BasementGuru.com interview – 20 questions
1. Can you give us a short introduction to yourself?
My name is Jon Waraas. I am nineteen years of age and I currently work for myself as a dot com entrepreneur. I have been on the online scene for about 5 years now. I own and run Developer Hut, Inc; which is a online network/ad network.
2. When did you create your first website and what was it – What interested you in online media?
I got into the online world on accident. I am not a computer geek at all. I actually started developing websites when I was 15 years old. I owned a skateboarding company that manufactured skateboarding rails for people. I wanted to sell on ebay and such so I tried making a website for my stupid little skateboard rails. My very first website was customskateboarding.com, and it was originally hosted on tripod.com, haha. I got addicted to working on that website! I didn’t have a computer back then, so I had to work on it at the library, so I would go to the library 6 days a week for like 5 hours a day.
I wasn’t rich back then, I could barley afford the $6 a month hosting. But working on websites was the funniest thing ever for me to do. I had that website for a few years. After I put adsense on that site and started making some money off of it, I realized that this is what I wanted to do for my career.
3. Do you have a network of websites? Tell us more about the websites in the network.
Yes. I own Developer Hut, Inc. My network consists of about 30 websites. Most websites are based on MySpace.Com, but I also have some blogs, some forums, some webmaster websites, etc.
4. What’s best in your opinion? A lot of small sites or a few that’s really big?
I believe in having a bunch of websites with high quality content. It’s not easy to do, but possible. My network is young; most of my websites have not matured content wise. I only have a few high quality websites to this point. But the rest will catch up sooner or later.
5. Can you tell us some details about your main site?
My biggest website is LoserAlliance.Com, its one of the original myspace editing websites. It gets about 20,000 people a day and over 200,000 page views.
6. Do you think having a forum on your site is a good method to get return visitors and revenue or do you think a forum should only be added if it is needed?
Oh yeah. If your website is based on something where people can sit and talk about it, a forum can help your website tremendously. I personally don’t like forums. I do have a few though, such as offroadingtalk.com
7. How many hours do you work daily and what are your daily tasks for your sites?
I wake up at 12 noon everyday. I then hang out with my girlfriend or my friends during the day. Then at about 10 pm I get started working. I check emails, read news, read blogs, then start going though all my websites and checking for errors, spam and such. I then get started working on what I have planned for myself, such as finishing a website, marketing a website, researching a field, etc. I then go to bed at about 4 am.
8. Do you work alongside anyone else? Do you have a business partner?
No I don’t. However, I have tons of people on my msn list that I get help from and kind of work with that way. I don’t really see myself as ever having a business partner :-s
9. What is the most important lesson you have learned about managing sites and what was one of your most common mistakes when you started out?
Hmmm this is a hard one. I don’t really have any big mistakes or common mistakes that I have learned in my years. However, I have learned some smaller ones, such as you should always be playing with your ads, and you should always be reading up on news, you should always be talking to people in your industry, your should always keep busy, etc.
10. When people ask you what you do, do you find it hard to explain?
Hell yes! I hella hard to tell people what I do. I usually tell people that I own a bunch of websites with ads on them. Then they start asking me what kind of ads, what kind of websites, how much money I make, etc. It sucks, so usually I tell people I am a web designer, haha.
11. What advice do you have for other webmasters starting out?
Always be focused. Always keep thinking of ideas. Always keep busy.
12. What do you consider as your main accomplishments?
Succeeding! I am living my dream right now, and that is my main accomplishment.
13. Did you live through the dot com bust and do you think it will happen again?
No I didn’t. I wish I could have. I would have bough so many premium domains, haha. But yes, it will happen again, I see it happening shortly. If it does, you have to figure out how to make money off the actual dot com bust. Not what everyone else is busting about…
14. If you’re starting a new site and the .com you want is not available but the .net is – do you bid for the .com or just settle for the .net?
I never get .net’s. They suck, always get the .com
15. If your into SEO, which techniques do you choose to follow white or black hat?
I believe in making a website for the user, not the bot. What SEO is is tweaking the bot into giving you a better ranking.
I don’t believe in doing that. Make a high quality website with lots of original content and the bots will follow.
16. Do you make use of Pay Per Click advertising for your sites? Which ad networks do you recommend?
Yes I do. I use a range of PPC advertisers. I use Adsense, YPN, and CPX.
17. This obviously depends on the topic – but how long does it take from getting the first idea for a site to having a working prototype online?
This always varies. Usually about 2 months for me with my bigger websites.
18. Give us a random fact about yourself – non web related.
I seriously have A.D.D or A.D.H.D, whatever the hell it’s called these days. I’ve gotten up and walked around at least 3 times while writing this interview.
19. Where would you like to be in 5 years?
Retired, haha I’m just joking. I do see myself doing the same exact thing as I’m doing now. Exactly…
Thank you for your time.
Follow me on my journey of success and failures, it should be a fun ride.... Again, here is the link for the RSS feed.
Random Posts
Comments are Dofollow! My thanks to you for contributing to the discussion
2 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Awesome interview Jon. I took a lot of what you said and will try to apply it to myself to help me succeed. Especially the staying focused and staying busy. I often find myself getting lost on the web and distracted from my work.
Staying focused is the key!
Was a pleasure interviewing you
Thank you again for your time Jon
Reading successfull web entrepreneurs stories is always inspiration hence the point of our website