Interview With Dominik Mazur - Founder Of StateUniversity.com

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Dominik Mazur
Dominik is founder of Net Industries, LLC., an Illinois company focused primarily on creating informative websites and a popular site search engine, Jrank.org Dominik, who is 27 years old, wouldn’t reveal the exact amount of profit or revenue his websites generate, but based on the analysis of the information he did provide and the fact that we independently verified that his portfolio of over 20 fully developed sites receives over 5.5 million unique visitors monthly, we estimate his net worth at 12 – 13 Million dollars making him a newcomer to our Top 50 Young Entrepreneurs Under 30 list for 2009 which will be published later this year. What is amazing is that his company never had any funding or outside investment. Besides work, he enjoys travel, working out, driving his Lamborghini, and hanging out with his friends.

First off - can we have a little background information on you Dominik - Where you live? What motivates you? What inspires you?

I currently reside in Flossmoor, IL. I’m originally from Poland and immigrated with my family when I was 12 years old. I attended college at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and majored in computer science and mathematics. A lot of things motivate me: at first I was extremely motivated in order to be able to work for myself full-time without anybody looking over my shoulder. I say this because when I held a university paid computer job (at U of I Extension), I always hated when my boss would look over my shoulder to see what’s on my screen and what I’m currently working on. While still being there, I promised myself that I would quit that position and work full-time on my business as soon as I was making twice as much from my websites as compared to that job. Since I was only being paid $8.50 per hour there, I was able to do so before finishing a full year in the office. Telling the boss that I was quitting and walking out of the building felt really good!

1) Tell us about your main project, State University ? Why did you launch State University ? Where are you at now with State University ?

Several years ago I became interested in the domain name investment industry – buying and selling domains perceived as valuable. During that time, one of the domain names I purchased was StateUniversity.com It was a decent buy because few months after I purchased it, people were willing to buy it from me for twice the price that I’ve originally paid for it. I was already skilled at SEO and building profitable web properties, so I was debating whether I should take the quick money and sell the domain or develop it into a fully functional website, so I consulted a message board for domainers and most people there told me not to sell but develop, so that’s what I did. It was great advice and decision to develop the domain into a university directory. Currently StateUniversity.com’s online university directory features detailed profiles of over 6,000 colleges and universities in the United States. It also has a very popular section dedicated to careers where it lists hundreds of job profiles. State University also features advanced college ranking lists which recently received a lot of media attention. Our goal with the site is to offer a resource with the most comprehensive information anywhere for future college students. We want potential students to be able to compare colleges on various criteria, receive all the relevant information about the institution, and be able to request more information from the school itself directly from the site. We currently receive more than 1.4 million monthly visitors, and hope to grow this number to 2 million by the end of 2009.

2) What advice would you give a young entrepreneur trying to make money online?

I think the best advice I can give a young entrepreneur trying to make money online is to read some good books about the subject. You should be able to buy some books about the subject, and if you can’t definitely don’t quit your current job if you can’t afford to buy a few $15 dollar books. Just go to Amazon.com and search for “make money online” then buy books that have a rating of at least 3 stars and the rating is based on at least 20 reviews. (If you want to save money, you could try to locate those books in your local library) I would recommend a book titled: Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen. This book was the driving force behind the way I structured my business and is highly recommended even though it doesn’t particularly deal much with the Internet, because it will teach you about true wealth creation. In the book the author outlines key methods behind generating multiple sources of income. I like the analogy he uses and I still recall it many years after reading the book. He makes you think of the amount of money you have as the amount of water in a body of water, and income as little streams that fill this pool of water. Based on this comparison it’s easy to see that the more incoming streams you have, the faster your body of water (your net worth) will fill up. I personally like to think of it as a large bathtub with multiple water faucets. If you create a source of nonstop income (ex. active and profitable website), that’s like having a running water faucet. Think about how much faster you’ll fill up the bathtub (your bank account) if instead of having just one running faucet, you had 2, 3, or 20 faucets that are constantly running and pouring water ($$)? And it doesn’t matter if some of those faucets are just slowly dripping water, over time those drops (pennies) will add up faster than you think. But at the same time you also have to limit your expenses and unnecessary spending, because each of those is a hole in your pool of wealth so you should work on making those holes as small as possible or plugging them up completely. A young Internet entrepreneur might also want to read Multiple Streams of Internet Income written by the same author as this deals more with Internet, but this book received less praise than his original work. Another great book is The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. It will probably change how you currently visualize a prototypical American millionaire.

