Today I’d like to bring to you an exclusive interview with Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com
I hope you all take out a pen & pad because he’s about to answer some great questions for us that you might wanna know the answers to (you can thank me later..)
I thought about some of the stuff people’s been asking me through email – and I wanted to get Pat’s view on it since his story is not only unique, but also very inspiring in my honest opinion.
So, here you go.. enjoy!
1. First of all Pat.. thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you tell us who you are and how you got started online?
“Hey! I’m Pat Flynn.
I always like to tell people who know nothing about me except for the fact that I’m successful online, that I am NOT a millionaire. I’m just a husband and father who makes a living online in a way that allows me to spend more time with my family, and do the things I love to do like surf or go fishing.
It all started with getting laid off.
I had a very good 9 to 5 job working as a Job Captain in a popular architecture firm here in Southern California, and life was fantastic.
Then one day, my boss called me into his office. He sat me down, folded his hands together, rested his elbows on his desk and said, “Pat. You’re one of the best and brightest we have. Unfortunately, we have to let you go. I’m sorry.”
It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to work for myself. I couldn’t stand the fact that even though I worked so hard for that company, and I was one of the best and brightest they had, that I was still let go. I might as well just have slacked off the whole time, because my fate would have still been the same…and that just doesn’t seem right to me.
If I lose my income and everything goes down the toilet, I want it to be because of something I did, not because of something that I had no control over. At the same time, I want to be rewarded for all of the hard work I put in – so I decided to do business online.
See, right before I was laid off, I was studying for the LEED exam (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which is an exam based on sustainable design and green (environmental friendly) buildings. I had started a blog to help me keep track of my notes and had no intention of ever making money from this website, let alone having other people see it. It was simply created to help me organize my notes so I could access them while I traveled for business, or while I was at work and on a break.
Well, little did I know, after a couple months after launching that blog, thousands of other people around the world were using my notes to help them study for the exam.
It scared me at first, but I then realized how many people I could help – so I took my notes to a whole new level and created a huge resource with tips, tricks, charts and case studies all to help people easily pass this exam.
Then, when I was laid off, I decided to turn my free blog into a business. I created my own study guides and audio guides, and even partnered with a few companies to eventually turn this little niche website into a profitable business. I used principles from the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss to actually automate a lot of the process, such as accepting payments and delivering electronic goods.
Just to give you an idea, my best month of income was in March of 2009. I had just gotten married to my beautiful wife April, and we spent half of the month on vacation in Hawaii, yet I was still able to earn a nice $30,328.48.
Now, sales on that site have slowed a little due to some changes in the industry, but I’ve taken the same passive income principles and have applied them to several other arenas to create a diversified income for my family. This includes an iPhone application development company I co-founded, niche and affiliate marketing, and more.
Looking back, my layoff was the best thing that ever happened to me. As one of my friends put it, “Pat, you should thank your previous employer for cutting that ball and chain off of your foot and allowing you to finally be yourself.”
2. Thanks for sharing your story with us.. Now, a lot of bloggers just starting out might get discouraged when they look at their stats and see no visitors coming to their sites – what would you say to them to help them overcome that obstacle.. what’s the first thing they should do?
“You’re not going to see any kind of traffic coming in right away. Remember, we all start at zero, and it takes time to get results.
The first thing I would do it simply not worry about the numbers at all. Worry about providing excellent, over-the-top content on your blog, and the traffic will come – almost automatically. Of course, there are ways to make traffic flow to your site faster, which I’m sure we’ll get into later in this interview, but bottom line – content seeds traffic.
Secondly, don’t get discouraged, because even though I tell you not to worry about the numbers, I know you will. I did, but even through I was seeing less than 10 visitors a day for the first several months of my blog, I’ve since grown into a blog with an Alexa ranking of 17,000 because of the content that I created and the relationships I’ve built with other bloggers online. I almost gave up several times within those first few months, but boy I’m glad I didn’t!
Stick with it, and give yourself and your blog a chance to grow.”
3. You now have over 9,000 subscribers at your SmartPassiveIncome blog, what do you think was the biggest contributor to that success?
“I do my best to stand out from the crowd.”
“A lot of what I do on the blog is done purposely to be different from everyone else in my niche, and I am definitely in a crowded niche.
What to do exactly depends on what niche you’re in, and what everyone else is doing, but in my specific case it’s things like:
1. Reporting how much I make each month, down to the penny. Most people are afraid to do this, but it has helped put me on the radar. And yes, some people have done it for a long time (i.e. Shoemoney and John Chow), but I do it every month, and give a detailed explanation of exactly what I did to earn it.
