Hello,
Today I have another interview for you, what else would you expect on a Saturday?! This interview is with John Meloche. I shall let John explain to you what he does!

Hello John,
Thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Firstly, could you please tell us who you are?

I specialize in websites, marketing and branding consultancy. I also do custom application and software development. From my office in Toronto Canada, I design and market highly-effective websites and marketing strategies both online and offline for corporate and business clients all over the world. I currently full owner of 3 registered incorporated companies and partner of 2 other incorporated companies. My title as I like to be referred in most of my business with any of these is “Vice President of Marketing” as typically I am the point man for the companies I work with for all marketing strategies and campaigns of building business. I have been at it since 1995, when Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear. My clients have been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, The Toronto Sun, and People magazine, Playboy Online, Up-Close Magazine, Home & Garden Television, Culinary Thymes, ABC News, The Salt Lake Tribune, Houston 11, The Washington Post, The Honolulu Star & more. My motto is “You cannot imitate what everyone else is doing and stand head and shoulders above the competition at the same time. The timid shall remain forever invisible. You must look at the competition to see what they’re not doing, instead of emulating what they do.” www.johnmeloche.com

How did you start your career? Who was your inspiration?

I have been in business since January 26th, 1995 marketing, design, copywriting and business consulting. I developed my first website in 1995. I had an entire portfolio of clients built only in GeoCities by 1997. For those who remember who GeoCities is… we probably have a few things in common such as our hatred now for GeoCities. Lol…

Did you believe you would be as successful as you are now? What were your goals to begin with?

I didn’t actually start taking my business too seriously until I started making money with it. It was only a hobby, something to make my own little projects. Up until that time I used to do everything in my power to do and get everything for free hoping the next free job I do will lead to bigger and better things. Unfortunately free work never pays off. What I learned is that “barter” does. I started hosting my websites with someone I met on the internet through Yahoo chat room and I started working with him on his own website www.rebelnetworks.com. I made a few friends www.ebuddy.com and www.iloveim.com along with a few other successful website owners used every resource available to me to promote myself and my services while at the same time gaining excellent experience. If I had to choose an inspiration for what I do, I would have to say “Benjamin Franklin”. I mean the guy has his face on money! Lol… But really, I would say my inspiration would be my good friend Jason Liddard who pushed me to stop working as an electricians apprentice and pursue what I am very good at in business and marketing. My goal has always been to be the most successful person I can be. To provide myself with the lifestyle that I never knew as a kid.

At any point in your career, have you thought yourself or your company as a “failure” or had any major problems? If so how did you manage to get through this and what did you learn?

I can’t say I ever considered myself or my company a failure. I mean I am still in business and the word failure would describe an ultimate ending no? I can tell you about situations that made me think I was going to fail. Back in 1998 when I had a flourishing cache of website clients hosted on my first dedicated server I believe I was safe. Things were going great and I was gaining more clients every week. By that time I had designed about 50 websites and been paid for them accordingly. Mid December 1998 my hard-drive on my server failed. This caused me to lose everything on my server. Having the experience I do now; I have all kinds of processes in place to ensure I never go through that again. The damage of all my projects being lost, clients losing their online businesses, it was the worst thing that could ever happen to me. I almost gave up the industry all together. However I realized that because of my lack of education in the industry and the fact that most of what I did was self taught, It was only my own fault for not educating myself properly how to do what I do the best i can do. I started making calls to all my clients explaining to them what the real problem was and that i wanted a chance to earn their business again with my new found understanding. Some went with me, some didn’t, but the experience itself was a very trying time for me. I would love to say that is the only time I have ever messed up, but in my industry it is bound to happen. Trials and tribulations are an everyday thing in the life of an entrepreneur. That which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

How did/do you go about promoting your websites?

Well… back in the day I would just barter with a website owner to post some ads for me on their websites. But then I got smart and started to use my abilities to create my own traffic friendly websites and back in the day when I had www.johnmeloche.com used for all sorts of silly comics a fan club and games that brought visitors every day! I would use those resources. Now, things have changed, I am much more experienced and can use the resources that make more sense. Targeted and relevant website traffic. I started to play with Yahoo Search Marketing and Google Adwords. Although Yahoo flat out sucked. Google made me some money. I would choose only the best words, not so much a range. But I learned that it’s good to have the most key words possible. As I advanced in my experience, now I generate Organic traffic by search engine optimizing my websites. This has proven to be the most cost effective way of attaining traffic. I do however still use Google Adwords to promote some marketing campaigns; it is no longer primary source of my traffic. Now I promote most of my websites and marketing campaigns through many avenues. I do trade-shows, mailout campaigns, telemarketing, search marketing and I also do occasional advertisements directly within a relevant website.

Do you ever find that with all of your websites, you run out of time and are not able to provide for them and your other commitments as much as you should?

There is never enough time in the day for an entrepreneur. I only recently hired an assistant to work with me to help me accomplish not designing websites, but managing the projects. Now I don’t really get my hands dirty anymore. My experience now is typically best spent directing others. Making adjustments and changes is better to be done by those who are focus only on that. I work now with so many companies unrelated to websites design that i now have a staff of programmers and designers who work on my projects under my direction.

Have you any advice to give to those currently in the position you were in?

Focus on diversification and think about the big scheme of things. That which you believe the best way to be is not always that way. Think about the visitor experience. How will your visitors interpret your content? Will it be relevant? You can send 1,000,000 people to your website that sells gold rings. But if someone’s looking to adopt a pet, it’s unlikely they will buy a ring. By diversification, I mean learn a little about everything. If you do html, learn JavaScript. If you do JavaScript learn PHP, if you learn PHP learn Ajax and MYSQL, how servers work and so much so you always see the big picture!

Do you have any plans for the future?

Years ago I would have told you I wanted to retire at 21, but now I am having so much fun. My immediate goals are to continue to build on my businesses and do even more! Eventually, I want to have everything I ever dreamed of having. One day…

Thank you John, and happy birthday for the 26th!

So what do you think of that? Do you have any questions for John?

I hope you liked this interview, I know I did!

Shane