George ManteyGeorge Mantey has been blogging for several years. He’s a passionate family man and homeschooler who also works the make money online niche in his blogging.

Are you ready? Then CATCH THE BRAINWAVES!

1. George, I see that you use Legolas Greenleaf as an avatar on at least one website. Why the elf?

I used to use my picture, but I noticed that most people don’t use their picture. I decided to switch to the avatar of Legolas, because Legolas is my favorite character from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and I just like using it.

2. Related to the previous question, does it make more sense to use your real picture as an avatar as opposed to a fictional image?

Hmmm…. I have seen it done both ways, and I don’t think it matters much. However, it might be something worth researching. I think that if you use a well recognized fictional character you might actually draw more interest from people.

3. As a family man, do you have any worries about privacy and security on the Web?

Yes. My wife had problems with online harassment from an individual for over a year, and it was very difficult. If I were to do things over, I would have recommended that she not use her real name. She could have been blogging under a pen name. In fact, I probably should have used a pen name as well. I might do future businesses under a pen name because of this experience.

4. Your main blog is working the “make money online” niche. Don’t you worry that it’s overcrowded and tapped out?

I started it in July of 2005. At the time, the niche was not very crowded. In retrospect, I should have put more energy into it when I started, but I didn’t expect it to become one my favorite blogs to write for. Since I enjoy helping people in this niche, I am going to use my passion in the field to drive my blog to a new level in 2008. I think there are more and more people coming online to make money and it’s a good niche to be in. I have seen some of my former blog readers go on to develop quite popular blogs in this niche. If you decide to make another “make money online” blog, my advice is to make sure you are passionate about the niche. I also suggest that you focus on a sub-niche of making money online (like affiliate marketing, blogging for money, website monetization, link building, etc.)

5. Has the Web greatly enhanced the potential for homeschooling?

Yes, the web has made it MUCH easier to homeschool because there is so much information online. For instance, when our son asks us a question like “How does a water tower work?”, we can head over to howstuffworks.com and let him read how a water tower works. The web is a great tool for homeschoolers.

6. Was blogging a conscious choice or do you believe that you had a “calling” to start a blog?

Hmmm… good question. I made a conscious choice to start a blog called If I were President for fun to see if I liked blogging. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a test run to see if I would like blogging enough to make money from it. With my make money online blog, I started it to help people and make some extra cash. I never really thoughtof it as a calling either.

The only thing I currently feel strongly called to do is to be a good husband and father. I am actually currently in discussions with God about my business/career “calling”.

7. Can you briefly share your vision of Web 3.0 with our readers?

Web 3.0 will either be the end of people’s privacy, free time, social lives, spiritual growth, and sanity or it will enable those things ;)?

Actually, there are a lot different takes on what Web 3.0 will be, but I think that whatever it is, it will bring us one step closer to making all of us more dependent on the web for living our lives. I am actually a little concerned about the direction technology is taking us. I don’t know that we should be living our lives online. I wrote about this recently.

8. How do you deal with spam (or is that a problem for you?)

On my blog I use Akismet, which catches a lot of spam and I delete the rest. On email, I use various spam blockers, but mostly wind up using the delete key a lot. It’s a pain. I actually wrote this post about spam on my first blog that you might enjoy.

9. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

Am I still alive?

I really don’t know, maybe I would run for President ;)

10. What one piece of knowledge, advice, or wisdom do you have to share with our readers?

Take action! Don’t wait to do the things you want to do until everything is perfect. It’s better to do it now and make mistakes then never take action. This applies not only to making money online, but everything that you want to do. You will never get it if you don’t take action.

Thanks to George Mantey for his great answers!

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Table of contents for Catch The Brainwaves

  1. Catch the brainwaves of Tamar Weinberg
  2. Catch the brainwaves of Mathew Ingram
  3. Catch the brainwaves of Patricia Mayo
  4. Catch the brainwaves of the Incredible Help
  5. Catch the brainwaves of Melanie Nathan
  6. Catch the brainwaves of David Cohn (aka DigiDave)
  7. Catch the brainwaves with Mr. BabyMan!
  8. Catch the brainwaves of SexySEO
  9. Catch the brainwaves with Monika Mundell
  10. Catch the brainwaves of Jon Dyer
  11. Catch the brainwaves of Nowsourcing aka Brian Wallace
  12. Catch the brainwaves with Muhammad Saleem
  13. Catch the brainwaves with SEO Smarty
  14. Catch the brainwaves with Lisa Rousseau
  15. Catch the brainwaves with Mimzie!
  16. Catch the brainwaves with George Mantey
  17. Catch the brainwaves with Chris Brogan
  18. Catch the brainwaves with Patrick Bisaillon
  19. Catch the brainwaves… How To Split An Atom
  20. Catch The Brainwaves With TheNanny612

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