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Jan 21
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Webmaster Interview – Max Bartolo – MaltaCarMarket.com
Post a Comment January 21, 2010 – 6:13 pm | Permalink | |
First of all would be please state your name and role at your site?
My name is Max Bartolo. I am an Engineering student from Malta, Europe (tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean). During my first year at University, I had a module in programming in C (got an A just in case anyone’s curious). I had no previous programming knowledge but went on to teach myself Html, CSS, Javascript, PHP, MySQL and Java. Obviously not to the same level but a respectable level nonetheless. I am the developer, designer, programmer, SEO manager, etc at my site.

Which site is your highest earner and how do you make money from it?
MaltaCarMarket.com is my highest earner and the first website I developed. I make money by selling advertising space to local businesses as well as through Google Adsense.
 

What was the hardest thing that you’ve done in your online business?

The hardest thing is definitely trying to find a balance between work on my personal websites, designing sites for other people, my studies, my girlfriend, my family and playing football. That’s quite a few things but I seem to manage somehow.
 

What was the biggest pay-day you ever got?

The most I’ve made in one day was about a month ago when I secured two local advertising deals and also received my Google Adwords cheque that day. That’s a total of approximately 700 euro which isn’t half bad for a student.

What inspires you?

Seeing my websites grow steadily in popularity every single day.  I am mostly inspired by my own success rather than other people although there are a few personalities I do look to for inspiration, mainly those who have started from nowhere and managed to establish themselves highly on the social ladder.
 

In this time of recession how do you still manage to make money online?

The recession has hit Malta hard. I believe that this is a time of opportunity. This is the time to work hard and create a succesful venture because once things pick up a bit, business, and lots of it, will automatically flow towards those who have managed to make an impact during times of hardship.
 

There are way too many ways to make money online, which one do you choose? (PPC/PPV/CPA..etc)

I choose PPC as I find it easy to set up and it provides more than satisfactory financial results.  
How many sites do you own and how many of them are already popular?

 

I own quite a few domain names, which I am looking to develop. I also own five websites which I have already developed, all of which are already quite popular.
 

Would you care to list top 3 sites that you would like to mention to my readers?

SciCalculator.com – This is a javascript scientific calculator I coded just because I constantly needed one for my studies and didn’t carry mine around everywhere I went. There was nothing available on the internet which worked using the same type of input system as my calculator so I made my own.
MaltaCarMarket.com – This was my first website. I decided to create it because I had difficulties when I came to buy my own car. I wanted to create an online marketplace where buyers and sellers could meet. It has been open less than a year and has been such a success that two of Malta’s leading companies have teamed up to set up a competing site. They have thousands of euros worth of advertisements all over the island, nothing I could possibly compete with financially. So far, however, MaltaCarMarket.com has withstood the competition and is still growing.
SayItMalta.com – A friend of mine owns a small printing company and, after seeing MaltaCarMarket.com do so well, asked me for ideas to reach a wider audience on a small budget. I offered to set up a website for him on a sales commission basis. SayItMalta.com has also been quite a success and is generating a decent source of income, both for him and myself. (P.S. Should you wish to order something from this site and would like it shipped out of Malta, just send an e-mail requesting shipping costs to the address on the site.)
Do you have any future projects coming up that we should look out for?
I have so many ideas for domains I am still looking to develop that I seriously have no idea which one I’m going to work on first. In fact, I am currently busy search optimizing MaltaCarMarket.com (something I knew very little about last year) and adding new features to SayItMalta.co so, just for now, new developments are temporarily on hold.

Got any tips for our readers?
1) About domain name purchasing: Before you buy a dn, ask yourself what you could develop it into. If you get a good idea, the likelihood is that other people will too and will want to purchase it. If not, you could always develop it yourself. If no one wants to buy it and you can’t develop it, then that’s a waste of money.
2) About website design: After designing a website, look at it again as a customer. Does it appeal to you? Show it to friends and family and be open to constructive criticism.
3) In general: Always strive to do your best. Come up with a good idea (preferably related to something you have a personal interest in), stick with it and work hard. It is much better to create one high-quality website than 10 mediocre ones. So is there money to be made online? Definitely, but don’t be fooled, it requires a lot of hard work!


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