Profile of Success - Neil Patel
written by John Chow
I first met Neil Patel at Blog World. Before then, I only know Neil through his Pronet Advertising blog. However, Neil is more than just a successful blogger. He is a very successful businessman. Neil is the CTO of Advantage Consulting Services, a company that he co-founded in 2003. ACS works with 22 of the other Top 100 Technorati blogs and made $2.5 million last year. Neil is also the co-founder of Crazy Egg, one of the best visual visitor tracking tools on the Net. And here is the kicker. Neil is only 21 years old and still going to school.
You would think with running a Technorati Top 100 blog and two companies and going to school, Neil would have no time for personal blogging. Well, you would be wrong. Quick Sprout is Neil’s personal blog about branding yourself for success. Branding is something every blogger should work on. If you were to ask me what separate me from the 100+ million bloggers out there, I would have to say, I have a brand. Neil calls it the rock star formula.
American Express Centurion Card Holder
Neil is one of only two people I know who owns a Black American Express card. However, unlike my friend Tyler Dikman, Neil got his card for free. How did he do that?
I am currently on the Board of Advisors of a handful of companies. One of them being Affiliate Programs (who is mainly known for owning a lot of the media properties in the online gambling space). Because I am on the board of advisors for that company, one of the perks that they provided me was a Centurion card. The best part about getting the card through them, is that they paid for the upfront fees to obtain the card and they pay the monthly card bill.
That’s a pretty damn good perk! The fee for getting a Black Amex is $7,500 and you have to charge a minimum of $250,000 a year to get one. And Neil doesn’t have to pay the monthly card bill? His advice must be worth a lot of money to Affiliate Programs.
If Affiliate Programs is willing to give that kind of perk for Neil’s advice, then he is definitely someone you want to keep an eye on and learn from. I’ve added the Quick Sprout RSS feed to my Google reader and I advise you to do the same if you want to achieve rock star status.
I wonder if Neil will let me borrow the card for the next John Chow Blogger Dinner?
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(11 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)
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I have always appreciated Neil and am following pronetadvertising on a regular basis, definitely a bright young man and I’m sure that we will see some more than interesting projects from him in the future.
Alan Johnson
respect neil! congrats!!
Yes it is nice to see more and more young people are doing that well. All the best man.
Gives hope to youngens like myself.
~ Dave
He had earn money at this age, what a great job he got here. Looks like he could be earning a lot more if he continue with his current plan. I also a college student and blog almost everyday but currently not earning any money yet
probably hoping that i would earn some money from my blog in the next few months. Good luck to you everyone.
I always recommend doing instead of hoping. You are blogging everyday? That is definitely a start, keep it up but don’t expect things to happen overight. If you publish quality content on a regular basis, it is only a matter of time until you will be rewarded.
Alan Johnson
David: Why don’t you try bum marketing, or creating squidoo lenses about affiliate products?
What’s bum marketing?
It’s a form of article marketing. Search digital point forums, there is 10000000 threads on it.
we are on the same side.HAHA. Hope to earn money from my website
He’s been in an impressive list of publications. I saw him in WSJ I think.
Neil’s a stud in terms of anything online whether it’s marketing, SEO, or social media. And, he’s a hell of a nice guy as well.
true that!
John, if you’re reading this (sorry for going a little off-topic btw) be sure to head on over to your Ruff PC competition post and check out TechTreak’s current vote count. It’s incredible, but he has now taken the lead with almost 58% and a total of about 24k votes (last time I checked, you were in the lead with about 68%).
It is definitely clear that his vote count is outrageously high given his traffic level, there’s clearly something fishy going on.
Alan Johnson
Wow… that’s a hell of a swing. Reminds me of the Chow vs. Shoemoney contest…
Time to show Mr. TechTreak what evil really is!
How the hell did that guy manage to collect that many votes?
Care to share what you did John?
Now the real question, do you repay evil with evil?
just kidding.
John, Thanks for introducing us to Niel, I believe you guys are model for us to learn and to succeed in online money making.
A fellow Indian!!
Inspiration!!
That is amazing what he received as a perk! Neil is definitely an inspiration and good example. I have heard his name a lot but now I’m going to check out his blog and what he does.
