Today I have a very special post here on Code My Own Road. This is actually the first interview I’ve conducted and I’m absolutely stoked that I could interview community website owner, writer and blogging expert Rose DesRochers.
Rose and I made contact via comments I left on her blog which I’ve been following for a while now and after some chatting on Twitter, I had the idea of getting Rose write a guest post.
Rose has a whole wealth of experience online, with over 8 years running and operating websites, so to capitalize on that we eventually settled on a question and answer interview format.
Today Rose runs multiple community websites in the writing and blogging niche. I was quite impressed with her success in this ultra competitive niche online and how she managed to build up multiple streams of income with these websites.
I was especially interested in getting information about how she build herself up, what monetization methods she’s using for her websites, and what advice she could give people just starting to look into generating income from a website.
The Interview
Thanks for agreeing to do this interview Rose! I’m humbled to be in contact with someone that’s really had some great success online.
My pleasure! Thank you for asking me.
I’ll just jump right into the questions I think. So Rose, you’ve been making websites for a while now – about 8 years I hear – can you take us back in time to when you were just starting out and tell us a little bit about your first ever website and how you got started?
My first web portal was Todays-woman.net. It was build by my husband Shawn of visionthishosting.com. In the beginning my plans for Today’s Woman was for it to be a woman’s portal. I changed my mind and decided it would be a friendship community for both men and women. Some of the first members joined and started submitting their writing. It took on a writing theme of its own, so we began to gear the site more towards writers. Before long it was full-fledge writing community.
Interesting how it kind of took on a life of it’s own from what you thought it was going to be about to what it actually became.
Building a thriving community is definitely hard work, can you give us a broad overview of what website communities you run now?
Right now I run two community portals, soon to be three and I’m the author of five blogs. I’m the administrator of bloggertalk.net a community for bloggers and todayswriting.com, a community for writers.
I’m sure every webmaster at some stage has had the thought of “I wonder if I can make a dollar or two with this thing”. How have you attempted monetizing your sites in the past?
I’ve sold advertisement, premium memberships, signed up for affiliate programs and joined other primary CPC and text based contextual ad networks.
That’s a pretty broad range of options, what would you say has been the most successful way you’ve monetized your websites so far?
Advertisements, ad link networks, premium memberships, and Google Adsense have been my biggest source of revenue.
Having the success you’ve had isn’t something you come across everyday online. There are lots of people struggling to “make it” and build active communities online.
Is there some specific action you’re really proud of that you would attribute most of your success to?
I think the reason my sites are successful is, because I’m not an administrator who remains invisible. I get involved in the communities and get to know my members. I also have to attribute most of my success to my family and the members of my communities. My sites would not be successful if it were not for the members. I’m very lucky to have a supportive family and the kind of members, friends, and staff who are willing to devote so much time and energy to the communities they are apart of.
What advice would you give someone planning to start and monetize a website now? Where should they start?
The first thing you’ll want to do is make your site or blog a place people will want to visit. Content is king! Give people what they want and they will visit. I would encourage posting quality over quantity.
When you’re ready to make money with your blog or site, the internet provides so many opportunities for people to make money. You can apply for Google Adsense. You can earn money by talking about certain products and services. Place the BidVertiser text ads on your website. Earn money through affiliate programs. The possibilities are endless. What works for one person may not work for another. It’s really trial and error.
Excellent advice. You’ve mentioned that you’re trying to push the envelope – so what are your plans for the immediate future? Can you link drop anything for us to check out?
I’ve been asked to make a guest appearance on Wordcast. I’m also entering the social networking scene very soon with the launch of my own social network. I’d love to drop a link to my new social network, but it’s still being built.
Rose, thanks again for the interview. It’s been extremely valuable and enlightening. All the best in the future!
Wonderful interview, and I learned some new things about Rose that I didn’t know.
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Thanks Mitch!
Rose was a delight to interview. We can all stand to learn a lot from people like her – I think it’s nice to finally see how they do things behind the scenes
Thanks Mitch for checking out the interview and commenting.
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I new a little bit of the woman that I know as Rose, and it was nice to have the chance to learn so much more of her. My thanks to both of you.
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Thanks Sire! Glad you enjoyed the interview. It’s a great medium because you get to see people in a different light. I plan on doing more in the future.