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• Download the MP3 [ 49 Minutes - 22 MB ]
• Download Text Transcript [ 18 Pages - PDF ]

It All Started With A Blog

If you opted in after watching my Conversion Blogging video you would have received an email from me talking about a podcast interview with a student of mine running a million dollar blog.

My friend’s name is Alborz Fallah and he was one of my very first students and certainly is the most successful. His blog, CarAdvice.com.au is one of the top blogs in all of Australia in any category and competes right along with some of the biggest media companies in the world for the car enthusiast market in the land down under.

His blog gets phenomenal traffic, brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue each year and Alborz has traveled to Europe to drive some of the most prestigious sports cars ever created. His blog became a true business and Alborz has to be one of the luckiest people in the world, living out a passion every single day and earning big money along the way.

What’s really great about this story though, is that Alborz started out just like you and me. He wasn’t sure what topic to write about, so he created three blogs at once to see which one would stick. The car blog got the traffic so he dropped the other two and slowly built up his site off the back of his own content.

I convinced Alborz to test AdSense on his blog after much pestering and he immediately made around $10 per day. Over the next few months his income grew, AdSense reached about $100 a day and he started branching out and testing other forms of advertising.

I don’t know how much his blog generates today, but 12 months ago it was making $30,000 a month, so I expect the site generates at least half a million dollars a year now. I do know the site was professionally audited (necessary when you take on capital investors) and valued at 5 million dollars!

Did I mention during this entire time he was still working a full time job?

It wasn’t until Alborz sold some of his blog to investors and his blog became a real serious business that he finally left his job to focus 100% on growing his project.

Since then Alborz and CarAdvice have gone from strength to strength. He’s knocked back a million dollar buy-out (actually I think he knocked back a couple of offers), he’s had more people join his team contributing articles and he recently told me about a deal just made with one of the major online media companies to supply car related content to their network in Australia. There’s also new branches of the blog opening up in other countries.

It’s truly become a massive enterprise, which all started as an after-hours experiment to see if he could build a popular blog.

There’s A Lot To Learn From This Interview

The interview is very practical, and if you pay close attention you will learn a lot about the specific techniques Alborz implemented early on to grow his traffic. You will also hear the story of how he brought on investors to back his blog and help grow it to the next level.

Here’s some of the most important points to take away from the podcast -

• You can start a blog and choose top level categories in very competitive markets, if you niche it down based on geographical location. In other words, you can start a car blog and target just your country to differentiate it. There’s big bucks to be made as the leading blog in just one country for mainstream subjects.
• When you don’t know what topic to blog about, pick what you think might work and just put something out there and see what happens.
• You can build a significant blog based only on part time labor, if you are dedicated and get things done during the time you have available to work on the project.
• Sometimes, being controversial can do wonderful things for your traffic. Strong opinions will always stick out and grab attention.
• Search engine traffic is very powerful if you just do a few things right, like blog post titles in Alborz’s case.
• Think BIG with your blog, it doesn’t have to be just a small publication - consider taking things to the next level with the help of financial investors.

This is one of the most inspiring blog case studies I know of. I don’t expect everyone to do as well as Alborz, but it’s VERY realistic for you to enjoy even just 10% of Alborz’s success with your blog and make a good living as a result, if you can just commit yourself to the goal for long enough to give yourself a chance of success.

Here are the links to the Interview again -

• Download the MP3 [ 49 Minutes - 22 MB ]
• Download Text Transcript [ 18 Pages - PDF ]

I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did creating it. If you like this style of interview there’s another 10+ interviews with professional bloggers inside Blog Mastermind, which you can download and listen to any time after you join the program.

That’s it from me. I’ll speak to you again soon.

Yaro Starak
Blog Coach

[ Add Your Comment | 113 Comments ]

I’ve been talking about it for long enough. Now is your chance to watch my latest video. Here’s the link -

This video covers a form of Internet marketing that combines the traffic and raw exposure power of a blog, with the direct marketing power of email lists.

I call it Conversion Blogging, and it’s the basis for my entire six-figure online business.

I honestly believe this system represents a much easier methodology for making money with blogs. I’m not saying you shouldn’t make money from traditional blog monetization methods like advertising (I still make a big chunk of change from sponsorship), but a blog can be so much more if you combine it with what has worked in the Internet marketing and direct marketing worlds for years (almost centuries when you look at offline mail order).

Of course for this system to work you can’t ignore blogging fundamentals - you still need to know what goes into building a great blog.

To help with this, after you watch the Conversion Blogging video, you can enter your name and email to watch my second video, a brand new visual presentation of the Blog Profits Blueprint and grab an updated copy of the text version of the Blueprint too.

I’ll let the videos do the explaining, so please go watch now, and then tell me what you think in comment replies here.

http://www.blogmastermind.com/video/

Yaro Starak
Conversion Blogger

[ Add Your Comment | 157 Comments ]

If you are ready to join my affiliate program, you can do so here -

http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/signup/

Back in December 07 I closed the doors to Blog Mastermind. The reason I did so was to upgrade the back-end system that delivered the course and the affiliate program. I’m pleased to say the upgrade is done.

I’m in Toronto now. I haven’t quite found where I am going to live (I’m with family at the moment), but I have settled back into a working routine and my focus is opening the doors to Blog Mastermind to take a new group of eager blogging students on board.

The course will open to new students again in a few weeks. I’ll let you know the exact date very soon.

What I can invite you to join today is the new affiliate system if you are interested in making money by promoting my program to your readers.

Make Money Promoting The Blog Mastermind Training Program

Blog Mastermind has been closed since December 10th 2007, so it’s nearly 6 months since anyone was allowed in.

There is serious pent-up demand for the program, so much so that I’ve already had a bunch of people ask how they can join Blog Mastermind and I’ve told them they have to wait.

This represents a great opportunity for affiliates who have an audience who are interested in blogging, making money online and Internet business. If this is you, then put aside some time in the next few weeks leading up to early June to participate in my relaunch by writing a few blog posts and mailing to your email list if you have one.

The program pays out 50% recurring commission on monthly membership fees. Our retention rate is very good because I’ve had a year to refine the training and add new materials. It’s a solid six month course and there really isn’t any blog specific training system out there like it today, taught by someone who went from no-one online to become a professional blogger.

I’ve got some great resources you can promote with, including the highly acclaimed Blog Profits Blueprint, as well as some new content just for this relaunch.

All the promo banners, links, blog articles and other resources are in the affiliate area you gain access to after you join and there are copy-and-paste options to make things easy for you.

I’ve also got something extra planned for this launch - prizes! I’m running a competition including prizes for the top 10 affiliates. Do I hear MacBook Air anyone?

All of the details regarding everything I’ve mentioned are available after you join my affiliate program. To apply, just fill out the form on this page and follow the instructions -

http://www.blogmastermind.com/affiliates/signup/

Message For My Existing Affiliates

The new affiliate system completely replaces the old one, so even if you are already an affiliate of mine you must sign up and create a new account with the new system. You also have to replace your old link with the new one you receive after you sign-up so we can track your new sales.

I look forward to working with you!

Yaro Starak
Blog Mastermind Mentor

[ Add Your Comment | 16 Comments ]