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Mike Geary Interview – Confessions Of An Internet Marketing Superstar

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I am very excited about todays interviewee – a personal hero of mine – Mike Geary of TruthAboutAbs.com

Mike is I believe the Ultimate Internet Lifestyle Entrepreneur – generating a substantial 7 Figure Income each year while hanging out on the Ski Slopes or sailing in the Caribbean.

But it was not always this way – as Mike reveals in this interview (Podcast, Video or Transcript) it took him over 2 years to break through, quit the day job and make that 7 figure income.

In a way I find Mike’s story even more inspiring than the so called ‘over night successes” that went from nothing to Millionaires in 90 days.

Mike is now a best selling author -selling circ 500000 copies of an eBook about ABS – in English, Spanish, German and French – but as you will see in this interview, Mike was almost ready to give up not so long ago.

Props to my Dad (Barry Dunlop) for grabbing this interview with Mike when they were both in the Banff Gondola taking a ride to the top of the Canadian Rockies for the best views in Banff National Park Alberta Canada. Also I note that Mike Geary gives my friend Ryan Lee a nice thumbs up and word of thanks in the video.

Enjoy – I look forward to your comments.

To Our Success

Michael

PS: Make sure to watch the Bonus Video at the end, only 40 seconds, but it sums up rather neatly I think, what Mike Geary and the Internet Lifestyle is all about

Click Here To Listen To Mike Geary Podcast

Confessions Of An Internet Marketing Superstar

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Transcript:
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Barry Dunlop: How did you get online? What was your first effort online in business?

Mike Geary: I had a fitness background; I was a personal trainer. I was researching just some training articles online back in 2004, and I saw an advertisement on how to make money on the Internet as a fitness professional, and publishing online and doing all this Internet marketing.

So I thought about it for a while and finally bought the product. It was about a $300 product. And I’ve got to give props, it was a Ryan Lee product. Ryan Lee is a great guy, I’m good friends with him now. That’s what started it all.

That was the basic stuff of learning how to publish online and make websites and info products and build newsletter lists. All that stuff. That’s what started it, that’s what got the wheels spinning. And I immediately started writing my first product, “The Truth About Six-Pack Abs, ” which I just knew there was a demand for that because I was a personal trainer and that was 90% of the questions I would get would be about abs and weight loss.

So it didn’t work for a couple of years. I got the product done, and that was the easiest part. It took a couple of years to learn the marketing; that was the challenging part. But then it was definitely once you get over this hump and learn the marketing, then it gets easier, and that’s when my business exploded a few years ago.

Barry: So the key there, Mike, was not to give up.

Mike: Exactly.

Barry: You still had a day job then, I assume?

Mike: I had a day job for about two or three years while I was trying to build up the Internet business, and I was finally able to quit that day job when the Internet business sort of exploded.

Barry: If you were to go back to where you were at the beginning, what was the thing that made the big difference from year two to three? What was the thing that eventually made the big breakthrough? What item of knowledge did it take?

Mike: I can be honest and say that I was about to give up, after about a year. I had made the product, made the website, and I kind of had these false hopes that I would just build it and they would come. I had built the website and I would just start getting these massive amounts of sale and everything would take off.

I didn’t realize that actually you had to work really hard to drive traffic and get exposure for your site. So it took a while to learn that. And because I didn’t give up, a couple of years later things started taking off.

I think the biggest shift for me was changing my mindset. I’d love to say that is was a specific miracle technique that I learned that just exploded everything. To be honest, there were a few things, like search engine optimization, pay-per-click. There were some individual tactics that I learned, that really did take things to the next level.

But what started all that was changing my mindset about I can do this, and really thinking a lot bigger and getting that shift from thinking small and thinking about exchanging dollars for hours and thinking big and selling my product to the entire world.

Barry: And as we said earlier, something like a half a million copies have been downloaded?

Mike: Yeah. Between my English version, probably 300,000 copies. And now I have Spanish, German, and French versions too. I haven’t kept exact tabs on it, but probably close to 500,000 copies now of my product. For a self-published product.

Barry: Wow. And an important distinction to make there is – and it’s very gracious of you to say – you were almost ready to give up.

Mike: Yeah. It’s a little frustrating after a year and you’ve only made like two sales. [laughs]

Zach Johnson: How many things did you try that didn’t work? How many products did you learn about search engine optimization and you’re trying to get out there and things didn’t work? Probably took some perseverance to go through.

Mike: For that first year, year and a half, I was trying article marketing and trying a little bit of pay-per-click, and I couldn’t get it to work. Trying to get some search engine optimization. But that takes time, especially search engine optimization. And it just took some time to really learn how to get it to all come together. Make the sales copy work, get the traffic, and make it all come together and make it a success.

