APAC Rising: A Conversation with Glenn Wolsey

In Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat (now out in version 3.0) he talks extensively about "the great leveling." Specifically, he writes about how broadband-enabled populations in India, China and elsewhere will make waves here in the US. This is more than just theory. It's reality. All you need to do is look to the emerging voices from Asia Pacific (APAC) and their ability to make money from US advertisers.

Web 2.0 in APAC is rising. A lot of talented, new voices are emerging from the region - and quickly at that. Two of my favorites are Amit Agarwal, a technology analyst from India and author of Digital Inspiration, and Leo Babauta a Guam-based blogger who writes Zen Habits and also contributes to Web Worker Daily. What's notable here is that both are making money from US advertisers. Leo, who has 20,000 RSS subscribers, works with BlogAds and Amit (15,000 daily subscribers) uses Google Adsense.

No one, however, is more impressive than Glenn Wolsey - a 15 year-old from Rotorua, New Zealand who writes one of the single best blogs about the Macintosh as a productivity and photography tool. Glenn, who has 2,000 RSS subscribers, doesn't have the same reach as Leo and Amit. Yet at such a young age and barely blogging a year he is making money from US advertisers and managing it all on his own. (He is getting lots of love from PR pros too!).

I recently interviewed Glenn via email. His story is impressive not only because of how much he was able to accomplish at such a young age, but how he is making money (and working quite hard at it). His story shows how the media landscape is not only flat, but global.

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SR: How many advertisers are you currently working with? Do you handle all the sales/placement yourself or does 9Rules handle it for you?

GW: 9rules doesn't do anything to help with the running of the blog or advertisers. It's simply a network where they list my recent content and allows me to connect with other talented bloggers. I deal with all advertising sales myself, and am currently working with around six different companies/developers on a regular basis.

SR: Where are your advertisers based - US or in NZ or elsewhere? It seems like they are from the US?

GW: Most advertisers are international, a majority coming from the United States.

SR: What - if anything - unique are you doing to maximize their return on their investment?

GW: I've always kept a simple vision when it comes to blogging for maximum output quality for myself and advertisers. Quality content people want to read. I don't try and trick people into reading anything, they read it because they enjoy it. I try to take on board a similar approach with my advertisers, only taking on "quality" advertisers my reader base will be interested in.

SR: How do you maintain a "Chinese Wall" between your editorial and the advertising?

GW: I have a pretty strict policy with sites such as ReviewMe - I don't take any money for actual blog posts, and don't plan to. When a post goes live on my blog about a product, it's because I personally wanted to write about it, not because the company is paying me for it. With the editorial and advertising barrier, if the advertiser comes out with an amazing new product, I may write about it, but it's not something I have to do.

SR: Was the decision to take advertising a difficult one? How did your readers feel about it?

GW: I pretty much started right off the bat from week one with advertisers, so it has been a non-issue. Saying this, I know I could be making a lot more return on the blog than I currently am, but I'm not comfortable turning the blog into an ad haven like the popular John Chow.

SR: Were there any considerations in that you are under 18 as it relates to taking ads? How did your parents feel?

GW: Nothing as such. I've been working in this online field for a while now and my parents have had no problem with what I'm doing. I'm very open with them in taking about my working life. It's a common thing to sit down to dinner each night and give them a brief run down of my day. They've been very supportive with what I do.

SR: How are you able to balance your time between cricket, your girlfriend, your blog, your school work and now video?

GW: It's not an easy thing to do, trust me. For instance yesterday I was out from 7am to 7pm for pre-season cricket training. However I still managed to fit in a "full" working day and get all my appropriate tasks completed. I feel it's all about discipline, and getting the most important tasks out of the way as soon as possible. I've also found in necessary to time block the times of the day I'm most efficient in.

SR: It seems like a lot of blogs from India and APAC are starting to really get legs in the US. Was this always your plan or did the blog sort of take off?

GW: It was always my plan to launch the blog internationally, hence taking a dot com domain name. My blog is actually more targeted at those living in the United States rather than my home country New Zealand due to the huge target market overseas. I've even found myself veering from the New Zealand grammar rules to write for Americans.

