Apply the Blog Post Secret.

This is not a blog post automator trick (aka posting “automatic” content).
This is not about writing random thoughts or ramblings.

Anyone can implement this on their blog. It’s the best blog post secret that I know.

Those who are not using it have a big disadvantage because they’re missing a ton of new opportunities.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

running e-mail (text based) interviews with fellow experts or blog owners in your niche.

For example. If your blog is about police dog training, you could create an interview via e-mail where
you ask the owner of a similar niche-targeted blog 5-10 questions about how to train your police dog without paying for a professional.

If your blog is about blogging, you could get pro bloggers answer 5-10 key questions about blogging and how to monetize your content (like I’ll do within a few days myself on this blog)

If your blog is about adsense, gather a list with fellow adsense bloggers or site owners, and e-mail them your 5-10 question interview.

You get the idea. This works on almost any imaginable niche topic, and for any type of blog.

How do you know what questions to ask in the interview?

That’s easy. Spy on similar interviews . Do a google search: “niche” + “interview”. You would get quite a few ideas from different niches, not only yours.

Or, wait until you see how I interview these bloggers, and copycat my interview formula.

The biggest advantage of running an interview with other bloggers and site owners is that besides having new content to publish on your blog, you also get traffic when the interviewee decides to add the interview on his own blog, or link to the interview directly on your blog.

In 8 out of 10 times, that’s what should happen.

Now that you see the key advantages of using this blog post secret, start running interviews with folks in your niche.

I guess that’s not a secret anymore.

Here’s a blog which I visited recently and deliver great tips about the Honest Truth About Making Money Online

The site is runned by a 18-year kid from Vietnam. That’s quite interesting, what do you say?

P.S. An interesting article Does Your Next Blog Post Matter? was published on ProBlogger.net

Read it and tell me what you think.

Introducing Liz Fulghum at PopCultureTees.com … I had the privilege to interview Liz about her blog and what makes it successful over all the other niche-related blogs out there.

Enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Feel free to send your feedback, and refer this post to all your friends and social bookmarking sites.

You could even download a no-cost copy of the PDF version, print it, and give it away to others

Click here to SAVE the PDF on your computer!

More interviews coming soon…

Here’s the text version of it (all the graphics are found in the PDF above):

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about yourself and your background with our readers?

Sure! I’m in my late 20s and I’ve been working as a designer/developer/writer for over 10 years. I’m passionate about design, typography, and the web.

Unlike a lot of people, I actually started my career as a freelancer, and then later moved to the 9-5 world. I currently live and work in Nashvegas, TN.

2. When did you get started blogging and why?

I’ve tried blogging off and on for years. I think I actually tried blogger when it first came out. Usually I would write about my professional interests mixed with some of what was going on in my own life. I think I started 3-4 blogs total, and quickly found that I would run out of things I wanted to talk about and they wound up sitting in the internet graveyard.

Originally, I think my main motivation for blogging was simply to try out a new way to publish, and I thought I had some things to share about web design/development that would be of value to other people. I saw what other early adapters were doing with blogs (some of the sites I followed back then included http://glassdog.com, http://kottke.org, and http://textism.com) and figured it would be an ideal way to network with like-minded people.

But to be honest, I never hard any clear goals during these early attempts. It was a shiney new toy, and I wanted to try it out.

When I “got serious” with blogging and decided to start PopCultureTees, I think I finally had a clear picture of what I wanted to accomplish with my site. This is probably part of the reason why it this site has been more successful than any of my past attempts.

My main goals were:

- To share my passion for t-shirts with others
- Have a way to generate some passive income via advertising
- Having a web presence that I could use to generate sales leads (both for design clients, and for any onlines stores I might create for selling t-shirts)
- Connect with other cool people in the industry

3. What’s the biggest mistake you made getting started with this?

The biggest mistake I made was under estimating how much work and how much time it takes to maintain and grow a successful blog.

When I started PopCultureTees – http://www.popculturetees.com - I figured I would spend a few hours every week putting together posts for the week and then be done with it. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I typically do something with the site almost every day – whether it’s a design tweak to incorporate a new plugin, responding to user emails, or just working on new content.

If your blog is about something other than your life, there’s generally going to be some serious research involved in coming up with new useful content. Generating these larger articles takes up several hours a week for me on top of everything else I’m doing for the site.

If you aren’t commited to spending this amount of time, you probably won’t be able to generate enough traffic to start making money from your site.

4. How did you come up with the idea of launching your blog?

Ironically, I registered the domain name a long time before I decided to turn it into a blog.

A few years ago I was the lead artist at a screen printing company (http://www.ndesigns.net, we designed and printed t-shirts and other apparel). I was pretty much living and breathing t-shirt design. I registered http://www.popculturetees.com because I thought it would be a great name for an online store to sell pop culture/news of the moment type t-shirts.

That idea never quite materialized, and it wasn’t until about 6 months after I left my job at the screen printing company that I decided to turn the site into a blog.

It really came down to the fact that even though I had switched industries (I now work at a record label), I still loved well designed t-shirts and had a passion for the industry. I wanted to continue to share that passion with people, and offer aspiring t-shirt designers some of the knowledge I had collected during the 4 years I worked in the industry.

5. How often do you publish and how do you get new content ideas?

I usually publish at least once per day, every weekday. This post is basically a “t-shirt” of the day, which makes it easy to do once a day. I have bigger feature posts that I run every few days/weeks, and sometimes I wind up posting news or interesting sites above and beyond my single daily post.

I’ve pretty much gotten the practice of getting new content ideas down to a science:

· I use Google Reader to manage the RSS feeds I get by subscribing to delicious tags relating to my niche.

· I use Google Alerts to get news delivered to my inbox daily.

· I follow a few sites which pull news feeds of major sites in my industry

· I read forums on my niche.

The first 3 methods are usually where I find new t-shirts to feature. The last one is generally where I find topics for major articles, based on questions that other people are asking.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate) traffic to your blog?

Back links from other industry sites are the most valuable (because the people who visit are actually interested in what my site is about), but I also receive a lot of traffic from various CSS galleries that I have submitted the site to, as well as from articles on site design that have featured PopCultureTees.

Having a strong design for a blog definitely gives you a little extra boost, there are some places you can tap into to promote your site that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

I’ve experimented a lot with the various social networking/linking sites with varied success. Time and time again, the most hits generally come for StumbleUpon, and usually in response to “top 10″ list articles and tutorials.

Right now the entire web seems to have ADD, and doing a Top 10 list per week seems to be an almost guaranteed way to generate a traffic spike.

I’ve also had good success with contributing articles to other sites as a guest author, even when the topic of the site I’m contributing to doesn’t necessarily match the topic of my own. There’s (obviously) a large spike immediately after the article is published, but it seems as though some people always stick around – I generally see a lift in my traffic even several weeks afterwards.

One final tip: Set up a network with your friends who blog so you can digg/stumble each others articles as needed. Don’t do it for every article and wear out your welcome, but usually people will be more than happy to help out.

7. What is your most closely-guarded secret about blogging for money?

It wouldn’t be very closely-guarded if I shared it, now would it?

To be honest, the one thing that I’ve really learned about making money from my site is that sometimes, the best ways to make money are not from advertising, but from indirect methods.

Until you have HUGE traffic numbers, good Google PR, and a great Alexa rating you can pretty much forget about commanding large sums of cash for ads. And to get all those things, it takes time and a lot of “link-bait” content (by “link-bait” I mean content that people like to re-link. Hot right now: lists, how-to articles, productivity tips and tricks).

But even if you’re a smaller blogger, you can still make money indirectly from your site – I’ve leveraged PopCultureTees to get generate freelance gigs doing design, wordpress customization, and writing.

I’ve found that if your blog is well enough done, it’s almost all the resume/portfolio you need.

