Allan Carlton of Coolest-Gadgets.com – Entrepreneur Interview

By: Michael Dunlop     Topics: Blog,Young Entrepreneurs

Allan Carlton (Al) of Coolest-Gadgets.com – Entrepreneur Interview

Al is in his Thirties, but my father assures me that still makes him a young entrepreneur. 😉

What can I say about Al – well perhaps firstly he is genuinely one of the nicest people I have every met online. He always seems to have time for “Young Guns” like me – and I really appreciate that. Sometimes slightly older people dont take younger people online that seriously – but Allan is not one of those people. So thank you Allan for this interview and taking the time to lets us know a little bit more about you and Coolest-Gadgets.com

Coolest-Gadgets.com – Reporting on all the latest cool gadgets in the ongoing quest for the coolest gadget

Ok Allen, first, tell us about your main project, Coolest-Gadgets.com

Coolest-Gadgets.com has been going for 2 1/2 years now and enjoys 25-30K visitors per day though we did see a big increase over the Christmas season. Profit at the moment comes in at about $25K per month but we did see a big peak in December ($61K ), I’ve documents how the site got started and grew over on History of a $100K site site though the site is worth substainly more than that now.

What advice would you give someone who wants to make money online blogging?

Find a niche that you enjoy writing about and be prepared for the long haul. It takes time to build up an audience and rankings so don’t expect too much too soon. As a rule of thumb you’ll make next to nothing in the first 6 months.

What are the advantages of owning one of the main Gadget Website’s? (Free Gadgets etc?)

I get a few free gadgets and am able to attend events such as CES which is cool. For me the main advantage is the freedom it gives me with my time to do other things and start new ventures.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started. What business related advice would you give yourself?

Start sooner. I’ve been using the Internet just about since it’s inception but only really starting using it for business in the last few years.

Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

A bit of both really, it can certainly be learned by any one but I suppose you’ve got to have something in the mind (rather than blood) to make you want to learn.

Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

I admire a lot of people, but don’t model myself on anybody.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

You’ll never get paid what your worth working for somebody else.

What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

Just do it, don’t be afraid of making mistakes as you’ll learn from them.

What are your plans for the future?

This year I’m looking at setting up more of a blog network, I’m just launching Coolest Toys which will run on a similar way to Coolest Gadgets and I have at least another 6 blogs planned. I also have planned additions to both Coolest-Gadgets.com and Self Made Minds .

Whilst working on these I will also be building up my affiliate business as a separate business, I do sell affiliate goods on my blogs but I want to start using dedicated affiliate sites promoted with PPC.

I do share and talk about a lot of what I do over on Self Made Minds where we try to give real world examples and case studies of what works and what doesn’t.

Thank you Al – we appreciate your time – some great advice here. I especially like: You’ll never get paid what your worth working for somebody else.