Interview With Holly Mann
Interview with Holly Mann of Honest Riches
By Cort McCadden Nov 15, 2006
Cort: Today my interviewee is one of the most inspiring young ladies that I have had the pleasure of interviewing! She is only 24 years old and already she has done more, seen more and accomplished more than people twice her age! Holly Mann who lives now the life of the “rich and famous” certainly did not start out that way.
I know that you are one of the “hotshots” in Internet Marketing; however I would like to know what you did before your Net involvement. When was this? What got you interested in the Net?
Holly: Before breaking into Internet Marketing and working online, I was in a difficult situation financially. Prior to having my son, I worked as a civil contractor in Baghdad, Iraq. While pregnant and back in the states in 2004, I began learning all that I could about working online. I started out by selling mortgage and loan officer websites on eBay.
I saw one mortgage website which sold for $5000 dollars, and thought to myself, "That website wasn't overly special...I think I could create one better than that." That was the spark that ignited something in me and opened my eyes to the possibilities online.
So I began selling websites on eBay regularly and that sustained me for a little while. I then became a hosting reseller and most of my eBay clients used my hosting company (so that created a residual income stream, but it wasn't a lot). Before I knew it, others began copying me and my competition increased and sales stopped.
I was living at my brother's house with my 4 1/2 month old child and felt quite guilty for not having the financial stability my son deserved. Where I was living at wasn't in a very good neighborhood outside of Milwaukee, and I was trying to survive on $700 dollars a month.
I had lived in Thailand when I was 16 as an exchange student with the Rotary Club and I loved it there; the people, food and culture. I decided to sell all of our belongings and move there.
I knew I could afford to live on $700 a month there while I got the Internet Businesses started. I didn't need to put my son in daycare - so I could take care of him and still work. It was a freeing feeling, but also very scary. The last item I sold prior to leaving was my laptop which I worked on. It was a Sony Vaio I bought while I was working overseas in Iraq (and was actually saving a little money) and I sold it on ebay in order to have enough to buy our airline tickets.
After flying for nearly 24 hours, we arrived in Chiangmai, Thailand. I found a small studio apartment and had serious troubles getting an Internet connection. I also couldn't afford a computer. So, I went to a computer parts store and bought all of the parts needed to put a computer together. I didn't know what I was doing, but the guys there put it together included in the total price. Most of the parts were used and so they were much cheaper. The total cost for the contraption was a little over $250 dollars U.S. The computer screen alone weighed at least 30 pounds and looked like something from the 1960s. The actual base and hard drive made a really loud buzzing noise all the time.
I lived in a 13 story building and there was a phone switch board with 4 lines. I bought an Internet card from the store and hooked my computer up to the phone connected to the slow switchboard. I held up that line for hours at a time, as others were trying to call in and out of the building. I'll never forget how seemingly impossible it felt to publish a website with Microsoft Frontpage on a 24KBPS connection speed! I thought about giving up on it as it took hours and hours to publish one simple website update. But I didn't give up, and within four months I was making 12K per month and FINALLY got DSL Internet!
Cort: Holly, I have to say that is one of the most incredible success stories I have heard in a long time! A single Mom struggling with a computer that belonged in the Computer Hall of Fame and now earning in excess of $12,000 per month! Did you see the value of Email Marketing almost immediately after it appeared? What made you get involved with Email Marketing?
Holly: I did not see the value of email marketing until I read Mike Filsaime's Carbon-Copy-Marketing. He really focuses on the importance of having a subscriber list. He is real live proof that email marketing does work if you do it properly. You can make thousands of dollars by sending out one message - pretty astonishing. Some people abuse their lists and send out too many emails, I believe. I try to only send out emails when I find some truly significant information or resource to share. It's important to follow-up with clients and associates and to have a solid business relationship with them.
Cort: Certainly Mike has been the inspiration for a number of Internet marketers. What are you doing to avoid the ever present spam filters from putting your email in spam folders? Are you considering using PDF files to send your ezine like I have started to do?
Holly: I try to be extremely careful with my choice of words, since so many words can trigger a message to be filtered into the spam or bulk mailbox. I have not thought of sending PDF files, but that is a good idea.
Cort: What are your feelings about Plain vs. HTML Email Marketing? What about the Audio and Visual Email?
Holly: Hmmm...plain vs. html - I prefer plain text emails. I think that having a visual email through the use of creating short video messages and tutorials is an excellent idea. Even those who cannot afford online video creation and editing tools can upload their videos through free services, such as youtube. I think it is a great way to keep your clients up-to-date and informed.
Cort: Yes, YouTube has really taken the world by storm. I think I read the other day that some biggie is looking at offering them over one billion dollars for their business. What do you attribute your online growth to? Did you follow someone's formula or path?
Holly: I didn't follow anyone's formula. If something I did worked well, I continued with it and built on it. I have tried out many different methods to find the ones which are most successful and quickest to implement. My search engine optimization techniques, along with keyword research have made me the most money.
I've learned patience - and not to jump into creating a site without conducting full research to know exactly what the market is searching for, how many times are they typing that phrase in the search engines per day, how many competing sites, similar phrases, etc. Some people think certain phrases will get them traffic but without doing the proper research, you can set yourself up for failure.
Besides research, my success is due to diligence, hard work and having the hope and motivation to know that it's possible. Last but not least - my customers are very important to me. People are getting ripped off and scammed all the time. Many people who contact me are at the end of their rope - already given up but with a small amount of hope left after reading about my program. I try to be as supportive, honest and help them the best that I can at:
http://community.livejournal.com/honestriches/.
Although I haven't followed anyone's path, Mike Filsaime has been a huge inspiration to me and someone I have learned a lot from. One technique I learned from him increased my yearly income by quite a lot of money. I created a site about him at:
http://www.mikefilsaimesuccess.com/ as a thank you and to share my story with others. It was neat because he stumbled upon the site and emailed me to thank me for the support and to tell me he was happy the techniques were working for me.
Cort: Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently if you were starting today?
Holly: No there isn't. Everything I have done has taught me something. I put so much time learning when I first started. I know four months is a short period of time but there are 24 hours in a day and I spent day and night (while my son was sleeping and playing) learning all that I could learn. I slept so little, became addicted to coffee and I am a better person for it. I wouldn't change a thing!
Cort: What is your advice to newbie's out there looking to get started? Can almost anyone do this?
Holly: First, attitude is very important. Be positive - be ready to learn loads of new things. Be ready to work. If you are realistic, deeply motivated and ready to plunge into this then I believe it is definitely possible for any newbie to make money online. Don't be ready to give up the second you get confused by a new concept or technique. Too many people do that. If this is all new to you then it is completely normal to feel overwhelmed. Stick with it, look for more information online in forums or ask me and others at the Honest Riches Community LiveJournal.