I’ve also tapped into a few advertising networks that work well for still-growing sites.

http://BuySellAds.com is still in semi-closed beta, but if you’re accepted as an advertiser they let you choose whatever pricing you’d like, and only charge 25% finders fee for ads placed on your site.

http://ProjectWonderful.com is another site I’ve had success with. These guys allow advertiser to bid on space; the winning bid stays active until their terms runs out or someone out bids them. You can choose what you’d like bidding to start out, and it can be as low as .05 cents and will naturally increase as people try to outbid each other.

8. What differentiate your blog among all the others in your niche field?

First of all, let me just say that PopCultureTees operates inside of a pretty small niche, comparatively speaking. That makes it easier to look at what everyone else is doing, and do it a little bit differently.

The site started without one of the most creative designs out there (in our niche), and added to it a conversational/humorous tone to most of the posts. Most of the sites out there do the same thing we do – link to great looking tees, but I like to think that the bar for design is a little higher for PopCultureTees. What winds up on there is also based on my own aesthetics, and that is, of course, entirely unique.

The other thing that’s a little bit different is that I actually worked in the t-shirt industry as a designer. It gives me the opportunity to talk with a little bit of authority about how to design shirts and screen printing in general. So far, that’s translated into how-to articles and tutorials for would-be t-shirt designers that you won’t find anywhere else.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments from your blog readers, how would you do it?

Post a tutorial, post something controversial, or post a question. People only post comments if they’re mad, disagree with you, have a question, or are fired up.

10. What are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

Just checked google reader and apparently I’m currently subscribed to 81 feeds. Here are some of the highlights:

Productivity:

- http://lifehacker.com (links to useful productivity apps and web services)
- http://lifehack.org (articles about productivity practice)

Design:

- http://northtemple.com (these guys have some great ideas on design)
- http://coudal.com (these guys are just cool. I usually wind up finding one t-shirt per week through their feed)
- http://justcreativedesign.com , http://fuelyourcreativity.com , http://noupe.com (all awesome sources for practical articles/tutorials on design/development)

Writing/Blogging:

- http://copyblogger.com (the big daddy of all blogging sites, always great info here)
- http://freelancefolder.com (more great info for freelancers)

I try to stay away from other t-shirt blogs, just because I don’t want to be influenced by what they’re doing.

11. Who are your favorite bloggers and why?

I would have to say that my favorite blogs are http://northtemple.com and http://coudal.com. These two have really strong voices on design practice and theory.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

1. Lighter Menus (http://www.italyisfalling.com/lighter-menus). The admin side of my blog runs pretty slow, and this does a fantastic job of speeding everything up. The biggest thing: I don’t have to wait for a whole page to load to get to the new post screen.

2. WP-PageNavi (http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/) Puts the nice pagination at the bottom of each page on my site. I can’t imagine how I’d handle navigation without it.

3. Different Posts Per Page (http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/dppp/) This one took me a while to find, but it’s probably one of the most useful ones in terms of making the layout of the site more usable. Because I have featured articles (which are long) and t-shirt posts (which are short), I wanted to display full t-shirt posts, and excerpts of featured articles in the archives. This pluging let me easily set that up.

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend

I think the most important thing I’ve learned is this: there’s two types of blogs… the blog you write for yourself and the blog written for other people. If you’re just writing for yourself, then you can’t worry about hits, or generating advertising. You have to do it just because you enjoy it.

Most blogs start out like this.

But the second you decide you want to blog for other people and that you want to make money off your blog, you have to start treating it like a business (even if you’re writing about what you had for breakfast every morning). You need schedules, goals and you need to be committed to posting quality content on regular basis.

14. What plans do you have for the future with your blog?

I plan on doing more longer-length articles and top 5 lists of t-shirts, which have proven to be most popular. I may also use the site to spin off a PopCultureTees store.

We wish Liz success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

========================

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

• WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail:

http://www.remarkableblogging.com/rb-products/wp-profit-maximizer/

• Lazy Blogging dot Com – “Here’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Building a Small Blog That Rakes-In $300, $3,000.. and Even $30,000 Per Month!”

http://www.LazyBlogging.com

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

While you could learn a ton of cool stuff about e-mail marketing and subject lines, today we’re asking Justing some burning questions about “Blogging”.

Click here to download the PDF interview, or read the text version below…

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

I plan and create educational materials designed to help business owners effectively manage their permission-based email marketing campaigns.

I started with AWeber in 2004 as a customer support representative. Through working with thousands of businesses on their campaigns, I learned a lot about what makes for good email marketing, and used that knowledge to move into my current position.

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

A couple years ago, we were looking for a way to share articles, enhance our reputation as an email industry leader and connect with our customers in a more casual/personal way.

Blogging was a natural fit for these goals, and we launched it in August 2006.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

If anything I’d say I was too long-winded at first – and that made some of my posts hard to get through.

But that’s the sort of thing that corrects itself as you blog more and get a better feel for how to write for blogs.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

It really grew out of our larger plan to communicate more freely with customers and prospects.

There wasn’t really an “aha!” moment – we just decided that it made the most sense to use a blog to publish articles and interact with the AWeber user community. It was all very natural.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

I shoot for two to three posts per week. Sometimes only one post goes up in a given week, and sometimes there are as many as four or five.

It really comes down to what I/we have to say that week. Putting out posts for the sake of sticking to a schedule doesn’t do you any good; you need to have something valuable to say, and if I don’t like an article I’ve written, I’ll withhold it from publishing until it’s the way I want it, or I’ll delete it entirely and go in a different direction.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

I focus on building our subscriber base, since I can reliably return them to the blog to read new articles.

I encourage visitors to subscribe to the blog by focusing on the convenience factor (I’ll tell them when there’s a new article so they don’t have to check back on their own) and offer a free bonus (our Email Deliverability guidebook, a PDF they can download after subscribing).

I also tell our other groups of customers and prospects about particularly compelling posts in my emails to them and link up new posts on Twitter.

I’ve published a series of posts on how we get more blog subscribers:

http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/double-blog-newsletter.htm

They go into more detail on my specific tactics than I can fit here.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

I don’t know that I have any “closely guarded secrets” but here are a few principles I think can help any blogger…

• Get your points across and get out of the way. Use as many words as you have to, but no more. Headers, bullet points, pictures and video are all great ways to “say more” using fewer words.

• Encourage people to talk and share. Invite comments and respond to them. Have a conversation.

• Don’t suppress your personality. Your likes, dislikes, sense of humor – all that stuff that makes up who you are – will keep people interested and coming back.

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

I think that for us it really comes down to listening to your audience and creating posts they want to read and share.

Many blogs in the email marketing industry are geared toward industry people – guys who have been doing this stuff for 10 years or longer and who know all the ins and outs.

Our blog isn’t like that. We publish for the end user (who is often already a successful business owner and marketer), not the industry expert who lives and breathes email all day long.

We do publish “thought leader” pieces now and then, but honestly, many of our most successful, best-loved posts are the simplest ones – “hey, here’s a simple way to get some more subscribers” or “here’s a list of ideas for things you can write about in your next email.”

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

Be controversial. Ask for readers’ opinions. Give them a chance to be heard. Write a rant (don’t overdo this, but do it now and then – nothing gets people talking like a rant).

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

I’ve pared back my blog reading a lot – there are so many great ones out there that you could easily spend your entire day reading and never get anything done yourself!

A few that I still follow:

Seth Godin – http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Good for marketing advice, but almost more valuable for lessons in developing style and voice in your writing.

