Big Money Blogger Q&A at Izeafest Panel

by Jeremy Schoemaker on September 13, 2008 · 67 comments

Moderated by Drew BennettStephanie Agresta, John Chow, Neil Patel, and myself were on the Big Money Blogger panel. There were some great questions posed to us:

Stream videos at Ustream

About the author...

– who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }

1 BenSpark September 13, 2008 at 6:49 am

That panel was so much fun. Thanks for being on it Jeremy!

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2 mrkbsm September 13, 2008 at 7:53 am

awesome – watching it now. Thanks Shoe!

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3 Tyler Cruz September 13, 2008 at 8:18 am

I didn’t realize, until seeing the video (as opposed to the stream) that the chat was seen on such big monitors on stage… they told us later in the chat, but I thought it was still seen offstage (not to the audience).

They should have warned the chat members beforehand, heh, or had some sort of warning somewhere.

Anyhow, the panel session was actually pretty good. Neil’s a funny guy!

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4 Jewellery September 13, 2008 at 11:34 am

I was suprised they left the chat on, usually its a distraction at events.

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5 web hosting rebates September 13, 2008 at 5:12 pm

the chat made the event more interactive

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6 Blogging Millionaire September 13, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Neil cracked me up too! It’s nice to see that these people aren’t robots.

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7 mrkbsm September 13, 2008 at 10:57 pm

I would have to agree – it was nice to see everyone being candid. Not too formal, but still informative!

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8 Custom T-Shirts September 14, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Haha, yeah they have a decent sense of humor

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9 web hosting rebates September 13, 2008 at 8:24 am

going to watch it now

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10 Moneybites September 13, 2008 at 9:15 am

Definitely a good watch, thanks for posting that.

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11 atlanta wedding photographer September 13, 2008 at 9:40 am

Remember rule #465 and its similar sister Rule # 662: if its on the internet it will be seen, found, and exposed at the very worst time it can be exposed. Oh and it will be taken out of context!
What came out of the the the panel was that you are writing for your audience while at the same time staying true to yourself. But this can be a hard balance.

Even Tom Clancy said that you get paid to write not what you want but what the people want to read and are willing to buy. In this case monetizing blogs is writing to an audience in hopes that they will buy into what you are selling. AKA brand and separating yourself from the pack.

Although, since there are only about 5-7 personality types and millions of people on the internet, it doesn’t seem that it would be that difficult to find people who like your blogging personality. At this point it becomes a numbers game. Find as many people who like your personality and keep them.

We have to remember that this is a relationship and with any relationship there is a give and take.

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12 Scott Paterson September 13, 2008 at 10:04 am

Big Money Blogger = one of the biggest oxymorons on the Internet… It’d be easier to start a new free webmail service from scratch…

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13 Steven-Sanders September 13, 2008 at 10:41 am

Panel was great. It kept me laughing. I’m still talking about it today. Very sticky.

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14 The Good Blog Guide September 13, 2008 at 10:54 am

Fantastic Video

There is nothing I love more than hearing a success story!

Inspires me every time.

Thanks

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15 Dick September 14, 2008 at 7:11 am

I agree, the video is good.

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16 ways to earn online September 13, 2008 at 11:00 am

Will check it out in a few. Bet its great.

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17 SMM Guru September 13, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Why was John Chow there? I could have been more interesting than him :)

He just repeated everything he said in the opening and then repeated what shoe said?

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18 Blogging Millionaire September 13, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Chow is all about the money.

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19 Chris September 13, 2008 at 2:21 pm

I’m shocked he didn’t talk about what he had to eat that day. lol.

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20 web hosting rebates September 13, 2008 at 3:21 pm

don’t be ‘evil’ guys, lol.

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21 Ganesh September 14, 2008 at 5:08 am

Good one there. :)

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22 mrkbsm September 13, 2008 at 11:05 pm

It was interesting to hear him talk about how the blog started though… that the URL was essentially nothing for a long time before he even added any content.
And as for what he had for lunch – I’m sure he’ll post pics when he gets back home :)

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23 SMM Guru September 15, 2008 at 1:09 pm

idk I just think John Chow is played out… Dont get me wrong hes a success story and I give him congrats on making it big but when I think of his site now I think of recycled information, pictures of his dinner, and recaps of what he made in a month.

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24 EfitPedia September 13, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Great video, very inspiring, it just make you want to blog everyday. Can’t wait to watch some more videos

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25 Webmasters World September 13, 2008 at 1:22 pm

Appreciate the video.. hearing others succeed only drives me to work harder.

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26 Anthony Shapley September 13, 2008 at 2:05 pm

That rocked, great info from all of you. I noticed frequent mention of the personal touch, which is perhaps where I’m going wrong. Great advice.

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27 Sohail September 13, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Another great video…

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28 Cheryl W September 13, 2008 at 2:43 pm

Thanks for the great video!

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29 SEO next September 13, 2008 at 2:49 pm

None of you 4 wanted to make any money from your blogs :P
jeremy how much do you make out of shoemoney.com these days ?

