How Pete Cashmore Grew Mashable Into a Top 10 Blog

Pete Cashmore founded Mashable in 2005 as a one writer blog. Today, Mashable employs more than 30 people and is one of the biggest and most profitable blogs in the world. Mashable’s numbers are simply staggering. Over 10 million readers per month, over 2 million followers on Twitter and 230,000 fans on Facebook, plus millions in revenues. Mashable is a perfect example on the growth potential of blogging. And guess what? He did it with a blog that doesn’t talk about making money online!

So, how did Cashmore do it? Well, all you aspiring bloggers and would-be media moguls better get ready to take some notes. In this four part interview with Bloomberg Venture, Cashmore discusses Mashable’s origins and how he’s managed to scale his small business into a thriving player in the large world of technology, blogging and media.

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Why I just sold all of my possessions (and killed my Facebook account)

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit weird. I always have been. And maybe you are too, and that’s what makes us “special.” Or at least that’s what our moms always told us. I like doing “experiments” on myself. I think it’s a great way to grow as a person and to learn more about yourself — which can help in one’s personal or business life.

I once read how Leonardo Da Vinci slept only about 3-4 hours a day by taking short 20-45 minute naps throughout a 24 hour cycle. Many years ago, I tried my own sleep experiment after I found myself pulling a lot of “all nighters.” I decided to go every other night without sleep. So I would stay awake for stretches of 30-35 hours straight and then crash for 9-12 hours. I got a lot of work done by doing this.

And I was able to do this for about 3 months straight – sleeping only every other night. There was only one problem… it put me in the hospital. It had weakened my immune system and I ended up with a bad case of vertigo. Horrible, horrible stuff. I was basically DIZZY all day, everyday, for about 2 weeks until it finally went away. So I, obviously, went back to a normal sleep schedule and refused to pull “all nighters” anymore. I had bad insomnia for a long time but eventually got over it. If you’re pulling all nighters and going without sleep, I recommend you don’t. It’s just not worth the damage it can do to your health.

But I’ve done many other “full immersion” types of experiments on myself over the years, and most of them didn’t have bad health results – thankfully. My point is… you can learn a lot about yourself if you take yourself out of your normal comfort zone and really ‘challenge’ yourself by trying little experiments and personal challenges.

AND I’M DOING IT AGAIN.

Check this out. I just finished selling (or giving away) all of my personal possessions. Not too long ago my life consisted of a massive 6-bedroom house (with many rooms I never even went into!) and 5 cars. Yes, FIVE cars. I’m a car guy, what can I say.

I had accomplished what many consider to be the “American Dream.” I had the huge house and all the toys. The Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMWs, a Rolex collection, an expensive wardrobe, amazing furniture, a massive home theater, a 1,000 gallon saltwater aquarium, the works.

And now I have NONE of it. And I’ll explain why in a moment…

Here are some “quick facts.” For the first time in over 20 YEARS:

I don’t own a car.I don’t own any furniture.I don’t own a TV.I don’t own any books.I don’t own a huge closet full of clothes.

AND…

I don’t have a HOME. Not a house, or apartment, or anything.

By now you’re probably thinking, “John, what the hell are you doing!?” I decided to do all of this because I wanted to do a new experiment on myself. It’s a challenge of MINIMALISM.

If you haven’t yet heard about minimalism, or read anything about it, you should. Not only can it (I believe) improve the quality of your life but it can also make your business a lot more profitable. Minimalism is essentially focusing only on the 3-4 most important things in your life (or business) and ELIMINATING THE REST.

There many opinions on minimalism and how to apply it, and some approach it differently. Do some Google searches for “minimalism” and you’ll find lots of great blogs about it. It’s really a growing ‘revolution’ of sorts.

I don’t agree with everything he teaches, but a decent book you can read is The Power Of Less by Leo Babauta; and he’s someone with 6 kids. That will get you started. Everyone will have their own take on minimalism. But I’m willing to bet you can benefit from it.