Copyblogger – http://www.copyblogger.com

Excellent copywriting and marketing blog from Brian Clark and team. Check out their series on headlines:

http://www.copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/

No Man Is an Iland – http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/

Email marketing blog that is also brimming with style. Mark writes some heavy-duty, thought-provoking posts on email – I try not to miss any of them.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

Lots of favorites although I don’t read many blogs lately. The guys above are on my shortlist, but I’d also include Darren Rowse – he posts way more than I can keep up with, but he’s very down-to-earth and readable. Makes you feel like you know him personally.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

I don’t use a lot of plugins but I do like SEO Meta Editor:

http://cheekyo.com/seo-plugin/

Makes it easy to write better meta descriptions for my posts.

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

Don’t fear criticism and disagreement. Some of the best conversations come out of those kinds of comments.

At the same time, don’t tolerate abusive behavior. Decide what will and will not be acceptable in comments on your blog and don’t be afraid to moderate to preserve the community.

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

We’ve done a few audio and video posts, but haven’t made them a regular part of the blog yet. I think that will happen soon.

I also want to invite some other AWeber team members to write for the blog – once a blog is established, having a variety of voices and perspectives helps to keep the blog fresh and appealing to new and long-time followers.

===

We wish Justin success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all! J

• WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail:

http://www.remarkableblogging.com/rb-products/wp-profit-maximizer/

• Lazy Blogging dot Com – “Here’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Building a Small Blog That Rakes-In $300, $3,000.. and Even $30,000 Per Month!”

http://www.LazyBlogging.com

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

Introducing Matt Garrett, at http://MattGarrett.com…

Right-click here to read the interview in PDF format (it has a ton of cool pictures too!), or read the text version below…

1. A “bit” about my Background –

Not an easy question to answer in itself, as I’ve been messing around with websites online since around 1996, although I didn’t start making money online until 2000, and then went “full time” in 2005.

I started of with simple affiliate Niche SEO based websites which I had a fair amount of success with, as I spent a lot of time researching everything I could about SEO and linkbuilding, which gave me a good understanding of how to get free “organic” traffic from the search engines.

I started to make AdSense Sites in late 2003, and was lucky enough to get in when it was still “easy money”.

In the process I learnt a LOT about the “Black Hat” side of SEO and site building, with cloaking and other sneaky techniques for building backlinks to sites.

I also bought the membership site www.TopKeywordLists.com from Keith Baxter in 2005, which was then mentioned in Joel Comm’s New York Times Bestselling book, The AdSense Code.

By 2006 I had hooked up with 3 other Brits to automate the process of mass building AdSense sites and we got to the stage where we were building out 10-12 thousand sites a month, unfortunately the “Giigle” police then caught up with us and I had 4 different AdSense accounts closed over a period of 6 months, including 2 that were totally “White Hat”.

It was a painful and expensive “learning” experience, but ultimately my business is better because of the lessons I learnt.

After that I decided to take a fresh look at my business and where I wanted to go with it and ended up writing the www.LazyGitMarketing.com ebook based on a simple method of making recurring commissions that I’d been using for several years, but had pushed to one side while I was concentrating on the AdSense sites.

www.LazyGitMarketing.com launched in April 2007 and was a far bigger success than I’d expected, as it was my very first “internet marketing” product, although not my first info product, having written and released a book for The World of Warcraft a month earlier, partly as a test run for LazyGitMarketing.

As I’d been in the background of “internet marketing” for a while, I knew a few of the big players in the business and managed to get some great JV partners on board, like Neil Shearing, Joel Comm, Phil Wiley, Jason James, Eric Rockefeller and Ewen Chia, which kind of helped…

2. When did I get started blogging and why?

It was late 2006 when I got in to blogging as a serious part of my business.

I’d got some “niche” blogs which I’d previously used for linking to my AdSense sites and figured I should do something with them, so I started learning everything I could about blogs and specifically WordPress.

In the process I realized I might as well set up a blog to share videos of what I learnt and BlogTactics.com was born, followed shortly by IMTesting.com, where I share the results of different stuff I test out for my own business.

The time I’d spent learning about blogs obviously paid off, as both started getting reasonably good traffic very quickly.

I know use 4 or 5 main “IM” based blogs to back up my affiliate marketing and list building efforts, and it works very well.

~##~

3. What’s the biggest mistake I’ve made?

lol!

I’ve made more than my fair share, but the biggest was easily going so deep in to “BlackHat” and trying to “game the system” with Google, that cost me a small fortune.

After that the biggest mistake is one that I’m still guilty of, I simply don’t outsource enough of what I do.

That’s my main priority over the next 6 months, to set up more of my processes as outsourced systems, to give me more time to concentrate on building my business even more.

Although a close second is having way too many sites and not being focused enough, although I’m trying to cut back on the 600+ sites/domains I still own at the moment.

Like many internet marketers I find it very tempting to jump from one thing to another without getting the most benefit out of each along the way.

4. How did I come up with the idea of launching my blog?

Having already got a bunch of old blogs that I wasn’t really doing anything with I spotted that they were still getting good traffic, which just backed up the consensus of opinion that the search engines like blogs, and they’re a real easy way of setting up a site and adding fresh content, so it just seemed obvious to turn a lot of my old, unused sites in to blogs and start using them to generate more traffic.

http://IMTesting.com came from the fact that I test a lot of different tools for myself, so it just seemed an obvious idea to publish that info and see what happened.

I’m glad I did, even though I don’t post very often to this blog, the response has been very good and generated some nice commissions in the process…

http://BlogTactics.com was partly somewhere I could share what I’d learnt about blogging and as I enjoy creating simple to follow tutorial videos, it seemed a good idea to make the most of the videos by using them as content for a new blog about blogging.

It’s become a pretty successful blog for me, helping to build a list of over 4,500 people interested in learning about blogging.

Another blog, http://IAMUncovered.com, came about when I discovered someone was using my newsletters as content for their own blog and I thought I might as well beat them to it and use it myself, so that blog is mostly just my newsletter content re-published on a blog.

It’s a great way of getting more than one use out of stuff that I’m writing anyway, and some people prefer to read the blog than get the newsletter.

http://MattGarrett.com was simply somewhere to put other stuff I wanted to share, although it’s ended up partly as a place for me to share the different bonus offers from “guru’s” for big launches.

I’ve also got a LOT other blogs covering subjects from Online Games to Movies, I guess I have a bit of an addictive personality, but they all bring in more traffic and money in one way or another.

~##~

5. How often do I publish and

how do I get new content ideas?

How often I publish on each blog varies, I don’t post just for the sake of it. Some, like IMTesting.com, may only get one or two posts a month, but others like BlogTactics.com and IAMUncovered.com, get 2 or 3 a week.

I don’t tend to post every day to any of my blogs, let alone several times a day like some bloggers.

That’s partly because there’s a lot of other stuff going on in my business, and to be fair, I would prefer to post more often as I know from experience that when I do it does help get even more traffic.

I still believe that if you post good quality stuff when you do post, then you can get away with not posting every day.

~##~

6. How do I mainly generate

traffic to my blog?

To get traffic to my blogs I don’t just rely on free “organic” traffic from the SEO stuff built in to WordPress.

I also use some social bookmarking (mostly automated) and Blog Carnival Submissions, I’ve made a free video on using Blog Carnivals here:

–

www.BlogCarnivalSubmission.com

I’ve also used Video Submissions (again with an automated tool to save time, www.VidPostRobot.com) with a lot of success for BlogTactics, which gets around 6,000 unique visitors each month, even if I don’t post very often.

There’s a lot more I want to do with RSS to drive even more traffic, which is one of my upcoming projects, as using RSS feeds can be very powerful, if you get it right.

I love the way WP has a lot of SEO stuff built in, which can be helped even more with plugins like the “All in one SEO” plugin, and using an SEO friendly permalink structure which is such a basic mistake that a lot of people make.

~##~

7. What’s my most closely guarded secret about blogging?

LOL!