SR: Finally, what's next for Glenn Wolsey? Do you plan to turn pro full time or head to college and continue.

GW: I don't even think this is something I can answer. There's so much I've done in my life to date, but also so much I want to do in the future. Surprising to some, I'd love to take on a career as a Wedding/Event photographer, or maybe a tad of photojournalism. The future is wide open for me, and I'll be approaching it with open arms - it's an exciting prospect.

Comments

[David Finch]

Steve, I've been intrigued by the business savvy of Glen Wolsey and the success his blog and video podcast are generating. Thanks for sharing the interview.

[Stephen Davies]

What a level head for such a young guy. Surprising but yet refreshing that he isn't considering a career doing something online.

[Amanda Chapel]

Ah... an attraction to 15-year-old boys. Who could not have predicted that.

- Amanda

[Mike Abundo]

Don't forget us Filipinos. We're working to take over the blogosphere. ;)

[Jeff]

I've been reading Glenn's blog for some time but never realized he was so young. This just shows that it sure doesn't matter.

I wonder if Latin America is an underestimated market for U.S. advertisers. My blog has almost as many Argentine readers as those whose native language is English (but that's partly because of the subject). People in Latin America will easily read blogs in English if the content is interesting and there's a number of bloggers in Latin America writing in English, not to mention the tremendous amount of Spanish language blogs and the number of Spanish readers in the U.S.

[David Scott Lewis (Startech Global Corporation, Tsinghua University)]

One question, Steve: How much do you think Glenn, Amit and Leo are making from their blogs?

Also, it's interesting to note that none of three blogs focuses on where they're from. In other words, they don't necessarily focus on New Zealand, Guam or India, although Amit's does seem to have a bit of an Indian slant to it. (I did a cursory overview of his blog, so I'm not sure if this is an accurate statement.)

In many ways, this is another form of outsourcing and offshoring -- and I expect we'll see a lot more of this.

I dealt with many of these basic issues way, way back in 1994; I'll zap to you a copy of The Los Angeles Times feature story on my e-newsletter. In all honesty (as the Times feature points out in perspective), it was the first time an Internet-based publication entertained the notion of advertising, prior to Wired, prior to anything noted in print. But now that I've been living in China for nearly four years, the whole idea takes a different spin.

My point: A lot of us living overseas might be in a much better position to produce profitable blogs. Let me rephrase: The profits might be the same, but they can be a living in the Philippines, but not enough to pay parking tickets in San Francisco.

I write the "Letter from China" column for both the AlwaysOn Network and Sand Hill Group. I've been doing this for Tony at AO for a few years. My combined traffic is pretty good, but I have the implicit backing of AO and the Sand Hill Group, i.e., a built-in readership. This helps a lot. But if I had the same numbers and did it privately, it would be a decent living in China ... although still chump change compared to just about any tech job in Silicon Valley.

Anyway, expect to see this as an emerging trend. And my bet isn't on APAC per se, but on blogs written from developing countries where the blog is not just a labor of love, but a way to make a living.

[David Scott Lewis (Startech Global Corporation, Tsinghua University)]

Your readers can read the L.A. Times feature on the earliest days of Internet advertising foibles at: http://doiop.com/InternetAdvertising.

In retrospect, I should have dumped Cellsys and focused full-time on HOTT.

[Niles]

Seems ironic this was published (and widely circulated) just a few days before Mr. Wolsey's website was defaced by a 'hacker.' Despite initially implicating his hosting company (Media Temple) & wordpress (the open-source blogging software his site uses), Mr. Wolsey came clean and admitted that he was part of an elaborate marketing fraud.

http://www.glennwolsey.com/2007/11/28/what-really-happened-sincere-apologies

Note that he was not the only person involved, but was the last to admit the ethically-grey hoax.

Sorry, but I'd say that his marketing skills are about in line with my expectations of a 15 year-old, male, high-school student. I think I'll stick with university grads for the time being.