_80471546_carthrottle_04(1)
If you love cars, this might make you just a little green with envy…

Three years ago, shiny brand new sports cars started turning up at the Surrey family home of 22 year old Adam Ebrahim.

Across the street, the curtains began twitching: neighbours suspecting he must be involved in something illegal.

But no, Adam was not the local cocaine dealer – these high-performance cars were willingly delivered by top manufacturers for young Adam to test drive at his leisure.

Why? Because Adam is founder of a website for young motoring enthusiasts called Car Throttle, which he started from his bedroom in 2008 and looks set to gross more than £1 million in 2015.

It’s a really inspiring story, because his methods were classic online content marketing, pure and simple – methods that you can copy and use in your own business.

Here’s how he went from skint bedroom amateur to Lamborghini driver in just over three years.

First – he posted regular useful, interesting and relevant information. Ebrahim took a basic magazine-style website (you can get these themes off-the-peg through WordPress) and began to fill it every week with short articles and videos about his love of cars.

Here’s a snapshot of the website today:

Second – he made it interactive and engaging. He allowed his readers to post comments, join discussions, or upload their own photos and clips.

Third – he made it social. He encouraged sharing, using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts to attract a following and allow for word-of-mouth to spread.

His Facebook page has over a MILLION likes. And here’s his Twitter account, which boasts 13,000 followers:

And here’s his YouTube channel, with over 350,000 subscribers:

Through this proven content marketing strategy, combining blogging and sharing with social media, Ebrahim built up a huge and loyal following.

Next he monetised that following by selling advertising space on the website. This earned him enough income to turn the site into a proper full time business in 2011.

Within another year, he was such a major influencer in the market, that car markers started sending him cars to trial.

And the lesson of the day is…

Adnan Ebrahim started as a 19 year old with a simple free blog. He had no experience, no qualifications, and no skills. He was what I would describe as a ‘prosumer’.

This is someone who has bags of enthusiasm for a subject, and is willing to share that love with others.

They’re not experts, insiders or journalists, but obsessives who analysis and review all the latest products, industry news and gossip… then pass on their views to their info-hungry followers.

Gradually, over time, they become authorities. And that’s where the money and freebies begin to roll in.

His age is irrelevant. Anyone can do this in almost any field of interest that has an audience hungry for information. All you need is passion – and the guts to give it a go.

“A lot of the time people think achieving something that’s out there is too out of the question,” says Ebrahim, modestly. “But it’s about taking that risk and going for it.”

And it was the career’s advice of Adnan’s University lecturer that really inspired him…

“Don’t follow the hurt, let your passion guide you.”

Ebrahim went from bedroom blogger to successful motoring information publisher in just 3 years, using a mix of original content, shared content and social media activities across the three biggies: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

There’s no reason you can’t achieve at least a portion of this success, whether you’re still in the process of setting up online, or your online business is struggling.

As a full member of Digital Upstart (Digital Upstart’s new title), you’ll discover precisely how to use all of Adam Ebrahim’s techniques for your own project – because there’s no ‘secret’ to his success.

They’re the techniques that I and most other successful online marketers use to grow our businesses.

For instance, in the next issue, you’ll discover how to use networking platforms to automatically generate a stream of great content on almost any subject.

This will allow you to start gathering followers, driving traffic to your website and building up your credibility – even if you’re an amateur right now.

If you’re not a full member, please join for a trial here and get full access to all the previous articles, tips and recommendations.

And if you need some inspiration to get going – just imagine a Maserati, Ferrari or Porsche turning up at your doorstep one day, and imagine the look on your neighbour’s faces.

I’ll be back with more soon.