Any one who knows me, knows I don’t keep secrets, I enjoy sharing what I’ve learnt way too much, that’s what most of my “IM” blogs are for…

I’d say that the most important thing anyone wanting to make money with a blog can do is set up a newsletter and start building a list.

If you checkout any of the “Top” bloggers who are making real money, we all have an optin newsletter.

After that it’s probably realizing that finding a core of high quality (preferably recurring commission) affiliate programs, that you’ve tested and use yourself, to promote is far better, and more profitable, than just jumping on board with every new product that’s released.

This also helps you to build up relationships with the owners of those programs and be able to secure better deals for your subscribers.

And the last one, which could actually be the most important thing, is persistence!

or “bloody minded stubbornness” as my mother calls it…

Don’t expect to start making enough to quit your day job over night, it takes time and effort, but it is well worth it when you get there!

oh, I think I mentioned this one earlier, focusing on one thing at a time and not jumping around all the while is also very useful, although it’s something that all of us tend to be prone to, even after “going pro” and working full time online..

~##~

8. What makes my blogs different?

Well they say there’s nothing new in the world, and on the net that seems to be even more true, but each of my blogs has it’s own “angle” and I try to make sure they offer the best value I can give.

So http://IMTesting.com is simply sharing the results of my tests on products, to save other people the time and money doing so, which has made it pretty popular.

Where as BlogTactics.com is just full of free video tutorials of the kind of quality that you’d find in other people’s paid products, which again makes it popular, and means I get a lot of great feedback from visitors.

I don’t think it matters if there’s already a blog (or ten) that’s on the same subject as you want to do one on, just make sure you make your content as good as you can, get your message out there and keep at it.

~##~

9. How would I encourage more

visitors to comment on posts?

I’ve tried out quite a few of the standard tactics for increasing feedback and comments on blogs and the ones that I’ve found work best, so far, are the simplest ones.

Like running a competition, adding a survey, making a post on twitter (if you’ve got enough followers), or just ask people for their opinion.

Only a certain percentage of people will ever leave a comment, so it’s always going to be partly down to how many people read the post, but it does help once one or two have already left a comment, so you can always ask a friend or two to get the ball rolling.

~##~

10. Which are the blogs that I visit frequently and why?

Hmm, I don’t often visit other people’s blogs, simply because I’m usually too busy trying to get on with work of my own, and like spending time in forums, you can easily lose half a day just keeping up with the good bloggers out there.

But I do use a bit of software that lets me know when a new post is made on certain blogs, there’s currently a list of around 40+ blogs in it…

It’s a useful tool as if I spot a post that interested me I can quickly pop to the blog and I’ll usually be one of the first people to leave a comment, which can help to bring in some new visitors to my own blogs, providing the comment I leave is interesting and useful enough…

I do also pop in to some of my friend’s blogs now and then just to see what they’re up to and keep in touch.

~##~

11. Who are my favorite bloggers?

lol! As I mentioned in the last question, I “keep an eye” on 40+ blogs, and I’d consider all of them worth reading, but there are some obvious names that stand out from the crowd, like (in no particular order): -

Chris Garrett (no relation), who is a fellow Brit and a real savvy blogger

Darren Rowse, who is another one of the worlds top bloggers and shares some very useful info and tips

Yaro Starak, another top blogger who understands exactly how to make the most from his blog

Neil Shearing, who’s a fellow Brit internet marketer who is one of the most respected names in the industry, with good reason

Jonathon Leger, another internet marketer who is an absolute star at SEO stuff and tests everything before publishing his results

Dan McGonagle, simply because he’s a mate and we bang a lot of ideas of each other, so I gotta keep an eye on what he’s up to

Soren Jordansen, who’s another mate and a whiz at Traffic Exchanges, so I like to keep an eye on what he’s up to

Andrew Hansen, another top “IMer” who’s main business comes from blogs, so has some excellent tips and info.

Alvin Phang, watching what Alvin‘s achieved over the last 18 months has been very impressive and I’ve picked up some useful stuff from him

ShoeMoney and UberAffiliate, as they’re another two of the worlds top bloggers and I usually find something worth the time when I visit their sites

I’m sure I’m going to get in to trouble for missing some, but the list could go on and on….

12. What plugins can’t I live without and why?

I recently made a post on BlogTactics covering my favorite 12 plugins for WordPress

The list obviously includes some basic stuff like WP DB Backup and Google Sitemaps, but also the essential SEO plugins like the “All in one SEO” plugin and Deans Permalink Migration.

As well as the Ping Optimizer from www.MaxBlogPressPlugins.com to make sure your ping list is working properly and not unknowingly hurting your blog.

Then there’s plugins that make your blog more sticky and user friendly like “Subscribe To Comments” that let’s people who post a comment know when a follow up comment is posted on the same post.

And then there’s the “Post Teaser” that crops the post to a certain length (that you choose) for the front page as a “taster” of the main post, so people can see more posts easily, as well as “Brian’s Threaded Comments” which allows you to reply to individual comments posted.

There’s also the plugin that I use to automate my social bookmarking for posts, www.WPAutoSocialPoster.com plugin, which is the only “Paid” plugin listed.

If you’ve got a blog in the “make money online” or “internet marketing” niche, then the DealDotCom.com Widget is also a nice easy way of monetizing your blog.

Then there’s the www.UniqueArticlesWizard.com auto content posting plugin which is an absolute Gem, especially for automating “niche” market blogs.

I’ve added a video to BlogTactics to show how to use the “UAW” free plugin for automated posts – http://blogtactics.com/automated-unique-content-blog-posts/

I have one blog that only gets content from this plugin and it now receives around 4-5,000 unique visitors each month, all hands free for me, nice!

And of course there’s my own BlogRoll Link “NoFollow” plugin to make blogroll links “nofollow” if Google hits you with a PR0 penalty for allegedly selling links, which happened to me.

~##~

13. What’s the most important thing

I’ve learnt about blogging?

It’s hard to narrow it down to just one thing.

There’s simple stuff, like making sure you use the right permalink structure and a

good ping list.

You can grab a copy of the ping list that I use on http://Mat7.com/Blog/, it’s the second item down on the page.

Then there’s stuff that should be obvious, like make sure you post good quality content, spend some time working on backlinks and commenting on other related blogs.

Then there’s staying focused and keeping at it, having realistic expectations about being in for the long haul.

And of course making sure you don’t rely on AdSense for making money, there are far more effective ways, like building your own newsletter and concentrating on high quality products to recommend, and testing them out first yourself.

14. My Plans for the future?

At the moment I’m building out a new network of 150+ niche blogs at the moment which are to prove just how well one of my tactics for “Niche” blogging works, which I will be turning in to a video tutorial course on how anyone can do exactly the same. I like to help people realize that’s it really isn’t “rocket science”, you just need a simple, proven blueprint to follow.

It would probably already be done, but I forgot I should be outsourcing it, so now I’m preparing some videos for my outsourcing team to get them working on it, instead of me! lol!

~##~

Thanks for the questions Codrut, I hope your readers find my answers useful. J

Matt Garrett

Blog: http://MattGarrett.com

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MattGarrett/

Support: http://AskMattg.com

Blogging: http://Blogtactics.com

IM News: http://IAMUncovered.com

IM Tests: http://IMTesting.com

Blog Carnivals: www.BlogCarnivalSubmission.com

Resources: http://Mat7.com

PLR: www.PLRTutorials.com

We wish Matt success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

===

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

• WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail:

http://www.remarkableblogging.com/rb-products/wp-profit-maximizer/

• Lazy Blogging dot Com – “Here’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Building a Small Blog That Rakes-In $300, $3,000.. and Even $30,000 Per Month!”

http://www.LazyBlogging.com

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

No, that’s not a typo. I was fortunate enough to interview the owner of JohnChow.com’s rival – Jason Katzenback at JohnCow.com. What I find the most exciting thing about this blog is that’s so funny, entertaining and informative…

You not only will learn a ton of info on blogging and making money online, but also have a lot of fun at the same time.

