Chase Granberry founded an SEO software company, AuthorityLabs, in 2009 and has grown it to 4 full-time employees and profitable, all bootstrapped within a year and a half. He hasn’t had a real history of making money online until recently, but it’s working for him with big things coming for 2011. He got his start online doing sales for an ad network in 2007 and hasn’t stopped since.
Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been making money online?
I’m 28, born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. I went to college in Texas at TCU but then moved back to Phoenix because it’s pretty hard to beat. I’ve always been into the Internet. My friends call me Nerdberry (my last name is Granberry), but I don’t program at all. I’m just really fascinated with the potential of the internet, specifically relating to advertising and media. I think the more relevant advertising can be the better off both parties are, the consumer and the advertiser. That’s a fine line to walk, but I think it can be done. After college I tried to get a job at TiVo, but they couldn’t see my potential .gif){kind=icon}
I started AuthorityLabs after working for an online ad network startup here in Phoenix. I learned more there than anywhere. I wanted to get sales experience, so that’s what I did for them. That’s really when I got my feet wet with how online advertising really works.
Do you have any experience with affiliate marketing? If so, to what extent?
I don’t actually have any experience with affiliate marketing other than being on the advertiser end of it. We have our own affiliate program independent of any affiliate network. I think you all call those “indy” programs. We played with a program on Pepperjam but it was too difficult to really give our affiliates insight into our signup process. It was also really difficult to do recurring payouts with them, so we ended up building our own. It’s a lot easier to establish good long-term relationships with what we’re doing now vs. with someone in the middle, and it’s working pretty well. We have people earning thousands a month, every month.
What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
I think bootstrapping AuthorityLabs has been the thing I’m most proud of. We haven’t taken any funding and we’re a profitable, growing, SEO software company. It’s difficult to be successful with software, and a LOT of people fail at it, so I’m pretty happy with where we’re at currently, and really excited for 2011.
How did you become successful? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in the Internet? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I’ve always wanted to do my own thing and run my own company. The thought of relying on one entity for a paycheck always scared me, whether that be a company I work for or one big customer. Success has come for me, mostly from focus I think. As with most internet people, I have a ton of ideas and am always reminding myself to stay focused, which really is a challenge. AuthorityLabs was a side project for about six months before I jumped ship and really committed to it. When I did though, I worked my ass off and it started working. Once I found what worked for me I kept doing that and it’s got us where we are today. We haven’t hit it “big time” yet, but nothing’s successful overnight. The stories that come off that way never are, just about always, there’s years of preparation that leads up to that. What’s that quote? … “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” It’s completely true.
What do you think it takes to be successful?
Focus. Determination. Being open to new ideas. Wanting to always try new things. Being able to understand that change is always good. To name just a few .gif){kind=icon}
What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
I think I fail every day, at least once a day. But I try and learn from those mistakes. The key is recognizing failure quickly, and changing what you need to change. Hopefully recognizing those little failures helps keep me away from huge ones.
What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
I think deciding whether to go full-time on AuthorityLabs was a tough decision. There was a lot that went into it, and with any big risk you should carefully weigh the consequences of that decision. Ultimately I realized that if I didn’t at least try, I’d always regret it. I think most problems eventually work themselves out if you’re always working on them. If you’re chipping at a big rock, every once in a while you’re chip off a huge chunk, and sooner than later, not have any rock left to chip at. That is until the next one you run into.
Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I hate bookkeeping, with a passion. I love going through all the numbers after things are prepped, but I hate actually doing that. I also hate writing. But I’ve learned that you should do what you’re really good at and let others do what they’re good at, but when you don’t have a whole lot to work with sometimes you have to do it all. If you work your ass of though, eventually you can whiddle it down to what you’re really good at and enjoy doing.
What is the future of marketing?
Oh boy … this is a big one. It’s actually something I wrote a paper on in college. I did a paper on TiVo and that’s when I realized the potential there for truly distributed media. Anything you want, anytime, anywhere. How that media is supported, exactly, will vary. It’s going to be a mix of subscription and advertising revenue. I think though, for the advertiser, the Internet is going to become much more accountable than it already is. Really being able to understand which channel / ad / etc. is responsible for bringing in a new customer and keeping an existing customer will be important because there will be so many ways to do that. You already see a ton of duplication with large scale campaigns across networks. The “last-click” mentality will disappear, as tracking all that becomes easier. From the consumer side, it’s going to be much more difficult to decipher what’s actual “marketing” and what isn’t. Facebook’s really blurred these lines itself, but what they’re allowing app developers to do blurs it completely. Google really made a solid effort to keep paid and organic results separate, but since Facebook’s gotten in the game you can see them being more and more aggressive.
What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
It’s pretty much been AuthorityLabs for the last year and a half. We’ve got ideas for the next thing we want to focus on, but we’re not even close to done with what we want to do with it.
What problems have you had with those new projects?
Thinking about upcoming stuff, it’s all about juggling things. How you take advantage of new opportunities without dropping the ball on other things? I’m not sure that’s something I’ve really figured out yet. It’s hard for me to do multiple things really well.
Do you think anything particular in your past prepared you for this industry? Your education? Jobs you’ve held before?
Not really, I’ve taught myself pretty much everything regarding this industry. I learned a lot about sales actually selling, which I definitely recommend everyone do for a little in their career.
What are your greatest strengths?
The ability to understand and read people, and adapt to change I think are my main ones. Attention to detail is huge too.
What are your greatest weaknesses?
I think my greatest weakness is wanting to do things at 110% but then not thinking anything is good enough. That’s not really the best formula for getting things done. It kind makes me run in circles if I’m not careful, and spend waaaay too much time on things I shouldn’t be.
What motivates you?
The desire to be able to provide for my kids (when I have them), which is a long time from now. That, and the thought that our government is eff’d, financially. You can’t rely on them, that’s for sure. Other than that it’s just the act of doing something well, and making customers happy.
What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
I try and take a little bit of everything I hear and apply it to my life, so I’m not 100% what the “best” would be.
Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
Probably the guy who ran that ad network I worked for. I really saw him get that company up and going. You’ve probably never heard of him, or the company he started and sold before that one. Most people haven’t heard of any ad networks anyways, but basically he’s had a bunch of “base hits” in his life, business wise. I think I’d much rather have a bunch of solid line drives than one home run, in business. Especially in the beginning, don’t swing for the fences if you’ve never even been to plate before.
What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
I have difficulty with people who aren’t self-motivated. Not really any good stories off the top of my head.
What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
If money were no object, I’d probably still be trying to build something.
Where do you want to be ten years from now?
I want to have at least four products, profitable, growing, and pretty much automated.
How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
Work life balance to me means the ability to work and / or play when I want. Doing your own thing doesn’t mean you can just not answer emails after 5:00pm, so I end up doing a lot in the evenings. Flexibility is what I’m after.
If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I probably would have focused more on work in college. College was pretty much a break from all reality for me 
Which was good and bad for various reasons.
What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
I’ve climbed Mt. Rainer and the Grand Teton. Those were pretty cool. I’ve led highschool kids backpacking / river rafting / etc in northern California. I did that for a summer after college. That was a lot of fun, and extremely rewarding. Hopefully the kids had fun too ;D
Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
@authoritylabs
facebook.com/authoritylabs
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