Interview With John Lee Dumas, Founder and Host of EntrepreneurOnFire.

Are you ready for an "on fire" interview? Today, I am really honored to interview John Lee Dumas, ambitious goal-achiever and the host of widely podcast, Entrepreneur On Fire. 

Entrepreneur On Fire is a daily podcast that interview today's most inspiring and successful Entrepreneur. Most fascinating and ideal thing which I like and impressed me the most is that, It pulled over 250,000 downloads per month and is among the best Podcast on iTunes. Totally CRAZY! right?

Literally, John is an "on fire" podcast king. Started his journey on 12th September, it has gone viral in a very short span of time which turned into a very profitable revenue stream for John.

In this interview, John suggests some spicy and profitable ways by which you could take your blog to the next level. What's more? Read the interview for more saucy and crispy ingredients.

Please tell us little about yourself and how you got into the blogging?

John Lee Dumas, Founder and Host of EntrepreneurOnFire.

I grew up in the state of Maine, went to Providence College in Rhode Island on an ROTC scholarship, and then was commissioned as an Officer in the US Army the day I graduated.

I spent the next 4 years as an active duty officer – including a 13-month tour of duty in Iraq – and then 4 years in the reserves.

After that I moved to Boston to work for John Hancock, and not too long thereafter found myself in New York City. After a bitter cold winter, I decided it was time for some sun, and so I moved to San Diego and started a career in real estate.

Within two years, I was headed back to my home state of Maine to settle down with a career in commercial real estate. But it wasn’t too long before I had my ah-ha moment and started my own business, EntrepreneurOnFire.

I got into blogging about eight months after I launched my podcast. I waited eight months to start the blog because it wasn't until I brought on my full-time content and community manager, Kate Erickson, that we were able to make it happen.

I knew that I was missing out on a huge opportunity to use blogging as another medium to reach an even bigger audience, so it was obvious to me that as soon as I had the resources to create a valuable blog, I would do it. We launched the blog within a month of Kate coming on board.

What triggered you to start a 7-day-a-week podcast?

I saw a wide-open niche and decided to do something about it. I knew that I was wondering why no one had started a 7-day-a-week podcast because that’s what I wanted as a consumer. I would listen to podcasts every day, but with so many weekly podcasts, I ran out of content.

I assumed that if I wanted it, there must be others out there looking for the same thing.

How you have succeed to build up one of the largest and most successful podcasting website, Entrepreneur On Fire? Why did you focus on that niche? 

I knew there was a need for a 7-day-a-week podcast. After realizing that, I knew I had to figure out what it was going to be about.

I wanted to created a podcast that interviewed today’s most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs because I loved hearing about peoples’ journeys to success: how they started, the struggles they encountered, and what they did to turn their idea into success.

I knew that I wanted daily inspiration in my life, and these types of stories were very inspiring for me. That’s why I created EntrepreneurOnFire: to inspire millions.

What challenges you faced during your first podcast and how you tackle the situation? 

Launching was hard. I was scared to launch because I didn’t know if people would listen. I didn't know if people would tune in to hear what I had to share via the podcast.

Luckily, my coach, Jaime Tardy, was there to help guide me. She finally told me that if I didn’t launch, she was going to fire me, so I launched. :) Without her, I probably would have just kept delaying out of fear.

In the year 2013, your net income was about $322,493.49, how you were able to make money online? Any tips for our readers? 

Grow your audience and focus on providing as much free value to them as possible. Don’t focus on monetizing. If you’re able to grow and audience by providing them with free information that they want and need, then the monetization will follow.

That’s the only reason I was able to monetize EntrepreneurOnFire: because I grew a massive audience by providing them a ton of value for free. Then, I was able to go to them and listen to what else they needed. Enter: the products and services that I offer to my audience today.

If you have just $100 then how would you use it to establish a new blog? 

I would invest in tools that would allow me to capture email addresses and start an email list. You can do this with your WordPress site and Mailchimp or AWeber. I would create an insanely valuable optin giveaway so that people would get something of value for free when they sign up for my list.
Then, I would run a targeted Facebook ad where my ideal readers hang out and direct them to my blog. If my content is good on the site, and my optin giveaway is really what they want, then I’ll be well on my way to returning visitors and building an email list.

Then, I would start reaching out to other popular bloggers in my niche and requesting to guest post on their site. That’s free, and leveraging others’ audiences by providing them with free, amazing content is very valuable in growing your own audience.

Can you recommend 5 tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Flare
SEO Yoast
HootSuite
PicMonkey
Disqus

How to get started with Podcasting?

My book, Podcast Launch, is the #1 book in Amazon on Podcasting and it comes with 15 video tutorials. This gives you everything you need and more to start a podcast and it’s only $2.99!
You can also check out our community, PodcastersParadise, where you’ll learn how to Create, Grow and Monetize your podcast.

How the blog readers could get in touch with you?

Twitter: @JohnLeeDumas
Facebook: EntrepreneurOnFire
Website: EntrepreneurOnFire
Blog: EntrepreneurOnFire Blog