WHAT I HAVE LEFT…

So you’re probably wondering, if I got rid of all that stuff, what the heck do I actually have left? And how will I live? Here’s a full list of the only things I now own:

A small 28L backpack (that holds everything below)5 t-shirts (4 short sleeve, 1 long sleeve)1 pair of jeans1 light jacket2 pairs of shorts1 pair of running/trek shoes5 pairs of boxer briefsAssorted toiletriesClothesline & large ziplock bag (for washing clothes)1 MacBook Pro 15″1 64GB Wifi iPad1 iPhone 41 Livescribe Pen & small notebookMy passport & credit cards

THAT’S IT. That’s all the ’stuff’ I own. ALL OF IT. Here’s a photo of my backpack (with everything in it) except for my 15″ MacBook Pro which is in the photo next to it.

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Landing Page Case Study - Invoice Bubble

July 15, 2010 in Landing Pages

Rounding out my landing page coverage, I'd like to share some insights from a page in the wild that does a nice job incorporating the principles we've been discussing here. 

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Tweeting for Beer at The Austria Vancouver Club

Yesterday, I was at the Austria Vancouver Club for its annual summer festival. Located in Richmond, the Austria Club is a place for Austrian nationals to hang out. It’s also a place where time stands still. The average age of club member is like 100

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How To Put Your Email List On A Diet

One thing John stresses that every blogger should do is create an email list. And for good reason as it’s how he makes the bulk of his earnings every month (if you don’t have an email list then sign-up for an Aweber account now). But, an often over-looked aspect of having an email list is the clean-up.

Unless you follow a proper diet and exercise, as you grow and get bigger your body will store unwanted fat. The same can be said for your email list. As your subscribers list gets bigger it starts to collect unwanted fake or non-existing email addresses and subscribers who are generally uninterested or didn’t realize they signed up for your newsletter (yes, this happens even though they confirmed).

There are many reasons to put your email list on a diet:

It can save you money

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Who Wants Tickets To The Yonex Canada Open?

The Yonex Canada Open 2010 happens at the Richmond Olympic Oval from July 13 – 18 and I got tickets to all the games! I’m really looking forward to this because I have yet to step inside the Richmond Oval. For those who don’t know, the Yonex Canada Open is a badminton tournament that attracts some of the best players in the world. They’re playing for over $50,000 in prize money.

36 Tickets Up For Grabs

If you live in Vancouver, or plan to visit between July 13 – 18, and want to check out the games, reply to this post with your best reason on why I should give you a ticket. I have 36 tickets to give away. If you want a 100% sure thing on getting a ticket, come to this week’s Dot Com Pho. Everyone showing up will get tickets to the Open.

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The Blog Profit Camp Ultimate Package

I opened Blog Profit Camp with a $500 bonus review offer. The first 50 students who registered got a free review on this blog. As you can imagine, that came and went in a heartbeat and the offer is no longer available. However, I have a decided to extend the offer for the Ultimate Package.

$941 of FREE Bonuses

is the best blogging deal on the Net. You get $941 of bonuses for FREE, including:

Squeeze Theme to make custom squeeze pages (sells for $197)Squeeze Camp 12-week course on making money with squeeze pages (sells for $147)Sales Page Theme to make customer sales pages (sells for $97)Review on JohnChow.com to kick start your blog (sells for $500)

The $941 is not “made up” value either. That is the price people pay if they want to buy the items separately. But you can get it all for FREE with . To take advantage of this offer, you must registered right now. Registration will close this Friday at midnight.

Blog Profit Camp is covered by a 30 day money back guarantee. Try it for 30 days and if it’s not everything you hoped for, send me an email and I’ll refund your money, no questions asked. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Order now.

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How A Dream Killed My Blog and How I Revived It With a Goal

550 days ago I had a dream. I dreamed that I was going to make a lot of money online. How I caught it, found it, or came by it I do not remember – and it does not matter. I got it and I was going to do something about it.

