The story of Michael Dunlop is a pretty amazing one. He dropped out of college with no qualifications and has since risen to be an internet superstar. Michael runs a string of valuable sites that hold some amazing information, and recently I was lucky enough to interview him.
The Interview
Thanks for the interview Michael. Tell the Teenius readers a bit about yourself…
Hello everyone, I am 20 years old and make money online while I sleep. I run a few successful websites including IncomeDiary, Retireat21 and WebDesignDev. I make money online by teaching and inspiring people to get out of the 9 – 5 day job and to start a Internet business and live the Internet lifestyle.
Sounds great! When and how did you get into blogging and realise that it would become a good income stream for you?
When I was around 16 years old I found a programmer to code my first main website, it was making a lot of money but it all went wrong because of poor code and a bad backend. When I found blogger, I realised I didn’t need to know any HTML and creating lots of websites and running them was very easy because of the WORDPRESS platform.
It only provides a good income stream if you have a good website, blogging doesn’t necessarily matter to making money, it just makes it easier for people.
As a professional blogger, what do you see for the future of blogging?
I see blogging being pretty much the same, just made even easier. Wordpress works, so why change it. I see myself selling some of my main projects in the next 1 to 5 years for good 7 figure deals.
What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve faced whilst blogging, and how did you overcome it?
Providing great value in blog posts day after day. Everyone sees other top bloggers doing daily posts, if you can’t do a great post every day, do one every 2 or 3 days. Its more important to provide great value in one post then to just half arse 7 posts. I would recommend you outsource all the hard work and research so you can have the time to make the post great and show you have passion for the subject.
Also when you have success you will want to rush off and start more websites, I recommend you focus on one project, after all its best to own 1 huge thing instead of 10 small things.
If you had to give three tips to a new blogger, what would they be?
- Value – As long as you have Value, you will have a popular website. Spend time creating better content and less time marketing and monetizing. When you create great content, the money follows.
- Creativity – Creative posts go viral, which means lots of traffic in no time.
Examples of creative posts:- 10 Reasons Why It Sucks To Be a Golfer
- Top 30 Richest Golfers
- 20 Largest Gold Courses in the World
- Top 30 Youngest Golfers.
You will notice that it’s fun and interesting but the real benefit is, its just research! So you can outsource it, this is exactly what I do and you can to.
- Passion – If you don’t have passion, your readers can tell. You need to be happy doing what you do. Don’t blog about something you don’t enjoy or think it will make you more money. If you are into golfing, then blog about golfing, not finance.
One thing I picked up on is that your blogs have forums attached to them. Do you feel this is good or bad? Why?
It’s a great idea but hard work. I run 3 blogs which have a forum each, keeping up with every forum and blog is very hard work. I would only launch a forum once your blog is very popular. I have run some successful forums in the past and find that a forum on its own usually works better. Just depends what your end goal is and who your readers are.
In hindsight, is there anything you’d change about your blogs?
For the first few years I monetized my website with banner and text adverts like all the top bloggers told you to. This is wrong; I now make 10 x my other websites with less traffic on IncomeDiary. I recommend you test and keep testing new ideas to make money on your blog. I have an interviewee who made $140,000 last month from blogging and only had 100,000 visitors. This is because he decided to monetize his blog with a premium membership instead of displaying banner advertising.
Thanks again for the interview Michael. Do you have any last words?
I am always on the IncomeDiary forums, I would love to talk to anyone who would like to talk to me, you can see the forums here.
If you are not making money online blogging then check out my FREE eCourse.
I just would like to finish by saying, enjoy yourself, what’s the point of life if you can’t be happy?!
My views and a conclusion
Michael is, without a doubt, a very talented blogger, and a lot of what he says seems to make perfect sense, and it clearly works! I would also highly recommend every single internet user to check out Michael’s websites (especially IncomeDiary as that’s my personal favourite), as they all contain so many amazing posts that are valuable to any reader.
That’s can inspire someone like me who trying to make money online =)
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I like to see people my own age having so much success! Michael is definitely someone I need to pay more attention too. Great interview! :]
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Michael is my hero.
