Josh Buckley Interview

Josh Buckley is a young internet entrepreneur of only 15 years old based in the UK. When not juggling his schoolwork and social life, Josh spends his time making money online in the mid $x,xxx USD range each month. Web Venturers had the opportunity to interview him.

Hi, Josh. Thanks for sitting down with us. Please briefly describe your ongoing online ventures.

Hey dude, it’s a pleasure to have this interview with you. I have a few online ventures currently, and many planned. My largest project is Menewsha, which has gained quite a lot of publicity. When I am not working on Menewsha, I like blogging about my web ventures at my blog. I recently expanded into the twoslice network. This showcases my web properties and previous clients.

Being a web developer as well as internet entrepreneur, I have had my fair share of clients to make websites for. I have made quite a bit of money from doing freelancing. However, that is not where my heart is at. I want to be my own boss, and not have to listen to a client. I love running websites, where there is more risk and chance. Anything could happen.

School and web entrepreneurship - do they go hand in hand? Have you had any problems with juggling these two tasks?

School and web entrepreneurship hate each other. It can get really tough to get homework done sometimes, when I have websites to run. I haven’t had any big problems juggling them yet, apart from the stress that comes on board. I do pretty well at school, in the top sets for subjects. However, work is set for students that do not run a full online business. This is when it’s hard to juggle, when you have five hours of homework when you get home to cover.

One can make a living on mid $x,xxx USD per month, and it’s certainly a lot of money for someone your age. How has those around you (family, teachers and friends) reacted to this?

People around me are really cool about this. I don’t like telling everybody about my websites, and how much I make. However, everybody that knows me knows about my websites, and that they make good money.
Friends have been quite cool about it, some act jealous – as they have jobs of their own. But it’s all in good humour. I’m really happy to surround myself with these people.

When did you start doing this and did you ever imagine it would be this big?

It’s pretty hard to remember when I started doing this. I do remember the amateur days, when I was making Geocities websites and Invisionfree forums. I started a forum for my band at the time, and it got really popular. That started my love for running websites/communities.

Ever since then I’ve had a big passion for running websites, and I had hoped to make a living from it. I have always been very ambitious; it’s what drives me to success. So, I had hoped I would be very successful, but not at this speed!

Where do you see yourself in terms of web property in a few years when you start college?

In terms of web property? Good question. It’s pretty hard to picture what I see myself having, but what I would like to own is some more premium domain names. I would like to expand my current sites, without selling and launch some larger sites. But, who knows? I may end up buying some more websites, or a good offer may come along for one of mine.

Finally, please give some advice to people who want to start earning some money online. Where should they start?

It’s all about perseverance. You have to stick with it, be patient and work hard. It will all pay off. I have worked so hard to get where I am today, and now it is all starting to pay off. I believe that this is only the beginning. You should really start it on something that you are passionate about; it can get tough when you’ve been working on the same site for six months.