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

I am married, have two beautiful children and have been fulltime online for 4 years now.

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

My first experience with a blog was back in 2004 using the “Tag and Ping” strategy for generating traffic to my other web sites. I certainly was not a blogger back them, instead I simply used blogs as a form of promotion.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

I had blinders on… since everyone was using blogs as a promotional type tool and the industry was so focused on “made for AdSense” type sites… the idea of creating unique and worthwhile content on blogs was not something I considered. There was so much focus on comment spam, pinging, trackback spam and more that I looked at a blog as nothing more then a spam tool.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of running a blog?

I actually got more serious about blogging back in November of 2005 with our new free software tool OrwellPro. The interaction you could have with your potential customers was eye opening. Since then I have started to use blogs in all my non IM niches but never really got into a blog about marketing online. I was so busy with teaching my members at http://www.PortalFeeder.com that it really did not seem like something worth doing. I think too I was a little intimidated to start giving away free information because of upsetting my paid customers.

When we launched DealDotCom.com a year ago, I had my eyes really opened to an entire different world of blogging and this really spiked my curiosity about creating a marketing focused blog. The audience of http://www.DealDotCom.com seemed to be largely related to blogging because of JohnChow who blogged about us. As I started to interact with these bloggers I realized that they really looked at things different from internet marketers… and not in a bad way, just in a different way. This is also the time I was introduced to the blog http://www.Johncow.com and thought that it was brilliant the way the owner tapped into the idea of being a knock off of JohnChow.

Over the next few months I was focusing on getting http://www.TrafficKahuna.com ready for launch and the entire time I played with the idea of starting my own blog until my business partners Jason Potash and Marc Quarles mentioned that http://www.JohnCow.com was for sale. We loved the “Brand” of JohnCow and thought this could be something very interesting to move forward with. So we purchased the blog in April and the rest is pretty much history J

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

I try to get a new post out everyday… but it is not always possible. There are some blogs that like short posts and lots of them, which I understand the reason for but that is not my style. Once I start writing, I need to tell a lot of detail… I want people to clearly understand what I am saying and have a hard time doing that in less then 400 words.

Most of my content ideas come from what I have come to know that people are interested in from my paid services like PortalFeeder and TrafficKahuna. I also write about what I find interesting and of course I listen to the comments and emails I get from readers.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

This is kind of an ironic situation right now. The majority of my traffic is repeat visitors… which is the best kind of traffic you can get, but Alexa has changed their algorithm and does not count repeat traffic at all anymore.

What’s ironic about this is I have put a lot of effort into generating a lot of repeat traffic through increased subscribers and I have not put as much effort into search engine traffic. Well now if you look at Alexa, my rank dropped dramatically (I posted about this a few days ago at…

http://www.johncow.com/alexa-sucks-and-i-think-you-will-agree/ ) however my Google Analytics shows I am receiving record traffic to Johncow.

Now that does not really answer your question but it relates to t because the main way I generate traffic is through encouraging my readers (through good content, contests, incentives and affiliate commissions) to spread the word about Johncow. I of course do a lot of link building but optimizing my content was put that on the back burner while I focused on increasing my subscribers.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

Stop making up excuses, Stop wasting time on busy work and stand out from the crowd. There really is no secret but these are the number one reasons.

I hear all the time people complaining about how little time they have, how “if only” they had so and so… it is ridiculous. These people think that they are busier then everyone else… that there must be something special that the successful people have done. This is absolute bull!

I started my business while I was working a full time job for a large fortune 500 company, I had a young family, my wife was suffering some health issues and we were involved in our local church. We all only have 24hours in a day and 7 days in a week and it comes down to prioritizing how you spend that time and what you focus on.

I hear people say they only have time to either write a post or promote it… not both. I think that is complete crap. Turn off the TV, put down the book, set your alarm a little earlier in the morning and get done what needs to be done.

The last part is to be different. Yes you want to model what the successful are doing but that does not mean copy. Being different is what gets you noticed and you need to find out a way to be different and then capitalize on it.

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

The first is having a COW for a mascot… this helps make or blog brandable. I feel we are also one of the few that actually talk from experience… I lot of “make money” blogs are written from people trying to make money… not already making money. So we have a little more authority on the subject. We are also incorporating JOHNCOWtv…

http://www.johncow.com/johncowtv/

…a new initiative that is using the power of online video to both educate and entertain. Each video will contain worthwhile advice and also something entertaining. I am excited to see how this develops.

We also have been able to use contests very successfully. I have talked with other bloggers who have tried but have not been able to make them work but we have done well with them.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

Post something controversial, add a poll to the post and then offer an incentive for the best comment.

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

I don’t read that many blogs in all honesty. My most frequently visited are…

• http://www.copyblogger.com – Excellent content on writing
• http://problogger.com – the best blogging blog there is
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ – closest thing to being friends with someone in google
• http://blog.seorevolution.com/ – best seo advice available
• http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/ – Yaro is a good friend and a great blogger.
• And I used to read http://andybeard.eu/ but he stopped posting for while. – honest and to the point.
• Last of all I have started to visit http://imwithjoe.com/ a fair bit because his videos make me laugh and he writes some genuine content.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

I can’t say I have a favorite, each of the above have their own unique flare when it comes to their blog. I loved Andy Beard’s because it was very much in your face and honest but I like blogs that offer advice and get involved with their readers.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

My top plugins are…

Akismet – http://akismet.com/

This is the best spam plugin of them all

All In One SEO – http://semperfiwebdesign.com/

Makes SEO optimizing your blog a breeze

Brian’s Threaded Comments – http://meidell.dk/threadedcomments/

If you want to interact with your readers who comment then this makes it a lot easier

Comment Luv – http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/commentluv-wordpress-plugin/

Fantastic incentive for people to comment on your site

XML Sitemaps – http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/

Very fast and easy way to create a Google sitemap

OIO-Publisher – http://download.oiopublisher.com/

Best ad manager for blogs

Polls – http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/

I love adding polls to posts to get my readers engaged

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

Find out how you can stand out from the crowd and get noticed. There are thousands of options and ask yourself “would I visit my blog if someone else owned it?”

People will not subscribe and return to your blog because you have a “Subscribe to my RSS” button on your blog, they will subscribe because there was something about your blog that stuck out to them. Find your unique angle and capitalize on it!

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

Johncow has lots and lots of plans, we are creating a lot of affiliate opportunities for readers to spread the word about us even more and get pad for it, we have started JOHNCOWtv, we are planning some great contests and lots more. http://www.Johncow.com will NOT be going on sale ever again… well unless someone offers me some insane amount of money J

We wish Jason success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

• WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail:

http://www.remarkableblogging.com/rb-products/wp-profit-maximizer/

• Lazy Blogging dot Com – “Here’s Everything You Wanted to Know About Building a Small Blog That Rakes-In $300, $3,000.. and Even $30,000 Per Month!”

http://www.LazyBlogging.com

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

What does he know that you don’t?

This is shocking, yet it’s not some magic formula. Almost anybody could copy his strategy.

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

I’m a 22 year old semi-retired internet marketer who recently became a father and I have been marketing online since 1999 (I was 13). I have never had to apply for a job, write a resume or go to a job interview. A lot of people tell me my story is unique and interesting and if you want to learn a lot more about my background you can see it on my blog http://www.reedfloren.com/who-is-reed-floren/

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

I had dabbled in blogging before but was never really passionate about it so I don’t think that counts.

On my http://www.reedfloren.com blog my first post was September 2^nd 2008 and the time of this interview it is October 5^th 2008 so I’ve been blogging about one month.

