Blazing Minds » Blogger Interviews

Blazing Minds Interviews Matt Stratton From Good Old Rock

Karen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:20:31 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Matt Stratton, and I am the the Manager of Technical Operations for a major real estate classifieds website. Previously, I have designed and architected systems for some of the largest companies in the world, including GE and JPMorganChase. In my current position, I am responsible for strategic decisions for the design and implementation of system infrastructure, and researching emerging technologies such as cloud computing.

I’m also an avid photographer and former independent filmmaker, and live in the suburbs of Chicago with my wife, twin sons, and a Sheltie named Scout.

My main blog is Good Old Rock, but I also maintain a blog for updates on my new twin sons at http://strattonboys.com and I am a contributor to Today’s iPhone.

Q: Hi Matt, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog technically started in 2001 as a LiveJournal. I don’t remember exactly what the catalyst for the initial startup was, but I wrote in that LiveJournal for about 7 years. Then, in late 2008, due to rumors of LiveJournal being shut down by Russians, I decided to migrate off of LJ to a self-hosted blog. I’ve had the domain name mattstratton.com for almost 13 years, but mostly used it on and off for website hosting and email. But I moved all of my old LiveJournal content to a WordPress installation on that domain, and the rest is history.

The name of my blog comes from a Simpsons episode:

Lisa: Look, there’s only one way to settle this. Rock-paper-scissors.
Lisa’s brain: Poor predictable Bart. Always takes `rock’.
Bart’s brain: Good ol’ “rock”. Nuthin’ beats that!
Bart: Rock!
Lisa: Paper.
Bart: D’oh!
– “The Front”

Unfortunately, there’s no actual reason for me to have named by blog after this episode, except for the fact that it always makes me laugh. And now…well, there’s just no turning back!

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: It takes up about as much time as I allow it to. If I schedule myself well, I can usually write a week’s worth of posts in about 2 hours…but I am not as diligent about that as I should be, so I often find myself writing a post when I can squeeze in a few minutes here and there during the day. This month (Feb 2010) I have committed myself to the 28 Day Blogging Challenge, which has definitely added to the time I spent blogging each week. I also contribute to a major iPhone blog, which adds to the time that it takes.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Up until last week, the majority of my traffic was organic Google traffic. However, last Monday I received over 25,000 visitors from Reddit, which really changed that game. Generally speaking, however, I’m all about organic traffic. The rest of my visitors either come from shared links on Facebook or Tweets.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I use both Facebook and Twitter heavily to promote my blog. Every blog post is tweeted,and I get a fair amount of traffic from those tweets (depends a LOT on the post, of course, and how well I structured the tweet!). I used to share every blog post as a link on my personal Facebook page, but I’ve recently switched to using a Fan page for my blog (even though I hate the term “Fan” page), so that the links were more “opt in”.

I recommend both Facebook and Twitter for any blogger looking to build traffic, but I caution them to make sure that they don’t SOLELY use those networks to promote. People will not be interested in following you on Twitter if all you tweet are links to your blog, for example. If you engage in those social networks, your followers/friends will be far more likely to click on your links and read what you have to say.

Personally, if someone just uses Twitter to spew out links to their blog, I will tend to unfollow them quickly.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Write. Write great content. Write a lot. Write original content.

Don’t worry about traffic. If you great interesting content, the traffic will come. Forget about SEO and keywords when you start. Figure out what you are smart about, or what you have a voice about, and write about that.

Write well. Use spellcheck. Like it or not, your reputation and credibility will suffer if you look like a lazy writer.

And finally – network! Get to know other bloggers, but more than just for a link exchange. Engage other bloggers on Twitter or Facebook and build relationships.

Thanks Matt.

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Blazing Minds Interviews Matt Stratton From Good Old Rock is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger Brad Reason

Karen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:23:17 +0000

Welcome one and all to another in my serious of blogger interviews, these interviews may bring you more about bloggers you may know and even bring to your attention to a blogger that you may of never heard off and will of discovered through Blazing Minds, so please read on and enjoy.

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Brad Reason. In the virtual world “Second Life” I am known as Doubledown Tandino. My hometown is Baltimore, Maryland. I am currently living in South New Jersey and also in Manhattan, New York. I am a professional music creator and DJ, Second Life specialist, and a new media marketing specialist. I combine performance and creative arts with technology and the internet.

Q: Hi Brad, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog: http://djdoubledown.blogspot.com started in 2007. Originally, it was a niche blog that focused on the DJ, music, and nightlife scene within Second Life. As time went on, I expanded my blogging topics to include music technology, internet broadcasting, social media, viral and trending aspects of the web, while still also keeping up with Second Life and virtual world music, performance, art, and creativity.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Blogging specifically does not take up a lot of my time, but being inside Second Life to find topics to blog about does. Using Second Life is a full-time job. Using social media and web 2.0 is also a full-time job. Blogging is an integral aspect to everything that I do. Getting people to read and follow my blog sometimes takes up more time than actually blogging.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: My traffic comes from a combination of utilizing Second Life, as well as using social media outlets such as twitter, facebook, friendfeed, linkedin, and many more. The combination of aggregation I have set up is the force that drives people to my blog.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I find myself testing generally all of the social networking and social media sites out there. Any new media site that comes along, I give it a try, and test it’s tools. Facebook, Twitter, and now Google Buzz seem to work best currently, but because the social media world is shifting constantly, I am adjusting on a daily basis.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Just start! Do it! Stop thinking about it and just start! Now! immediately! There’s no reason to wait. There’s no reason to second guess. There’s no reason to put it off thinking that you may not gain readership or a following. Initially, a blog is about you and what you feel you can write about… so do it. Disregard thinking about what may or may not happen. Just get some blog posts posted. Claim your presence in the blog world by actually posting blog articles. Later in the blogging game is when you will want to consider how to gain readership. Consider the first weeks of blogging as a journal for yourself. Months down the road is when opportunities, connections, and possibilities open up.

