The latest interview in my never-ending quest to bring you outside-the-box interviews (BPN previously interviewed 4-Hour Workweek author Tim Ferriss) we have Tim Schroeder of eMonetized.com. An entrepeneur, Tim is notable in that he works at home and supports a family while making money off of the internet, and has been doing it for years.

BPN: First off, I’d like to challenge you. Without using your name, telling us your job, describing your personality traits, or using any adjectives, can you answer the question “who are you?”

Tim: Hmm, that’s a tough one. How about “An Entrepreneur” or would that be considered a personality trait?

BPN: Can you pinpoint where you went from ordinary Joe – if you consider(ed) yourself one – to someone who makes six figures online? What took you off the beaten path?

Tim: I never enjoyed working the rat race like most other people. The last job I had before I went solo was for an online sofware company as their SEO. I was good at SEO before I was good at or knew much about affiliate marketing. Once I realized I could make money online, the drive to work for myself kept me going. Once I figured out what worked to make my first few hundred dollars a month I just replicated the process over and over again on different websites. However, the same websites that made me the most money four or five years ago are not the same ones that make me the most money today. You have to always keep learning and adjusting to the changes in SEO and PPC marketing. And I’m ALWAYS working on a new project.

BPN: What was your first project that started making you money online?

Tim: One of my first ever online business was selling discount nutritional products which were drop shipped by a company called Vitamin Power. This was way back in 1999 and if you want a good laugh you can take a look at it what it looked like on Archive.org (aplusdiscountnutrition.com) The website never made me much money but I sold it for $2500 about a year later. This was during the internet boom times. If I only knew then what I know now I could have made a lot of money over those years. I didn’t know much about affiliate marketing at that point. Nevertheless, it was a great learning experience and it helped me get to where I am today.

BPN: These days, how is your approach different from back then?

Tim: “Back then” were much easier times. It seems like it was only about 3 or 4 years ago when I could easily rank a one page website in Google for competive keywords in a matter of a few days. I relied soley on search engine optimized website and did this well. These days I’m still taking the natural approach (organic search engine listings) for several of my websites but also have began doing more and more PPC marketing. The natural rankings approach is a longer process requiring more content and more delicate SEO. These days you almost have to think long term while back then I thought more along the lines of short term profits.

BPN: What is an ordinary day like for you?

Tim: I get up usually around the same time our 1 year old is waking up (around 7AM). I make some coffee and then usually start my work day around 8 to 9 AM. I walk into my home office and I usually have a pile of stickies on my desk. I try to decide which tasks I want to tackle first. I finish my work day around 6PM. My pre-kids days and especially before I was married by schedule was much different. I’d sleep in late and work long nights. To be honest I’ve been wanting to better schedule my day because I spend far to much time reading email and blogs and not enough time get things done. Once you start making a decent income online it becomes very easy to get lazy but I’ve always tried not to fall into that trap.

BPN: When did you start getting involved in Affiliate marketing, and when did it start working for you as a source of income?

Tim: I can not recall when I first discovered affiliate programs but I remember the days when I first started earning an extra couple hundred dollars a month. I was estatic! Little did I know is that those numbers were just a fraction of what I earn online each and everyday through affiliate marketing now. However, it wasn’t an instant success story. I had a lot of failures along the way. But I learned from these mistakes. Your mistakes may soon turn into opportunities of the future.

BPN: To toss a number out there, how difficult would you say it is for someone to begin earning $500 per week from affiliate marketing, if they started with a working knowledge of online ads, HTML, etc?

Tim: With a working knowledge of HTML and online ads I would say $500 a month would be easy. $500 a week is a little tougher. However, once you hit that $500 a month mark then making $500 a week will come much faster an easier. If you want to be good at affiliate marketing you need to understand internet marketing with SEO being most important. On the other hand if you wanted to focus on PPC and landing pages etc. then SEO is not as important. There are just so many different ways to make money online.

BPN: I always hear one of the most important things to do with Affiliate marketing is to test. How do you conduct tests?

Tim: Most of my testing is looking at keyword search volume of various niches using some of the keyword research tools I mention on my blog. With PPC I’ll usually test a program by doing some direct linking to the merchant first and if that has a good coversion ratio then I might consider creating a landing page. I also split test ads in Adwords.

BPN: If a dictator took over and said you can have access to any site you want, but can only visit three sites per day, which three would you most visit?

Tim: 1. Wordtracker 2. Google Adwords 3. Commission Junction

Wordtracker gives me a good keyword research tool. Adwords give me another keyword research tool plus a place to conduct PPC marketing campaigns. Commission Junction just because I need an affiliate network with a large amount of affiliate programs to test but they could be replaced with another network.

BPN: If someone told you they wanted to start earning money online, where would you recommend they start?

Tim: If they around knew how to design a website I would then tell them to learn SEO and read SEO book. At that point I’d tell them to hire me for consulting (kidding. please no calls as I don’t do consulting). I learned a lot when first starting out by reading through webmaster forums.

BPN: How does making a full-time income online impact your personal life?

Tim: I’ve always wanted to work for myself and affiliate marketing gave me that freedom. Working under another boss was just not my thing. I work out of my home office so at times it gets old not seeing fellow workers. However, making a living online has positively changed my life in so many ways. I work as many days and as many hours as I want to. I get to spend much more time with my family. You can work from anywhere with an internet connection. I really could not think of a much better job to have.

BPN: Does it boggle peoples’ minds to hear how you make your living?

Tim: I really don’t tell many friends and family how much money I make online mostly because I don’t want to come off as bragging. I am very proud of my accomplishments and feel very fortunate. However, I still don’t necessarily consider myself a “super affiliate” because I know there is so much more potential and there are many affiliates making much more money than myself. Reading those stories of super successful affiliates (those making 20k to 30k+ a month) only motivates me to work harder. Having gotten to the level I am now, I know those huge amounts are very possible.

BPN: Finally, if you looked yourself up on Wikipedia 100 years into the future, what would you want to read?

Tim: That’s a tough question. I hope that I am known not only for running several successful online businesses but also as one that has helped others in their own success.