Today I am very excited to present an interview with Matthew Singleton the man behind SocialElite & IMN. I would like to thank Matthew for taking time out of his busy routine for this interview.
1. Hi Matthew, it is really great to have you as a guest, can you pls introduce yourself in case some of my readers don’t know you?
Hey! So I’m Matt, I run SocialElite which is an influencer network, we focus on connecting e-com store owners with influencers on a commission basis meaning merchants only pay when sales are made. We also just launched a brand-new site called IMN which is kinda like a news site for the influencer industry, we cover news and updates from top recognised influencer agencies around the world along with weekly influencer tips & tricks.
2. How long have you been working online, and how did you get involved?
My background from school has been marketing & design but I first got into the affiliate industry when I saw a Facebook Ad “how to get shredded muscles in just a few weeks for only $5”. I was interested to see how this company made any money. I spent a little time looking into how the offer was set up and 1 month later launched my own diet & muscle offers
3. IMN Looks an amazing blog, What’s the story behind it and why did you start it?
I felt the influencer industry needed something fresh and a place for everyone to go to get industry news, we’ve built up a strong community with our private influencer FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/GRAMFLUENCERS/ there’s a huge amount of collaboration deals being put together in our group which has been a real success for both influencers and store owners. Our news site is growing rapidly, and we’re being recognised as an industry leader for influencer marketing news.
4. I read almost all your articles and one thing I see about you is that you always put in a lot of effort to make your project a success, what is your motivation for this?
We want to provide our readers with the best of the best, we focused heavily on finding the right content writers to produce interesting reads that give actual value.
5. When you just started online there are a lot of pitfalls you face, how are you able to overcome these pitfalls?
This is kinda broad because when I started out I was an advertiser and now I’ve moved into running an influencer network, there’s always problems and pitfalls on a daily basis, I stay positive, negative thought only produce negative outcomes, our team is really solid too so it’s more of a joint effort when we are problem solving.
6. It is great to see IMN growing, what is your traffic generation strategy?
Besides some focus on SEO, building our FB community group and adding some cool features on the sites we’re just focusing more on the content and building up a loyal fan base that like reading our articles. We have a couple of PPC campaigns running but we get a lot of return readers just to see what the latest news is.
7. Are you monetising IMN? If so what’s your best monetisation method?
We charge companies to advertise with us for banner placements but it’s more of a hobby for me. If companies want to advertise, we will let them but I’m not actively pursuing advertisers.
8. What is your best way to make money blogging and do you think it can work for everybody?
The first ever blog I created was about sex toys, specifically, penis pumps haha. I was 19 yrs, old and that blog was pulling me around $2,000 per day. I forgot to put an R18 disclaimer on so after around 8 months of good money google took down my site. Blogs are a very good way of making money, if that’s selling ad space on the blog or for driving traffic to specific products, find a niche or something you’re passionate about and just go for it! Blogs do take time, but persistence is key.
9. IMN is really a great site, do you think any new blog can be as successful as IMN or would one need a great skill to build a great type of blog?
No ours is the best! haha..
10. Who is your fravorite blogger online? Which book inspires you most?
I like Charles Ngo, FB Queen, KJ Rocker of course! Rich Dad Poor Dad / 4 Hour Workweek / Think And Grow Rich – these are my favourite books
11. My readers want to learn more from you, can you pls tell us about your websites and products?
www.socialelite.com – this is our influencer network www.influencemarketingnews.com – This is our brand new site for industry news for influencers and e-com store owners
