Two popular bloggers on their own, Panama Jackson, 31, and Damon Young, 32, started Very Smart Brothas in 2008. The two writers noticed that the most popular stories on their site were about relationships and dating. “We were anointed the go-to relationship experts in our circles,” explains Young, also known as The Champ. “I was like 22. I don’t know how I got that title.”

Still, with their wit and insight, Jackson and Young have created one of the leading black relationship blogs on the interwebs.

Weaving humor, advice and cultural analysis into their stories, Very Smart Brothas offers the male perspective on everything from Beyonce’s “Flaws and All” to an introspective on race relations.

A year and half ago, Jackson and Young approached several book agents to inquire about a deal. “The feedback we’d get was, ‘we love what you’re doing, we love your voice but we don’t know if you’re popular enough,’” explained Young. That’s when the duo decided to self-publish Your Degrees Won’t Keep You Warm at Night: The Very Smart Brothas Guide to Dating, Mating, and Fighting Crime that is available now on Amazon.com. With 9,000 readers per day, the relationship bloggers sold hundreds of books on release day, landing at number three on Amazon.com only behind Steve Harvey and Chelsea Handler’s latest books. Now, publishers are calling.

Still, the fellas are proud of what they’ve accomplished. They even plan to go on a book tour starting with a signing in Washington D.C. in April. “We’re very grassroots,” said Jackson, a hardworking governemnt analyst writing under a pen name. “Everything is done by the grassroots of the keyboard.”