Interview with Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind

Tom Ewer is the owner of Leaving Work Behind, a blog for anyone who is interested in freelance writing, internet marketing, and authority/niche site building. He recently quit his job and became a full time freelance writer and internet marketer. Head over to Tom’s Facebook page and “like” him!

Tom Ewer

What started you out with internet and affiliate marketing?

• I think the concept of passive income is attractive to anyone. But more specifically, I was in a full time job and saw it as a way of establishing a part time income on the side. I had looked at a few different ideas, but internet marketing really stuck out to me.

How was it creating your first niche site? What were you takeaways from it? Success? Failures? And advice to people wanting to create one?

• My first niche site, in terms of the end product, was basically a disaster!
• After 3 months, I had obtained 1^st place rankings in Google for a couple of keywords, and 1^st page rankings for a few others. Things were looking promising – I was making a few bucks a day, and my earnings were on the way up.
• However, I made an enormous amount of mistakes, which culminated in me getting far too aggressive with my backlinking and getting unceremoniously Google-slapped.
• However, the amount I learnt from the whole experience was invaluable. I had learnt a great deal.
• My solitary piece of advice would simply be to not give up. The biggest barrier to you reaching your goals will be the temptation to give up in the face of failure. If you fail, simply analyze what you have learnt, and apply it to your next endeavor. Failure can be a god thing – it teaches you important lessons.

What are you looking forward to do in 2012 that you didn’t have the opportunity to do in 2011?

• Having more hours in the day! Effective 31^st December 2011, I quit my job, which means that I am now a full time internet marketer and freelance writer.
• Quitting my job had an interesting psychological effect on me – it really hammered home the fact that internet marketing is now my livelihood, and that pushes me to work even harder.

Did you come from a marketing background or was this something that you just fell into?

• Internet marketing is definitely something I fell into. I have no real prior professional experience in marketing – my last job was in property management and development.
• I don’t think a lack of experience in marketing should scare people off though. There are an enormous amount of resources out there for you to learn from. Your future knowledge is limited only by your willingness to learn.

You have one of the few internet blogs that don’t monetize. Why is that? What was the reason behind it?

• The internet is saturated by people who are trying to make a quick buck. People who don’t practice what they preach, and people who intentionally seek to mislead their readers.
• Whilst I am not saying that anyone who monetizes their blog is dishonest – there are many monetized blogs out there that offer wonderful value – one way of demonstrating that you are an “honest” blogger is to demonstrate that you have no ulterior motives.
• It may seem counter-intuitive for an internet marketer to not monetize their blog, but I do not intend for it to be a long term strategy. When the time is right, when I feel that I have proven to people that I have their best interests at heart, and when I have an extremely high-quality product to offer, I will monetize my blog.

What areas of your business are you going to be focusing on the most this year?

I have four clearly-defined areas that I will be focusing on this year:

• Freelance writing
• Authority sites
• Niche sites
• My blog

Authority sites are those that I intend to turn into comprehensive resources, and that can perhaps be monetized with products. Niche sites are far more likely to be straightforward AdSense or affiliate sites.

Do you feel it’s as hard to be successful online as a lot of people make it seems? Or is it just about taking action? Thoughts?

• I believe that the difficulty is in having the patience, determination, and execution necessary. You don’t need to be a genius to make money online – far from it.
• Here’s the problem: the barriers of entry are low. It is easy to “try” to make money online. What is far more difficult is to persist and have faith that you will eventually succeed.
• If you have a clear plan and deep reserves of dedication and perseverance, you will have a very good chance of succeeding.

Where would you like to see your business one year from now? Revenue? Goals? Community numbers? 

• I recently published a “goals” post on my blog, which outlined what I hope to achieve this quarter (up to 31^st March 2012). I haven’t yet looked beyond that date.
• However, since you have asked the question…in one year, I would like to have a well-trafficked blog (perhaps 1,000 unique visitors per day), and diverse income streams from freelance writing, authority sites, and niche sites. I also hope that I will have helped many people to quit their jobs and get what they want from life.