2. Responding to every single comment on my blog. No other A-lister blogger does this.
3. Being totally transparent and honest about my businesses, and this includes all of my mistakes and failures as well.
4. Having a newsletter with a 25 email autoresponder series that just gives away pure content, and doesn’t try to sell anything.
All of these things help people remember me and my blog, amongst the thousands of other blogs out there.
I have a lot of other cool little “stand out of the crowd” things, but I’ll let you figure those things out” 
4. There are a ton of traffic-getting strategies out there, from SEO and video marketing, to blog commenting and forums – based off your experience, which do you think is the best to reach a much larger audience?
“The best strategy I know of is to guest post on other popular blogs in your niche. Hands down.
This works because:
1. You know that the people who will read your guest post are people who are interested in what you have to say.
2. It’s sort of like a mini-Oprah effect. Since the blog owner publishes your post, he or she is telling their large group of followers (who also happens to be your target audience) to pay attention to you, and a recommendation from someone else is much more powerful than any recommendation you could give for yourself.
3. You get backlinks back to your blog at the same time (from a relevant, usually higher ranking site), which helps with SEO.”
5. It’s one thing to get visitors, but it’s a whole other to keep them coming back – what tips would you give bloggers to make their blog a bit more “sticky” and worthy of return visitors?
“Great question!
It’s true, visitors are one thing, but fans, a tribe, followers, and loyalty is another. It’s like this analogy I like to use: a blog is a bar.
If you own a bar, sure it’s nice to get random visitors here and there every once and a while for a drink, but it’s the loyal ones who return to your bar consistently every single day that make your business and build that community that you can’t wait to serve the next day.
To help you with making your blog more “sticky”, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions:
1. What’s the first thing people notice when they come to my blog?
If it’s a popup and a number of flashing advertisements, then you’re probably not going to get too many returning visitors. Really think about the first impression that you’re giving people when they come to your blog. This can be hard to do, since we’re always so engulfed in our own blogs and fail to see it from an outside perspective, but it’s really important to understand. As you probably know, it’s hard to erase those first impressions.
2. Is the purpose of my site clear right from the beginning?
It is said that people spend an average of 7 seconds on a website, so you’ve got 7 seconds to tell people what your site is about, or they’re going to leave. Ask a friend who doesn’t know anything about your blog to visit your site, and as they are visiting tell you what it’s about. you might be surprised.
3. Am I giving people an easy opportunity to come back?
In other words, are you giving people multiple opportunities to subscribe to your RSS feed, subscribe to your newsletter, subscribe to comments, retweet and share your posts, bookmark it, etc. People online are LAZY (no offense), so you have to make it really easy for them to return.
4. Are I engaging and creating a community?
If you strive to create a community on your blog, a place where people can discuss and interact, then you will definitely get more people to come back. In your blog posts, ask questions. Respond to all of your comments, and ask even more questions! The more people participate, the more they will feel like they are part of a community – some place they can go online for help, or give their advice if that’s the case.”
6. You now have a baby boy… Congrats – when will you be teaching him how to create his own blog?
“Haha! I don’t really know, but I definitely want him to learn the ins and outs of how blogging works and how money flows on the Internet someday. Maybe we could host a father son podcast together – that sounds kind of fun.
We’ll see though. It’s really all about what makes him happy and what he wants to do.
He is my motivation for everything I do in life now.
Thanks again Hector, for letting me share my story and a little of my knowledge with your audience. If you ever have any questions or would just like to come say hi, feel free to join me on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/smartpassiveincome.”
Thank YOU Pat for answering all the questions with so much details and examples – I’m sure everyone reading this will get a ton of value from it.
If you all want to learn more about Pat, you can find it at SmartPassiveIncome.com and join his facebook page.
Leave you questions and comments in the comments section below..
Hector
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do you have this on mp3 so i can listen to it on my ipod?
Tracy Matthewman´s last post ..Why You Should Quit Your MLM Now
Hey Tracy..
It was an email interview – next time I’ll ask him for a phone interview..
I gotta admit.. that was a lot of reading lol..
Hi Hector and Patt,
This was great! A lot of excellent info and advice which I will sure apply to my own blog after my little break.
I especially loved the advice about ‘asking questions’ in your posts as that engages the visitor into conversation.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Ilka
Ilka Flood´s last post ..Time To Take A Break … And Smell the Daisies
Hey Ilka, glad you liked it..
Your break? where you going?
Just “hanging loose” here in beautiful Colorado and taking it easy for a few days
Ilka Flood´s last post ..Time To Take A Break … And Smell the Daisies
Cooool!!
