Today, I spoke to Jeremy Shoemaker, who has successfully branded himself as “Shoemoney” across the web. He is an internet entrepreneur by trade, as well as a speaker and top blogger. In this interview, Jeremy talks to use about how he’s branded himself, some of the tricks he’s used to stand out, why he’s succeeded blogging and the benefits he’s received.
How did posting the picture of you with the 6-figure Google Adsense check impact your personal brand? Do you think that was your tipping point for brand awareness?
Really at first nobody noticed… it was just another picture in the photo gallery… then it quickly became the most popular photo and has been every since. I would say its pretty huge from a personal branding perspective. Its amazing when I meet people at conferences like the creators of icanhascheezburger.com, perezhilton.com and countless other sites that tell me that Google Adsense check picture was their inspiration to create the website.
Why do some bloggers change their content when they become more successful? Why haven’t you?
I think probably because my blog has never been my primary business. It accounts for less then 10% of our companies revenue. I think if it was my only source of income I would worry all the time about what I write and what people think of it and that would drastically alter the content.
You have many women with “shoemoney” promotional gear on your blog. Have these items helped you with branding? In what way?
I think catering to the female audience has done well for branding. Many websites/brands only have men’s styles. Also we sell 5x more men’s shirts then women’s but women send in more photos.
You remain one of the more transparent public figures on the web. Why should other people consider this and has it helped you connect with your audience in a more meaningful way?
I think sharing your failures and successes with your audiences is the only way to go. I am a very open person about my life experiences in the blog and in person and its always done me well.
People cant relate to someone who only talks about their successes. But someone who weighed 420lbs, was in massive credit card debt, and can barely spell …. most people can look at that guy and say wow if he can do it why can’t I.
What indirect benefits have you received from your popular blog? How has the blog helped promote your brand?
Its given me a huge platform to launch our own products. For instance in 2007 we launched a display advertising company called AuctionAds. Within 4 months the company had over 25,000 publishers and was bringing in over 3 million a month in revenue. We sold the company 4 months after launch. Most of the success was leveraging connections built from the blog.
The relationships is by far the biggest thing. I usually can score all press passes (sometimes even airfare and hotel expenses) to any conference anywhere in the world. This is an amazing way to connect with the marketing departments for huge companies like Fox Interactive Media and Facebook (both who have since become sponsors of shoemoney.com and my other ventures).
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Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Schoemaker is a SEO expert, entrepreneur, founder of ShoeMoney Media, and co-founder of the AuctionAds service. In March 2007, Schoemaker and his business partner David Dellanave launched AuctionAds, an eBay affiliate marketing service that serves eBay auction ads on contextually relevant sites. The service won an eBay Star Developer Award (it was named the “eBay Most Innovative Application- Buyer”) at the eBay Developers Conference. In July 2007, performance marketing company MediaWhiz purchased Schoemaker’s majority ownership in AuctionAds. ShoeMoney’s blog was named Best Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2006 by Search Engine Journal. He is a frequent speaker at search engine marketing and affiliate conferences, and co-founded the Elite Retreat conference. Schoemaker attended Western Illinois University. While still in college, Schoemaker founded his first business, making Macintosh gaming sites, and later created ShoeMoney Media Group (SMG).
