Sep
28
Case Study: Jarkko Laine – Insanely Interested In Everything
So I’m surfing the internet trying to avoid working, and I come across a link to this site. (I would love to credit the person who gave me the link but I didn’t know I was about to come across one of the awesomest blogs on the internet, so I wasn’t paying attention. Whoever you are, I’m sorry!)
Anyway, Jarkko Laine is a software developer in Finland who is Insanely Interested In Everything. That’s his tagline – his wife made it up. (A little shoutout to Jarkko’s wife, Mari – I have a husband like that and I know how you feel, honey.)
Here’s what Jarkko has to say about his site: “This blog is all about creating software in a honest way that is good for you, your environment, your family, your customer and all the people around you.”
Now keep in mind, if I ever got it into my head that I could create software, my husband would choke on his Snickers from laughing so hard. I am not a software person. Not. At. All. However, I still think Jarkko’s site rocks. I kind of want to be a software person now. Okay, not really. But you see what I’m saying.
He really is interested, not to mention interesting. He ran a series of posts throughout the month of September about things that other people were insanely interested in, and then interviewed them, asking very intelligent questions. Jarkko talks about all sorts of things, all of which are, well, interesting. (Hey, maybe if I keep writing “interesting” over and over, I’ll rank on Google for it.) He writes big, beefy posts that don’t skimp on content. I like that. (Marketing Guru Extraordinaire Seth Godin recommends short posts. I don’t agree. That’s why I read his books and don’t subscribe to his blog.)
Both Jamie and I agree that his site is nice to look at which doesn’t happen very often since I’m incredibly picky and he’s color blind. The blog is attractive, but still masculine, and nobody’s going to look at you like you’re an idiot if they come up behind you while you’re surfing it. He has a few featured sites in the sidebar which aren’t ugly or spammy, one of which is for Blog Mastermind. If the quality of Jarkko’s site is any indication, I have a feeling he’s a student of the program. (I purposely didn’t link to Blog Mastermind there. If you want to sign up for it, which you probably should, go give Jarkko your affiliate dollars. He deserves them more than I do.)
Here are some things to check out on Jarkko’s site:
If you’re a fan of Zen Habits, read How To Be The Next Leo Babauta.
If you’re launching your home business while working a full time job, read The Seven Deadly Sins of a Side Business Entrepreneur.
If you think you might need a career at some point, read What Is A Rewarding Career And How You Can Get One.
If you need some inspiration and a jumpstart to your creativity, read You Can Sell Anything, Just Do It.
If you’re still reading this instead of checking it out, go read Warning: To Achieve Great Results You Have To Endure Some Pain and watch the video. Seriously, go watch it. I’ll wait.
One of the coolest things that Jarkko has to say is this:
“Writing about something in a way that other people will benefit from it forces you to really think about the topic.”
As bloggers, writers, copywriters, marketers, or people who deal with other people on any kind of a regular basis, we should keep this in mind.
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So how does this guy make money off of his blog if he doesn’t have any advertisements? Please excuse the newby question, i’m in the process of putting this all together
I love newbie questions! Actually, I’m pretty sure Jarkko doesn’t make money off his blog, with the exception of some affiliate income from Blog Mastermind. He just does it ’cause he digs it. That, and when he takes over the world, he’ll need an audience. :)
Wow, now I’m happy I followed Darren Rowse’s advice and subscribed to a Google blog search with my name ;) That search got me to this page and to reply to the your comment, Evan, although otherwise I think I would have completely missed it.
So, tip of the day: listen to what Darren Rowse has to say.
And then I guess I should answer your question (although Naomi already gave a good answer – It’s true that I blog because I love it (especially the community part), and well the taking over the world part is an important factor as well ;)
When I started my blog I thought I’d put ads here and there and make tons of money like John Chow and the like. Well, not quite, but some money anyway. So I added text link ads and the blog mastermind affiliate link. The result: nothing. No one bought any text link ads, and affiliate links don’t really sell if you just put out the link and don’t do anything more (unless you have a big audience).
So after having had them there for a while, I decided to get rid of all advertisement, for now. After all, I don’t want to be like everyone else and have all the same ads and AdSense blogs most people have. But don’t get me wrong – my plan still is to make money from the blog. Maybe a bit more indirectly though.
By taking over the world, as Naomi puts it ;)
I’m currently working on two approaches (and will start working on more when I get more ideas):
1) Find some great products to promote. Something I use myself, like and think my readers would like as well. I think I have found a pretty good candidate for the first product… But I’m still thinking about it to figure out if it really can be presented to my readers in a way that makes sense for them (and more than just once)…
2) Create products for my readers. This is where I’m putting my main efforts regarding the monetization of my blog.
My blog is aimed at some special kinds of people: the ones who are insanely interested in everything (or want to be). So I’m imagining products that would be useful in getting most out of their personality and supporting them in exploring themselves and their ideas. What makes this exciting is that those are products that I’d like to use as well :)
I’ll start rolling out my products one by one early next year. The plan is to get the first product out already in January and then slowly create more and more interesting products to support the message of my blog and also make money for me.
It’s an interesting experiment, and to me it seems more “real” than just selling ads on my blog. I’m trying to make a name as the “king of interested” (this is actually a quote from someone stumbling my post at StumbleUpon, I’m not making it up ;) and by doing that, build an audience that is interested in the products I’m interested in building….
I hope this approach works. Because if it does, it’s my first step towards world domination.
One more thing (although this is already a really long comment…). if you have any idea on what you would like to see on my blog, or see me sell, I’m all ears!
Welcome to the blogging world, Evan! It’s an insanely interesting place to be in.
Hey thanks for the info! It seems like you are insanely interested in giving good answers to my questions as well. Great site Jarkko!
No problem, Evan! It was such a good question, that it got me a bit carried away ;)
If you have any other questions, let me know!