Interview: Kevin Fleming
Kevin Fleming is an internet entrepreneur and secret agent making a living from building and running an empire of blogs and content sites. He recently started ChangeTheWorld.me, the how-to guide for building a successful online business, achieving your goals, and changing the world.
Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been making money online?
I’m 23 years old, and currently live on the east coast, right outside of Philly. I started my first online business in 2006 and was a freshman in college. I was actually going to school for film and visual effects – and at the time couldn’t imagine anything that I would rather do for a living. After reading an article about people who were making money from website advertising I decided to give it a go and from that point on I was hooked.
Fast forward a few years, I’m continuing to build out my blog network, and have about 20 people working for me. This didn’t all happen without some failures along the way, but each time I just picked myself back up and just continued to try new things. I love building content sites and blogs because the revenue is consistent month after month – one thing that I learned early on is that if you are going to build a legitimate online business you need to focus on something that is sustainable. I try to avoid affiliate marketing “fads” all together.
What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
Starting a business on the side in college with a few hundred dollars and building it into a multimillion dollar venture. I literally started with next to nothing. True entrepreneurship shouldn’t require a handout to get started – if you really want something you will find a way to do it.
How did you become successful? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in the Internet? When did you first hit the big time?
I started a general technology blog to make some extra money on the side in college. One day my site was featured on the front page of Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit all on the same day and ended up getting over 60,000 visitors. Unfortunately I only made $60 from advertising that day but I learned a good lesson – choose a more specific, higher paying niche. I actually ended up selling that blog to the guy who founded Snap.com (however I didn’t know it was him at the time).
What do you think it takes to be successful?
Persistence, persistence and more persistence. If you are persistent and continue to try new things you will find success eventually it’s just a matter of making your own luck.
What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
To diversify my business a bit I’ve moved into doing media buys and recently I’ve had to deal with an advertiser charging back the affiliate network I was working with over $50,000 in legitimate leads I generated. I can’t really go into more details since this is still on going but I’ve definitely lost some sleep over it. However I’m a pretty optimistic person and am hopeful that everything will work out.
Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I’m actually not a huge fan of writing for a few of my sites (although I like doing so for my personal blog), that was the first thing I learned to outsource – best day of my life. The first thing you should generally outsource with your business is what you enjoy doing the least every day.
What is the future of marketing?
There are plenty of people out there who are more qualified than me to predict the future. I just try to focus on creating quality sites that people subscribe and keep coming back to so that regardless of what happens with Google or Facebook I will be ok.
What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
Right now I’m really focusing on my site to connect with other online entrepreneurs, ChangeTheWorld.me. I’ve had the domain name and site for awhile but really wanted to wait until I could put the time into it and built it into something great. There is a lot that I find myself wanting to share and now I have the medium to do so. My main focus is teaching people how to build a sustainable online business, not something that is going to fizzle out after a few months or even a year.
Do you think anything particular in your past prepared you for this industry? Your education? Jobs you’ve held before?
If you don’t count doing some freelancing work in high school, I’ve actually never had a job where I’ve worked for someone else, so making my own way is all that I know. The fact that I left college early and wasn’t conditioned for a 9 – 5 job helped too. Although I’m not going to endorse dropping out of college I would be lying if I said that I thought it prepared me to be an entrepreneur.
What motivates you?
Thinking to myself that I only have one life to live and need to make the most of it, I don’t want to be a number in a crowed – maybe that’s why I didn’t do well with school and can’t see myself in a 9 – 5 job.
What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
Having money doesn’t make you a better person and won’t give you a sense of fulfillment in the long run. You need to do something that you are passionate about and most importantly help others and give them some of your time whenever you can.
Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
I would have to say my family, especially my grandfather. His company built thousands of homes, (he started out like me with just a few hundred dollars) did multi-million dollar deals, and he even met with the queen of England. I’ve learned a lot from him, and along the way he’s always encouraged me and actually gave me my first computer when I was 12 – for that I am extremely grateful.
What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Right now I’m really focusing on my new site for entrepreneurs, ChangeTheWorld.me, and can’t wait to see it grow over the next year. I would also like to develop an exit strategy for a few of my sites and begin to sell them off assuming I can find buyers who are willing to pay decent multiples.
How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
One thing you find with an internet business is that it tends to follow you wherever you go. With that said I try to go on vacation to a semi remote location every few months. I was in the Caribbean back in May and trying to get out to Colorado this month.
If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I don’t think I would have changed anything, even though I left college early I think the social aspect was important and I started my first legitimate company with my college roommate so that lead me to where I am today.
What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
Believe it or not one day I would love to go into space. I’m fascinated with space and love what Richard Branson is doing with Virgin Galactic. He’s been a major inspiration to me. Who knows maybe one day I’ll start an aerospace company. CPM ads from space anyone?
Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook Like Page?
You can follow me on Twitter @kevinfleming and check out the ChangeTheWorld.me Facebook page.
