have been thinking on doing some interviews for quite some time, but the lack of time delayed them a bit until this week. I have decided to start with one of my favourite bloggers, Jim from thenetfool.com blog, and for my joy he accepted it. 
For those who don’t know Jim, he is a 18 year old finance student at Penn State University and he is the owner of thenetfool.com, a blog that shows you ways to make money online.
The Net Fool – Jim Regan Interview
First let me thank you Jim, for accepting this little interview.
Thanks for having me Hugo, the pleasure’s all mine!
How did you get into the “blogging adventure”, did you have any past experience?
Oh wow, you know… I think it was more based on reputation than anything else. Basically I was a dumb freshman in college looking for something interesting to talk about in a business interview. As I started out, I had intended for The Net Fool to be just a stock market blog, so that I would have something practical to demonstrate to potential interviewers how determined and hard-working I am in my studies. This soon got out of control and I expanded it to Stock Market / Sports Gambling / MMO. When it became too hard to keep up, I trimmed it to stocks and making money online, which is where I am today. No past experience in blogging involved, though I have been making money online with side ventures for about 5 years now.
What are your online incoming sources?
I like to keep a low profile so I don’t get tax audited because I’m really not making much in my opinion at this point. I made almost $800 last month, and the revenue is all outlined on my monthly “earnings call”… a fun little twist on the standard dull blog income report, where I basically act like I am a publically traded company releasing quarterly earnings. Private Advertising has really come on strong for me, and is just the kind of recurring income that I can see continuing to grow into the future. I don’t like to do too many sponsored posts, but those make up a decent percentage of my revenue as well. In addition, I have made and marketed eBooks in the past which I will typically earns hundreds off of every month. The “get paid to” (gpt) websites that I participate in have brought me revenue essentially for free from referring members that make the money for me (about $75/month). Other than that, I do some freelance web design here and then, usually making a decent profit from my work.
Besides thenetfool.com what other projects do you have in hand?
Funny you should ask. I am in the process of launching a major blog along with ten of my fellow Penn State stock market gods. I’m not going ot reveal too much as I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we are trying to mirror the famous “seekingalpha.com” in providing a resource for learning about the stock market. With a lot of knowledgeable writers and a great marketer (haha), we should be well on our way to success.
One of the best investments you probably did was to buy a custom design to your blog which was one of important aspects of your blog’s success. Did you expect this impact with the new design?
Honestly no. I couldn’t. My blog had gone absolutely nowhere from October of 2007 to February of 2008 and I didn’t know what else to do. It was definitely the defining point for me, because my old design made me look like a landing page, definitely not an attractive blog. Now I’ve got the style that reflects my passion, and people have picked up on it. One thing that is always true, you can be as terrible a blogger as you want… but you’ll get traffic and respect if you have a sweet design. Write that down! 
I think the stats from Alexa.com’s popular ranking service speak for themselves.
How much time do you spend each day, researching and writing for thenetfool.com?
I routinely spend about an hour each day coming up with a good idea, or researching an old thought, and two hours writing the post. Why? Because I’m a perfectionist… which is a blessing and a curse. The good news is that all my posts are elegant and easy to read. Everything is spaced precisely, but it doesn’t just come out this way. I usually write everything, edit it, then add images, then edit the text again to fit in the best possible way with the images. And of course, I edit all the images I use to make them smaller/optimized and matching with my color scheme. If you didn’t pick up on this already, I’m big on images… and I need them to work for me.
What is your main objective as a blogger?
My main objective as a blogger is reputation. This might sound a bit weird, as probably 98% of bloggers will say either money or education… which are both bad answers in my mind. It’s actually a little bit of both for me. If I could have a blog with 2,000 readers and be in debt, I wouldn’t be all that upset. I’m really all about creating a reputation and maintaining it. Once people start to know you, leverage usually comes easy… and it will be easier to make that money you’ve been seeking, or to educate those people you’ve been trying to teach in the long run.
How do you imagine yourself in 5 years?
My aspiration is to end up with a career on Wall Street. This is probably not well represented in the MMO blog world, since most of the bloggers think they can make their own money from their basement. I, on the other hand, prefer the corporate world. I really can’t see myself blogging in a basement all day… that would just kill me. I’ll probably still try and maintain a double life as an internet marketer, but I’ll be working my tail off 120+ hours a week to stay in the economic game.
Well, I’m sure that noobs and non noobs can learn with your example, can you give us an advice if someone wants to start blogging and make a decent buck doing it?
Well if you want to start blogging, I am just wrapping up an entire post series about “Creating A Blog” which I am going to compile into a nice eBook and give away for free on my website just for subscribing. Really all you need to do is find something you like, and run with it. The professionals will have you think that they can make successful blogs about anything they want… and I say that is a load of garbage. Most clever kids out there on the internet can make a website seem popular enough to “flip” on some innocent buyer who doesn’t know better than to buy an over-priced share of the web. This isn’t hard. But success comes only if you are a legitimately good writer. So why not take a writing course on top of this, and learn to articulate your thoughts in a clear and concise way. There’s got to be a balance between rambling on and on and on and on in your posts about nothing, and simply saying too little. Find the balance, learn how to make your blog in the first place (my guide), and you are set.
Finally, to all new visitor’s that may come to your blog, if you had to choose, what topics do you recommend them to read?
If you are interested in the stock market, you should check out my series of “best stocks for 2008” which is different for each sector of the market. I am actually doing fantastic with my picks, with some stocks like United Steel (NYSE: X) gaining 150%+ since I recommended them back in January. For you bloggers, definitely want to look at my “Make Money Online” posts (see the category on the right hand side?) and my “Creating A Blog” series which is more recent.
And oh yeah, you better show up as a subscriber with The Net Fool after this is posted. Don’t even try to squirm away to your John Chow’s and your Pro Blogger’s. Why? Because they’ve forgotten the number one rule of all that is making money online, whether you are trading stocks or selling popsicles, you’ve got to…. stay bullish on the net! 
-The Net Fool
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