NYC Entrepreneur, Editor, and Co-Founder of Marc Waring Ventures and Fit Small Business.
WHAT LED YOU TO START WORKING IN DIGITAL/MEDIA PUBLISHING?
My first job out of college was with an online currency trading firm. While the firm was primarily focused on building its trading platform, one of the ways that the company acquired customers was online. This was in the early days of online marketing (2001), and I was hooked pretty much from the beginning. Also, it was very clear at the time that the internet was going to democratize information, and I wanted to be a part of that.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
I get to the office around 8:30 am, and I spend the first hour to hour-and-a-half editing articles. I used to spend a much bigger chunk of my day on editing, but now I have several managing editors doing the bulk of the initial editing, and my review is more of a final check.
Much of the rest of my day is spent in meetings, either with my direct reports, other staff that has requested to speak with me or that I would like to speak to, or in group meetings on the various initiatives we have at the company.
The rest of my time is spent dealing with any fires that need my attention and on other important things that I am involved indirectly — such as hiring.
WHAT’S YOUR WORK SETUP LOOK LIKE?
I work on a Macbook pro that I have hooked up to a desktop monitor and a sit/stand desk. We run our business off of Google Apps, which I use for everything from email, to document management, to financial modeling. We manage the flow of our articles from ideation to publication on Insightly’s project management system.
To help stay focused and productive, I listen to classical music via Google Play.
WHAT DO YOU DO OR GO TO GET INSPIRED?
Following people I admire on Twitter is a great way to get and stay inspired. While I live in a suburb now, working in Manhattan I find is a great way to stay inspired, as well. There is an energy that I get whenever I arrive in the city, and head to the office.
I also listen to a lot of audiobooks on my commute and am currently really inspired by Ray Dalio’s book, Principles.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF WRITING OR QUOTE?
“The distance between genius and insanity is measured only by success.”
Most of the best ideas seem crazy before they become reality.
WHAT IS THE PASSIONATE PROBLEM YOU ARE TACKLING AT THE MOMENT?
While there is a myriad of great information out there for internet business owners, the information available on how to run a brick and mortar small business is lacking. This is the problem we are trying to solve with our site, and that I get up every morning to tackle.
IS THERE A PRODUCT, SOLUTION, OR TOOL THAT YOU THINK IS A GOOD MATCH FOR YOUR DIGITAL PUBLISHING EFFORTS?
Outside of managing the editorial process with Google Apps and Insightly, we also use a number of different digital marketing tools. We drive most of our traffic through SEO, and my favorite SEO tool is SEMRush.com. We use this for everything from competitor analysis, to keyword research, to tracking our rankings in the Search Results.
ANY ADVICE FOR AMBITIOUS DIGITAL PUBLISHING AND MEDIA PROFESSIONALS JUST STARTING OUT?
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
It takes approximately one year of consistent effort to start getting serious amounts of traffic from my experience with multiple sites. Once you start getting traffic, if you want to continue to grow then you have to stay on the grind, and not let up. With internet businesses you have to run faster just to stay in the same place, so if you want to grow you have to take it to a whole separate level from the competition.
