Hallo!
Heute möchte ich Ihnen ein Interview mit Steven Sashen präsentieren. Steven hat erfolgreich sein Business www.InvisibleShoe.com im Internet aufgebaut, und plaudert ein bisschen aus dem Nähkästchen, was er dabei gelernt hat. Viel Spass!
P.S.: Ich weiß, Englisch ist nicht bei allen Lesern beliebt. Gerade als Internet Marketer ist es aber wichtig, über den eigenen Tellerrand zu schauen und von den anderen Märkten zu lernen.
„Der hat leicht reden, er lebt ja in New York“, denkt sich vielleicht der eine oder andere. Stimmt, aber mir wurde das ja auch nicht in die Wiege gelegt. Das Interview ist somit eine gute Gelegenheit, um die eigenen Kenntnisse wenn nötig wieder etwas aufzufrischen (bspw. mit www.leo.org). Man lernt ja bekanntlich nie aus.
Hi Steven, please introduce yourself.
My name is Steven Sashen. I’m a 48 year old entrepreneur and runner. I live in Boulder, Colorado with my wife and 2 cats.
How did you get into internet marketing?
Well, I was online before there was an Internet. Back in 1992, when I came up with my first product (what became the industry-standard word-processing software for film and TV writers), it seemed obvious that I wanted to market online.
So, I was advertising and marketing on Compuserve, the original AOL, and Prodigy. And, over time, that morphed into actual Internet marketing.
Is there anything you would do differently?
I would have borrowed the $70 to register business.com and every other generic word-based domain name that I thought nobody would want.
Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful internet marketer?
Just a combination of trying new things, testing to see how they work and, ironically, sticking to the basics: creating content and products that people want, and participating in the places in which your market already spends time.
What are your most successful projects?
In November 2009, I started www.InvisibleShoe.com, selling “barefoot” sandals for running, hiking, walking, gym-going, and just enjoying being almost-barefoot. I started the company on a whim, but within 4 months it was my full-time job. And now we’re engaged in a multi-million dollar retail expansion.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Don’t spam.
And remember: Once you know the average amount you earn for each visitor to your website, you have the golden ticket. All you need to do then is find more of those people and find a way to get them to your website. That doesn’t mean you’ll have unlimited growth potential – some markets are bigger than others – but it means you have a scale by which you can judge all your actions and know which to continue with and which to stop.
Do you have any mentors or role models?
Not really. But I have a lot of friends who are smart and generous.
What are the most valuable hints you would give someone who is just starting out?
Don’t believe the promises and hype people sell you in “how to make money on the Internet” courses. They’re usually lying about their results (giving gross revenue instead of net, not telling you how much time it took, misrepresenting or misunderstanding the real factors that enabled them to achieve their results, etc.)
What are your preferred information sources about the internet marketing world?
Sadly, once you start poking around the IM world, you’ll be on every list and find out about every bit of info that’s out there. I say sadly, because it can be tricky to know what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
But, what happens in reality is this: When you find a project to work on that delivers results – even if they aren’t big results at first, but big enough to tell you “stick with this and you can grow it” – you’ll have specific needs that will become obvious… and when you search for solutions to specific needs, it ‘s much easier to discern the real from the hype.
Anything else you would like to point out?
Be careful of overextending yourself and banking your business on one source of advertising (e.g. Google Adwords). If your livelihood is dependent on something you don’t control, you have to be prepared for that thing to change… because it will (I know guys who, after Google changed their ranking formula, went from $100,000+/month in Adsense revenue to less than $1,000… OVERNIGHT).
Steven, thanks a lot for this interesting interview!