Solar Heating Today Interview Name of your website?Solar Heating Today Your name? Merlin Berg Please give us a short summary of your website? Solar Heating Today… Get your solar heating questions answered... If your are considering solar heating or do you just want to learn more about capturing free solar energy for solar hot water or space heating for your home or business… start here.~~ What inspired you to launch your own website? I have an interest in learning about renewable energy and what technology is available and affordable now. For example, the use of solar heating is the most used solar technology in the world today. Yes, even more than photovoltaic (PV). Solar heating has been successfully used for more than 100 years. When did you launch your first website, and what was it? I launched Solar Heating Today in 2009. How did you decide on a name for your website? I wanted a name, Solar Heating Today that would bring readers to focus on renewable energy with positive social, economic and environmental benefits readers could understand. What makes your website different from other, similar offerings? Solar Heating Today differs from other sites because I dig a little deeper to deliver unique high quality relevant content so when readers decide to purchase a solar heating system they are a informed consumer. What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?) My eventual goal for Solar Heating Today is to continue to develop high quality content that readers regard as a reliable source of information. Yes, I plan to monetize the Solar Heating Today when the traffic and content warrant that step. How does your investment of time and money balance against your success? My investment of time has been significant. I joke about Solar Heating Today as the second shift. I spend three to four hours per day. The funding of Solar Heating Today has been boot strapped. My passion to develop Solar Heating Today is my pay day. If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site? If I had an unlimited development budget I could perhaps accelerate my progress. Since I'm boot strapping Solar Heating Today I'm gaining the knowledge and experience to develop a web site one step at a time. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand? If I got really big, really quickly I would figure out how to keep up with the demand. I will develop my trinity of management. I recognize that I cannot continue to develop the content for Solar Heating Today, manage finances and market. I will find people to help me with the parts of management I don't have the passion to complete successfully. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with? Like any new venture I have had my share of mistakes and backing up. What has been your biggest challenge? My biggest challenge is getting distracted by the amount of information available on web site development. Keeping my focus on my development plan is the most important key to my success. What method has been most successful for promoting your website? The most successful method of promoting Solar Heating Today has been in link building. Once I started my statistics have improved each month. I also continue to write and publish one or two new pages each week. How has running your website differed from your expectations? I admit that I thought I would have Solar Heating Today up and running in just a few months. I found that the complexity of web site development and writing good content have been my biggest challenges. How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity? Solar Heating Today is more about passion than income. I know that traffic, income and popularity will come with time. I just need to keep my focus. Replace this with a question of your own Thank you for the interview. Merlin Berg What is your website address? Solar Heating Today | 