Thanks Brad.

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Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger Brad Reason is a post from Blazing Minds

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Interview with Blogger Heather Kephart from Happymaking

Karen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:46:26 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Heather Kephart. I just moved to the Dallas, Texas area a month ago. I am a native Californian and have lived all over the state – North Monterey County, Placerville, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Folsom, San Francisco, Palm Springs. There’s more, but I’d only just embarrass myself by revealing the amount of times I’ve moved of my own volition.

Q: Hi Heather, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog Happymaking is the product of evolution. I started just over a year ago at Howtobeawoman.net, focusing on what I needed to learn in order to be a “real” woman, rather than an extended adolescent. I got myself a Twitter account and started to learn about branding, so I thought – well heck, I’m going about this all wrong. I changed my name on Twitter from womanintraining (never really worked for me, people seemed to assume I was in recruiting) to RetroHeather, purchased the domain of the same name, and promptly suffered a crisis of identity. Who was RetroHeather? What did she care about? I hadn’t the slightest clue. I accidentally deleted that blog (twice!) while trying to figure out Filezilla, so I moved over from Wordpress self-hosted to Blogger where I felt reasonably sure that it wasn’t possible for me to delete my blog (again!).

That blog name was Happymaking, a play on words. It was initially supposed to be a crochet blog, and I was supposed to be happy making crocheted hats. I couldn’t stand writing about crochet all the time, and eventually a little bit of “me” seeped into that blog. Before I knew it I was writing about my life, my dreams, and my personal observations. During that time I realized that I had an interest not in simply blogging, but in writing as well. I became interested in the placement of words and their effect on me and my readers. So (sigh, I know) I immediately started a writing blog called Textual Medium at heatherkephart.com. Eventually I dropped the Blogger version of Happymaking, exported it to heatherkephart.com, changed the title of that blog to Happymaking and called it a day. Are you as exhausted as I am? Barring a complete mental breakdown, I am there to stay.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: The actual blogging, not so much. The blogging and social media “scene”, yes. I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person. Moderation remains an elusive, unattainable goal. I promise myself I’m only going to comment on five blogs today, then turn off my computer and take the kids for a walk. However, after I’ve commented on five blogs I find myself feeling guilty about the blogs I didn’t comment on. After all, don’t they deserve my attention as well? Of course they do. And what about my Twitter friends? And friends and family on Facebook? Don’t they deserve my attention? Next thing I know, the day is gone and there are bags under my eyes and I’m wondering how I let it happen again.

I’m currently working out a way to keep on blogging without having it be so all-consuming. I need to focus more on my family and on learning to write, and networking and learning from those in the writing community, so that I may learn from them. And then I need to turn my computer off. After all, what is one to write about if one is always on the computer? I’m simply going to have to get over my all-or-nothing and guilt issues, and do what is right for me and my family.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: I’d say most of my traffic comes from my friends and family on Facebook, and from my Power50 seo group. Most of my posts are of a personal nature, so I don’t get a whole lot of organic traffic.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I love Facebook. I find it to be more personal than Twitter. I recently sucked up my reservations and created a Facebook Fan Page, and most of my friends responded in a supportive manner. Nobody threw rotten tomatoes at me! (Yet!) At this point, I recommend a combination of a Facebook personal page and a Facebook fan page for blog promtion and social networking. Also, the Networked Blogs application on Facebook. There are so many fabulous bloggers who use the application. It’s not hard to find like-minded individuals that way.

I am also a member of Twitter Moms and Mom Blogger’s Club. I find them useful and entertaining, but I simply don’t have the time to utilize them as I should.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Stay in one spot! Pick your web address and stay there. Don’t keep hopping all over the web. It’s awful for your seo, and it makes you look like a goofball. Also, figure out what kind of blogger you want to be. If you want to make money at it, you will have to create a niche blog, or a series of niche blogs, and stay very focused within. If you are not interested in making money from your blog, then you have more leeway.

Write with authenticity. Be yourself. Don’t give away too much, but do share bits of yourself. Comment on other blogs of interest to you, and try to develop relationships that way. Get yourself a Gravatar and a Twitter account. Join Facebook and Networked Blogs. Comment on other blogs, and check out other blogs’ sidebars for widgets or clubs that might be of use to you. Don’t be afraid to try things. Like me, you will certainly make some missteps, but you will learn as you go. And most of all, have fun with it!

