Interview with Andrew Rondeau from WeBuildYourBlog.com
Famous Bloggers Club has the honor of having been able to interview a very interesting blogger and ex-manager, Andrew Rondeau from We Build Your Blog. We are glad that he has joined our Famous Bloggers Club.
Q. Tell the world something about yourself and what you do in life?
Andrew: I always enjoyed hard work – when I was 16, I had four part-time jobs!
And for the first 30 years of my career I worked for large corporate companies. The corporate world allowed you to work hard and get well rewarded – which I was. I ended up managing large IT departments.
But I’ve always thought about making it on my own. Over the years I was always looking for something that would make me more money!
I thought that if I worked as hard on my own business as I did in the corporate world – I could make it work.
Then, ‘out of the blue’, someone said to me, why don’t you write a book on Management and sell it on-line?
I started to investigate and quickly got excited. I knew I could write the book due to my experience and I naively believed the hype and thought I’ll make millions on-line by selling the book and retire!
This was 3 years ago.
I found a mentor, online, (I knew nothing about being on-line), and he helped me. He told me exactly what to do, and I invested my earnings from the corporate world into it.
I created a website and a free management guide to start building my own customer list, and then my management book. I did all this in the evenings while staying away from home in the hotels and while traveling in the corporate role.
I finished the sales page and launched, expecting hundreds to sell. I sold about five in the first week, but I was expecting 5,000!
I quickly sucked the mentor dry – he couldn’t help me anymore – I had all his knowledge now, so I found a more experienced mentor, and he helped me in the marketing and we created two more products to sell.
Then I got into blogging and created several blogs and more products.
So now I had a variety of products to sell and my knowledge of making money on-line was growing. I invested thousands of dollars in my education, and it was taking over – I really enjoyed the excitement.
Eighteen months ago, I decided to leave the corporate world and decided to take the plunge and work for myself, full-time. Since then I have created my own course helping others to build their on-line business.
Outside of work, I enjoy cooking and my wife and I are learning to ballroom and latin dance.
For more info you can check out my profiles on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and my blog We Build Your Blog
Q. What Was the Story Behind Your Blog?
Andrew: Some of this I mentioned in the above question – sorry!
For me, there are two major concepts you must either learn yourself or have enough money to employ others to do for you:
- Writing (and copywriting) skills
- Getting traffic to your site
Have you heard of John Carlton, the Internet and copywriting supremo?
I expect you have, as John is the one many of the big Internet Guru’s like Frank Kern, John Reese, Jeff Johnson… turn to for copywriting advice.
Well, a little while ago I decided to splash out and join John’s Simple Writing System course. It cost me $2000 and it was the best money I have ever spent on an Internet Marketing type course.
It was perfect for me – a modular approach. Do A, get some feedback from John (and other experts), then do B (get more feedback), then do C…then pull it altogether.
The advice and feedback was priceless.
One thing I noticed about the course…a number of the ‘students’ on the course used WordPress for their blogs / websites.
So, that shaped up my writing / copywriting skills.
One concept covered, now…what about getting bundles and bundles of traffic to my sites.
What would be perfect for me would be another modular approach course…I asked John C for some advice/recommendation. He said Jeff Johnson would be perfect for me.
So, I go over to Jeff Johnson’s site and see he is giving away some free SEO software to increase the traffic to your site (if it’s based on WordPress).
WordPress again!
There must be something to this WordPress lark, I thought! I did some research and see that WordPress is firstly free and secondly easy to install. I registered and hosted a ‘throwaway’ domain. Installed WordPress. Played with WordPress. This is easy. This is simple. This is efficient. WordPress has an amazing list of features. I decided to join Jeff Johnson’s Underground Training Lab.
Again…it’s a module approach.
So I got hooked on WordPress…it’s easy, it’s simple, it’s free and it has an amazing list of built-in features.I learned so much and I thought I could offer my knowledge and experience as a service and hence the name www.webuildyourblog.com.