Awesome interview man! I knew Michael would want an interview done.
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Sweet interview. I enjoy reading Michaels stuff it’s pretty inspirational.
Nice work.
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Agreed. A lot of the people he’s interviewed on his blogs are really inspirational figures, and I think every blogger can learn a lot from visiting Michael’s blogs as there’s so many different perspectives!
I think this is the top most post of your blog because you have interviewed a Guy who is a king in the internet world. I really love to hear so many kind words from him- Value, creativity and Passion. Thanks for sharing the interview with us…
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Yeah, Michael is becoming an internet superstar, so I’m glad I got to interview him. Like you say, he also has a lot of valuable advice that every blogger should take on board.
Awesome Awesome Interview.. Michael always inspires me !
Great great blogger !
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No doubt people love Michael’s blogging style including me. He’s an awesome guy. I love reading income diary and R@21
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Yeah, I really enjoy reading some of the interviews he puts up on IncomeDiary! It’s a real inspiration to see what can be achieved by the power of the internet!
Tip#3 is golden. Just never thought of outsourcing it. I’ll have to ask Michael his thought process on that.
Yeah, it’s an awesome tip, but I feel it only really works for some blogs, and even then it depends on the community as to whether outsourcing would be successful.
If you ever want to contact Michael, he’s more than willing to help, so just go on the IncomeDiary or R@21 forums and he’s bound to reply
Nice work man ! It is really interesting to know about a Guy’s history ! Cheers !
I think with someone as young as Michael we should really be looking to the future. I saw an article about him in a foreign newspaper that said he would be worth around $10m (USD) by the time he’s 25!
@ Teenius : Buddy.. I’m having so many confusions about interviewing a person. And can you come with a post about interviewing a person !
I would say just think about what your readers want to hear, and also what you want to find out.
Anyway, thanks for the idea for the post, I’ll try and fix something up soon
I’ll interview you first then !
Cheers !
Great interview. Michael is really a nice guy (even though hadn’t talked w/him personally). There was an instance where I did (emailed) something really pissing to him and instead of retaliating back he explained to me things and why what i did was bad.. It’s a superb response I believe…
Yeah, Michael’s a really great guy who’s awesome to talk to. He’s also a very good businessman, so it doesn’t surprise me that he has the self composure to stay cool in arguments and the such.
Great review. Love reading Michael’s blog, he’s awesome.
Another great interview on Teenius
Always great to read about Michael.
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Thanks Farrhad!
Yeah, like you say, it’s always great to read about Michael because his blogs are really cool. Also, it’s great to see how someone develops and grows
This is an impressive interview, Simon. Thanks for sharing.
Michael, if you’re reading this, everyone here is absolutely right that you have done some incredible things at your age. In fact, I’ve been following Retire@21 and IncomeDiary for several months now and you’ve become somewhat of a role model to a number of people I have talked to.
But don’t let all of these comments go to your head. There are still 34,251 websites that are more popular than your most popular site, Retire@21. You’ve done great, but you also have a ton of potential to do more.
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From speaking to Michael, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would get big headed. He seems very down-to-earth, which is a very important aspect which I think a few professional bloggers lack.
Still, awesome advice, and I’m glad you enjoyed the interview
This is awesome, I’ve never heard of him until now but I’m really inspired to see someone so young becoming successful. Thanks Teenius.
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Wow, great interview. Thanks for sharing
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Cool interview. I looked at his Ebook. It is really good for beginners, and I got a lot out of it.
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Thanks everyone for all your kind words, glad you like my websites and enjoyed the interview.
Michael
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Thanks for agreeing to do the interview, Michael!
It’s great to have a professional blogger here on Teenius 
Yes, thank you. You are one of my biggest inspirations as a blogger.
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Anyone knows why Michael dropout from college?
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[...] Michael Dunlop’s ‘IncomeDiary.com’ has a brilliant page on it called ‘Blogging Resources’. This page is just full of Michael’s affiliate links, but he’s created a page that will undoubtedly help many people find new products, and especially help newbies to set up their first website. It’s this kind of innovation that is bound to aid you in making money! [...]