Here’s the first of a series of videos I promised over a month ago (sorry about that), showcasing the incredible speakers and their talks at Tomorrow’s Web conference. Our first is from IncomeDiary and Retireat21 founder Michael Dunlop, he gave an awesome 45 minute talk on Making Money Blogging, although do excuse the video quality, very much the afterthought of the day. Check it out!
I’d like to thank Michael once again for agreeing to speak at Tomorrow’s Web. He’s shown time and time again that although being young, dyslexic and a college drop out, you can still succeed and be whoever you want to be, a true inspiration! He’s now earning a six figure sum whilst traveling around the world interviewing people like Gary Vaynerchuk and more. As well as this insightful look into making money online, I also had a chance to interview Michael, Q & A after the jump.
What inspired you to create Retireat21/IncomeDiary
Retireat21 was my third big main project which was started back in September 2006 and launched in December. I launched it because I realised there was no good information at the time for young entrepreneurs trying to make money online. IncomeDiary was started in March 2009 when I realised that my monetization and stratagies wern’t work the way they should on Retireat21 so I created IncomeDiary as the funnel process. Before I started the website I had people every day asking me how I created Retireat21, before I would have to send them a list of sites and pages to check out, now I simply send them to IncomeDiary, this way I get to make the money and not someone else. With both the websites my main aim was to inspire and make people take action!
Do you feel it necessary to prove yourself?
My success speaks for itself, people will always put you down, don’t let it effect you.
What’s been your most successful moment in life, and also your lowest?
I first realised I was a big success when I was invited to a seminar by a friend called Ryan Lee who was holding an event for Internet entrepreneurs with around 400 attending. A “guru” came up to me and said “hey, I reconise you from a few seminars, its Michael?”, it probably helped that I had a few people round me hearing what I had to say about web stuff. So we chat for a couple minutes and we get interupted by someone, I was thinking he would want to speak to the guru which would annoy me but instead he was like “wow.. Michael, I just had to come upto you, I saw you were coming to this event, had to sign up and come see you” he then asked for a picture, not knowing who the guru was, shoved the camera into his hands and got in to take a picture. THAT right there was when I knew I was doing somethi ng right 
Down sides, well in business we all have quite a few of those, it’s the only way we learn. I have had my sites hacked a lot, hosting companys delete my sites, scammed my designers and just disapointment when things don’t go wrong. Just pick yourself up and keep moving forward!
To you personally, what does it mean to be an Entrepreneur?
Living a few years of your life like most won’t so you can live the rest like most can’t. A quote first mentioned by Jon Wheatley in an Interview earlier in the year who I believe was told the quote by Josh Buckley who spoke at tomorrowsweb. I think as an entrepreneur you got to nuckle down, get the work done, SELL big and have a lost of fun.
What would say has been your best idea, that doesn’t necessarily mean the most successful.
I have had a number of successful websites but I have had a idea for a few years but not yet have the time to work on it. It’s an extreme clothing company called FIKED and well I can’t give you to much detail on that.
What are the advantages of being an entrepreneur at such a young age?
You get to do so many things people your age never get to do. In the last 4 years I have travelled to America a dozen times, been all over the world, spoke and hung out with some amazing minds and I get to do it all when I want and I have no boss telling me, you can’t take time off. I have true freedom, not many people can say that.
Plans for the future?
Currently I’m still running my blog network, I hope to sell it in the coming years and work on FIKED.com – just enjoy life, no point doing anything but.
Finally, If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, what would that be?
“Have the end in mind and every day be working towards it”.