Thanks Heather.

———————–

Enjoyed what you’ve read, then check out Heather on Happymaking and follow her on Twitter.

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..

Interview with Blogger Heather Kephart from Happymaking is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blazing Minds Interviews Dr. Rus D. Jeffrey

Karen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:16:24 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: I’m Dr. Rus D. Jeffrey. My Doctorate is in Ministry. Aside from being a Pastor for a number of years, I’ve also been involved in broadcasting for the past 30 years. In 2005 my wife and I started reviewing movies. We are now official movie critics. Our first book of movie reviews was published in 2007. While there are plans for future yearly books, our reviews now appear on our website – Frame by Frame: A Family-Friendly Guide to the Movies – http://framebyframe.godlaughs.net – We also do weekly recorded movie reviews which currently air on three radio stations. We live in Upstate New York, just outside of Rochester, New York.

Q: Hi Rus, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: As mentioned above, our blog is Frame by Frame. It started as a direct outflow of our movie reviews. The name comes from the idea that we review movies “frame by frame” as we see them. The main branding point for us is our rating system. We call it the Lloyd system. We rate movies out of 5 Lloyds. Our main logo we have named Lloyd. It’s short for “celluloid” which is a spin on the celluloid, or film, that movies are made on. We have a number of different variations of Lloyd which you can find on the website.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: I’m the News Director at a local radio station – http://www.1420wack.com – As News Director I do the morning run which means I work Monday through Friday 4am to 12noon. Much of my blogging is done there. Aside from the movie reviews on the blog, I post weekly Box Office Results posts, as well a New In Theaters post every week. Aside from those set posts, I also blog about other movie and entertainment news on pretty much a daily basis. The posts are usually done in the morning.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Traffic to the blog comes from a number of sources, but the main source at this point is probably StumbleUpon. I usually try to Stumble all of my posts. However, depending on what’s going on in the world of entertainment, Google searches can increase my hits a lot too. For example, when the story broke about Will Ferrell posing in the background of a couple’s engagement picture, my traffic saw a huge increase. I’ve written about Ferrell on a number of occasions so when people searched his name, the Frame by Frame blog came up in the search engine.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Yes, I’m very active on social media networks. Most of my time is spent on Twitter. However, also use FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Plaxo. But, I feed those networks via my Ping.fm account. As I’ve been building our Frame by Frame and Lloyd brand, it’s been via Twitter.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Find your niche and work on your brand. It’s a sea of bloggers out there on the Internet and it can be a very busy place to try to get yourself established. But, with focus and the use of social media such as Twitter and then using some bookmarking avenues like StumbleUpon, Digg, etc., you will find your readership building. Nothing is an overnight success. Keep at it, and stay focused on your passion.
Thanks Vic.

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Blazing Minds Interviews Dr. Rus D. Jeffrey is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blogger Interview with Quirky Jessi

Karen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:04:12 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?

A: I’m Quirky Jessi, of course. When profiles ask where I’m from, I always say “The Quirky World” or “A little hole online,” or something silly like that because I’ve moved around a lot. I’ve never lived in a place for more than 3 years, but unfortunately, the places weren’t very exciting either…Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri. I thrive online, though, and have kept in touch with people from everywhere I’ve been, so it’s really cool.

I love making people laugh and I’m easily entertained myself, so you’ll rarely find me complaining. “Bored” was considered a bad word in my house growing up and as an adult, I continued with that same principle. There are always things I could be doing or ways to have fun, so that’s one of my core philosophies. Who has time to be bored?

Q: Hi Quirky Jessi, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?

A: I started Quirky Jessi a little over 3 years ago. Technically it’s “The Quirky World of Jessi.” A couple years ago when I decided to move to my own domain, I couldn’t decide between using “quirkyjessi” or “quirkyworld,” so I let my readers decide. An overwhelming amount said I should go with Quirky Jessi because it was more personal, but really, the site isn’t about me at all. Ha!

I ‘am’ the writer behind it and I do have my fair share of quirks, though. The focus of QJ is really all the quirky, silly, odd things I find across the web or in day-to-day life. Over 3 years’ time, the content has shifted some so it’s less about stories from my actual life or retold humour bits, and more about the strangest sites or products I find online.

In that last month alone, the variety has ranged from maternity dresses that grow with your baby, to air freshener shaped trees to cover up your pet’s butt, to shapeable vases and origami tea bags. I posted about giant purple rocking hotdogs, Mr. E.T. (a composite image of Mr. T and E.T.), cats eating with chopsticks, funky bindis, and tree scarves. The month of November I dedicated entirely to crazy gaming stuff for NaBloPoMo. Really, you never know what’s going to show up next there, but it’ll always be something quirky, and that’s what makes it so fun.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?

A: Yes and no. The actual writing portion doesn’t. I spend a huge amount of time reading feeds, hanging out on forums, keeping in touch with other bloggers, etc, though, which is all somehow connected to my blog. I love what I do and all the people I’m surrounded by, but as a whole package, I do spend way more time than I should admit doing it all, hehe.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?

