I hope you all enjoyed last weeks interview with John Paul Aguiar. Today I have the pleasure in interviewing Bamidele Onibalusi, a young blogger who has had a huge amount of success in freelance blogging for others.
Bamidele is well known within the blogging community for his fantastic website YoungPrePro. There are thousands of articles online about the benefits of guest posting however there are few people who have walked the walk like Bamidele has. He’s written hundreds if not thousands of free guest posts in order to drive traffic to his website. This dedication has paid off in dividends as he’s managed to increase his monthly earnings to 5 figures.
I find it inspiring that Bamidele has become so successful in such a short space of time. It goes to show that hard work pays off in this game. I hope you enjoy the interview :)
How did you get involved with blogging at such an early age?
I first learned about the concept of making money online when I was 15, when someone wanted to deliver a seminar on making money online through Forex marketing in my church.
The person who will be delivering the seminar talked about the potential of Forex marketing and that’s it’s possible to make thousands of dollars just sitting in front of your computer in one day. I was hooked and I determined that I have to make this online thing work for me.
I tried selling an information product for 3 months which was a total failure. I did some more research and I discovered blogging and how powerful it can be by reading How to Make Money From Your Blog by Steve Pavlina. I’ve been blogging ever since.
You’re well known for the success you’ve had with guest posting. What inspired you to focus on this particular promotion technique?
I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was one of Glen Allsopp’s posts on Viperchill, where he talks about how effective guest blogging has been for him. I also noticed guest blogging to be very effective once I tried it, so I decided to make it my core marketing technique.
How many hours per week do you blog on average?
It varies. I can be anything from 10 hours in certain week to 70 hours in some week. I’ll say an average of 40 hours a week.
Do you find it difficult to manage your time between blogging for others and maintaining your own blog?
No, that hasn’t really been a problem for me. Since my effort blogging for others is to help my blog grow, I don’t really find it difficult balancing blogging for myself and blogging for others; if a particular blog isn’t delivering the results I expect, then I stop contributing to that blog. It’s all about getting the best result from time spent and growing my blog along the way.
What frustrates you about blogging for others?
I love everything thing about it. I used to be after traffic and got disappointed when a post on a particular blog didn’t send me traffic. Not anymore.Now I write my posts in such a way that I get both traffic and SEO benefits, so even if I don’t get the traffic I still get the SEO benefit.
You released your fantastic guide ‘The Writer’s Handbook’ for free. Do you have plans to release more books in the future?
I’ll probably be releasing a new eBook in the future. I’m not sure when or what it’ll be about.
You’re one of the few bloggers who isn’t active on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Are you not a fan of social media services?
I’m not really a fan of social media. It drains so much of my time and I’m not much of a social guy; I’m an introverts and prefer spending most of my time at home doing things on my own, so I haven’t seen the reason why I should be spending 5+ hours managing various social accounts every week.
What does 2013 hold for you and your blog?
I’ll be launching my first product on my blog and starting several challenges.
I recently started a challenge to build a brand new blog from scratch and turn it into a 4-figure client income generation machine in 3 – 6 months. I can see myself doing more challenges like this.
A big thank you to Bamidele for taking part in this interview. You can find out more about Bamidele at YoungPrePro or on Twitter @YoungPrePro. If you subscribe to his newsletter you will get a free copy of his ebook ‘The Writer’s Handbook’ :)
That’s a fantastic income from just guest posting.
I have noticed that most ads for paid guest posts require you to seek out posting opportunities. Is this the same scenario with your girlfriend?
Hi Kevin,
It is quite nuts but my girlfriend nails down gaudy numbers doing paid guest posts each month. She is always prospecting for new clients and takes care of her current ones really well…and she only does it part time. Full time she easily gets 6 figures a year…..easy….which is quite astounding! $6 to $8 K a month, working a minimum amount of time…..I watch it and admire her….this gig is tremendously prospering if you are always on the hunt!
The key is building up a client base, helping your clients and aggressively seeking out new work.
Oni is a champ. I have followed him since he was a kid. Amazing guy!
Thanks for the share.
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for commenting :)
I can understand why he doesn’t. I realise people get inspiration from reading the income for others but once you have established yourself as someone who makes money, I don’t see the need to always post reports. I think it’s different if you are doing a project or something. For example, Adsense Flippers are demonstrating how their sites are performing by showing income reports.
I’m releasing a few books this year so perhaps if I did a series of posts on the issue I could post about sales etc. But it’s not something I would want to do continually.
Kevin
I’ve been following Bam for a while and glad he is getting some recognition. Wish he would continue publishing his income report, shame he stopped doing that it was always an interesting read
Thanks Jean. He doesn’t make anything from guest blogging. He has used guest blogging to push traffic to his website and that has helped him secure freelancing gigs.
Didn’t know Tom released a freelancing book. I followed him on Twitter recently. My own book on freelancing will be released in Amazon at the start of January. I’ve not read his book but I suspect they will cover different areas. My book is more of a walkthrough of the steps needed and stays general rather than specific on my own freelancing experience.
Very motivating interview Kevin, 5 figures is a lot of money to be making via guest blogging per month. Would be interesting to know how (in more detail) Bamidele manages that. Tom Ewer from Leaving Work Behind is another very successful freelance blogger and he makes around $4,000 a month. He details how he does that in his recently released ebook. I think if Bamidele would publish something like that it would be a very interesting read.