Not sure what really inspired this post, I think it could be down to the fact I have been evaluating the way I work and approach the site. This post isn’t going to say who is right or wrong, but it will hopefully show different approaches to things.

Darren from Problogger is sitting on a fortune. I estimate he earns around low to mid 6 figures a month based on some of his revelations about his earnings. So if he is earning say $250k a month on average, he’ll be on around $4,000,000 a year.

Gary ‘Crush It’ Vaynerchuk is the owner of a self confessed $70,000,000 business.

  • Attitude

Darren takes the zen approach to business, just watch some of his videos, very calm and articulate. Clearly an intelligent guy and makes full use of his marketing knowledge. I have never met Darren in person, but having seen his interviews and video presentations I can educate a guess that he is very strategic and calculated in his approach to business.

Problogger does spend time with his readers, although openly admits (and hopefully will detail this more in the comments) that spending time individually with readers can be sometimes counter-productive, he doesn’t ignore them though, he will address the problem or request in one hit, like a post or forum thread.

Gary is much more intense and will openly tell corporations of the importance of replying to everyone. Gary work’s all hours he can to provide for his family, coming from a background which should have meant he would never make the big time never mind write a book. He constantly reminds people and company’s the importance of working hard, nothing is given to you ona plate.

Gary manages to get his point across without actually being that dimplomatic, swearing and quite likely to disagree with marketing myths if he thinks he is right, but that’s what makes his such a success. The market place needed someone who was the guy in the pub, the guy who had ten jobs to make sure his family had a roof over their heads.

  • Worth

Darren Rowse, to me is at the top of his game at the moment. He runs a variety of different information based sites, of which ProBlogger.net is actually is third biggest earner, THIRD! His most recent venture is a paid subscription forum, raking in a few thousand dollars a month for a site which essentially runs itself, although it does have paid staff to monitor the posts very closely. In quite a few interviews Darren states his earnings as $275,000, $191,000 a month etc.

Darren is dwarfing 6 figure bloggers, by being the only 7 figure blogger I know. Add to the fact his sites are businesses I would say he is sat on a fortune if a consortium would try and buy him out.

Gary has built a $70,000,000 business out of his passion for wine. $70 Million! A normal guy who worked as hard as he could with a pure passion for wine and all he did was tell the world about it. Gary has gone from the average Joe who had a dream to ‘A’ list celebrity, but still has that fire buring as hot as ever and still replies to everything, although he would be the first to admit that it is taking longer to reply now.

  • Who’s Better?

To be honest, it’s down to you to decide. Both completely different in their approach, both equally successful (once you have $5 million, whats another $50!) I fully expect the Darren Rowse fans to come out and sing his praises, as they should.

I never heard of Gary before Ben said I had the same approach as him. My immeadiate reponse was, ‘nah he’s is like me, not the other way round’ But I can totally see why Gary got where he did, I have the same mind set, go to bed late and be unique.

One last note, I don’t have any problem with Problogger or Gary V for that matter, I just wanted to expose the differences of two very successful guys in different markets and both with a huge following.

Which approach do you prefer?

Andrew
Creative Commons License photo credit: jk+too

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