A: Search engines, hands down. Although I’ve been at this for 3 years, I really only have about 700 posts (I cut back to posting every other day, and early on, I didn’t know what I even wanted out of it, so there were some breaks). Even so, that’s a lot of content. People are always looking for the wackiest stuff, and somehow end up on my site because of it.

Many times the post they land on is exactly what they’re looking for. For several months, I ranked #1 on Google for Snuggies and lots of Snuggies-related questions, so thousands of people showed up for that, and I still get a fair bit of traffic from it. Questions about Smooth Away and requests for knuckle tattoos are strangely high, too. Others show up on QJ because they worded their search requests wrong, and oops, got something quirky instead!

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?

A: This is another yes and no question. I do use several social networks, but I don’t go out of my way to promote my blog. I go with the more natural approach of making real connections, talking with real people, reading those real people’s blogs and commenting, and hey, if I get some traffic kicked back my way in the end, then all the better. Of course I could get a lot more traffic if I actively promoted, but I always have liked doing things backwards. :p

Recommendations depend on the people who want to use them. Twitter can be awesome, but it’s definitely not for everyone and can be a huge waste of time. Forums like Blog Engage and Bloggeries rock, but if you aren’t very social, don’t like posting, or are selfish, then enthusiasm at one won’t last long. I don’t use Facebook to its fullest potential, but I know it can be really good for traffic and networking if used regularly. I hear a lot of people say that they don’t want their family and friends knowing about their sites, but that’s when people should create a separate account just for their site or at the very least, create a fan page instead. StumbleUpon can bring a lot of traffic, but it comes in spikes and most times, those people don’t stay for more than a couple seconds and never come back, so think about if that’s what you really want.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?

A: If you’re writing about content you don’t enjoy, you’re going to burn out or constantly struggle. If you’re focused on making money, you may eventually make some, but it’s going to be a dull, lonely road, and you’ll probably be frustrated more often than happy, at least in the very beginning. Even if your focus is on keeping your readers happy and not on your site numbers, be sure to keep your offline life in check, too. If posting twice a day means sacrificing time with your family, nip that in the bud early on or it’s just not going to be worth it in the end.

Thanks Quirky Jessi.

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Blogger Interview with Quirky Jessi is a post from Blazing Minds

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Interview with Salman from Blogging Tips

Karen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:01:59 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?

A: First of all thank you for the great and awesome opportunity to introduce myself to your readers. Hello everyone, my name is Salman. I am from Hyderabad – India. I am a student come part-time blogger. I love blogging, making money online, gaining and sharing knowledge. Take a look at my blog Blogging Tips.

Q: Hi Salman, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?

A: My blog is about Blogging Tips, Make Money Online, SEO, Traffic Generation……I used wet paint to create my first blog in June 2008 for fun. I created my professional blog in April 2009 by using blogger as my blogging platform. For first few months I used the co.cc free domain. Later in Oct 2009 I switched to co.in domain. I was lucky to get the domain www.bloggingtips.co.in because as you know Blogging Tips is a very competitive keyword.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?

A: Yes blogging takes up lot of my time but the time is worth spending.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?

A: Most of the traffic which comes to my blog is from search engines. I also get traffic from social media and blog walking.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?

A: Yes, I use social networks to promote my blog. I recommend every reader of your blog to join Blog Engage social network.It is very beneficial. Just 10-15 votes are required for the article to be on home page.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?

A: I would like to advice new bloggers to continue blogging even if you do not get success. You usually start from scratch and you will learn from your mistakes.

Thanks Salman.

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Interview with Salman from Blogging Tips is a post from Blazing Minds

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Interview with Mandy from A Passion To Understand

Karen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:56:49 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: This is a great idea Karen! I like reading your interviews because I always learn from your interviewees no matter how much I thought i already knew. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Mandy and I come from South Africa originally. I moved over to London, England in 2007 with one husband, two cats and two dogs. I blog under the name “Emm” (as in “Emm” is for Mandy).

Q: Hi Mandy, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: I started my blog http://passiontounderstand.blogspot.com/ on 12 February 2009 although I imported some entries from my previous blog. My blog is called “A Passion to Understand” and the tagline is “a passionate view of world events and the desire to understand why”. I had been trying for a long time to make sense of the events in Zimbabwe, Rwanda and the Balkans and to understand how things such as genocide and crimes against humanity could happen. I had the idea that if I broke it down for myself in a way that I could understand it then perhaps other people would find that useful too.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Blogging does take a lot of my time although that is mainly because I am a sucker for punishment and have decided to maintain three blogs. I would say that I spend at least 10 hours a week blogging, in addition to working full time as an Office Slave. It is not an excessive amount of time but still… it adds up.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: The primary source of traffic to all of my blogs comes from me actually posting. I spent so much time on social networks trying to drum up traffic for my blogs only to realise that I got huge peaks from Feedburner whenever I do post. Over time though, I have noticed more and more traffic coming from search engines too. That is always a great bonus – I read on a blog called The Blog Report the other day that readers are already interested in your content if they arrived on your blog through a search engine. That means half your work is done.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I use Entrecard and CMF to promote my blog as well as BlogCatalog. A lot of people are really against Entrecard but I find their systems of catagorizing blogs to be excellent and I really depend on them to find blogs in the areas I’m interested in. For example, Entrecard has an excellent and varied group of political bloggers which I like to read. CMF has an excellent community and really helpful maintainers. By really getting involved in both Entrecard and CMF and focusing on reading other blogs and leaving meaningful comments, I find that I make friends and obtain readers too. So many people leave rubbish comments on other blogs but that is just silly. Your comment is often the first thing another blogger sees about you; it is similar to the covering letter on your CV. If you write something intelligent and meaningful you are far more likely to make people interested in you and want to read more of what you have to say.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: So! Write decent comments and get involved with other people. Reply to comments too – it is so important to acknowledge people who have taken the time to interact with you. Always aim for quality not quantity in your blogs. “Experts” say you should blog four times a week but believe me, your readers would prefer two well written, original posts. Be patient (I think everyone says this). Write every post as if it is your most important post.

