I met Garry after purchasing Blogrepreneur.com from it’s former owner Althaf Ahmed. Garry commented on my first post and asked me to provide some background information about myself. I visited Garry’s blog during our back and forth via email. It was clear from that first visit that I could learn a thing or two from Garry. I asked Garry for an interview and he quickly agreed. I hope you enjoy.

Brent: Are you a subscriber to Blogrepreneur.com?

Garry: Yes, I both recently subscribed and met Althaf. He seems to be a very thoughtful, caring and free spirited individual who unfortunately didn’t get dealt some of the best cards in life. I believe that a new hand has been dealt and they are all aces.

Brent: Tell me about GarryConn.com.

Garry: I started GarryConn.com in January of 2007. I wanted what everyone else wanted. I wanted to learn how to make money online. It has been a very long and hard battle. I don’t recommend it or endorse it as being something I would call freedom. In order to get where I have gotten today, I have made many sacrifices that normally wouldn’t have been made. However, business is finally starting to take off like a rocket and for that I am grateful.

Brent: I really like the theme. Did you design it yourself?

Garry: Yes. I have always wanted to design my own WordPress themes. I have been creating web sites long before blogging became mainstream. It was about 15 years ago when I designed and developed my first web site.

Brent: I noticed you have an impressive 800+ subscribers. What are your top methods for promoting your blog?

Garry: Marketing and promoting…. the only thing I haven’t done yet is spray paint Garry Conn dot Com in gigantic letters on the roof of my house for when the next time the satellite scans my property to make my appearance in Google Earth. Last time the satellite captured imagery of my home town was in 1997, so I believe we’re due anytime. Perhaps I should break out that ladder and head to the hardware store for that paint after all.

Brent: What are you favorite blogs to read?

Garry: I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but my favorite blog to read is my own. People might not always agree with my views and opinions, but one thing is for sure, people can trust that I speak my mind. You asked, and my answer is simple: I love reading my blog. My own blog is my favorite blog to read.

I enjoy people coming to my blog and interacting with me in the comments. I try to answer everyone. I enjoy the things I write and I enjoy knowing that when I pass out and wake up the next day with a keyboard impression on my forehead that I have helped many people.

Other than my own blog, there is a mile long list of blogs that I read on a daily basis. Here are some that I would like to mention:
www.ChristineSenter.com – Christine is a very hard worker and a very trustworthy friend. She is an extremely skilled professional writer and a mom with a very happy, healthy and loving family. Our families are very similar in lifestyle. We are typical working class individuals with older children active in sports.

www.MeAndMyDrum.com – Mark Sierra. What can I say? This guy shares the same family values as me and I believe that we have many of the same views in life. I understand that the year is 2008 and life isn’t what it was in say the 1950’s. However, my kids are expected to be very polite to others, expected to maintain near perfect grades in school, and expected to push themselves extremely hard to excel in this very cut throat and competitive world that is packed full of evil. They enjoy life very much, but have been taught that you can have more fun treating the world and people in it as you would want to be treated yourself.

www.cybercoder.net – David Cooley is a very skilled and what I call, “backwoods programmer”. I believe backwoods programmers are better than school taught programmers. David sees the big picture on code. If you have seen the movie The Matrix, it is kind of like that. David and I have a lot in common as we are both very smart and savvy individuals with regard to the Internet.

www.slickmania.com – Kyle Eslick is one of the first bloggers I paired up with and met online. We don’t always see eye to eye and we have branched apart quite a bit over the last two years. Even though we have different views on many things, I absolutely enjoy reading his blog and think he is a wonderful person. I never let views and opinions effect friendship and Kyle is a great online friend.

www.JoelComm.com – Joel Comm is a class act. He has helped me more than anyone would believe. For a person with his level of establishment to take the time to keep in touch with me by calling me on the phone, sending me hand written snail mail with an abundance of care packages is truly amazing. I believe that Jesus Christ is working through Joel Comm to help me be a better Christian and provider for my family. When it comes to friendship, money or materials are of no concern to Joel as I believe that he would give the shirt off his own back to someone in need. When choosing self learning products about making money online or Internet Marketing, I personally recommend buying anything that has the name Joel Comm written on the cover.

http://chris.pirillo.com/ – Chris Pirillo is a freak of nature. His operation and Internet presence / setup absolutely amaze me. Chris has amazing skills that only people can dream of having. He is very passionate about his work. He cares to help people and he is someone you can totally learn from and trust to get top grade advice from for free! Every night he opens up his personal telephone line and accepts calls from his viewers and answers their questions live on the Internet. Amazing… I have never seen anyone like him, nor will there be anyone else that can come CLOSE to following in his footsteps.

Brent: I noticed in your about me page you mentioned you have other blogs. How many blogs do you have?

Garry: I can’t count that high. I have quite a few. More than 100.

Brent: What was your first blog?

Garry: www.blogtheinternet.com was launched Sept. of 2005. After discovering that money could be made from using a blog, I decided to open up my personal blog (my second blog) www.garryconn.com on Jan. 01, 2007. The purpose of this blog, as mentioned above, was to create a place where people could learn more about the aspect of business blogging and making money online. My personal blog is a journal. It documents my adventures, my discoveries, my ideas, and my trials and errors.

Brent: How many hours a week do you spend blogging?

Garry: 40 hours +

Brent: What are your top three ways to monetize your blogs?

Garry: Google Adsense has been the number one method for making money online. I have found success with just about all the programs available. I have an active account with Amazon, Commission Junction, LinkShare, Yahoo Publisher, Bidvertiser and many more. Recently I joined PepperJam and their program is quickly climbing my income reporting ranks. Things are changes for me slowly over time. As the programs mentioned above work very well for me, I am slowly migrating into the private ad sales business and professional web site design and development business with a heavy focus on business Web 2.0 marketing and promotion.

Brent: What are the top three mistakes you see new bloggers making?

Garry: I’ll break bloggers into two labels and provide you with three reasons for each:

1. The Blogger Who Blogs For Fame: They think that can become popular and get tons of traffic overnight. They assume that no work is needed and things will just automatically and instantly fall into place. They resort to shady methods of scoring traffic because they fear the four letter word called, Work.

2. The Blogger Who Blogs To Make Money Online: They don’t value the power of organic search and their online activities cause their blog(s) to get deranked from free organic search. They are ignorant to believe that answers to their life’s dreams are found in a downloadable EBook. They fail to realize that online business strategies and tactics follow suit to common brick and mortar businesses.

That concludes my interview with Garry Conn. If you have any questions for Garry, please post your comments below. I’ll contact Garry and see if he will be willing to answer any questions.

Interview With Full Time Blogger Garry Conn