Arash Blog

Search Featured: Joel Comm

MD: Joel, first of all welcome to Search Feature. I understand that one of your first sites was http://www.worldvillage.com/
Was that the one project which helped you get started with your adsense ventures and what did you do to help it kick off? What mistakes did you make and when did you finally get the hang of it?

JC: I launched WorldVillage.com in 1995, but AdSense didn’t start until 2003. By that time, I had several established sites. The one that was my greatest AdSense earner was http://www.DealofDay.com, a site for people wanting to save money on their retail purchases online. I made a ton of mistakes, including using the wrong ad blocks, wrong ad colors and wrong page placement. Around April 2004, I “cracked the code” and started making substantial revenue.

MD: I understand that Thor Schrock was a contestant on www.nextinternetmillionaire.com and later on became the producer of www.TopAffiliateChallenge.com which just ended. You were predicting that the show would fail because of the video editing job done. Shoemoney and John Chow were team leaders and you had Ken McArthor as well. Pepperjam and Market leverage were sponsors. The blogosphere was full of people writing about the show, so tell me what you believe you should have done different.
Would doing a show live reality show style be the most effective way to teach people?

JC: I didn’t predict failure. I said that he was biting off more than he could chew. While not a commercial success, the show did boldly go where no one had gone before and I applaud Thor for that. I discussed this on my blog at http://www.joelcomm.com/the_top_affiliate_challenge_in.html . It is hard enough to produce a show to be aired later. Add to that the pressures of producing an episode each day and I think you need a significant budget and team to pull it off. The other criticism was that there wasn’t much teaching. When you are doing reality programming, it has to be entertaining and engaging first, educational second. TAC had a problem doing either well.

MD: My sources tell me that one of the people you have been learning from was Mike Filsaime who also became a mentor on The Next Internet Millionaire. You then created http://www.secretclassroom.com/ where you sell copies for $500.00
Kris Jones from Pepperjam, Brad Fallen and Mark Joyner are part of the team as well.
And crazy Marlon Sanders.
What do those guys add to the team? How did you choose those guys and what are you looking for in team members, I mean which criteria do you use to pick someone to join forces with?

JC: I selected a dozen Internet millionaires who would be willing to come and teach our contestants their best content in a brief two –hour session. Each one of them over delivered and equipped the contestants with incredibly valuable information. We call The Secret Classroom a seminar so exclusive that you couldn’t buy a ticket for it! We do offer it for $497 and regularly hear great feedback from our customers. It’s a great comprehensive course for Internet marketing.
I take your word that video is a major tool most web marketers ignore and fail communicating well with their audience. What else do you believe is something you should pursue in order to get your messages across better?
Most marketers are not using social media properly. Twitter, Facebook and other sites allow so much opportunity to interact with people. I think it is easy to get lost in technology and forget that our online business is still first and foremost about people. It’s about relationship. When people lose site of that and just focus on sales, they are going down the wrong road.

MD: Your main blog has been redesigned and it seems to have improved communication with readers. Do you believe you spend enough time answering questions on your blog and social networks or do you think that it’s something that should be and stay on the back burner importance wise? I see that Twitter has become one of your favorite spots now. What is it that you like about it so much? And when will you create some sort of social network yourself?

JC: It’s impossible to answer all the questions and comments people direct to me. Between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, AskJoelComm.com and my blog, I can’t do it all. We have created our own social network that comes as an exclusive membership with our Top One Percent Report at http://www.toponenetwork.com . We’re also working on a new social network that I am not at liberty to speak about yet, but it will put me and my team one step closer to world domination.

MD: I hate to do this, but here is an early video of yours.

What did you think about it when you saw it and how did you approach things differently afterwards? I’m sure that you don’t like watching this, but tell me how much your impact has changed thru an increase of the quality of your videos? And will you keep using http://www.ustream.tv/ ?

JC: When you sent me to one of my videos, I was thinking “Oh Lord, what have I done?” But seeing this video doesn’t embarrass me at all. If it did, I would take it down. Actually, I should probably take it down just because the offer is so dated!

With The Next Internet Millionaire, we positioned me as a Trump of the web. I had the suit and tie, was pretty formal, etc. I decided that I want to be more approachable from now on. I’m just a regular guy who has found success online. I want others to know they can experience the same thing if they just apply themselves to principles of success. If anything, my videos have gotten goofier and more fun!

MD: When you are on top of your own industry, what is your ambition? Is there anything different that we can expect from you in the future?

JC: Always! One of my goals is to always do new things. We are developing products and services that are going to continue to boldly go where no one has gone before. I’m excited about new projects and you’ll be seeing a lot of new stuff from me and my team soon.

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