Thanks Mandy.

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Interview with Mandy from A Passion To Understand is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blazing Minds Interviews James from Zeitheist

Karen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:58:30 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: I’m James, originally from San Francisco but transplanted to Seattle for many years; I’m an aspiring novelist.

Q: Hi James, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: The name “zeitheist” came out of a moment in time where I thought I was being clever, and ended up as the name of the blog for practical reasons, mainly for search engine optimization; it plays on the idea that blogging is “stealing time”, as this made-up word is a pun on the german word zeitgeist, which means “spirit of the age”.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: It doesn’t take up more time that I want it to (usually), and serves as a great break from “real” writing!

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Entrecard, primarily, and from friends’ blogs and Facebook.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Facebook is a great marketing tool and has served me well, as I regularly mention new blog posts on the live feed and generate traffic that otherwise is disinclined to the blogosphere.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Write about the things you love in your own inimicable style and don’t pander to the audience. The best, funnest and most inspiring blogs are those that present a unique perspective and treat readers to a real person’s reflections, insights, jokes, inventions, pet interests. And if you are reading and enjoying a blog, leave a comment and show the love!

Thanks James.

You can check out James at his website Zeitheist.

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Blazing Minds Interviews James from Zeitheist is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger, Benjamin Lang

Karen — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:16:44 +0000

Welcome to the another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Benjamin Lang, I’m 16 from White Plains, New York. I’ve lived in California, France, Israel and New York, and I speak 3 languages.

Q: Hi Benjamin, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: I run www.ben-lang.com a young entrepreneur blog where I share information on entrepreneurship, blogging and social media. I used my name for the blog when I started it about 5 months ago.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Blogging does take a lot of time, and I know that the more time I take the more it will eventually pay off. I would say that spend about an average of an hour each day maintaining my blog, answering comments and preparing posts.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: According to my Google Analytics account around half of my traffic comes from referring sites. Twitter, Stumble Upon, RSS feeds and Blogengage are my biggest referrers. My search engine traffic from Google is slowly but surely rising.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: The social network I use the most and I think is the most important would be Twitter. Twitter is my leading traffic referrer, and truly helps considering that I have over 7,800 followers. Facebook is also great, but I don’t use it for blogging, I prefer to reserve it for my social life. Then there are other social media sites such as LinkedIn, Digg, Stumble Upon, Flickr and Youtube that could also be very beneficial.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: The advice that I would give to new bloggers is start slowly, concentrate on finding a great design, make plans before starting and bring unique content. After all of those steps you can start on the smaller tasks such as: backlinks, search engine optimization, commenting on other blogs and forums, networking with other bloggers, and ultimately making your blog the greatest in its category.

Thanks Benjamin

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..

Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger, Benjamin Lang is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blazing Minds Interviews Tyson Chaney from Life 2000

Karen — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:52:54 +0000

Welcome to another superb interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?

A: My name is Tyson Chaney. I live near Los Angeles. I am a writer,
mostly about politics and sports. I am also a fledgling poker player. I enjoy traveling. I’ve been to 40 American states. I look forward to visiting the other 10, as well as traveling outside North America next year for the first time.

Q: Hi Tyson, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?

A: “Tyson Chaney’s Life 2000″ makes more sense with a bit of context. I
saw an ad in August 2008 about Today.com, a blogging network that offered money for writers regardless of the subject. I chose to write about politics and I wanted a memorable name that would describe the angle I wanted to take. “Politics 2000: How to Understand Politics in the Third Millennium” fit the bill although I tend to use just Politics 2000.

Today.com let me start a second blog. I decided sports would be the subject and I wanted people to know I was doing both blogs. Therefore, “Sports 2000″ was an easy choice. I think building the “2000″ brand is a good way for people to remember me.

Several months later, there were some changes at Today.com. Web searches can be done for more details. I decided to keep my two blogs there but also to create a new blog elsewhere. Just in case I wasn’t able to continue them, I wanted people to know the new blog was mine. I guess my ego was working in overdrive.

Tyson Chaney’s Life 2000 started March 28, 2009. There’s been exactly one post per day each day since then. I plan to post more frequently next year and see if traffic increases as a result. I picked the name because “2000″ was included and because I didn’t know a more general subject than “life.”

