GM-Volt.com: Making Money By Blogging About Your Passion
The following is a guess post by Dr. Lyle Dennis of GM-Volt.com, a text book example of a blogger turning a passion into a money making venture.
The experiment began in January 2007 when I read two articles on Digg that would change my daily life for the foreseeable feature. The first was an article about how setting up a niche blog could be profitable. Included was a recommendation to start a site about a brand new technology. The second article was a top Dugg post about General Motors newly introduced Chevy Volt concept electric car.
Later that day I had purchased the domain name GM-Volt.com, and had a Wordpress blog about the car up and running.
I have always been a major computer and internet technology enthusiast, and for years imagined a world without oil, for all the political, financial, social, and environmental benefits it would bring. Running GM-Volt.com seemed a perfect marriage of my two interests. Better than surfing the internet endlessly looking at meaningless stuff, it seemed better for me to use my computer time productively. Also, I saw it as a chance to help change the world and demonstrate to GM just how much enthusiasm there was for this technology so that they would continue towards production.
It started off slowly at first, I was new to blogging and had a lot to learn. Also, being that I am a physician, I had to learn about automotive engineering. Soon I began to see dividends. My readership, comments, and revenue steadily began increasing. Other passionate Volt enthusiasts got on-board. Before I knew it, within 6 months, GM took notice, and began flying me out to their headquarters to meet the actual executive engineers and designers who were building the car. As a result, my credibility began to grow.
Next came a nod from the New York Times, acknowledging my site as a top-10 green car website, I was also myself interviewed for articles by WIRED magazines blog and the New York Times. I was hooked.
Recently I have even had the opportunities to meet two of GM’s Vice-Chairmen, and soon will be in a conference call with their CEO.
Right now the site is getting around 70,000 unique visitors per month, and I had to hire programmers and designers for a soon-to-launch complete overhaul.
It is interesting that the car is still three years from production, and in the end may lead to millions of units in sales. I predict continued growth for my site. Also it is important to note that the site has made it to either the number 2 or 3 position by Google or Yahoo search for “chevy volt”. This means every dollar of advertising that GM spends actually benefits me, I joke that my site has a $100 million advertising budget. There is no shortcut to getting that PageRank though, it has taken a lot of hard passionate work, i.e. content.
For revenue, I run banner and contextual ads. I am currently looking for sponsors and considering selling merchandise.
As a fan of John Chow, I wanted to share my experience with his readers as an example of an experiment that so far has worked. Let’s hope the car does!
- Posted in Make Money Online, The Net
- 37 comments what's your take?
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wow!…
then you’ll get FREE $100M budget for your advertising. 
Reply to this commentcorrect me if im wrong but this article is tell’n me to frequent at digg and look for newly submitted product and have it as your domain.
Digg is really not for me, since the contents are write is not relevant for diggers to digg.
Reply to this commentThat’s amazing how GM-Volt.com can trace its roots back to Digg! I’m inspired. It just goes to show you, always keep your eyes open for that next big idea. It could be anywhere…
Hmm, that gives me an idea!
Reply to this commentJoking aside, I don’t think that’s what he meant and just because he got his inspiration from two posts found on Digg, doesn’t mean you or everyone else will find their inspiration (or even creative idea) that way either. That’s not to say it won’t happen, but definitely not the reason why you should frequent Digg.
Reply to this commentCongratulations.
I bet your blog will be [at least] twice as big as it is now when the car launches. Enjoy all of that advertising revenue. =)
Reply to this commentYeah indeed, he could keep growing once the car gets released for sale, but than, he would be also have more and more competitors too. Well done tho
Reply to this commentMy thoughts as well. Nice job. Heh.
Reply to this commentGreat post. Love reading stories about hard work resulting in something good.
Reply to this comment~ Dave
Oh, and also. I remember seeing the unveiling of this car, and I knew I wanted it. So I may actually keep track of your blog.
Reply to this comment~ Dave
Thats a nice story and you have a really nice blog. But I guess you are luckier than others, also, your blog has a very well defined niche!