Some people think it’s best to learn as much as possible about the Internet business before starting, where others think it’s best to jump in and get your feet wet. I personally believe that learning and action are to be constantly combined and that one suffers without the other. Without some sort of fundamental knowledge, you will not be able to take wise actions, but taking action whether it turned out the way you hoped for or not is also your most valuable learning experience, so the trick is to find the balance between doing and learning and keep repeating the cycle.

3) You run a successful Search Engine service for webmasters called JRank , why is it important to offer search for your website or blog?

Most Internet users are strapped for time. You may know your website intimately yourself and may think it’s easy to navigate and simple to find whatever you’re looking for on it, but most of your visitors, especially first-time visitors will have trouble locating the page or article that they’re looking for. Therefore, I think that every website which is composed of more than 20 unique pages should offer a search option. We have developed the Jrank.org site search engine in order to fulfill that need and we give away the service for free even though it took years to develop. We use the technology ourselves on all of our sites so it’s developed to be easy to use and setup and in order to offer very accurate search results. Almost every Internet user is familiar and comfortable with using search due to the popularity of major search engines, so they’ll have no trouble using a search box located on your website or blog. Just make sure the search box is located in the same location on every page of your site (like the upper right corner)

4) You are currently running over 20 high traffic websites, how do you find running so many websites at one time? I have always been a follower of "He who begins many things finishes but few", why have you decided to run so many sites and what have the benefits and drawbacks been?

I agree with you that in business it’s best to focus and do one thing extremely well and that multitasking is sometimes not the best idea and that very few people are able to pull it off. But even though my company runs over a dozen websites, it doesn’t mean that I launched them all at once and that they all require a lot of time to manage. Actually the opposite is true, some of my sites take hardly any time to manage - a few take less than an hour of work each month after being created. The reason behind me wanting to run more than a couple of sites goes back to trying to create multiple revenue streams which I discussed above in the “advice for a young entrepreneur” question. I’m not saying this type of model is good for everyone, and most would be better off on focusing on just one or two websites especially if they’re the type of sites that require frequent updates or where the content becomes outdated rather fast. Most of my company’s sites that require very little work are pure information sites composed of subject matters that stay constant. This is definitely not something you can accomplish if you’re running any kind of blog, since blogs by definition need frequent updates or any site where you need to deliver fresh news. The most obvious benefit with running multiple sites that require little upkeep is that after I finish a site, I can move on to the next one and the first one will hopefully keep generating revenue for years to come. Also if you have a network of sites, you can link some of them together if they’re somewhat related and increase your popularity in search engines without relying for help from other webmasters – but this doesn’t work as well as it used to years ago, and everyone should be careful to avoid excessive interlinking of their sites. Lastly, if you have many ideas running in your head, putting up multiple sites allows you to test those ideas, but it’s always wise to focus most of your time on the site that proved it can generate traffic. The main drawback is that informational type websites are usually not very profitable and even if you’re skilled in search engine optimization, you will need thousands of ad-supported articles before seeing significant revenue and you might need to wait a long time before profits adds up. Also don’t attempt to simultaneously run multiple sites if you can’t multitask – in those cases multitasking is multistupid! I still agree that doing one thing well is the best way to go, but don’t be afraid to switch to something else if your website is not gaining traction for a long time.

5) Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

I believe certain character traits and personality types make better entrepreneurs – such as risk-takers, people with self-control, people with self-confidence, leaders, somewhat aggressive individuals possessing conceptual abilities, being realistic, being motivated, people that welcome change, work hard, and don’t accept failure among others. Seems to me that such behaviors are often in the individual’s blood but can also be learned to an extent, so I think that having entrepreneurial characteristics to begin with (in your blood) helps greatly, but most aspects can also be learned if the person is willing to embrace changing how they think. Entrepreneurs in general have a considerable amount of self-control and can handle and even thrive under business pressures. They are comfortable in stressful situations and are challenged rather than discouraged by failures or setbacks.

6) Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

I admire the founders of Google and founders of many other successful companies, but I especially admire entrepreneurs who were able to build their business organically, without VC money, large angel investments or any other outside investment. Most of those type of companies by definition will not be public and therefore not well known, but when your own profits are used for further business development, I feel like no shortcuts were taken and you didn’t beat competitors simply because you were able to outspend them. My older brother also runs a successful web business with no outside funding so it’s fun to see his progress and compare some of the challenges that we face.

7) Do you have any favorite business related or entrepreneur related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

I have named a few in the questions above, but since I’m a firm believer in always expanding your knowledge by reading more books, here are 10 more great ones that I’ve read and highly recommend:

- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins

- Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires by Scott Fox

- Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords: How to Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd

- How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown

- Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi by Howard Gardner

- High Tech Start Up, Revised and Updated: The Complete Handbook for Creating Successful New High Tech Companies by John L. Nesheim

- Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich by Rosalind Gardner

- Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

- Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra

- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwel

8) Dominik, what is the best advice you have ever been given?

Hmm, probably focus only on things that you do very well and if you know someone that can do something better for a good price, have them do it instead. But the negative advice I’ve been given actually motivates me more than the positive. People will sometimes advise you not to do this or that or that you’ll never achieve this or that, but if you strongly feel that your idea can be executed successfully, there’s nothing wrong with going with your gut and proving them wrong. For example, I’ve been told by several people that I’ll never own a Lamborghini, but I purchased one when I was 26 years old. So just understand that nobody knows your potential as well you do yourself.

9) What advice would you give to a Young Entrepreneur setting up their first business?

I know many young entrepreneurs want to grow big businesses from the very start, but I think it’s a huge success if you can create a business that just supplements your income. Start with smaller goals and set bigger ones only after you achieve the small ones. You’ll gain more confidence and experience with each small goal you reach. For example if you’re starting a website, don’t try to be the next Facebook or Youtube, set a reasonable goal like creating a website that makes $10 profit per day. If you’re able to reach that, set another larger goal like increasing that to $100 per day. If you’re able to work on something you love each day, that’s a huge accomplishment even if it’s not currently making your rich. Also one of the best ways to learn new skills is to read and participate in forums and blogs where people discuss your area of interest. So if for example you want to learn affiliate marketing, join forums where users discuss affiliate marketing and feel free to ask questions, people are there to answer your questions so don’t be afraid to ask or seek advice – sounds simple, but many young entrepreneurs are afraid to sound like a newbie. Sooner or later you will have to risk your own money on an idea, on advertising, or to cover costs of running a website. If you’re deadly afraid of losing money if your project doesn’t turn profitable, this whole business thing might not be right for you. And probably the most important advice is that you should not spend all your profits! You need to reinvest those profits back into your business if you ever hope for your business to stick around and grow. Finally, as you start to grow, surround yourself with the best talent possible. Don’t hire people just because they’re your friends and they’re looking for a job. It seems like a nice thing to do, but can cause your business to fail. Think of employees as the life blood of your business and as an investment – the best teams create the best businesses and it helps if you get along well and share the same vision for your company. Personally I was lucky to work with a tech savy coworker, Brad Folkens, from almost the very start who has been nothing short of brilliant. He probably deserves more credit than I do for where we are today. We recently started expanding our team of full-time employees, but always had independent contractors helping with various projects in the past.

10) How many hours do you work daily and what are your daily tasks for your sites?

I used to work 9 – 11 hours per day initially but currently work only 6 - 8 hours per day with little work on the weekends. Daily tasks vary widely but usually involve answering emails, project planning, exchanging ideas with my co-workers, finding new places to advertise, accounting, analyzing traffic statistics, developing new relationships with potential partners, managing current projects, answering questions my co-workers have etc.

11) If the Internet had not existed - what do you think you would be doing?

Probably something still with computers (hopefully they would still exist) like creating video games. Otherwise I might be a math teacher or something to do with psychology, science, cars, or robotics.

12) What do you like best about the Internet?

Quick access to information and being able to shop without leaving the house.

13) What do you like least about the Internet?

People that say hateful things on message boards and other places, because they can hide behind their screen and think they can say anything they want because of being anonymous.

14) Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

If I sell a sizable chunk of my business for a good price, I would like to take a full year off work and just travel!

You can contact Dominik Mazur by emailing him: dominikm (at) gmail dot com Please mention that you have found his email from this interview.

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