Politics and sports are included in Life 2000 but I also write about observations and personal events. Most notably, I like to include work from my novel-in-progress. The blog’s tagline is “How to understand the world, as I see it.”

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?

A: Yes. I often think about what I’m going to write for hours or days.
Once I start, I don’t usually need much time to type. Occasionally, that’s a problem when I forget to include a word in a sentence or hit the “save as draft” key instead of the “publish post” key.

Even more so, marketing takes time. Left to my own devices, I’d be a hermit most of the time. Having to attract people to my writing means visiting sites I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I’d certainly be the lesser for it.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?

A: A lot of the traffic comes from “builder” sites such as EntreCard,
Adgitize and Blog Explosion. There’s some search engine traffic but I will need to do better next year in drawing more. Doing so likely means I’ll have to write more toward hot topics that are already attracting attention.

I’ve been using Quantcast the last two months to measure traffic. I can see which “syndicator” sites are sending me viewers. I made sure to thank those sites not long ago. About two-thirds of Life 2000’s audience comes from outside the U.S.

In recent days, I’ve been posting pages of my novel-in-progress, The Game Will Not Be Made Up, which is about a baseball player. This week’s traffic has been more than 50 percent American. That’s mostly because the international readership declined quite a bit. The U.S. audience held constant. I’ll have to keep that in mind next year but
I think running extra posts on days I publish book pages will help maintain international interest.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?

A: Blog Catalog brings me some traffic. I like Link Referral too. The
new “spikes” at CMF Ads are a good feature. I just bought my second set of spikes this morning. I’d love to know how to harness Facebook and Twitter. I mostly see spam at both places though.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?

A: You need to find a balance between writing for yourself and writing
for others. If you write only in hopes others will read your posts, you’ll lose the unique viewpoint that makes you worth reading in the first place.

If you write mostly for yourself, then why bother to post anything? Just keep your thoughts in a journal or keep your blog entries private. I tend to lean this way a lot because I want to be true to myself.

There is a middle ground though; you and I just have to find it. When we do, we’ll become more successful bloggers. Thank you for your time and for the opportunity provided. May 2010 bring you what you are seeking.

Thanks Tyson

You can check out Tyson at Life 2000.

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..

Blazing Minds Interviews Tyson Chaney from Life 2000 is a post from Blazing Minds

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Latest Blogger Interview with Ricky Shah from TechGenuine

Karen — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:46:10 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my of blogger interviews series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: First of all thank you for the wonderful opportunity to introduce myself to the blazingminds readers. Hello folks, myself Ricky Shah from India. I am a student cum part time blogger who loves to write about latest technology news, mobile applications, iPhone applications, mobile modding, social networking and lot more… Check out my blog at http://techgenuine.com

Q: Hi Ricky, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: There is an interesting story behind my blog name. When I was on blogger blog I copied an article from one of the famous blogger and I got caught for that (silly me). I felt really bad at that time and I decided to provide genuine stuff on my blog. Later I joined budding bloggers group and I chose the name “TechGenuine” which says that all of the articles are genuine and original. I started blogging long back (in july 2008) but started professionally from 25th April 2009.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Well, I know blogging is really time consuming and addictive process. I spent almost 4-5 hours daily for blogging. But it is worth spending as I came to know many good bloggers and buzz across the blogosphere.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: My answer is Google god Google is the best source of traffic for me. Apart from that I get traffic from facebook and twitter as well.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Without social network it is impossible to survive in blogosphere. I recommend to use twitter, facebook, blogengage, blogcatalog to all the blogger. You can also try digg and stumble upon but if you don’t have enough time then the above networks will do fine for you.
You can follow me on twitter @ricky709
Follow me on facebook ricky709

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: I would like to say that understand the blogosphere. It is hard to survive in this Internet world. Have patience and faith in your self. Keep working hard and you will see the result in few months. Before start blogging spend some time to analyze the blogging process, be prepare to spend some quality time on social networking sites and other networks apart from your blog.

Thanks Ricky.

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..

Latest Blogger Interview with Ricky Shah from TechGenuine is a post from Blazing Minds

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Blogger Interviews with Blazing Minds

Karen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:05:53 +0000

When I started the blogger interviews here on my blog back in September I never thought that they would be as popular as they were and I must say a big thanks to all those that got involved with the interviews and were willing to answer my questions and get them posts on Blazing Minds.

Of course I am hoping that other bloggers will take up the challenge and contact me for some more blogger interviews in 2010

Blogger Interviews

Latest Blogger Interview with Mike Crimmins from Daily Shot of Coffee

Latest Blogger Interview with Ariette aka Arie Rich from KMP blog

Latest Blogger Interview with Eve from Letters to Breathe

Latest Blogger Interview with Ileane from Ms. Ileane Speaks

Blazing Minds Interviews Chandan Saud

Blazing Minds Interviews Ashok from Rethink.

