Blazing Minds

Welcome to another in my series of 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: My name is Ileane and I am from Philly. I’ve lived here all my life and I love the city. I work for a publisher of technical books and journals where I’m very involved with the Academic Outreach program. It gives me the opportunity to communicate with educators, librarians and college students. One of the most exciting parts of my job is visiting college campuses and attending educational conferences.

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

It’s a funny story – I started blogging 4 months ago by accident really. My daughter has a blog on WordPress.com too, and I was trying to subscribe to her updates, but I ended up creating a blog instead. My best friend started blogging also and in the beginning we were the only ones visiting and commenting on each other’s blogs. LOL!  We were trying to decide which platform works best between Blogger and WordPress.com, I ending up sticking with WordPress.com, but I do have two other active blogs on Blogger and Posterous. My goal is to migrate to a self-hosted WordPress blog sometime in the future.

I’m very close to a family of jazz musicians and I had the privilege of recording “spoken word” poetry to some of their original instrumental tunes. In light of that, I think Ms. Ileane Speaks is a very appropriate name for my blog. Please keep in mind something that I tell my readers on my about page, “Ms. Ileane Speaks but I listen too.”

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Yes, I spend the majority of my free time blogging, because I find it fascinating. If I’m not blogging or researching a new topic, I’m promoting my blog through various outlets and social networks like Twitter, or YouTube and of course Blog Engage. I love doing screencasts and creating How-To articles. I created a screencast on joining Blog Engage and Brian, the owner, liked it so much he added it to the forum FAQ section.

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

As I mentioned before social networking brings a lot of traffic to my blog. For me Twitter, StumbleUpon, and the Website Babble Forum are the biggest traffic sources. I found it challenging to incorporate StumbleUpon at first, but with the help of some other bloggers I gained a better understanding of how to maximize its use. I wrote about it on my Posterous blog and many bloggers have found it helpful.

I joined the Blog Engage community almost a month ago and I’m getting a substantial amount of traffic from my article submissions. The difference is the improved quality of the traffic; many from the Blog Engage community have left insightful comments on my blog and continue to engage in conversations with me on Twitter. This is the reason my RSS subscriber count has increased as well.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: Outside of Twitter, StumbleUpon and forums, I find that commenting on other blogs is a great way to network and send traffic to your blog. Plus you get the added benefit of reading interesting articles and exposing yourself to different points of view. It seems like everyday, there is a new tool or website to explore. I see some bloggers that don’t allow comments on their blogs and I find that very boring. I think the blogging conversation should always be 2-way. That’s the best way to help people and gain credibility for your brand.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Blogging is fun and it can be a very rewarding experience. I would tell new bloggers that it is real important to determine what the goals are for your blog. There are so many decisions to make at first: Which blogging platform should I use; do I want to display ads, should I write an e-book, what’s the best theme for my blog?

This is what I like to call the “discovery phase” and quite frankly I’m still going through it myself. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself or set goals that are too high. Take the time to find “credible” resources to follow, so that you can hone your writing skills and gain a better understanding of the tools that can help you grow as a person and as a blogger. Don’t be afraid to try new things and do some experimenting to find out what works best for you.

I think the format of the Blazing Minds blog is a great example for new bloggers to follow. You offer a wide variety of posts that provide great value to your readers. I’m very excited about getting an opportunity to make a contribution here. Thank you very much; I really appreciate doing the interview.

Thanks Ileane.

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. Latest Blogger Interview with Ariette aka Arie Rich from KMP blog
2. Latest Blogger Interview with Ricky Shah from TechGenuine
3. Latest Blogger Interview with Mike Crimmins from Daily Shot of Coffee
4. Latest Blogger Interview with Eve from Letters to Breathe
5. Blogger Interview with Jeevan Jacob John from Techpupil

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 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.