Wow!! Is that Neil’s photo you have there ?? He looks just like another Tom, Dick or Harry. But I’m sure his asset value is worth the combination of hundreds of CEO’s salaries add up together. He is definitely a person we all can learn from. It’s frightening to think that internet has created a lost of young millionaires or even billionaires…
Hi, John. Sorry for double submission. I was submitting the first article and realise the spelling mistake.
“…a lost of young millionaires…”
But it was too late to stop the process.
Hey John, you can remove the first comment, if you wish.
Sorry about that.
Wow!! Is that Neil’s photo you have there ?? He looks just like another Tom, Dick or Harry. But I’m sure his asset value is worth the combination of hundreds of CEO’s salaries add up together. He is definitely a person we all can learn from. It’s frightening to think that internet has created a lot of young millionaires or even billionaires…
A fellow Indian!!
sorry, it is my first comment on this blog. wow! Neil is only 21 years old. A young CTO.
the only other internet marketer I know who has the black Amex card is Amit Mehta of Super Affiliate Mindset. Saw him in Vegas last month.
great guy! mmmm.. now im more inspired.. to do more of the blogg’n. just hope my employer won’t kick me out of the company premises for surfing the net more often that working..
$2.5 million/year and a Black American Express card at 21 shows he knows ’someting’ about business.
Another inspiring fellow. I am visualizing myself in his shoes….. (Using the law of attraction)
DAM. That is incredible. Not being racist or anything, but people from Asia (China, Japan, India, Taiwan, Korea) are generally extremely hard-working individuals. That’s why he’s so successful - He’s worked at it.
I love CrazyEgg.Congrats Neil
That’s great! I hope I will someday qualify for a free Black AE card.
I just bagged on you on my blog. Sorry someone had to do it.
Um… I don’t see anything but an introduction post on your blog
Sweet deal.
I herd the name before and I think he mentors an IM’er I know.
Nicely written post John!
Michael
That is an amazing perk. He must be good. I had heard of Neil before but didn’t really know anything about him. And he is so young. Well done Neil.
to all john chow readers..
help john chow by voting him on the contest..
now JC is nothing to compared to the blogs that he fight on..please do vote him here :
Vote JC
I put code to vote on my blog - yesterday John was winning!?
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John Chow Dot Com (116930 votes) 71,87%
TechTreak (45598 votes) 28,03%
Hi John
It is advice not advise. Just thought you should know.
Later
The Mad Ape
lol the name is fitting for the comment
Yeah i also have one but i payed for myne, there is some pretty cool perks that come with the card too. Once me and my ex girlfriend went shopping for clothes, when i got out my card to pay, every sales assistant in the store jumped to us, they shut the store down 30mins whilst we browsed in private. Neil is an awesome guy and I have a lot of respect for him.
btw don’t forget that neil isn’t running ACS by himself, there are a bunch of other really talented folks there too (Hiten, Cam olthuis used to be there, and others). regardless though, he has done a masterful job of self-branding, and building his business.
blogging about making money won’t make you money, its implementing the methods you are blogging about, thats the key.
Only 21? Way to go Neil!
[...] John Chow just did a feature of a 21 year old Centurion Card holder Neil Patel. The difference about Neil’s card is that he doesn’t pay the $5000 initiation fee, $2,500 annual fee or the monthly charges he racks up. They are paid for in full by the company who’s board Neil sits on. That is one great perk! [...]
Oh wow! I must have a lot of things to learn from Neil… Just added his feed to my google reader.
aaawwww man
i want one black card for me toooooo
Wanting is definitely not enough
Now that you have a goal, it’s time to work towards achieving it, and that will, of course, not be happen right away, patience is of extreme importance.
Alan Johnson
wow a black visa card that show something this guy is much younger than i am i wish I could follow in his foot steps well i am going to work that remeber John Chow Allen Johnson is going to be one of the top bloggers this year
Neil is an amazing person! I’m only 20 and I hope by July, when I turn 21, I will be 1/4 of what he is
-Mike
Did Neil Patel buy a reviewme here that you aren’t telling us about?