Welcome to our second interview at wfh office! Today, we’re featuring Brent from Debt Files and you can also find him on Twitter with the handle @IAmBrentTruitt.

This interview series on wfh office is all about highlighting the folks out there that are working hard from the comfort of their own homes and on their terms. So let’s get started and dive into the minds of the brilliant people who are making this happen.

1. Are you a full-time or part-time wfh employee? Are you self-employed or do you work for a company? If you can, tell us a bit about what you do and what you love about it?

I’ve been a full-time work at home on your computer person since 2003. I used to work for the airlines as a mechanic until I had a back injury that forced me to find another way to make money.

via GIPHY

I chose the dream of making money online, and so glad I did. What I love so much is the freedom. I don’t answer to any boss (except my wife and the taxman).

2. What is it about working from home that was so attractive to you?

I’ve always been an introvert and could never emotionally handle work-place politics. I was over-the-moon-excited about making money online. The freedom I sought was even better to experience once I had succeeded in replacing my income and then my wife’s. The other thing I love about it is more time with family. Basically, I’m always home and available to them.

3. If you aren’t full-time, have you considered making this your primary gig? Why or why not?

My online business is my full-time gig, and I’ll fight to keep it that way as long as possible.

4. What are the pros and cons, at least for you, with a work from home job?

If you are an extrovert I don’t think it would work. If you thrive off the energy of others I don’t think it can work. You have to be a self-starter, and you really need to love your work online and love the feeling of typing words on a laptop or keyboard.

5. What’s your work from home office like? Tell us about it. Do you have any tips for anyone who wants to put together their own?

Well, I’ve included a picture of exactly where I work. This chair is where I spend the majority of my time, and no I’m not naked. I usually wear shorts and nothing else. Tips would be:

– find the most comfortable place in your home to work
– don’t let anyone tell you success is impossible online
– make sure that a large portion of your online work is in a niche that pays a lot in CPA commissions, and clicks
– try to keep a “never say die” attitude, because the Internet is always changing and what use to work likely won’t in ten years – then you need to see what IS WORKING online and follow along with the winners.

6. Do you have any productivity tips for anyone who’s new to the game?

– don’t sit down to a keyboard until you have an idea you’re excited about working on
– the majority of your creative energy should be coming up with cool ideas (the rest will follow easily)
– somewhere along the line learn to write PHP code – it’s fun and easy to learn and it gives you the ability to run with your creative website ideas – I still struggle with CSS and HTML because I didn’t put enough time into design

7. How has working from home impacted and/or changed your life?

– I actually work harder than I’ve ever worked in my life because I love my work
– I don’t even consider working as an employee anymore – I would always look to provide a service even if the internet wasn’t viable any longer
– I’m fatter because I don’t run around as much and I haven’t been diligent in getting enough exercise

8. If you could go back and do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

– when I first started out I wasted a lot of time with linking schemes and silly black hat schemes – a complete waste of time and energy in my opinion
– stick to your fresh content

9. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start freelancing or working from home?

– don’t get intimidated when the “gurus” tell you that you need amazing original content – you won’t create that right away – create content and learn as you go
– don’t GET CAUGHT UP WITH INBOUND LINK OBSESSION – work first on creating a nice looking website that has “OK content” with simple fast loading pages – once you have a nicely built site THEN consider working to get some links coming in – content first for about six months on a new domain, and then try guest posting to get some inbound links
– DO NOT quit a website because you don’t see any results in a year – the Internet is a long ball game – just remember that if you stick with it and get better at creating really good content, that content is floating around FOREVER out there and can be a source of income for a long, long time

10. What do you hope to accomplish from this career or side-gig? What’s driving you? And is it the same force that’s driving you now the one that convinced you to take the leap?

– I hope to create the best content I’ve ever made and my goal is to not do harm to others – for instance when I started I was in the loan niche and that meant some of my content actually served predatory lenders – after awhile that sickened me and I got rid of any ads or “offers” on my sites that could make things even worse for my visitors – like I said above, once that content is out there it’s around for a very long time – it would make me ill to think that content was doing harm

– exactly the same force is driving me every day I work online – the dream of staying free and able to go almost anywhere I want at any time is what I will work to keep – our online business has three booms and three busts, but even during bust times after the search engines changed their algo we had enough trickling in to pay the main bills of the household – how many jobs are like that? NONE! When an employer has to make a change you go instantly to zero

Last note: my biggest tip is persaverance – we know what it’s like to make over $20K US a month for awhile, and you have to remember that it’s possible – you have to stick with it if you ever want to live that dream out – and when I say stick with it I mean stick with creating content in high paying niches – that is critical to making a full-time job from your online work – you can have a great website or blog that gets a ton of traffic but if the visitors don’t take action or the action they take only pays pennies, you need to start creating new domains that pay as much as possible

long tail keyword example: “car accident lawyer in austin texas”

Press on my sociodroogs!!!!

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