Interview with Kenny Forder of HomesoftheRich

Posted in Blog, Interviews. Written by Bryant on January 17th, 2010

Hey everyone,

Today I’m excited to introduce another young entrepreneur that’s making money online, Kenny Forder of HomesoftheRich. He has some great tips to share with you all and is definitely motivated to make it somewhere in the online world. So enough of me talking about him, lets get into it.

Kenny

Kenny, for the readers who haven’t heard of you and your website, Homesoftherich, why don’t you give us a brief overview of who you are, where you came from, and what your blog is about.

Okay. Well, my name is Kenny Forder and I am currently a freshman in college. I have a twin sister who currently attends Kutztown University and we are both very close. I have lived in New Jersey my whole life and I love everything about this state. New Jersey has some of the nicest and most expensive real estate around. My blog, Homes of the Rich, takes readers on a journey through the wild world of real estate. From mega-mansions, to expensive listings, to celebrity homes, my blog encompasses it all. What sets Homes of the Rich apart from other real estate blogs is that it not only focuses on homes that are for sale, but homes that are not as well. I guess you can say that it is a little personal, but I love to see how the other half lives even if they are not selling their home.

How did you get started in blogging? What caused you to try and break the mold of the typical 9-5 job and start to make money off of the internet?

I have always loved real estate and architecture. Ever since I was 12, I would go to as many open houses that I could. At a young age, I was fascinated by the way these huge homes were built, the things they had inside, and especially all the fine craftsmanship and details. I finally got a laptop at the age of 16 and that is when I first discovered the wonderful world of real estate. I started looking on Realtor.com for homes that were for sale around my area and I couldn’t believe some of the homes. There were tons of million dollar homes! So, I started to look more in depth on the internet and I came across a real estate blog called The Realestalker. I loved the way the blogger wrote and I found the stuff he wrote about very interesting. Then it hit me. Could I make something like this as well? I saw that his url ended with “blogspot.com”. So, I searched google and found out about Blogger. After looking it over, it seemed so simple to me. So, I signed up and picked a name for my blog. I initially used the url “homesoftherich.blogspot.com”, but then I changed over to my own domain name after 2 months. Before writing my first post, I looked back at The Realestalker. In the beginning, his posts seemed interesting to me, but then I realized that all he did was write about celebrity homes that were for sale. I thought to myself and said “Hey, maybe I should branch out and write about regular rich people’s homes”. So, I started to do that and the rest is history.

I never really had a real job in my life to tell you the truth. I worked occasionally at my mom’s job during the summers, but that’s about it. I hated lifting boxes and doing hard labor. It just wasn’t my thing. Since High School, all of my friends had regular jobs and mostly every single one them complained nonstop about how they dreaded going to work. So, one day, I discovered an article about a teenage girl who makes $70,000 fromm Google Adsense.  The day after, I decided to sign up. After about a week, I was approved and then I implemented the codes on my site. The first week I made $80. I thought “Damn, this thing really does work!” Since July 2008 I have made $3,000 with 1.2 million page impressions. While it’s not a huge amount of money, I have been able to pay my cell phone bill and car insurance every month plus buy other things as well. Right now, I currently make about $350 a month from google adsense, infolinks, and other things as well.

Can you share what you’ve accomplished in the last few years and where you see yourself in 5, 10, and even 20 years?

Since July of 2008, the start of Homes of the Rich, I have accomplished so many things. First off, I have built up a loyal reader base that includes teenagers, your average Joes, CEO’s, and even multi-millionaires. I went from 20 average daily visitors to a current average of 1,600. Since my start, I have received over 350 emails from Homes of the Rich readers in which they shared with me mansion pics, tips, and listings that they found. Without them, Homes of the Rich would not be where it is today.

In the future I see myself still operating Homes of the Rich. Since I have no real competition, I think it will be a tremendous success in the long run. I see myself branching out and starting other projects as well.

Homesoftherich is just one of the projects that you are working on. Can you share with us else you are  involved in?

Yes. Well, I started a link directory website back in July of 2009 called The Link Buddy. It has gotten reviewed on Killer Startups, but I haven’t really been able to do much with it since I have been devoting much of my time to Homes of the Rich. Another project I am working on is a new social network called FameJolt. I had always wanted to start my own social network after I saw what a huge success Facebook has come. I put up a thread on Digital Point Forums that told of my idea for a new social network that I wanted to start. A day later someone responded back and said that they were interested and would to become my business partner. His name is Salman Arif. He is the same age as me (19) and he currently attends the University of Houston. We spent hours coming up with a name and we bought the domain name not a moment later. We both went back and forth on what we wanted the social network to be about. FameJolt launched in December of 2009. On FameJolt, users earn “FJ Dollars’ by doing various actions such as creating groups, uploading pictures, and creating polls. Users can then exchange their FJ Dollars for cash prizes. In the next couple of months we plan on adding a lot more features to FameJolt and hopefully grow it into a leading social network.

What advice would you give to the beginner blogger or internet entrepreneur who is trying to find his identity online and make some money?

I would tell them to pick a topic that they are passionate about and have a lot of expertise in. In order to create a successful blog, you need to know what you are talking about and you need to have fun as well. No one wants to read a boring blog. Also, a blogger needs to realize that you can’t just write 5 posts a month and expect to gain a large readership and make hundreds of dollars. Content is king. If you want your readers to come back, you need to write interesting posts and write at least 1 on a daily basis. If a blogger is worried about competition then they have to find a way to distinguish themselves from the rest, like creating an online persona (ex. The Realestalker’s Mama) Lastly, if you want to make some money without pushing away your readers, you should try to blend in your ads with your content. Also, you should try to keep the amount of ads you show on the homepage minimal. (unless you are talking about direct advertising)

Thanks so much for the interview, Kenny. I believe that everyone can take away with them a little piece of this interview, and apply it to their website or business in hopes of expanding it. To all those who have taken the time to read this, good luck in your business in 2010!

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