Because you’ve got to have every piece of the puzzle. If you can get traffic but you can’t convert it, then you’re missing a piece. If you have great conversions but you don’t know how to get traffic, you’re missing a piece. Partnerships.

Barry: Was there anybody in particular who taught you what you needed to do? Was there any material that you bought, or mentors or masterminds?

Mike: Well, for me, for the first few years, to be honest, I never went to any high-priced events, I never bought any high-priced products. I bought dozens of individual low-priced e-books to learn a lot of different skills. And a lot of those $37 or $47 e-books, I learned a lot of really cool marketing techniques. And eventually I was able to kind of put them all together and start driving a lot of traffic.

Barry: It’s a good one, Mike, because so many people talk about the Internet lifestyle and they say things like, “Hey, six weeks later I’m a millionaire!” Or this happened or that happened. So I think it’s great.

And obviously, I think there’s more encouragement for people realizing that it took longer than a few weeks to get this to work. Because sometimes it does take a year or two. But the important to persevere.

And one very important distinction that I make to people is that having a day job is still a good bet. You don’t give that up until you’re ready to give it up, because it’s important as well.

Mike: But I can say that probably the best thing I ever did was quitting my day job.

[laughter]

Mike: Once I was confident enough that I was pretty consistent and making a good income online, the day that I quit my day job was probably the best day of my life. And I can say that the next month after I quit my day job was when I finally exploded my business. My business doubled the next month after I quit.

Barry: So some people, when they’re just at that point, getting both to work. If really want to take the Internet work further, they have to give up their day job.

Mike: That’s the point. I have a friend right now who started a website and has started to do pretty well with it in the water filter business. He told me he was finally at the point where he was making as much with the website and he was with his day job.

And I told him the best thing I ever did was when I got to that point was quitting my day job, because now you’re going to have 100% mental energy on what you want to do.

Barry: And focus.

Mike: And focus. So he’s doing that right now, he’s quitting his day job and going to focus on the online business.

Zach: Tell them now much money you invested in yourself the first year, two years, in failed attempts and failed pay-per-click campaigns before you made it.

Mike: I didn’t have much money to invest.

Zach: Most people don’t.

Mike: But like I say, I did make a small investments at a time, buying a lot of $50 e-books. I wanted to keep learning. And I can say there probably wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t learning more, that I didn’t buy a book or….

Barry: That is an important point, which often is – you have to keep learning. The biggest and best Internet marketers that I know – you think about Mike Koenigs, Frank Kern etc – those guys are learning all the time.

Mike: They’re still learning.

Barry: They don’t give up. And that’s why they’re at the top of what they’re doing.

Mike: Even though my business does well now, I haven’t stopped and just trying to ride the coattails and never work. I’m still learning every day.

More about Mike Geary at TruthAboutAbs.com

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BONUS VIDEO
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Mike Geary – enjoying the Internet Lifestyle and a Powder Day in the Canadian Rockies (Banff)

Comments

  1. Great Interview mike! Keep them coming.

    And 2 years to quit the day job and start earning 7 figure income, well done! Many people think it can happen overnight, but it really cant.

  2. Good to see he’s having bucket loads of success! Great listen too!

  3. That’s wonderful to be able to leave your job and probably earn 10X as much yearly is amazing! Great success here, great interview!

  4. Marshall Haas says

    Overnight success is so deceiving. People just see the successful people publishing books, and rarely do try talk about all of the hustle that went into it all in the beginning. it’s been said well before- Overnight successes are years in the making.

  5. Karl Hadwen says

    Great Interview, where do these guys get all there traffic?

  6. OneLifeNoFear says

    Enjoyed the interview… really motivating for those starting out

  7. David Stillwagon says

    Great interview, very inspiring! It seems the message is not to give up

  8. Great interview Mike.. just proves that learning and perseverence will come through in the end if you have a good product and believe in it..

    Its great to hear a normal down to earth guy like Mike speaking. Its clear he’s not some tech whizzkid (ala Larry Page, Serguy Brin, Mark Zuckerburg etc) with unique skills, instead he’s just a guy that wanted to do something that he was interested in and knew if he worked hard enough at it that it would come good in the end.

  9. Great idea to have the interview in the Gondola

    Never stop learning is definitely key.. “Sharpen the saw” as Stephen Covey puts it.

  10. Zac Johnson says

    Imposter! There is only one Zac Johnson! Haha, jk.