Have You Earned Any Money through Blogging?
Andrew: I now make my living via blogging. Well, when I say blogging – I mean I have my own on-line business and blogging is one of the main parts to attract traffic, visitors and customers.
Only the other day, I had a client who asked me, “Can I make money just by blogging?”
And the answer really depends on how you define blogging. If you define it as simply writing and sharing your opinions online, then it is difficult to make money.
But if you supplement your blog with selling services, products, perhaps, affiliate products…you then start to have an on-line business and not just a blog.
So my own blog is a catalyst to ‘sell’ my blogging set-up, maintenance and writing services. Plus I have numerous products I have created and sell on-line.
Q. Would You Tell Us About ONE of Your Famous Posts?
Andrew: Well, I’m going to pick one right from this site, 43 Blogger Tips – What you should do after installing WordPress.
As I write it has 157 comments and 126 Tweets.
Why?
I think because the post shares a lot of information on how to set-up your blog – all in one blog post.
It took me a long time to write the post but when I then did was go into a little more detail on some of the points and make videos. So from this one blog post I think I created 10 more video blog posts.
Q. If I asked you to suggest *ONE* Blogger friend to send him/her a Famous Blogger Club invitation, who you will suggest?
Andrew: A lot of my friends are already members but I would have to mention one of my business partners, Joel Williams.
Joel is my business partner and we created the Income Blogging Guide course, together. It’s a great partnership. You see, I’m more of the marketing, getting traffic, promoting your blog type person and Joel is the technical one. Joel technically mentors some of the World’s biggest bloggers.
So when we perform our live weekly teleconference for our course members, we can cover the questions. Joel, the technical ones, me the marketing and promotion type ones.
Read also
Who is behind NMB?
Hello! .. My name is Hesham Zebida and I’m a Blogger and used to be a Web Designer, I make living from building websites for my clients, I have created NMB to be a healthy community for Bloggers, so join me if you want to share tips and ideasI am also managing the Famous Bloggers Club, FBC is NOT a secret society, but it is exclusive and membership is only by invitation and limited to 100.
FBC has been created for the sole purpose of unifying bloggers that are proactive, dedicated and committed in helping each other to prosper on the blogosphere.
Check My Personal Blog to get to know me better.
@Joel, Hi Joel, nice to see you here! probably it would be interesting to hear your story next time!
You have a very convincing story Andrew! You have gone far in a very short time. Kudos!
Bidhan Adhikary´s last blog ..Now body organs can send updates to your cellphone
I love Andrew! He has helped me tremendously in building my blog and making it better. Kudos!
Gerlaine Talk´s last blog ..I’m Good 30 Day MCC
Andrew @ Blogging Guide Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 1:00 am
@Gerlaine Talk,
Thanks Gerlaine!
I really appreciate your ‘thanks’.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..A Thank You Goes A Long Way
Great interview, I always like seeing how people get started and it’s wonderful to see how far Andrew has progressed in what is really a short space of time. Bright guy!
Thanks for the mention too!
Joel´s last blog ..Getting Yourself Into The Blogging Habit
admin Reply:
July 14th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
@Joel, Hi Joel, nice to see you here! probably it would be interesting to hear your story next time!
Andrew @ Blogging Guide Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 1:01 am
@Joel,
Thanks, Joel. I’ve had a lot of help and support from people just like you!
Want to read your story next!
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Are Your Blog Posts Indexed
Wow, Andrew’s story is very inspiring. I read about the interview on his blog and just had to stop by and check it out. It’s interesting to read other people’s success stories, the can be revealing and educational in so many ways.
Thanks for sharing this great interview!
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella´s last blog ..iPad Giveaway Contest Win An iPad
Andrew @ Blogging Guide Reply:
July 18th, 2010 at 1:03 am
@Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella,
Thanks!
I appreciate the fact you read it and commented.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Are Your Blog Posts Indexed