Blogpreneur Contest 2008 - Entry for Coolest Gadgets

With a daily readership of over 100,000 (RSS, email and web), Coolest Gadgets has far exceeded my expectations. CG has enabled me to quit my day job, travel worldwide and earn an income doing what I enjoy. Last year CG generated 6 figures, this year we’re on target to turnover ~$500K.

Coolest Gadgets has been running nearly 3 years. In that time we have gone from a one man blog to having a team of fantastic writers. Key elements for the success are:

  • Persistence: It takes 6-12 months for a site to get going, in the early days it is hard to find motivation when you don’t have the traffic or income. Working hard then laid the foundations for future success, I remember sometimes not being in the mood to write but pushing myself to do so, I’m very pleased I did.
  • Originality: the gadget niche is very crowded. We differentiated by writing about gadgets that hadn’t been covered elsewhere. This interested our readers and garnered links within our niche (helps SEO thus more new readers).
  • Passion: being passionate about your subject makes it so much easier to blog (especially when you need that extra push), I kind of like gadgets :)
  • Networking: Interacting with other bloggers and people in the industry is both fun and essential for building your blog.

There’s more I could write, but this contest has a word limit, if you want further info you can read the history of CG, I’ll also answer comments.

About Al Carlton

Al quit the 9 to 5 rat race in January of 2007, before then he was a software engineer and systems architect of financial system. Nowadays Al spends the days running his various businesses and experimenting with different ideas and opportunities.
Al can be found on twitter at AlCarlton.

Comments

  1. Good luck with the contest Al, it’s no fluke that Coolest Gadgets has grown in line with the amount of effort and dedication you have invested in it.

  2. Getting to do something you enjoy has brought it’s rewards, congrats on your achievement so far, I am sure you will continue to grow.

  3. certainly impressive figures given only three years since it was started. I hope my photography basics blog works the same for me over the next few years. I certainly wouldn’t mind giving up building websites day after day.

  4. Wow, you’ve had fantastic success with CG. Good luck with the contest.

  5. Very impressive figures. Hardwork always pays off at the end. Your post is an inspiration to me to put in more effort in blogging.
    Goodluck Al!

  6. A turnover of 500k in 4 small years is really impressive. But I totally agree that the first year is the hardest (as I’ve tried it several times and given up *lol*)

  7. Thanks for the congrats and well wishes everybody. It’s the first time I’ve entered a competition like this and I’ll be interested to see how I do and what other people submit, if you have a blog it’s worth a shot, as they say, you don’t win if you don’t take part.

  8. Thanks Al! This is a great success story. I remember when you started this blog it was to detail the success of the 100K blog - and now it’s 500! That’s very impressive (kind of wish I had the persistence you guys have :) )

    • Cheers Justin, when I titled that section it was meant to be the approx value of the blog at the time (not the turn over). So I was a bit short sighted with that title, I’m pleased to say :)

  9. Thanks for the information on the contest and the other great information I have gotten from your blog. Although I have have a fairly new blog, I submtted a
    contest entry
    .

  10. Al - congrats on the site and its growth.

    one thing i’ve wondered about sites like yours and Engadget. how do you find the new products to write about? do you get press releases from the various manufacturers since you have an established site? or do you have your blog writters scouring the net looking for new stuff?

    • A bit of both really. We receive a fair few emails and press releases every day and our writers are good at finding new and unique content.

  11. great great post Al.. I may have to print this one out and pin it to my wall..

    -peter

  12. Thanks Peter, you wouldn’t believe the number of times I had to edit that post to get it down to 250 words though I must admit I think it reads a lot better for the editing, I might have to a post on that :)

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  1. […] Self Made Minds Don’t want to miss a single tip? Subscribe to our RSS […]

  2. […] Al Carlton, of CoolestGadgets.com. In just 3 years CoolestGadgets.com has grown a readership of over 100,000 per day. “CG has enabled me to quit my day job, travel worldwide and earn an income doing what I enjoy.” Al now manages a fantastic team of writers and brings in a 6-figure income from blogging. Al’s story shows what is required to be a successful blogger today. Read his post here! […]

  3. […] this month I posted my entry for the Blogpreneur Contest 2008, I wrote about what I thought made Coolest Gadgets a success. […]

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