Interview with Michael Dunlop – Retire at 21

This is our fourth edition of “What separate the men from the boys?” where each week we will feature one prominent blogger who has inspired us in one way or another.

Dyslexic he might be but Michael is one young entrepreneurs with a dream of retiring at 21.

He has successfully conducted many inspiring interviews with the cream of the crop in the blogosphere such as Darren Rowse, Matt Mullenweg, Yaro Starak and many more. His flagship site, RetireAt21.com is hugely popular with the young and old alike.

1. We know nothing about you. Give us some interesting and completely unheard facts that make you a great blogger.

I am a young, dyslexic college dropout from England whose dream is to be financially free to do anything I want by the age of 21 (only one year left). I like to make sure I personally help every reader, I hate some of the so called “Gurus” who over value and under deliver.

I have a very big following in France, Brazil and Africa which is unusual for an English blogger, or any blogger at that. At my Prom I won the prize for most likely person to be a millionaire and was awarded with a toy cash machine.

2. When & what compelled you to start blogging?

When I was 15 years old I started my first website for a young business competition here in England and won first prize. I then went on to work on a few other websites, after 1000’s of hours of hard work and a lot of disappointments I decided that I wanted the easy life. Which meant:

- A couple hours a day work max, everything must be on auto pilot if It had to be. I love the feeling that I don’t have to turn up to work for months on end yet I will still earn more money then my friends.

- Passive income, I wanted to wake up every morning and accept payments and then go back to sleep if I wanted.

- Work with really cool people! I have been able to interview some super cool people including Matthew Mullenwag founder of WordPress, Tony the CEO of Zappos and Cameron Johnson author of You Call The Shots.

- Do what I want, when I want! I use to hate missing out on things in my teens because I either was gaming or working online.

3. How has blogging changed your life?

When I first started running a internet business I said I wanted to make millions of dollars every year but now I would prefer to work a couple hours a day and be paid for a full days work. It has allowed me to work when, where and how I want every day of the year. I found the value of time and health and wouldn’t trade it for money.

4. To what do you attribute your blog success?

My passion for helping entrepreneurs young and old to be a success online, I respond to every email and forum post making sure I give my readers the personal help they sometimes need. I think with out passion you can’t provide the value and service your readers need and deserve.

5. If you could give one sentence of advice to blogger, what would that be?

Have the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it.

6. What is one biggest blogging mistake you’ve done and in similar situation, how would you do differently today?

I use to spend a lot of time with people who would hold me back from being as successful as I could be. I recommend you surround yourself with other like minded people who you can benefit from being around. I recommend you go to Seminars, meet-ups and network as often as you can, weather it is online or offline.

If your friends are holding you back and are a negative influence on you, then they aren’t the type of friends you want, it may hurt saying bye to them but you will be happy you did in the future.

7. What’s the best way for a blogger to make money, in your professional opinion?

I like to have to do very little work, I enjoy seeing pay cheques come in, month after month. I am a huge fan of affiliate products, I recommend you have a page on your website for your niche, which works as a comparison chart and you pack it with affiliate products.

You compare prices and ratings for your niche, for example I do this with hosting and domains on my Create a website page and show my reader what is the best value. It also gives the reader a feeling they made the choice and I didn’t make them buy it like so many other so called gurus do because they say it works…

8. Where do you think the blogosphere is headed over the next few years?

I think in the near future that instead of having a Facebook or a Myspace, it will be cool to have your own blog. Apart from that I think it will stay pretty much the same, why change a winning formula?

9. If you could write a guest post for any blog but were only allowed to write one guest post in your entire life, which blog would you write for and why?

Probably John Chow, now you are probably thinking, yeah I heard that like a million times but hear me out for a second. Have you ever looked at all the people who comment his posts day after day? They still are stuck in the millions of Alexa and haven’t shown any value, I would love to give them the ‘kick up the ass’ they need and to start making money online that John should be giving them.

10. Lastly, tell us one goal in life that you haven’t accomplished yet but are still determined to reach.

To Retire at 21 ;-)

11. Any other insight or thoughts, you’d like to share?

Just go do it, I will guarantee you that 99% of people who read my interviews is really motivated and pumped to go create their own internet business but so many of them just don’t take action. They say day after day that they will start tomorrow and never get round to it.

Stop procrastinating and get it done!

Thanks, Michael. Let’s kick some ass.

Oh by the way, how did it feel answering those questions while flying over the north atlantic ocean on your way to Washington DC to Yanik Silver’s Internet Marketing Seminar?

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