Many bloggers (including me), dont have very well defined niches, so wandering in too many directions doesnt bring in mucg\h attention from anyone!
A well defined niche about which you know a lot and are interested in, is the best topic to blog about! I have learnt it with experience and would implement it!
Good Luck with your blog!
Reply to this commentHow truly inspiring to read that someone had a passion, went with it, learned about the passion and is doing well blogging the topic, thank you… I needed to see the this post today of all days!
Reply to this commentI’ve wanted a Chevy Volt ever since I first read about it a few months ago. It seems to be the perfect car for me (work is only 3 miles away, and I don’t drive long distances often).
Until then, my Chevy Cobalt will have to do.
Reply to this commentNot bad, the fact that it takes hard work may be under-emphasized though lol
Reply to this commentLet’s hope they don’t cancel the car.
Reply to this commentSeriously ladies and gentlemen, at least pick something you really like and care about. This car weblog would be a hard slog otherwise.
I don’t think I’d like to spend three years of my life writing about a single car model. I don’t care how much you paid me.
Lyle seems happy though so hats off to him.
This is an inspirational post. Shows what can happen when you seize an opportunity and then have a little luck to go along with it.
Reply to this commentThese stories are very inspiring! I hope we can hear more of them.
Reply to this commentMore of such stories is good to inspire the group of us.
Reply to this commentNice Post, and Smart guy. My problem trying something like that would result in not knowing enough about to become the expert in order to write intelligent articles. Guess if you do your research anything is possible.
Reply to this commentGreat job Lyle. Sounds like GM should be paying you.
Reply to this commentQuestion that comes to mind after reading this piece -
Reply to this commentDoes Ford, Chrysler, BMW, etc have a similar model?
is there another ‘ram’ cause that’s not my avatar?
Reply to this commentShouldn’t be because the avatar is produced by a combination of all 3 fields, your name, email, AND url. Unless the other “ram” has the exact same 3 info you put in, theres no way it would give you another avatar unless MyBlogLog screwed up
Reply to this commentgood to see someone making money doing something they enjoy.
Reply to this commentSo how much money are u making?
Reply to this commentSounds like Lyle made a great move with the Volt blog. Especially since he has the full support of the owner of the copyright! It’s a win-win. I hope he can monetize it well and I wouldn’t be surprised if GM hooks him up with one of the first Volts to roll off the production line.
Reply to this commentThree cheers for GM-Volt! The success of one person becomes the success of others. Not only has Dr. Lyle Dennis made his niche blog a hit, he has also made one big step for the environment. Stories like this never fail to amaze me. There’s something so moving about starting from nothing and being able to reach places one step at a time.
Reply to this commentgood advice, but there are other ways to find money making ventures.
Reply to this commentI saw this car when I went to San Francisco. They had it on display at Pier 39. It was awesome!!!
I took some pictures with my iPhone.
Reply to this commentWOW! This is simply an amazing story. I guess if you never give up your hopes, you’ll end up like John Chow too
-Mike
Reply to this commentI’ll bet John Chow gonna change his banner to Chevy Volt soon, and more money to Dr. Lyle and John Chow. This is the classic example of the concept of synergism in action.
Dr. Lyle tastes good.
John Chow tastes good too.
Put them together, they taste great! Yummy!
Greetings and lotta loves from Malaysia.
Reply to this commentKudios to GM for allowing you to use the domain. From what i understand domains this close to actually company name might have trademark issues.
Reply to this commentI love it. Dr Dennis you are a seriously passionate blogger about the GM Volt and this is what it takes to write a blog every day and a good one at that. Way to go!
Reply to this commentThanks to all for the positive comments.
Reply to this commentIt seems like it was good timing for me, GM had just begun taking a serious interest in and notice of social media, and make it a priority.
They don’t seemed to be too concerned about the domain name…yet
Very encouraging. Awesome to see he had a blast in the process.
Reply to this commentIt’s interesting, and encouraging to see a site take off like that. It’s a great post, that just goes to show what is possible.
Reply to this comment