Product Review Authority, Robb Sutton, Interview

Posted in Blog, Interviews. Written by Bryant on February 10th, 2010

Today’s interview is with Robb Sutton , founder of oneninety8, Robbsutton.com, bike198.com, and coffeeobsessed.net, among others. Robb is THE authority in the product review niche- he can teach you exactly how to start a product review website through his book, Ramped Reviews. So let’s get to it:

Robb Sutton

First off, Robb, can you give us a brief introduction of yourself and your businesses?

I’m 28 years old and an Economics graduate from the University of Georgia. My professional background consists of everything from post production video to regional sales totaling over 11 million in annual sales. Now…I blog under my company, oneninety8, that owns RobbSutton.com, the Bike198.com network and CoffeeObsessed.net.

How did you get started online? What caused you to make the link between mountain biking as a sport, and actually making money off of your passion?

I actually got started online by creating a trail review site for mountain bikers, mtbtrailreview.com back in 2007. I figured out in about the first week that it is really hard to have user submitted content without traffic so I started blogging about parts and my thoughts on mountain biking to drive traffic to the site. About 3 months later, the blog completely took over the site and eventually moved to where it is now at bike198.com.

As traffic started to grow, I implemented several monetization strategies until I found a solution that worked for both my readers and my blogging. After that…it was all kind of history. With one e-book on that site already published (Ramped Riding) and an apparel line in the works…the sky is the limit.

During all of the building on the mountain biking site, I was working with manufacturers and contacts in the industry to pull in review product for the blog. After getting asked about a thousand times how I received so much review product, I decided to launch an e-book on how to do it (Ramped Reviews), so I needed a platform to accomplish that…and RobbSutton.com was born. Coffee Obsessed just came about because I love coffee and I know how to get it in to review.

Can you talk for a minute about your new forum, Community.Bike198.com? What has it been like, branching out into a new field that you had minimal experience in before this?

Community.Bike198.com has been something that was in the original build for the move to Bike198.com. In the biking community, readers are much more likely to talk in a forum instead of commenting on blog posts. That is just how that online community rolls, so I knew I was going to have to do it eventually. There are some huge players in the biking forum niche, so I was really nervous about launching something like that to compete with some monster sites that have been out there for years. I think I have come up with a balance that works and in

its short life…it is performing really well.

This was my first time setting up and owning a forum. It has been very rewarding with the feedback.

Your book, Problogging is Dead, is an excellent source of reality for those who think that they’re going to start a blog and expect money to come rolling in. What advice would you give to the experienced blogger who is trying to diversify his income sources?

Push the limits of what you consider normal. If you would have told me that I would be planning an apparel line…I would have told you that you were crazy. Also, listen very carefully to your readers. They will tell you what they are ready to spend money on.

Where do you think you would be today without the internet? In what ways has the internet changed the course of your life?

Slaving away for the man! haha…but seriously I would be working my day job traveling all over the place waiting for someone to choose my worth with a paycheck. The internet has given me the freedom to write my rules and not be vulnerable to bad people that are greedy and only looking out for themselves. Now I get to help people and make money doing it. It’s fantastic.

What would you say to the new blogger who is trying to find his identity online?

Be yourself and resist the temptation to copy the formula of another successful blogger. It is great to take advice and others experiences to formulate a successful blog, but in the end…originality wins out every time. Focus on quality and originality…and then promote those two…and that is your key.

Now for the last topic, I’d like for you to discuss Ramped Reviews for a bit. I think that by now my readers have a brief idea of what it’s about, but why don’t you go a little bit deeper into why it came about.

During all of the building on the mountain biking site, I was working with manufacturers and contacts in the industry to pull in review product for the blog. And when I say working with them…I was (and still am) getting in an obscene amount of review product. Every time I walked into my garage, there was something new in there that I used to pay top dollar for. After a small amount of time, I was topping the $70,000 mark and after 18 months of blogging…I topped $100,000. And what did I have to do in return? Write an honest/up front review. After getting asked about a thousand times how I received so much review product, I decided to launch Ramped Reviews, but I needed a platform to accomplish that…so RobbSutton.com was born.

I hope that by now you understand that Robb is an authority in the product review niche. If you haven’t had a chance to check out his websites yet, be sure to do that, and while you’re there, do yourself a favor and pick up  a copy of Ramped Reviews.

I’d like to say thanks to Robb for this interview and thanks to you for reading this.

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