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30 web hosting rebates September 13, 2008 at 3:30 pm

he posted some statistics some time ago and if I remember right, he was making over 30k per month in the last year’s months. If I have to guess, I think this blog’s revenue will be over 400k this year.

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31 Robin Majumdar September 13, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Sounds about right, but how much of that 400K is EBITDA or actually net ^^ :)

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32 Tushar Dhoot September 14, 2008 at 12:50 pm

I doubt he spends even 20% of that. That’s the great thing about the internet. The expenses say fairly low even when income skyrockets.

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33 SEO next September 16, 2008 at 12:39 am

Woops .. thats a pretty decent amount ;-)
But i am sure this is just a fraction of the total :)

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34 SMM Guru September 15, 2008 at 1:09 pm

400K a month.

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35 Nicholas Chase September 13, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Excellent panel Jeremy!,

For a new Affiliate Marketer and blogger like me, the IZEAFest was a total eye-opener to the possibilities for talented dedicated people like yourself and the other panelists.

You, Neil Patel, John Chow and all of the others were great! Respectfully, Nicholas

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36 Dick September 14, 2008 at 7:12 am

This is a great support group. -))))))))))

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37 wesley September 13, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Awesomesauce, thanks!

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38 Reid September 13, 2008 at 6:47 pm

Yeah I would love to be in this position, it looks like fun!

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39 SEO next September 16, 2008 at 12:40 am

But the fun has not been a cake walk .. took him almost 4 years to reach this position ..

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40 shifka September 13, 2008 at 6:52 pm

very useful question answer for bloggers. thank you shoemoney.

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41 ZK@WebTrafficROI September 13, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Very interesting post and very interactive…

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42 Robin Majumdar September 13, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Great participation – what were you looking over at over on the far left (of you) several times ?

I liked your analysis of Twitter and keeping their proverbial secret sauce in order to become the telco of IM 2.0 …

Rob

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43 Custom T-Shirts September 14, 2008 at 1:21 pm

Twitter is a great example of how a business should be run.

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44 meethere September 13, 2008 at 9:36 pm

wow, top celebrities there..
Great :cool:

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45 Tushar Dhoot September 13, 2008 at 10:35 pm

Wow, IzeaFest looks crazy. Loved the panel, you guys should do it again!

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46 TYCP Entertainment Magazine September 13, 2008 at 11:10 pm

This panel was good. Great advice offered all around.

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47 mrkbsm September 13, 2008 at 11:13 pm

Good stuff Shoe – thanks for keeping all of us non-attenders in the loop!

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48 HSD September 13, 2008 at 11:51 pm

Great Panel, Great Video!

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49 Mike1115 September 14, 2008 at 12:34 am

I was a newbie when I tried Unique Blog Designs. Didn’t have a good experience and felt like my business wasn’t too important. It’s not a good place for newbies. There’s plenty of templates you can tweek instead.

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50 shanker bakshi September 14, 2008 at 2:22 am

You guys rocks I salute you

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51 jack September 14, 2008 at 2:24 am

Very interesting , wish I was there ..

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52 Douglas September 14, 2008 at 11:32 am

You didn’t wear your Shoemoney shirt!

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53 Jeremy Schoemaker September 16, 2008 at 12:58 am

shoemoney brand is pretty well known… now working on fighters.com ;)

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54 Douglas September 14, 2008 at 12:21 pm

Give a man a fish, he’ll eat it. Teach the man how to fish, he’ll steal it.
So which would you pick? The first option is greedy… the second one is very nice, but you’ll lose your business… hmm..

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55 Tushar Dhoot September 14, 2008 at 12:59 pm

I’d do the second one.

As the saying goes, there are “plenty of fish in the sea”.

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56 carol stanley September 14, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Fabulous…love it…

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57 cheap used cars September 14, 2008 at 5:49 pm

drew bennett the wide receiver?

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58 Colleen September 14, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Jeremy, having never heard your story before, I appreciated knowing you are human after all. Your honesty was refreshing and hearing you speak was one of the highlights of the IzeaFest event for me.

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59 Roman Patel September 15, 2008 at 1:26 am

GREAT Q&A, I was paying close attention until the last 30 seconds when Neil started talking about how his dad stumbled upon his blog, then I just started laughing…I can see my dad doing something like that, if I posted stuff like that haha!!

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60 Robert MacEwan September 15, 2008 at 6:38 am

For the record the tattoo guy Shoe mentioned will tattoo for money. It’s about $1,500 per.

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61 Rekzai September 15, 2008 at 2:21 pm

You and Chow make a great team!

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62 JumboCasher.com September 15, 2008 at 11:14 pm

nice… think of a name for this team would be a great start…

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63 CultureMob.com September 15, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Nice video!

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64 izu mou September 15, 2008 at 11:21 pm

aweson video,thanks for the update.

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65 Adtechz September 18, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Good Video

Great Q&A

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