Blogger Interviews, this week with Angelika

Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown

Blazing Minds Interviews Hesham from zebida.com

Blazing Minds Interviews TammyJo Eckhart from The Chocolate Cult

Blazing Minds Interviews – William G. Bentrim

Blazing Minds Interviews Karthikeyan from BlogrPro

Blazing Minds interviews Victoria Pires from Glowstars

Blazing Minds Interviews Justin Germino aka Dragon Blogger

Blogger Interviews with Blazing Minds is a post from Blazing Minds

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Latest Blogger Interview with Mike Crimmins from Daily Shot of Coffee

Karen — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:42:53 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone and welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Mike Crimmins and I’m a coffee addict. Sorry, wrong
meeting. In all seriousness, I live in Tampa, Florida. I’ve lived here
for about a year and have lived all over the United States – New York,
Chicago and even Portland, Oregon.

I pretty much have three passions. In addition to being a coffee
fanatic, I love the baseball team the New York Yankees and I love
writing. Currently, I’m a full time web content writer. I used to be a
newspaper reporter for a very small town newspaper where the pumpkin
fest was front page news. Now, also I write daily about coffee.

Q: Hi Mike, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: I run a blog about coffee. It’s for the average joe coffee drinker,
not the coffee snob or expert. Although, I think just about everyone
can get something out of my blog. It’s mostly coffee reviews and
equipment reviews, but there’s also coffee giveaways, coffee related
news and more.

I’ve been blogging since 2005, but none of those blogs really ever
made me happy. I was looking for one blog that I could really focus
on. I wanted a blog that would be something I could get passionate
about. I love the New York Yankees, but there’s a million blogs and
most of them do the Yankees news a lot better than I ever could.
However, I saw an opening in the coffee niche for someone that could
write from the average person’s point of view. That turned into the
Daily Shot Of Coffee. I started it in March of 2009.

The name was actually created by my girlfriend at the time. I came up
with a lot of great names, but almost all of them were taken. There’s
times that I wish it didn’t have daily in the name because it makes me
feel like I have to write something daily. However, I think that
writing daily has helped the blog grow quickly.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: It does take up a lot of my time, but I love coffee so I have no
problem with that! I start with the research, which could be testing a
new coffee gadget to trying different coffee related recipes and of
course sampling a lot of coffee. I usually spend one to two hours
writing a post. I’m the king of typos, so I do a rough draft, then the
final version with lots of proof reading. After that I spend several
hours commenting on blogs, hanging out on Twitter and doing other
activities to promote my blog.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: I get a decent amount of traffic from Twitter and commenting on blogs,
but none of it compares to the amount of traffic I get from Google and
other search engines. I think they love that my site has a lot of text
and that it’s updated on a regular basis.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: While I have my links probably up on a dozen different social
networks, I use Twitter and Facebook the most often. I post up my
links there, but I think just important is interacting with people on
those sites. On Twitter, just from chatting with people about coffee,
I’ve grown a base that will retweet links, Digg articles for me and
more. I also don’t think you need a million followers, I wouldn’t
complain if I did, but I have a really targeted list of people that I
follow. They’re all real humans and I’ve had some great interactions
with them. In turn, I also have a really high click thru when I do
post links.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. You may not have to work on it
every day like I do, but you have to be constantly working towards
your goals. I’ve been blogging for eight months now and I’m only
really beginning to see some great results – affiliate income, loads
coffee samples to review, etc.

Find one topic that you’re really passionate about. I’m still not
making a load of money, but I’ve tasted some of the best coffees in
the world…and mostly for free.

Then find ways to promote your blog that you like. There’s a million
ways to promote your blog, but you have to find something you like to
do. Since I like reading, I comment on blogs a lot. Since I like
talking with people online, I use Twitter way too much.

Thanks Karen for letting me do this interview. I really am honored to
be included.

Thanks Mike.

Check out Mike blog (Daily Shot Of Coffee)

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..

Latest Blogger Interview with Mike Crimmins from Daily Shot of Coffee is a post from Blazing Minds

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Latest Blogger Interview with Ariette aka Arie Rich from KMP blog

Karen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:40:51 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: I am Ariette aka Arie Rich, a 28-years young blogger from NYC. I am an Aquarius, my favorite number is 22, my favorite colors are yellow, sky blue and fuchsia.

Q: Hi Ariette, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: I started KMP blog February 2008. I had thought of the name around 2004, when talking to my friends via email, we would usually say Keep Me Posted, so after a while I decided to shorten it and use KMP instead, or KYP for Keep You Posted. Four years later, I thought KMP would make a cool blog name, and I’m always sharing random stuff, so it kinda worked out.
KMP blog was created to share info with people. There’s a lot of stuff that we all know now that we wished we knew about it sooner, but nobody shared then.
My goal is to share stuff that I’ve learned and know, as well as to give others a chance to share their knowledge by interviewing them. I’m all for helping people promote themselves, and I don’t mind using my blog for that.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: It really does. I work a FT job (9am-5pm) and I also mentor High School students as well as take college courses, so I try to blog whenever possible. Blogging is one job that I don’t mind doing. I can get up at 5am or go to bed at 1am, to blog. I love it and I truly enjoy it.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Hmm, most of my traffic comes from several places, Twitter, Google, Stumble Upon, Entrecard, and/or Direct traffic these are the most common lately.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Yes I do! I am a huge Twitter fan! (@arierich or @kmpblog). I think Twitter is an awesome place to promote your blog and direct traffic to your blog. I also use Facebook Pages, Networked Blogs (also through Facebook), and Stumble. These I recommend, because I use them.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Useful advice to new bloggers…hmmm…
Blog because you love it and have a passion for it. Blogging takes time, and I believe the thing about blogging is that most people are excited about having a blog at first, but after a few posts they start to get discouraged and/or lazy and stop blogging. Then you end up with a bunch of blog pages with no posts since like 2008.
Blog for the love of blogging and definitively not for the money! You won’t see income right away.
Promote your blog as much as possible, leave comments on other blogs and/or submit guest posts.
Make it a habit to go and read other blogs and learn something new and useful that will help you with your blog.
And last but not least Stay Focused!!