Hi Hector and Patt,
thanks for sharing this interview. It is stuffed with great content. I like the idea of a blog being a bar. A bar lives from returning customers. By the way, do you reconsider your pop-up strategy again Hector
?
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend´s last post ..Lessons From Robert Kiyosaki’s “Cashflow Quadrant” For MLM Network Marketing Pt 3
Ha ha.. your hilarious Oliver.
No, I’m not.. it’s still working, and I’m still testing responses..
Thank you for sharing this interview! There was so much great information there! I really need to start guest posting!
Thanks again!
Stacy´s last post ..Are Blog Niches a Thing of the Past
Stacy.. you’re very welcome
guest blogging is where it’s at.. I’m doing it – we should have like a guest blogging contest or something… that would be cool
Hector…that’s a great idea! I’m in!!!
Heather C Stephens´s last post ..Social Media Tribes and The Power of a Network Marketing Team Online
Hey Hector
Awesome interview, bro. Pat’s story is very inspirational and motivational. And his blog is the best out there in my opinion.
Thanks for the great tips and advice; like Stacy I need to start guest posting!
Michael
Yes it is Michael..
his blog is amazing (can’t say that too loud, my blog might hear me) lol..
but seriously, I like his straight-up, authentic approach, which is why I asked him to do this interview..
ps. guest posting.. YES
Hey Hector
Excellent interview.
Interesting about the popup
Peter R Fuller´s last post ..Just Smile
LOL.. very interesting indeed –
Thanks for the comment Pete.. I’m still testing ;0)
Hey Hector…
Great blog, will be checking it out..
do you not post up a regular email address to get ahold of you?
I had a couple ideas, just wanted to share..
Best of luck, we’ll be reading!!
Chef Tony´s last post ..The Honorable Dan Pink
Hey Hector,
Great post. There’s so much in here I’d like to digest properly, I’ll have to bookmark it. I’m definitely keen to know if there’s a phone interview with Pat in the future.
Thanks for sharing this!
Jym
Jym´s last post ..5 Essential WordPress Blog SEO Plugins
There’s definitely a lot of material that was covered here.. bookmarking it would be a good idea..
as for a phone interview.. why not.. maybe I’ll ask him to come back some time in the future
thanks for your comment
Hey Hector and everyone else here!
Thanks again for letting me share a little bit with you in this interview, and for all of the awesome comments. Hector definitely asked some great questions and got me to say a lot more than I thought I was going to say. It was fun!
About the popup (LOL), popups aren’t always necessarily a bad thing, I just don’t like them or use them myself. A lot of people find great success with them, and like I know you said Hector, you’re testing and that’s definitely the best way to go. I should have mentioned also that a lot of my success was due to always testing – testing everything as much as possible, to figure out what works best. It seems like you know what you’re doing so I’m not worried about the popup here
Cheers, and thanks again! We’ll chat soon.
LOL.. I was trying to squeeze out as much as I could b’cuz you sure have some great insights to online business and blogging..
I appreciate what you said Pat.. thanks (I’ll keep testing)
Talk soon
Hi Hector,
I really loved this interview. Great stuff!
It was a lot of reading, but it was worth it. I completely agree with the guest posting bit. It’s a lot of fun and can really get you noticed.
Thanks for this awesome interview!
Susanna
Susanna Hess´s last post ..How To Create A Visually Appealing Blog Post
A LOT of reading.. right? but who thought learning could be so fun?
Guest blogging is definitely something I’m gonna be doing a lot of in the coming months.. I guess I’ll be seeing you around a lot too..
thanks for your comment
Hey Hector,
Thanks for posting this up brother. It’s very inspiring. A very similar story to mine.
I just loved how Patt said provide good content first, and not worry about the traffic. Provide good content first, and be transparent, and the traffic will come. I’m a firm believer in that.
Have a great day,
Wayne
Wayne Wu´s last post ..A Network Marketing Nightmare – Don’t let this Happen to You!
Hey Hector, thank you for doing this interview and posting the results. I think that there are times for all of as that we had or will consider throwing in the towel on a project, but we soon relaize that we cannot ! I am going to grab this book that he refrenced and start grasping the thoughts…. again thank you ! I am going to check out his blog!
Great post Hector those are some amazing numbers. I notice how he really didn’t mention much about SEO but seemed more concerned with networking and providing good content that was kinda inspirational. I see your catching grief about the pop up I just want to know where you got it? Looks great.
Steve Shoemaker
Steve Shoemaker´s last post ..FaceBook ToolBar Is This In Your ToolBox
Steve.. you’re right – not much “SEO, link building or meta tags” talk happened in this post (that’s a relief)
As for the PopUp.. you can get it here (affiliate link) and if you want to see what they did for me, check out this post
talk soon
Hector
Hi Hector!