My blog’s PageRank is 4 and my Alexa 1 week ranking average is currently 75,667. For the month of September I had 11,030 unique visitors and 58,454 pages views, my blog also has over 1,300 comments on it.

I did spend some money outsourcing my blog design, I have writers who write for me and I did spend money on a press release but have NOT spent any money on advertising this site.

I reluctantly started blogging because my JV partners, friends, and customers wanted to see what I could come up with. So far I have enjoyed it a lot.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

My biggest mistake was not starting blogging earlier. I have gotten new JV partners, new clients, recognition and a lot of testimonials that I otherwise wouldn’t have in the past month plus I have been building a deeper relationship with my list and creating content which I can use in other ways such as the basis for future products.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

My customers and JV partners were asking for it. I reluctantly did what they asked.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

I publish at least once per day, I have a team of writers who I give them a few ideas for articles and then they write and I approve or disapprove of what they wrote for me.

Each article costs around $5 and I’m not just using them for my blog so it is very cost effective and allows me to spend more time with my family.

I am turning the articles into PowerPoint slides and then recording them with Camtasia as:

1. Individual videos to give away

2. Putting them into a product to sell

My ideas come from seeing other articles, products and what my customers ask for.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

Since my blog is new 99% of my traffic comes from my email marketing list. I tell my subscribers every time I put up a new blog post. This has helped get this blog off the ground and has made an excellent community for my subscribers to go to and learn/share their thoughts on internet marketing.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

You don’t have to write the content yourself; my blog readers LOVE what my writers are doing and it’s really not very expensive to have someone do that for you while you spend time with your family. For instance it costs me around $5 to have each article written if you were to do the same and have one written per day it would cost you only $150 per month plus you can use this content for other things such as a product.

The site I use to find these writers is http://need-an-article.net/

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

Anyone who has studied internet marketing enough or can outsource could compete with my blog. The difference that I have is:

1. My story (22 year old semi-retired marketer)

2. My email list sends a lot of my traffic

If I can do this you can do this; blogging is about as difficult as using Microsoft Word or sending an email.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

I would write something interesting or highly controversial. Currently my top post is on the birth of my son Zachary Thomas Iacono-Floren and that has nearly 200 comments on it.

Check it out here: http://www.reedfloren.com/marissa-parents/

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

If I somehow get on a blog that has something that grabs my attention I will read it but I do not go out of my way looking for blogs to read or follow.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

None, I don’t specifically follow any bloggers at the moment.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

These all seem to help my blog quite a bit.

Add to Any: Subscribe – this helps boost RSS readers

All in One SEO Pack – helps improve your search engine rankings

BredCrumb Navigation XT – improves navigation

Commentluv – if they have a blog and comment on mine it will show their last post under their comment

Comment Relish – sends a thank you email and reminds them to subscribe

FeedBurner – boosts and tracks RSS readers

Dean’s Permalkinks – I changed my permalinks and this redirects them

Get Recent Comments – show’s the people who comment the must, boost their ego

Google Analytics - tracks how visitors view my site

Most Comments – shows the posts with the most comments

Google XML Sitemaps – improve search engine rankings

NoFollowFREE – gives my readers another reason to comment because it boost their search engine rankings

Odiogo Listen Button (my readers LOVE this one) a computerized voice which sounds very human reads my posts and saves them as an MP3 for convenient download

Popularity Contest – displays the most popular items

Pyschic Search – tracks what people search for on my blog

SEO Post Link – makes my post link SEO friendly

Sociable – helps add my posts to social bookmarking sites

Subscribe Me – boosts RSS readership

Tweet My Blog! (updates everyone on my twitter and facebook that I posted something to my blog)

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

It’s really easy to blog; directly making money from the blog has been harder than I thought though but I’ve only been doing it a month.

However indirectly it’s been very nice; lots of testimonials, new clients, content for future products and a bigger presence.

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

My blog at http://www.reedfloren.com will have more guest bloggers.

Currently when I see someone has put a lot of time and effort into their comments on my blog and I agree with what they are saying I invite them to write for me (this costs me nothing as they do it on a volunteer basis).

I typically will invite them and if they are interested I will share a few more details on how it works and benefits them and then they will write for me for free. It’s win/win.

I want to switch more and more to a publisher role in my business as opposed to a marketer and once that step is completed just as an owner who has someone else manage it all.

We wish Reed success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail.

Lazy Blogging dot Com – Everything I learned about blogging!

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

Now he’s ready to take the Internet by storm and rake-in big bucks with his latest blogging ventures: Bloghology Blogging Magazine and Bloghology Social Network.

Find about Mert’s trials, errors and success in this brand new interview…

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

My name is Mert Erkal. I am 34 years old, and from Istanbul, Turkey. I worked for Maersk Line Turkey as Marketing Analyst between 1998-2008. As of August 2008 I left my full time job after 10 years of hardworking and dedication to earn my living from problogging and Internet projects. I am the chief editor of Bloghology Blogging Magazine.

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

I started blogging in 2006. My aim was to make some extra money to pay my mortgage debt. Between Dec 2006 till Sep 2007 I was using Blogger.com. Take a look at my blog at that time : Meeting-Continents. I used to write paid reviews from PayPerPost, Reviewme, Smorty etc. with that blog. I was making $20-30 per day with paid reviews. On the other hand I was writing about my lovely city Istanbul.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

Even though I was making good money, I realized that writing paid reviews was taking so much time. I had no time left for social life. I was working for a full time job, and then at nights I was chasing for paid review opportunities to write. I started to think about smarter ways to make money online before it is too late. That was the biggest mistake I made when I started.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

I was so lucky that I somehow got an invitation from Yaro Starak for his mentoring program Blog Mastermind. The lessons were coming to my email address on weekly basis. Yaro wanted his students to take some action in every week. It was not a one way communication. Yaro honestly told us that there is no easy way to make money online.

Yaro was giving us some weekly tasks to accomplish. One of the tasks was having a self hosted blog with your own domain name. At the moment I was reading a book by Viktor Frankl titled “Men’s Search For Meaning”. I inspired from the book title and put the name as Search For Blogging — http://www.searchforblogging.com.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

I publish 5-6 times a week. I got the ideas from my own experiences. I try out tools, products, books, websites, all kinds of idea related to blogging, and then share my own experiences with my readers. Main topic is making money online.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

It has been more than one year since my blog was launched. So I am an established blogger with 300+ RSS reader. Still I use social bookmarking tools like www.socialmarker.com to send my blog posts to 30+ social bookmarking sites. In addition I regularly use Blog Catalog, My Blog Log. Recently I discovered Twitter as a good promotion tool for bloggers.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

Don’t cheat your readers just to make some extra income. First try out before selling something to others. Don’t put money on the first place. Focus more on your content quality. Money will follow anyway.

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

My blog is powered by my personality. I believe that all bloggers should take a share from the online money pie. Today popular pro-bloggers are talking about ways of make money online with blogs, yet they are getting richer, majority of the bloggers are making less than 10$ a month. I want to break free from this vicious circle.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

I would finish my blog posts with some questions to be answered by the readers. Also I would use some plugins which encourages readers to comment on one’s blog.

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

I rarely spend my time reading other’s blogs. Having said that I visit blogs when I feel that there is something in them for me. Not a specific blog.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

Alex Sysoef at http://www.howtospoter.com/, Stephan Miller at http://www.stephanmiller.com/, Louis Liem, and Miguel Wickert at http://miguelpineiro.net are my favorite bloggers. They are quite natural most of the time, and adding value to their readers.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

Comment Relish and What Would Seth Godin Do. They help me increase my readership.

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

Blogging is no different than running a marathon. It is not a 100 m race. You should keep running all the time.

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

I am the chief editor of Bloghology Blogging Magazine. Also we launched the new Bloghology Social Network for Bloggers with my partner Vasilis Pasparas, owner of Interactive Global Media and publisher of the Bloghology Blogging Magazine.