Thank you Blazing Minds for this great interview! This is such an honor! Your blog is great!

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..

Latest Blogger Interview with Ariette aka Arie Rich from KMP blog is a post from Blazing Minds

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Latest Blogger Interview with Eve from Letters to Breathe

Karen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:02:58 +0000

Back with more Blogger Interviews, as mentioned before each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: Well, my name is Eve, I am 27 years old and live in Florida, USA. Married to a great guy and we have a 15 month old daughter. I have been blogging for about 6 years, only recently I changed directions, getting rid of my long time blog and starting a new one with a whole new purpose. My previous blog was successful, great traffic, income, page rank, the works, but it became a burden, it was no longer a place to share myself, it had become my ‘job’ and although the extra income was great, I no longer looked forward to blogging and you could tell towards the end. So I deleted it. My plan was to stop blogging completely, but as a long time blogger I just didn’t know what else to do with myself so here I am.

Q: Hi Eve, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog, Letters to Breathe, was born out of a need to express myself freely, and wanting to allow others to do the same. The name was born out of a mommy blogger group I am part of, the MomDot forums, I shared my ideas and with the help of a few ladies we brainstormed names together. I love “Letters to Breathe” because it not only says the point of the site (letters) but the “to Breathe” symbolizes that when you get these things off your chest you will be able to breathe again.

The blog is a place for people to be able to read and submit letters anonymously. These letters are commonly called “unsent letters”, they allow you to say what you want to someone and not have to deal with the repercussions. They could be letters to a friend that betrayed you, to a ex-husband, to someone you care about but can’t tell them. The letters are all over the spectrum, sad, loving, happy, one of my favorites so far was a letter written to a father that had committed suicide years ago, that one was hard to read, but beautiful. One of the posts I made explains the concept in more detail if you are interested.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Yes, definitely. The first few weeks of starting a blog are filled with customizing, adding and changing plugins, building links, and adding content. That in itself consumes a lot of time. Even once you get the blog going it takes time to build and maintain relationships in social media and with other bloggers. Taking time to analyze traffic sources to be sure you are not investing time into a source that brings no traffic or low-quality traffic is another time consumer. I also try to evaluate the overall design and functionality of the blog at east once a month, doing maintenance like cleaning up the sidebars, checking for new improved plugins that offer better functionality, etc.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: This is a great question, I have been checking daily to she what is working and I have been really surprised with some of the results. Traffic sources that failed on my last blog are flourishing on this one. My main traffic right now comes from Stumble-Upon, EntreCard, and Google Adwords (I had a $50 credit so I decided to play with it) I also get a good bit of traffic from the various forums I am actively a member of, and a few from twitter and facebook.

The suprise came in the form of bounce rates, for example, my experience with entreCard on my last blog was great traffic, but a bounce rate of over 90%, so those were ‘low quality’ visits. Now I am seeing not only great traffic but amazingly a bounce rate of only 1%, and an average of 2.16 pages per visit. Somehow I am converting ‘droppers’ into readers. Same goes with stumbleUpon, that source is known for it’s high bounce rates, people just glance it over and go on to the next page, but I am seeing a bounce rate of only 20% total, same average page views per visit as well.

I don’t know what I am doing right, but it is working whatever it is. I just hope I can keep it up. As a whole the blog has a bounce rate of only 6.62% and average pages viewed per visit is at 3.33 for this month. By the way, I use Google Analytics as my stats program.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I do, right now I am only using a few, but plan on expanding once I get established with those. I use twitter of course, I am @letters2breathe on there, and I am still working on building a following as it is a new account. I also use entrecard and stumbleUpon as mentioned above. I recently signed up at blogEngage as LettersToBreathe but I haven’t quite figured out how to best use that one. Of course the others like BlogCataloge and BlogLog are useful as well.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Stick with it, a blog takes time and work to get to a point where you will be satisfied. If your goal is to make money then you have to be dedicated and not expect overnight results. It took me over a year to make substantial income with my old blog. Most bloggers end up getting discouraged and quitting before they reach that point. Don’t use bad marketing etiquette, like posting unhelpful comments or threads in forums just to get your link there, be helpful and on topic to the post and people will be more willing to click on the link to see what else you have to say.

Thanks for the interview, and I hope to see you all over at the blog submitting your own letters soon! Feedback is always welcome, if you see something I should change or add to the blog I want to hear it!

Thanks Eve for taking the time to be interviewed.

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..

Latest Blogger Interview with Eve from Letters to Breathe is a post from Blazing Minds

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