Farouk is the founder of 2KnowMyself a website that has more than 1900 self help, psychology and personal development articles. Farouk was interested in psychology since he was 17 years old and he is now a full time blogger & internet millionaire who makes a living from selling his psychology Ebooks online. Farouk was interviewed and his work was covered by several well known middle eastern TV channels , since he lives in Egypt, Like MBC, OTV, Nile Tv and Mehwar Channel.
Tell us about 2KnowMyself.
Since I was 17 I was interested in reading about psychology.
Sometimes I used to spend more than 3 hours reading on a single day. I kept this habit for years until one day I realized that I have some added value that I can introduce to the internet.
In November 2006 I decided to create a website to help better better understand themselves and that’s where 2knowmyself was born.
Why don’t we understand ourselves and others?
People fail to understand themselves and others because they rely on their personal experiences without using knowledge as a guidance.
When people buy a new computer or a gadget they quickly read the instruction booklet included with it so that they know how to operate it perfectly. What I discovered is that most people read the manuals for most of the things they buy while they never think about reading their own manual!
People fail to understand themselves and others because they rely on their personal experiences without using knowledge as a guidance.
Perception errors, false beliefs, self deception mechanisms along with subconscious defense mechanism can prevent people from judging themselves and others correctly. That’s why each and every person MUST read about psychology in order to better understand himself and others.
To someone starting an eBook, what advice would you give?
Traffic is more important than the eBook. Traffic Sells.
If you have good traffic then most probably anything you put on your website will be sold. Secondly comes the title and book topic which are more important than the pitch page. Many people take the buying decision as soon as they see the book’s title or know about its topic.
Finally offer something different, make a well research about the repetitive advice people give everywhere then come up with something better.
How do you stay productive in your day?
It’s not about the number of hours you work per day but its all about the efficiency and the way you utilize those hours.
When I work I become 100% focused.
I lock myself up in my room, no TV, mobile, Facebook (except for marketing purposes), email…..etc
When I finish work I get out of the room. So it’s not about the number of hours you work per day but its all about the efficiency and the way you utilize those hours.
How did you become a dot com millionaire?
First of all it took me years.
Many people these days are obsessed about becoming millionaires overnight or in few month but that’s not possible in most cases. It took a lot of hard work, dedication, trial and error, bad moods and even depression. I remember I had a day where I was about to stop working on 2KnowMyself!
Yes, I was about to quit, but thankfully I didn’t.
The number of rejections I faced are numerous and I can’t even count them. Starting from my family members who used to tell me that I am wasting my time by not focusing on my career. Going through close friends who told me that making money online is impossible. Or people I barely know who used to talk behind my back and say that I am working weird projects that yield nothing.
It’s all about persistence, hard work, dedication and never giving up.
When I was 22 years old I wrote in a word document that I still keep today that I will become a self made millionaire. I didn’t even have a clue about the road I should take at this point but the dream was there, I held on to it and that’s why it became a reality : )
How can others find the same level of success you have?
There are many successful people out there and people who are much more successful than me. Each one did it in a different way but what was common between all of these people is the burning desire and the passion to do something. Warren buffet the famous billionaire once said “If I didn’t become a millionaire by the age of thirty I will throw myself of the tallest building in Omaha.”
That’s the kind of passion that leads to success, the do or die attitude.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking you to commit suicide. I am just trying to tell that when failure and death become equal then you will certainly succeed (after some failures of course).
What do you do to generate traffic to your website?
The biggest mistake I was doing in the first two years was depending on one source of traffic which was search engines.
Later on I discovered that the best way to get traffic to a site is to have multiple sources of traffic.
Facebook, twitter, guest posting, article submission commenting on other blogs, all search engines and not just Google, Mail marketing and even the new Google+ are all good sources of traffic.
Each morning I do several marketing tasks with the aim of getting diversified traffic from more than one source. Again I must repeat, it takes a lot of time (sometimes years) but as long as your traffic is increasing even by small percent each month then you are on the right track.
A blog that is growing every month will certainly get one million hits eventually.
You have 60 minutes of spare time. What do you do?
While I’m a workaholic when it comes to work I hate to stay at home or office when I am free. I love people, parties and social gatherings.
For me the more people, the more fun.
In my free time I will certainly call some friends and go to a public place where we can meet more of them.
"You’re such a smart boy!" were his first accolades heard. So, it’s no wonder that this phrase became the title of his business, Smart Boy Designs.