What is next? It is not a secret. I am planning to provide design, blog support, and blog mentoring services through my blog by making joint ventures with experts on these fields.

We wish Mert success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail!

Lazy Blogging dot Com – Everything I learned about blogging!

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

I had the pleasure and opportunity to interview the pro blogger guy, Darren Rowse, his blog currently shows 66,740 RSS readers.

If you haven’t managed to get that many folks reading your blog yet, you have to listen to what Darren has to teach you about blogging. He gets the “lucky” chance to mail his blog readers every day…

If you had the opportunity to write for 66k people, do you think you could make at least $10,000? You bet! I suspect Darren makes a lot more…

Because he was too busy already and almost declined the interview, I decided to just ask him 8 easy questions

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

I’m a 36 year old guy living in suburban Melbourne Australia with my wife and two boys (they are 4 months old and 2 years old). After high school I studied Marketing for a while and then switched to Theology (a strange mix I know).

I’ve worked in a number of jobs over the years but most have centered around working in churches as a minister. I’m also a keen photographer and avid reader (although both have suffered since having a family I’m afraid).

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

I began blogging in November of 2002 on a personal blog which covered a lot of topics – everything from culture, spirituality, politics, movies, church and a lot more.

I originally got into blogging as a result of being sucked into and intrigued by a number of other blogs (particularly those talking about emerging forms of church). I was fascinated by the way that they gave people a voice and amplified that voice globally while also helping the blogger to form community around the topics that they wrote. I started a blog the very day that I stumbled upon these blogs.

Over the years I expanded that first blog into a number of more commercial or entrepreneurial blogs including Digital Photography School (a blog on digital photography) and ProBlogger (a blog with blog tips).

I’ve been lucky enough in the last few years to build these blogs into a full time income – blogging progressed from a hobby, to a part time job to a full time thing. I also started (with two other bloggers) a blog network called b5media.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

My mistakes happen on a daily basis – the key is to learn from them and to use those lessons so that you improve what you do.

One mistake that I made was to start ProBlogger with ProBlogger.net instead of ProBlogger.com. The .com version was not available in the early days but I could have bought it for a lot less than I eventually paid for it.

Similarly Digital Photography School is a URL with hyphens in it – something I wish I’d not done. However even mistakes like these don’t mean you’re doomed – I managed to build successful blogs, even on dodgy domains (phew!).

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

With ProBlogger the idea simply came about because I myself wanted to find information on how to improve my blog and make money from it – however I couldn’t find that kind of information anywhere – so I started my own to document my journey and in the hope of connecting with others doing similar things to me (ie to learn from others).

With Digital Photography School the idea came out of another blog which I was running that was aggregating digital camera reviews from around the web. I got a lot of emails from readers who appreciated the reviews but wanted to know how to use the cameras that they bought.

The logical response was to start writing tips on that topic – a new blog was born.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

On ProBlogger I attempt to publish two posts each weekday and one per day on the weekend. On Digital Photography School I aim to post once per day.

Content ideas come from a range of places including reader questions, extending ideas I’ve previously written about, building on ideas I get in ‘real life’, from interacting with people on social media sites like Twitter, offline sources (like magazines) etc.

I find that the longer I’ve blogged the more open I am to getting ideas in the day to day of life. It’s about looking out for these ideas and having ways to capture them.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

Ultimately it comes down to writing quality content over the long term and letting traffic grow naturally through readers sharing it with their friends, other bloggers linking to you, readers submitting content to social media sites etc. I’ve never really advertised my blog or begged for links from anyone – I spend the bulk of my time concentrating on writing the best content that I can.

Having said that – I learned a little about search engine optimization and am also actively participating on social media site – learning these skills can definitely help to get your site out there.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

I don’t really have any secrets – I write everything I know about blogging for money on ProBlogger. If there’s a ‘secret’ it is simply that it takes a lot of work and a long term view. It’s not really a ‘secret’ but many times people skip over the fact that it takes a long time and a lot of work – they think it’s possible to get rich quick blogging. The reality is that it’s not (unless you get extremely lucky).

8. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

My main plans are to continue to expand my blogs. I’m not really in a position to talk more about these expansion plans yet but hopefully by the end of the year there will be some news to share.

We wish Dareen success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail!

Lazy Blogging dot Com – Everything I learned about blogging!

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

You might think he’s fooling around, right?

Why in the world would a millionaire want to blog for a few dollars… why he doesn’t enjoy his millions and let us wrestle with this blogging thing!

Before you scream out loud, let me tell you that I just got a brand new interview with the net Fool in person, Jim…

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

Hey, my name is Jim and I am the author of www.theNetFool.com, a popular blog run through my conglomerate of online media, JRR Enterprises LLC.

I am a 19 year old student, a lead manager of a $5 million mutual fund and an online entrepreneur of sorts. I typically blog about how to make money online, so stop on by if you are interested in getting a second income through the internet.

2. When did you get started blogging, and why?

I got started blogging because I was looking for a resume booster. Sad but true, eh? Eventually this developed into an obsession with making money on the internet… so I shifted focus toward the entrepreneur aspect of things and started to help people make a living on their own.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

Refusing to put money into the project! Seriously, I wasted about 4 months of writing day in and day out with no yield because I had a crappy design and an underfinanced marketing scheme. You don’t need much to get started, but I do recommend investing in a premium theme from the get-go. In terms of marketing, the beginning is always the most painful. Once you get off the ground, you can really sustain yourself off of traffic from referred users.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

There are too many people that preach themselves as the “next best thing.”

So I though, hey, I’m just a fool like everyone else, eh? I can make money online… believe me. But the fact is that I’m not an expert, I’m just an average guy who works hard and will tell you what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes learning from your peers is a lot more effective that learning from one of the big guys.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

I try to publish every day. Unfortunately, as of late I am trying to do too much and it’s really taking a toll on my sleep habits! As a full time student and fund manager, I have to be aware of the markets and my studies.

Blogging comes third, sorry guys. However, I do take the time to write effective content and won’t clog your inbox with garbage. I mostly get my content ideas just from being there. I do a lot of things that my readers are interested in mirroring… so I’m going to give you all the tools to do exactly as I do, no strings attached.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

They come to me. Seriously, it’s like magic!

Since I have ~700 RSS readers, these guys will show up if I write something on that day. I see about 2x the traffic when I write… so that’s definitely an encouragement to write. In addition, if I write something sleek I typically get featured on other blogs. In the initial phase, you should try out social media websites like StumbleUpon and Digg. However, you are going to have to be self-sustaining after awhile… so get your RSS readers interested and you’ll see traffic spike.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

That’s kind of an odd question isn’t it? If something is my most closely-guarded secret, I would probably be pretty weak-willed to let it go as soon as someone asks. On the other hand, if I tell you that I don’t have one… you’d probably suspect me of lying.

Hmm…

Let’s just say that you can pick up on everything I’m doing to make money by subscribing to my RSS feed. Yes, I’m going to make you read through my antics to find out the more profitable techniques.

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

Are you kidding me? I’m the Net Fool! You definitely can’t top that. The other jokers out there have smaller blogs… whereas I’m one of the few that has been able to creep up toward 1,000 readers without conforming to the standard tactics and repetition. Give me one reason X blogger is better than me and I will either offer up 2 rebuttals or resign from office.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

That’s easy! Write something controversial. Many people think controversial means writing “Google is Bad” but that won’t cut it. I have found that you can either A. comprise a huge list where you link to 20+ other blogs to essentially beg for comments and traffic. Or you can B. take a successful blogger and cut him down a few notches in public. Don’t be rude, just be effective. We don’t want a lawsuit on our hands, and you can always go at someone without actually offending them on paper… think about that!

