In the 1980’s, Jeremy Shoemaker’s mom purchased an Apple IIc. Schoemaker found it amazing! He began to write simple programs on the Apple, mostly consisting of repeating test messages that said, “My mom is cool.”

1995-Schoemaker was an appliance salesman at Sears when a customer offered him a job at an ISP in Moline, IL. He was known to have “computer skills” as he spent most of his free time at work playing games. “I knew nothing about the Internet and had a very limited knowledge of computers.” The ISP had only Linux based terminals so Schoemaker had to quickly learn system software, web server management and mail system management.

Schoemaker compares those early days of educations to a “karate kid experience.” “I thought it was all pointless hard work, but in hindsight, I could see that over the course of two years, I had gained the foundation of a very useful skill set.” He also witnessed the birth of the Internet. Working at the ISP also demonstrated to him how much money could be earned in a number s game with a market place as big as the Internet.

He left the ISP and went to college at a time when there was no such thing as spam or phishing schemes on the Internet. In college, Schoemaker founded his first business making Macintosh gaming sites. Those early sites became very popular and allowed him to practice his skills, focus his talents and avoid ever completing a college degree.

“I didn’t go to class much and instead was taking calls from companies wanting to advertise on my site. All these places had newly created on-line advertising budgets. With on-line advertising, they could see instant and direct returns from their advertising dollar.”

“With the help of my wife and her stable income as a physician, I was able to make a break from corporate life and start ShoeMoney Media Group.” From the company’s inception, Schoemaker has embraced the mantra, “prioritize potentially profitable projects.” He is constantly generating new ideas for sites, programs and marketing, channeling energy into those that truly have the potential for long-term traffic and revenue.

ShoeMoney Media Group
For the three years he “attended” college, Schoemaker continued to run his business. Then the dotcom crash happened. He had failed to plan for the crash and didn’t have the money to pay for his hosting. “I had spent every dime I had as fast as I could.” Although he continued to work on small websites and manage his server, he took jobs with Wells Fargo and Commercial Federal Bank working on Linux security. He also moved to Des Moines, IA and then to Omaha, Nebraska where he married his wife.

Philosophy And Business Model

Embrace new trends and look for opportunities to exploit them.
For example, SMG entered the ring tone market early, captured traffic and has monetized it. Finding angles and exploiting them for profit is a key aspect of SMG. Maximum and diverse revenue streams are built on fairly narrow marketing concepts that are then diversified. This is what Jeremy Schoemaker calls, “The Coke Theory.” If you are already making Coke then you can make Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, etc and turn a profit on those as well. A company can achieve growth through small degrees of separation between sites, maximizing diversity within a small industry.

Focus on what you know.
From the beginning of SMG, Schoemaker focused on the aspects of marketing that were second nature to him. He built his sites on those natural marketing principles while running the backend. Web design was a secondary skill, so he focused on the marketing of the sites, which then built revenue. Later he would invest in a professionally done design. Schoemaker continues to focus on existing sites and expand their income potential by building a network of sites centered on a central theme. Again, the “Coke Theory.”

Small changes can equal big revenue.
Once a base of traffic and revenue is built, don’t be afraid to experiment with the site. Once the traffic is there, small changes in design and structure can make big changes in revenue. Ad placement, recurring subscriptions and affiliate marketing can ad value to a site without disrupting the base of revenue. Monitor revenue daily, even hourly to see how your changes have affected revenue. If it’s not working, you can always go back to the way it was.