A little while back, I sat down and asked a few questions of $30,000/month blogger John Chow in this post and it was a big hit. Few people realize there was so much money to be made from blogging.A few months later, everything's changed: John Chow isn't reporting his monthly numbers anymore and even if he was, my personal blog, TimothySykes.com, would be blowing him away as just the other day, I detailed in this post how my little blog earned $70,000 in August.
Yes, you read that correctly, I might write for AOL and TradingMarkets.com, but I'm also an internet entrepreneur and judging from my blog's monetary growth -- $15,000 in May, $25,000 in June (both estimated since the figures weren't bragworthy), $45,000 in July (see detailed breakdown here) and of course August's blowout month which is made even more impressive considering I took a trip to Japan for the last 10 days of the month (see itinerary here), I'm succeeding rather nicely.
So, in honor of my religion -- Judaism (at Passover we ask ourselves four questions) -- I asked myself the four questions that matter most about what's worked and what hasn't. Obviously I'm biased, but I'll try to be as brutally honest as possible, as usual.
Q: Timothy, to what do you attribute your blog's astounding ability to make money even as traffic growth has flatlined somewhat?
A: Good question (and I must say you're looking rather handsome as you write this). I'd say No. 1 it's not holding anything back. Brutal honesty. With a lot of joking around/sarcasm. In a word: real.
I have no long one page sales sheets nor overly technical posts. It's all about writing from the heart -- whether some/many take offense or not. Considering I've been a profitable stock trader for the vast majority of my decade-long career, my experience and knowledge is worth something...especially considering that 90% of traders lose money!
After we -- that being my web designer/business partner Pallian and me -- figured out my words are valuable, it was just a question of monetizing them. I was fortunate enough to find a great business partner early on so now I can focus specifically on content -- books, DVDs, blog posts, real-time trading alerts -- while he focuses on building new sites.
Of course, it also helps that my trading account is now up 115% in the last 10 months (I do a lot of short-selling), and every trade detailed completely and verified by the industry's most transparent social networking site, Covestor, which actually taps into my brokerage account to confirm all trades and entry/exit prices.
Q: Have you made any mistakes along the way?
A: Yes, tons! I love making mistakes because they help me get a better feel for my audience and what exactly people want from me. For example, I thought my reader loyalty rewards program TIMbucks would be a huge hit -- I wanted to bribe readers to comment/participate in exchange for points which would then be converted into physical rewards from my sponsors. It was a big fat failure. My readers don't care about getting stupid little Shuffles, they want good trading content, preferably in blog posts and videos. I mention videos because I also tried TIMradio podcasts and very few people actually listened to those.
Q. What should new bloggers do to increase their earnings?
A. Think outside the box. Contrary to all the popular "make money online" websites, ad revenue and affiliate sales make up a very small part of my monthly earnings -- and trust me, I push those products hard.
Instead, I've had much more success with creating my own products -- DVDs, books, subscription services -- and I encourage everyone to find a niche in which they specialize and create educational products. The products are so cheap to produce, you really don't even need that many sales to justify the effort and you can promote them in just about every blog post you do. If your experience and knowledge are valuable, you'll be rewarded in time and the growth can be phenomenal once others who have benefited from your products start their own blogs or post about their experiences on other websites or message boards.
Q. Where do you think the blogosphere is headed over the next few years?
A. I have literally no idea. I think we're in the bottom half of the first inning with this industry and the future is going to be remarkable and unpredictable. I do think this lifecasting fad will die out as most of them offer little to no useful information and instead simply serve as time wasters. Time wasting is big business, but useful information should eventually prevail because it can actually help ordinary people with their every day problems.
Timothy Sykes is a former hedge fund manager and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.
Of course, it also helps that my trading account is now up 115% in the last 10 months (I do a lot of short-selling), and every trade detailed completely and verified by the industry's most transparent social networking site, Covestor, which actually taps into my brokerage account to confirm all trades and entry/exit prices.
Q: Have you made any mistakes along the way?