    Great article. I’ve seen this ebook promoted all over the place, and the numbers definitely back up the visibility. Great stuff!

  11. Tanveer Khan says

    Inspiring interview. especially for someone like me who keeps looking for get rich quick schemes.

  12. Very inspiring story.

    I will soon be starting a blog and creating info products targeting small business IT support and will need stories like this to refer back to to keep up my positive mindset and to know that if I don’t give up I will eventually make it happen just as you did.

  13. Awesome, inspiring interview – great content Michael, and great interview by your pops –

    Looks like this is turning into a fitness marketing blog with all of your recent guests – there you go, biting me again!

  14. Good interviews, wished your dad pried a little more into what exactly did he do get traffic to convert into sales. As someone who is struggling with that now at http://www.cruisinaltitude.com that kind of information would be very helpful.

    Inspiring nonetheless, he seems very down to earth and highly focussed. Have to find that ebook to get my abs in shape too.

    Who is the guy from San Diego?

  15. Dan Mihaliak says

    Great interview with ine of the best. Thanks for sharing with us

  16. Thanks for sharing this! really motivating !!! – looking forward to the day I can fire my boss!

  17. Abdominal Fitness says

    Things like that are great to hear, I have been in the internet marketing game for less than a year and it is one of the most traumatic and joyous experiences of my life. The drive coming from being able to earn a living doing what you love excites, obsesses and consumes me. Spending hours upon hours getting nowhere with so many failed attempts can break you. The idea of quitting that day job has got me through it and will continue to. Hope is a powerful thing!

  18. John Howieson says

    Way to go Mike – Thanks for sharing!

  19. Nice interview. His story is really interesting. I think there are too many people that make it look like it was easy and like they made lots and lots of money within days of creating a website. But that’s usually not the case. Before you see that kind of money rolling in you have to acquire the necessary skills and most importantly you have to fail a lot.

  20. Bryan @ Free At Home Jobs says

    That’s awesome. Goes to show you that by sticking to your guns, having a plan and just plain not giving up can take you far. I’m in the same boat. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve nearly given up, but something keeps me coming back. I think it’s due to me having success before. My only issue is consistency, something that I’m working on harder than every. I’ve set a goal to become free from my day job within the next 8 months, and plan to work harder than ever to get there, because I know once I have that chance, I’ll be able to take things to another level.

    Thanks for the motivator 🙂

  21. Manuel Olonade| Income Scene says

    Great interview Michael. Good success doesn’t come cheap. Thanks for sharing.

  22. Joshu Thomas ( OC webmaster Blog) says

    I am taking back the essence of the excellent article as : Never give up learning & dont wait to quit you day Job ( Lol)

    Cheers
    Joshu Thomas

  23. Great interview Mike and I also want to thank your father! It is always good to see regular folk make it and interviews like this one helps motivate other regular Joe’s and Jane’s to pursue their dreams. Keep up the great work Mike and thanks for sharing.

  24. Julius @ MoneyMakerSites says

    Thanks for sharing this wonderful interview about Mike Geary. I’ve heard and read about his free ebook before and right now he is a very successful inforpreneur. I really admire this guy and his success and I wish he will show me his technique getting all the huge traffic to his website 🙂

    Cheers!
    Julius
    MoneyMakerSites.com

  25. Hey Mike,
    Awesome interview man, thanks for putting this out there.

    It’s so inspiring to see that Mike Geary who is so wildly successful also struggled for a few years and even thought about quitting before he got to where he is now.

    That just motivates me more to keep going since I’ve taken the plunge to build a full time income online over the next 12 months!

    Keep rocking!
    Diggy

  26. Thank you for posting this interview. I was getting to that point where I wanted to quit. I have had my site now for a little over 2 years(just paid for the 3rd years domain fees), so am in my third year. I have done some revamping that I am hoping will make a difference.

    But keeping the consistency, the persistence and the motivation are the hardest factors I think to overcome, especially when what you are learning and applying don’t seem to be working too well or quick enough for you to see any results.

    I took time to go over my stats and strategies this last year so I could really make a solid plan for the new year, and after seeing a rise in traffic of almost 4x the last year, and the same with income, although it is still not at the range I want, I realized I was on the right track, I just need to do more and stay focused.

    Thanks to those out there like you who are always providing motivators for us to push on, I think I have found my focus again for 2011

  27. love the interview and the ideas it brings to mind. Like always you have the knack for finding and doing great interviews. Mike any plans for a future product on your end?

  28. Fazal Mayar says

    Haha the creator of truth about abs, nice to see him speak. The weight loss niche is a very profitable niche.

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