The dream turned into obsession. Every mouse click and keystroke was aimed towards the dream. Hours turned to days which turned to months in pursuit of this dream.

A blog was created. Posts were written, ads were up. All the usual forms of attracting traffic were employed. Joining forums, writing articles, socializing with other bloggers.

Everything was in place. Everything that was suppose to be done to make my dream come true was done.

430 days ago my dream shattered. I do not why it came on that particular day. It just did. On that day the dream died. Not without reason of course, for the last couple weeks I was averaging 20 visitors a day and earning an equal amount of pennies.

I quit. Like a cheated lover, I never wanted to see my blog again.

For the next few weeks I stewed. How could this happen? All those hours spent on the stupid thing. All those hours spent thinking about it, devoting all my mental energy on it. Even the dog suffered – walks in the park were shorter. All for what? 20 visitors and less money then what I find every month in-between the couch cushions.

I cursed the dream and its siren song.

The problem with dreams is that they spawn out of every place except reality. They create a pretty picture, but do not show you how to paint it yourself in the real world. Make a lot of money online is a great dream. But how to make a lot of money online – the dream will not tell you.

Dreams are Vague, Goals Are Specific and Measurable

Dreams are good for poets to ponder and psychologists to probe. But for bloggers they only lead to disappointment. I don’t need a dream – I need a goal.

A goal is something you can touch. A goal has a beginning, a middle, and a end. A goal has a means. Dreams only have an end. With dreams you only see the end but you do not see the path towards it. With dreams there is no way to tell how close you are to achieving it. 120 days after the dream materialized I had made no progress towards turning it to reality. That is why the dream died.

Goals have a end and more importantly a middle. With goals you can see how close you are to achieving it. You see progress.

An example. I abandoned my dream of making a lot of money online. Too fuzzy and vague. Instead I made a goal. My goal: be on position 1 on Google search results for ‘make money website’. Sounds like a crazy dream but it is not.

Unlike a dream, with this goal I know exactly where the end is – position one. I know exactly where I am now – position 702. I can check my progress – do a search for ‘make money website’ and see where I am. I know what I need to do to reach my goal – optimize my blog for ‘make money website’ and get quality backlinks. The more optimized the blog and the more backlinks the higher up I go. Maybe in a couple months I will be in position 650 – progress.

Specific Goals Allow You To See Progress

The advantage with this goal is that I can see progress. With a dream like make lots of money online there was no perceivable progress – and that was really discouraging.

By having a goal that allows you to see the progress you are less likely to be discouraged. You are less likely to quit and have your blog die.

Some more examples of measurable goals:

Get 1000 RSS subscribersGet 1000 visitors a dayGet 1000 Twitter followersBe in position 1 for specific keywords

As you can see these goals are very different then having dreams like have a successful blog or make lots of money online. With these goals progress can been seen every time a there is a new subscriber or a twitter follower.

I have forgotten my dream. Now I focus on goals that allow me to measure their progress. So long as I keep moving closer and closer towards my goal I am happy and my blog will not die.

Roman runs a blog call How This Blog Makes Money. It shows how this blog makes money.

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I need your help - seeking successful landing pages

July 1, 2010

One of the most challenging aspects of web-based marketing is creating a landing page that converts well. Most web-oriented entrepreneurs find themselves intensely interested in learning what works and what doesn't because a good landing page often tips the scales toward success or failure. 

Of course one solution won't work for all applications, but there are principles we can apply, and examples we can learn from. I'm going to touch on some principles in an upcoming post, but I'd like to share some of your proven examples too.

If you have a successful landing page, and are willing to share how you created it, why it's successful, and share some stats to back it up - please drop me a note (email link over in my sidebar, or find me on Twitter.) I'll select some of those and share their story here on WorkHappy.net so we can all learn together.

Don't be shy.

-Carson

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