Interview with Glen Allsopp - The Owner of PluginID

Today, I'm pleased to have Glen Allsopp here with us.

Glen is the owner of PluginID and a young Entrepreneur making a 5-figure income (in dollars) every month online.

Could you describe what you do and how you earn your living?

Sure. My income is pretty much divided into two main areas online: affiliate marketing and blogging. I build small niche affiliate websites which promote products that other people have created and get traffic to them from search engines. I also run two blogs and earn money through ads and creating my own products.

All of my work only takes up around 2-3 hours per day and I do this as my sole income source.

How you find a market in search of something to buy?

In terms of blogging, you don't. In terms of affiliate marketing, you either know the market already or you run some niches through keyword volume tools. Once you've found a buying keyphrase that you think people would use in Google, test it via PPC first before you build a big website and later find out it doesn't convert. I should have done this in the tattoo niche before setting up three websites which make next to nothing.

If you're looking to make money blogging, you have to blog on what you're passionate about. From there, you can worry about what people want to buy. If you build a blog about what people want to buy you probably a) won't enjoy writing on that topic and b) not have anything original to say.

There's plenty of ways to make money online, but there's only a few things you can be ridiculously passionate (yeah, I put those words together) about.

How did you uniquely position and differentiate your business from the rest?

I like to use authenticity as my innovation when it comes to blogging. Despite how powerful it is, many bloggers still tend to "mask" who they are or try to change things just to make sure that they are doing what everyone else is doing. I try to involve other bloggers as much as possible whereas other people think that is promoting the competition. Examples here (http://www.pluginid.com/personal-development/) and here (http://www.pluginid.com/ID/face-off/).

What are the techniques you use to attract real prospects to your business?

I guess my affiliate marketing projects are business related, but I don't really think of them as such. 95% of my traffic comes from search engines and, surprisingly to some, most of my income is generated via Bing.com. Most people focus on Google and there's a lot of competition, but Bing visitors convert far better than any other search referral.

As far as blogging goes, I don't think of people as prospects. I think of them as people. If you want your blog to succeed, you have to do the same.

I understand you wrote an eBook - Cloud Living, would you like to tell us more about it?

Sure! I spent a year and a half in Africa just after turning 18 and worked for a company in Cape Town. When my friends found out I was making a lot of money online, they wanted to know how. I promised them I would put together a short guide and a few weeks later I delivered. It was only 30 pages long, but it was enough.

I remember when my friend James made his first $50 sale after a week that I could help more people make money online. I then began to expand the guide and shared more information on affiliate marketing and blogging. I went into the total basics like buying a domain and setting up wordpress to ranking for competitive keyphrases and increasing feed subscribers by using live analytics.

Cloud Living is pretty much everything I know (which makes it hard for me to release anymore products ;)) and is something I'm very proud of.

What is your advice for aspiring Entrepreneurs with no existing audience?

Find out what it is you can offer to the world. What value can you bring to the lives of people.

Remember that value can come in many forms (humor, entertainment, information) so figure out what yours is.

Once you've done that, you need to pick a platform. Blogging is not for everyone. It may be that you should create a forum, a podcast, a directory, a video log or something of that nature. You may even find that the best way to get your information to the world is through public speaking. Work out what it is you can offer, and figure out the best platform to do that.

Now, all you have to do is do it. Put out great content that provides that value. Find the people who are already getting it from other sources and engage with them. See people as people and not as cheque books. Your success in building an audience and getting paid what you deserve will not happen overnight, but if you keep going, it will happen.

Right, you have mentioned "See people as people" repeatedly, this is something many have neglected. Thank you very much for the interview, do you have any final words of wisdom that you would like to share with us?

Make sure you live your life so that in your dying moments, you don't need to think of something magical to say because you've said what you can when you can. If you're ever in a rut or feel like life is against you, try your best to make someone else have a better day. This is very simple, but it will have very powerful and profound effects on your own emotional health.

Never forget that you have more potential than you give yourself credit for. Just make sure you use it.

You can find out more about Glen Allsopp's Personal Development Blog at PluginID. Glen has written an eBook on how he make money online using affiliate marketing and blogging, titled "Cloud Living".