Great post, thanks! I enjoyed it and of course have popped over to see Pat’s blog and bookmark it for future reference. And, it is interesting about the pop up isn’t it! I’ve seen other posts since your initial implementation and announcement of yours all saying it increases their opt-ins. But maybe they would cause a higher bounce rate in the end?
Thanks again, as usual you provide awesome content!
Wishing You Brilliant Success,
Vicki
Vicki Berry´s last post ..Adding Static FBML Application to Your Facebook Fan Page
Hey Vicki.. thanks for stopping by..
Pat has a point about making a good first impression, but you also have to factor in WHO we’re targeting.. – NOT specifically the market but the type of person..
I want to connect with people who don’t go crazy about a popup popping up in front of them once every 7 days..
if they’re gonna freak out, then they’re welcome NOT to come back.. and yes, maybe I’m excluding a lot of people because I’m taking that stand point, but the ones who are stick with me – are with me because they enjoy the content and they’re just SUPER COOL people.. – LIKE YOU!!
thanks for your comment
talk soon
Hector and Patt,
Incredible post and information in this interview. Thank you so much for sharing it. I’m printing it to reference in the future. I absolutely love success stories…they inspire me on so many levels and yours is at the top of my list!
Thanks for sharing it!
Heather
Heather C Stephens´s last post ..Social Media Tribes and The Power of a Network Marketing Team Online
Thanks for taking the time to read it Heather! When I was answering, it didn’t seem like it was long, but I guess it sort of was. I’m glad it has information that you can find useful though! Cheers!
Hector,
Super awesome interview dude. You’re really doing great Job man
.
Thanks for this great interview. Have a great day.
~Dev
Dev@Make Money Blogging´s last post ..7 Secrets to Good Sales Copy
Dev..
Thanks for stopping by bro.. glad you liked the interview
talk soon
Hector
You are so right, Hector – this is one incredible resource well worth reading.
There are so many gems I got out of it, I would not even know where to start.
I absolutely agree that guest posting is one of THE BEST ways to drive tons of traffic to your new blog.
I do have to respectfully disagree though that simply publishing killer content will almost automatically bring in traffic. Traffic won’t come on its own. Ever, but especially in the beginning. That’s why we all do a lot of networking, social media posting, etc.
Thanks for going over the top on this one, Hector! What are you going to do next to top this one?
Ana
Ana @ Targeted Website Traffic´s last post ..How To Find Out Who Your Blog Fans Are
Hey Ana –
Indeed, networking, social media and all that stuff really kick starts a blog, but I wouldn’t say that only publishing good content never works, because that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t have a twitter account or facebook or anything at that time – all I did was post and post, and it took off on it’s own, thanks to search engines.
But, of course, if I had utilized social media and networking, I probably could have seen results much much faster
Cheers, and thank!
Great interview Hector and excellent tip about guest blogging.
Hey Hector & Pat,
Awesome content! There is so much valuable content in this that you should copyright it.
Chat with you later…
Josh
Josh Garcia´s last post ..Who Else Wants to Increase Their Online Traffic
You had some awesome advice you both were sharing with us.
I always enjoy these kind of interviews. They are jam packed with wonderful tidbits of information. Can’t go wrong with that.
Thanks Hector and Pat.
Jerome Ratliff
Jerome Ratliff´s last post ..4 Simple Ways to Create a Team Culture
I’ve found this interview with Pat Flynn to be very inspiring. I’m a devoted reader of his and have been trying to emulate his success with my own blog (and hopefully I’ll be able to create a business out of it) by following his advice.
It’s amazing what online income can do. Personally, I want to make a living online so that I can eventually start a family and support my family with online income. Among my goals, I plan to get married and purchase a nice, medium-sized house in California. I’m hoping to get the money to fund such goals from online income.
I’ve also purchased the 4-Hour Work Week and have found it to be very motivating. I’m still not done reading, but have gotten through the first two sections, so I’m half way there!
I especially find the answer to the second question helpful, as I’ve been struggling with motivation for a while now. A few times, I’ve wanted to give up, but I refuse to let my dreams pass me by. I’ll continue to blog, and I’ll only focus on content that I know my readers can benefit from. In other words, I’ll blog more to help readers. If I do that, my daily visitors will increase before I know it.
Christina ( @CashCampfire )´s last post ..Do You Feel Tied Down to Your Goals
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work
Very interesting interview to be read…
mlm home based business´s last post ..Work at Home Business