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

I’d rather not list my entire RSS feed, because I like to spread the wealth around and don’t really focus in on one or two specific bloggers. I usually check in and support the smaller bloggers more than I read bigger blogs, basically because I like to see what the up and comers are thinking. www.IMWithJoe.com is one of my favorites in that category. Mid-cap blogs I like are www.JohnCow.com and www.TylerCruz.com. I like to frequent stock market blogs like Between the Hedges and Bullish Bankers as well for my daily market reads.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

My favorite bloggers are the cow himself, Jason Katzenback, the family man Gary Conn, ShoeMoney’s Jeremy Schoemaker, IMWithJoe’s Normal Joe, MoneyBites’s “madman” Max and The University Kid’s Jason Pereira. These guys are generally industry names, and great people to work with.

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

My favorite plugin is All In One SEO because it makes WordPress a lot more viable as a Google-rankable product. If you are using standalone WordPress, you are in a world of hurt!

I’m also a big proponent of CommentLuv to get people some commenting motivation, OIO Publisher for advertising (best option by far) and Top Commentators for getting people talking.

One of my secret tools is the stock market plugin that I use to generate in-text stock quotes from companies that are updated in real time with the American markets. You can see an example of this in almost any post on BullishBankers.com

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

“Blogging won’t make you any money, having a blog will.”

Yes, it sounds counter-intuitive… but I actually make next to nothing from my blog. This is pretty standard (unless you are ripping off your advertisers or are using your blog as a spam service), and I really believe that the true power of being a blogger is from your networking. If you can build a strong network of users to interact with you and play along with what you are trying to do, you can leverage this to build up big incomes every month. When you have people that follow what you do, this will usually lead you to great commissions from everyone working with you!

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

I’m definitely going to try to pass 1,000 subscribers before year end. I’ll probably at least get close, eh? There are certain plateaus to blogging I believe, and I am currently in one. I literally exploded from around 200 to 600 and am now sitting steady around 700 for awhile. This is totally natural and as long as I put out good content I will get the subscriber base before long.

To me, I really only care about increasing my influence on the Internet… the more people I can help out, the happier I am. I’m in the business of under-cutting the profits of the “big boys” out there… and I am going to continue serving the public until I feel like the blog has reached its tipping point. It’s really a lucrative business, and I believe strongly that I can keep building and growing for quite a while. J

Stay Bullish on the Net!

-The Net Fool

We wish Jim success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!
If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail!

Lazy Blogging dot Com – Everything I learned about blogging!

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com

You could answer: everything! Almost… I had the privilege to interview fellow Romanian blogger, Alex Cristache, and find out some secrets from his blogging experience.

He’s a motorcycles and hip-hop music fan, if you get to have similar passions, you could make a new friend today

Click here to download the PDF version of this interview, or read the text version below:

1. Would you mind sharing a few things about

yourself and your background for our readers?

I’ve landed on planet Earth about 28 years ago and disguised myself as a web savvy dude for the last 9 years. Seriously? Ok, I suppose I could call myself a web designer, even though I’ve done quite a lot of other things in my past, from web design to development, corporate identity, web copywriting, SEO, it’s hard to remember everything. I love motorcycles and hip-hop music, as long as it’s not about “money, hoes and pimps”.

2. When did you start blogging, and why?

About 3 years ago, out of pure curiosity and willing to share some of my thoughts and experience.

3. What’s the biggest mistake you

made getting started with this?

Not keeping a schedule, or having a schedule but ignoring it. Chaos seems fun, but in the end, it manages to break everything that you’ve built. Luckily, I became aware fast enough.

4. How did you come up with the

idea of launching your blog?

Blogging is pretty much related to all my past online activities, and since I thought that my experience could be helpful for some people out there, plus the fact that I love WordPress and it’s flexibility, www.Blogsessive.com was the next logical step to take.

5. How often do you publish and

how do you get content ideas?

Usually I publish about four posts a week, but only because I also need to dedicate time to my freelancing activities. Otherwise, I’d publish at least two posts per day.

Content ideas? From my own experiences, from things I read, from music I listen, from movies I watch. Basically, everything can become a source of inspiration, that’s why I like to keep an open mind.

6. How do you mainly receive (or generate)

traffic to your blog?

My main traffic sources would be social bookmarking websites and Google searches. Lately, I’ve been focusing on attracting more search engine traffic, since it has much more benefits than those traffic spikes in stats.

7. What is your most closely-guarded

secret about blogging for money?

There’s no secret. Well, maybe for the lazy people. Money don’t fall out of the sky. You need to work, to invest, to sacrifice. Sure, ads on a blog could bring some cash, maybe even a decent amount, but I’ve always placed my bet on “additional services”.

Becoming an authority in your niche gets many opportunity doors opened. I’m not yet what you’d call an authority in blogging, but I’m working my way to that. Even so, people come to me for consulting services on blogs, WordPress themes design and development, basically, all things blogging and design related.

8. What differentiates your blog among

all the others in your niche field?

Good question. I’ll let my readers judge the quality of my posts, but they seem to enjoy them. Two things that could make Blogsessive stand out are the design and my once-in-a-while-creative-posts. If you look for my posts that relate bloggers to Hollywood actors (http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/are-bloggers-hollywoods-next-big-shots/), or blogging tips collection out of song titles (http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/10-blogging-tips-from-the-top-100-songs-of-2007/), you’ll see what I’m talking about.

9. If you had to get a boost in comments

from your blog readers, how would you do it?

Ask for them. Start an open discussion. If you’re thinking about paying for comments, forget it. The best way to do it is to train your conversational skill. Also, answering comments will most likely encourage further conversations.

A good way to attract comments is to startle your community with sensitive topics, provocative thoughts. Find out what they find interesting, and then, look for weak points. It’s a dangerous game, but readers will want to share their views, some positive, some negative, but still a good deal of reactions.

I’ve done this with a post called 20 Reasons Why Your Make Money Online Blog Will Fail (http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/20-reasons-why-your-make-money-online-blog-will-fail/). I’ve been getting a good reaction on that one.

10. Which are the blogs you visit frequently and why?

www.Problogger.net

www.Copyblogger.com

www.SmashingMagazine.com

www.Traffikd.com

www.LostArtofBlogging.com

www.Rubiqube.com

and www.WordsOfaBrokenMirror.com. Why? Because I always enjoy their content, with no exception! With the last two I even formed an “alliance” called WiseVox Network, but we’re still working on the concept.

11. Which are your favorite bloggers and why?

Darren Rowse for the example he has become. By the way, look for “blogging” in Google and see what website comes amongst the first results. Amazing right? Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, Chris Garrett, Chris Brogan.

Why?

100% quality content!

12. Which plugins you can’t live without and why?

Akismet does the job stopping most spam comments. All In One SEO Pack has proved to be a faithful companion in my SEO strategies, just as Google XML Sitemaps did. Finally, Bookmark Me made it a lot easier for my community to save favorite posts with their preferred bookmarking services.

13. What is the most important thing you learned about blogging that you could share with your best friend?

Be yourself, and don’t talk about things you’re not good at. The community will let it go once, twice, but in the end, they’ll smell it. Fake it till you make it is only a myth.

Luckily, I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen examples. Don’t ask me who, it’s not nice to point fingers.

14. What plans do you have for

the future with your blog?

I’m still investing time and creative energy in it and will continue to do so. I have no plans to sell on “retire”. I enjoy the rush too much.

Cheers!

We wish Alex success in the future and thank you very much for sharing your BLOGGING tips, tricks & secrets with us all!

If you want to get further into blogging, check out these resources:

WordPress Profit Maximizer – The BEST WordPress Plugins sent to you weekly via e-mail!

Lazy Blogging dot Com – Everything I learned about blogging!

Thank you,

Codrut Turcanu.

http://www.CodrutTurcanu.com