Blazing Minds

Welcome to another Blogger interview here on Blazing Minds, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, this week I bring you an interview with Angelika..

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: Angelika, 37 year old single mother to an almost 14 year old man/boy.I live near Chattanooga, TN. But I consider myself to be from Bowie, MD because I have fond memories of the place.

I’ve actually lived in the south since I was 15, but I still don’t have the accent so I’m still a Yankee to all these southerners, LOL.

Q: Hi Angelika, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: Back in 1999, I had a website. I learned HTML & Paintshop Pro for that blog (both are useful for blogging)

Then, when my son was 5 ish I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

So I had no job while waiting for disability and a lot of time on my hands. I went back to Delphi and heard a lot of people talking about blogs.

I started on MySpace, hated it. Got a blog on Tripod (my website host), and finally settled on blogger after trying all of the free blog hosts.

I liked being able to change the HTML on my blog and it’s easier for me with Blogger than other free hosts like WordPress or whatever.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: No more than I want it to.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: 51% comes from referring websites like Entrecard or other blogs
24% comes from direct traffic
24% search engines

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Yes. I have my blog address on every profile for every social network thing I use. Twitter, youtube, facebook, plinky, fuelmyblog, digg, etc.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Have Fun. Blog because you like expressing yourself, or to keep an online diary, or to keep your family that’s halfway across the country updated on what’s going on in your life.

Be social. That means reading other blogs and commenting. Not spamming just to get a backlink, but comments that add value or humor to the original post. When you comment on a blog, a lot of people will follow you back to your blog. I’d be willing to bet that I’ve gotten some of my traffic from people who saw a comment I made on another blog & wanted to know what else I said. Whether it was “Is she really this stupid, or was this a joke?” to “Wow, that was deep. I wonder what else she said.”

USE LABELS. I am not the only person in the world who hates Oprah. I know this because almost 2 years after writing the post “Why I hate Oprah“, I still get visits from search engines to that post EVERY MONTH and probably new readers too.

Update regularly. That doesn’t have to mean daily updates, do whatever works for you, but try to update at least once a month. Even if it’s just to tell your readers why you aren’t blogging.

I tend to take summers off from “blogging” because The Boy is home all day using the computer or driving me crazy so I’m too worn out to blog. I stay active by reading other blogs and commenting, Tweeting and visiting forums.

Don’t ever just stop writing for weeks on end with no word about why.

Blog visitors are people who grow to care about you like any real life friend would. They are concerned if they don’t hear from you.

I’m not much of a social butterfly in real life and I could easily become a hermit if not for the internet and the friends I’ve made through blogging.

Be yourself. You are not Perez Hilton or Dooce. You’re probably not going to become famous or rich from blogging. I probably won’t see you on The View or Bonnie Hunt, but that shouldn’t be your goal, IMO.

Expressing yourself should be your main goal.
Having fun should be a primary goal.
Spreading love, peace & souuuuuuuuuuul should be a goal. (heh. Ever seen Soul Train?)
Not disappearing into a shack in the woods and wearing nothing but hoodies should be a goal.

Blogging keeps me participating in life socially without wearing myself out physically and spending money buying clothes so I can look good in public. (LMFAO! Did that make you wonder what I’m wearing now, LOL.)

Thanks Angelika.

If you are interested in an interview on Blazing Minds then please use the Contact Me button at the top of the Blazing Minds blog..

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Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger Brad Reason
2. Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger, Benjamin Lang
3. Blogger Interviews with Blazing Minds
4. Blazing Minds Interviews Justin Germino aka Dragon Blogger
5. Blazing Minds interviews Victoria Pires from Glowstars

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Blogger Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.