were to start again I would neither be an affiliate or a vendor but combine the best of both worlds by buying the resale rights to products. There are very many ways you can then profit e.g by repackaging several products into your own unique package. As a result I have started a new site - Resale Rights Guide.

Miles: Wow, yet another site. You’re a Mad Man Harvey! Well, thank you for taking your time to do this interview with me. I appreciate it and know my readers will also. Thanks again.

Harvey: Thank You.

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview with Harvey Segal. More interviews are always on the way. Read through them all at the Interviews Page.

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