A: Yes, tons! I love making mistakes because they help me get a better feel for my audience and what exactly people want from me. For example, I thought my reader loyalty rewards program TIMbucks would be a huge hit -- I wanted to bribe readers to comment/participate in exchange for points which would then be converted into physical rewards from my sponsors. It was a big fat failure. My readers don't care about getting stupid little Shuffles, they want good trading content, preferably in blog posts and videos. I mention videos because I also tried TIMradio podcasts and very few people actually listened to those.
Q. What should new bloggers do to increase their earnings?
A. Think outside the box. Contrary to all the popular "make money online" websites, ad revenue and affiliate sales make up a very small part of my monthly earnings -- and trust me, I push those products hard.
Instead, I've had much more success with creating my own products -- DVDs, books, subscription services -- and I encourage everyone to find a niche in which they specialize and create educational products. The products are so cheap to produce, you really don't even need that many sales to justify the effort and you can promote them in just about every blog post you do. If your experience and knowledge are valuable, you'll be rewarded in time and the growth can be phenomenal once others who have benefited from your products start their own blogs or post about their experiences on other websites or message boards.
Q. Where do you think the blogosphere is headed over the next few years?
A. I have literally no idea. I think we're in the bottom half of the first inning with this industry and the future is going to be remarkable and unpredictable. I do think this lifecasting fad will die out as most of them offer little to no useful information and instead simply serve as time wasters. Time wasting is big business, but useful information should eventually prevail because it can actually help ordinary people with their every day problems.
Timothy Sykes is a former hedge fund manager and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-24-2008 @ 5:31PM
Michael said...
What % of your monthly income would you say is coming from your educational products verse the income coming from advertisements, and the normal affiliate type revenues most of us think of when we hear of people making money with their blogs?
thanks
michael
9-24-2008 @ 6:22PM
Moneymonk.net said...
Timothy is a go getter. It pays to be aggressive.
Tim I'm on my way
9-24-2008 @ 6:44PM
Neal said...
You are the only person arrogant enough to interview himself... and I mean that in the kindest way possible. Congratz on your success!
10-04-2008 @ 4:29AM
Remind Myself said...
Recently an insurance company nearly wind up....
A bank is nearly bankrupt......
How it affect you? Did you buy insurance? Did you buy mini note or bonds?
Who fault?
They only talk about how bad the crisis will be, but they did not give regulation measures…..
Although not approved initially when thinking of using tax payer money, $700B is used to save finance industry only, how about the industry that you are in.....retail industry, construction industry, manufacturing industry, R&D, electronics, electrical, mechanical, chemical, IT etc.... each industry will be able to enjoy at least $10B.......Which will make every industry vibrant…..
They say without using tax payer money, they will not be able to lend to small companies…..
Bank primary role is to lend money….else what sort of business will let them earn….?
Many companies had been merged and consolidated, and they are stronger now, so don’t bail out, they will consolidated…..
Many ways of raising their own funds eg preference shares, sovereignty fund etc.
The top management of the Public listed company ( belong to "public" ) salary should be tied a portion of it to the shares price ( IPO or ave 5 years ).... so when the shares price drop, it don't just penalise the investors, but those who don't take care of the company.....If this rule is pass on, without any need of further regulation, all industries ( as long as it is public listed ) will be self regulated......
We must push for it for our next generations......
Sign a petition to your favourite president candidate, congress member again and ask for their views to comment on this, and what regulations they are going to raise for implementation.....If you agree on my point, please share with many people as possible....
Media and finance sector are the only two sectors ( hopefully Hacker can also ) which can overcome political incorrect power, so it is time to fine tune to the correct path, so hopefully media can united to report the truth...... ( because after this incident, they will still required media in future )
http://remindmyselfinstock.blogspot.com/
10-04-2008 @ 1:15AM
Jeremy said...
!!! Timothy Sykes Exposed !!
http://www.TimothySykesExposed.com
10-17-2008 @ 10:09PM
Timothy Sykes Exposed said...
Timothy Sykes is a SCAM! Don't Listen to this BULLSHIP before reading this shocking and revealing report FIRST!!
http://www.timothysykesexposed.com