Massive Online Success in A Variety of Niches, with Sol Orwell, Founder of Examine.com

Jan 28, 2016

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Sol Orwell cofounder of Examine.com they have over 41,000 scientific research references on nutrition and supplemantation. The first two years generated no revenue and he bootstrapped Examine.com from 0 to over $1 million. Examine.com is his 6th entrepreneurial venture. He also founded audienceowl.com.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[0:24] Jeremy’s introduction of Sol Orwell.
[1:04] How Sol started Examine.com because of his own experience.
[2:47] Examine.com is a premium domain name… how did Sol get it?
[5:30] The mindset Sol had to have when the site didn’t gain any revenue for 2 years.
[7:59] How Sol got started in such a huge niche (supplements and nutrition)
[10:33] Points in the journey when Sol considered pulling the plug.
[12:37] How user feedback impacts the design and verbiage of the website.
[15:49] What matters most on a conversion page?
[17:57] The point when Sol recognized the need for a professional copywriter.
[21:10] How Sol determines the price for his products.
[22:37] Why a monthly subscription and how it came about.
[25:22] Sol’s philosophy on life balance and work.
[31:50] Why Sol changed his name and how it came about.
[33:55] How Sol utilizes automation to make his businesses work.
[36:20] Hiring staff while maintaining positive cash flow.
[37:26] The positions where Sol has hired people to replace him.
[38:52] Software used to automate.
[40:05] How Audience Owl came about.
[42:10] The process of creating stellar, useful content.
[45:06] How Sol manages all the writers who work for him.
[47:56] The one article that research proved something very different than Sol.
[48:29] Sol’s first entrepreneurial venture.
[50:13] What “harvested gold” has to do with Sol.
[51:25] Popular directory sites Sol has created.
[53:04] Sol’s first big win and how it came about.
[56:12] Sol’s lowest point and how he pushed through it.
[59:50] Sol’s biggest triumph
[1:01:00] Heroes and mentors Sol admires.
[1:05:40] Sol’s advice about why to pursue business… and it’s not the money.

In this episode…

What do you believe hustle and a willingness to learn can really provide for you? Are there any limits to what you could achieve?

On this episode of Inspired Insider Jeremy is chatting with Sol Orwell. Sol is a truly inspiring example of a guy who’s been working hard to create his own life, according to his terms, since he was very young. His first entrepreneurial venture came at 19 years of age when he started a website focused on web games and he hasn’t looked back since. A handful of failures and a load of successes have proven to Sol that anything he wants to achieve can be achieved with the right kind of hard work and attention to learning the things needed to get it done.

You’ll not only hear Sol’s journey from beginning entrepreneur to skilled businessman and website developer, you’ll also get to hear him share his philosophies on things like site layout, utilizing user feedback, what matters most on conversion pages, determining pricing on products and monthly membership subscriptions, life work balance, and much more. The practical tips he shares on the addition of staff while keeping a positive cash flow are worth the time it will take you to listen to this episode, no doubt.

And be sure to stick around until the end where Jeremy asks Sol to share his lowest point as an entrepreneur - which turns out to be one of the most dreaded things that could happen: A business partner defrauded him. Jeremy and Sol chat about what it takes to push past something like that, and how he thinks about it today. Sol’s journey out of that dark time and into a better place is inspiring. You won’t want to miss it.

As usual, Jeremy’s got a great guest with loads of expertise and a generous heart. Sol unpacks so much on this episode, there’s no way this short post can do it justice. You’ll just have to listen, won’t you?

Resources and People Mentioned on this episode