merkal2005: Hi Robert, please introduce yourself to us

Robert Priolo: Hey everyone my name is Robert and I am a blogger at robdogg.com. I picked up blogging as my 2008 new years resolution with the goal in mind to learn and master blogging, social media and to educate others on how to do internet marketing, affiliate marketing and anything else I find of interest.

I am currently a web analyst and PPC campaign strategist at a Search Engine Management Agency in Southern California. Prior to being picked up by this company I was an entrepreneur and small business startup developer. I opened, owned and maintained my own ecommerce website complete with supplier distribution and warehousing. It turned into a rather large operation considering it started from my living room back in 2001.

I have also helped many other brick and mortar business get online and start selling world wide. Most of this success was due to my trial and error experiences with Pay Per Click marketing on Yahoo and Google. I have now been doing this for over 7 years and have mastered the ART of PPC management.


merkal2005: Why do people call you Robdogg?

Robert Priolo: I was given the name Robdogg back in high school. Many students used to refer to each other as dawg. So they would say whats up dawg. Eventually, we started to add our name in front of dawg so we knew who we were talking about. So the names continued such as natedawg, and moedawg. I decided to change my dawg to dogg, similar to snoop dogg since that was much cooler at the time. This so happened to spread like wild fire for me and soon enough, everyone called me Robdogg. Now everyone from teachers, students, friends, family and relatives call me Robdogg. My own parents call me Robdogg and even my 3 year old daughter has utter the words a few times in her life.


merkal2005: When did you start blogging? What is your blog's topic?

Robert Priolo: I attempted to blog a few years back when it first started to penetrate the internet. It was a new concept and I didn't understand it much. I was not sure why people would do it, let alone why anyone would want to know about my life, what I ate this morning and where I was going. So I never really got involved so much. In 2007 it seems to become the talk of the town and I decided as my 2008 new year’s resolution to give it a try. Since I am really good at internet marketing, perhaps I can gain some success as well as a blogger. Plus bloggers seem to be more socially active and better known.

I found bloggers like problogger, shoemoney and even some small time bloggers like Blogging Experiment to be inspiring. Seeing that people can make real incomes from it, I decided I can do it as well, and if I can do it anyone can do, which is basically the blogs topic. Learning How To Rule The World of blogging, internet marketing, making money online and social media.



merkal2005: Tell us about your internet history

Robert Priolo: The Internet? In general? Well I first discovered the internet back in 94 or 95. That was back in the AOL days of paying by hour to surf the next and chat with some person in China for no apparent reason. But it was fun and very interesting to me that we can be everywhere at once but never leave the comfort of your own home. Soon DSL hit the market and people didn't have to pay by the hour anymore, I still remember the day I had my first broadband internet connection. I spent all day on it, downloading, surfing and chatting up a storm because it was FREE!

Then as you may know the more time you spend on the internet the more you start becoming bombarded with ads, spam and make money online advertisements. I too wanted to make money online and I joined all the same scams you guys did. Remember the paid to surf and paid to search programs?

But in the end, those programs never made money and I set out a quest to learn how to really make money on the internet.

If you want the secret to making money online I have discovered that there are only 2 ways to do it.

First is to own your own business selling your own real products. This includes ecommerce retailers, software developers, bloggers, ebayers, and even ebook writers like Perry Marshall. They are all selling a product that directly puts profit in their pocket.

The second way to make money online is to sell one of the above persons products, also known as Affiliate Marketers. These guys are hustlers in the online world creating articles, blogs, buying up PPC media, banner ads and creating highly profitable opt in email lists. There is lots of money to be made in this industry as well, but you have to study it, practice it and fail at it for it to be successful.



merkal2005: What are your 2008 goals? Do you have any suggestions to new bloggers ? Which areas should they focus?

Robert Priolo: My 2008 goal has 2 parts to it. First is to get out there and start blogging. Meet many other bloggers and learn what blogging is all about. The second half is to educate everyone else on how to do what I can do. My blog is about making an online presence and since online is global my motto is How To Rule The World, because that is what you are doing when you decide to take up blogging. You speak to the world and therefore you have to master it.

My suggestion to a new blogger is probably to just start blogging about anything. Pick and subject and just start typing. You never know what you are going to say until your fingers start punching all those buttons. Even with answering all these questions, I did not prefabricate all the answers, I just started typing and more than enough information just seems to come out. Blogging is a great way to clear your mind and get ideas out of your head.

My last suggestion on area of focus is to please... please... please... pick a subject that you know A LOT about. Don't just talk about internet marketing because I can, or because its a hot topic or because its what you want to do. The reason make money online is so flooded is because you want to make money online so the only industry you understand marketing to is make money. But to make it as a blogger, affiliate marketer and entrepreneur is to pick your own path. Learn internet marketing and how to make money online, but don't sell the idea of making money online, sell your knowledge about what you know best.

I ask the same question every time someone asks me what I should do to make money. My answer is...

What is the one topic of discussion, whether it be with friends, family, colleagues, or some random person off the street, that no matter how heated and debated the conversation gets, you will always come out with the correct answer. That is your niche. That is your area of focus, and that is what you should be blogging about. That is how you make money. It might be about shoes, cars, pool sticks, jackets, weaving, weight loss, yoga, internet marketing, blogging, writing, sleeping, eating, making paper airplanes and the list is endless. Talk about what you know BEST!