Sometimes the best way to get your ideas together is talking to yourself. Who else knows exactly what you want, need and should do - and what you mean when you say something? OK, sometimes no-one knows, but anyway.. the last time I went through my occasional re-evaluation of the thing I do, I wrote down what this blog is about, why I blog, and all kinds of blogging thoughts.
Then while checking the blog directory submission links, I ran into this "interview yourself" form and figured I'd give it a shot. While it may take a while before that service publishes the "interview" (if they ever do), I figured that's a great idea to clarify my own mind and interviewed myself with couple of blog and blogging related questions..
Interview with Myself.
What is the name of your Blog?
The blog is called Zemalf (or @Zemalf). Technology Alchemist's Trek in the Blogosphere
What is the url of your blog?
http://zemalf.com
What is your name?
My name is Zemalf, or that is how I'm known online. My real name is Antti.
Where are you from?
I'm from Finland.
Could you tell what blog your blog is about?
As mentioned, my callsign online is Zemalf and that is why my blog is named @Zemalf: Technology Alchemist's Trek in the Blogosphere.
The blog is about blogging and making money online: building small businesses online, through passive income streams, Internet marketing & blogging. At the moment I'm concentrating on providing blogging tips, guides and help for affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, keyword research, niche marketing and related topics.
Describe the main purpose of your blogging, what are you trying to accomplish?
I've always enjoyed writing and helping others via training and coaching. Recently I realized that blogging was the perfect medium for that, so I started writing about things I do to help others. So I'm in this to help others, sharing my experiences and expertise through my blog.
My goal is to make full-time income online with part-time effort (not only through a blog or blogging, but online marketing in general), and help my readers to accomplish the same. In short: make money blogging. I'm doing this by building a small businesses, a personal online empire if you will, that consists of multiple passive income streams that I set up through niche blogs and affiliate marketing.
What blogging platform do you do and why?
I blog on WordPress. It's very powerful, versatile and everything a blogger needs.
I transferred my old blog from Blogger to WordPress and it was the best blogging decision that I've made so far.
What do you blog the most about?
As mentioned, my blog is about making the most out of online possibilities, including, but not limited to making money blogging. In more generic terms, the blog is about things I do and work with: Blogging, Internet marketing and even games (I love those)
What kind of blogs make you angry?
Spamblogs, or splogs like they are called. Especially scraper sites which steal original content from others and just auto fill their blogs. Now that I think of it, this post makes a perfect splog fighter - if they publish it, hopefully with my deeplinks, it's all good..
These kind of blogs give blogging a bad name, as there are better ways to build niche blogs than these automated spam blogs. If you're so lazy that you must cheat like this, in the end, you won't have near the success an honest, hard-working blogger will have.
Instead of mass-producing blogs like this, I concentrate on delivering unique, valuable content, even it would be for a small micro-site. If a visitor who visits any of my sites finds the answer she was looking for, my mission is accomplished.
Give five of your best blogging tips.
- Use WordPress
- Write great, unique content
- Give value to your readers by solving their biggest problems and concerns.
- Create editorial calendar, decide how often you'll post and stick with it (daily, every other day, weekdays, 3 times a week, etc)
- Build an email list by offering a free report, eBook, eCourse or such.
What are some things you would NEVER blog about?
Drugs, violence, or anything else harmful or illegal.
Did you start blogging for the purpose of making money and if so, are you making enough money?
I didn't start blogging for the purpose of making money, but eventually when I noticed it is possible *and* easy, of course I wanted to make some. I'm not making "enough" yet to "retire", but I am making some money already, so it's going great..
How long have you been blogging?
I've been blogging since late 2005, but for real only since May 2009. Online I've been "since the beginning", before WWW even existed, late 80s with IRC and BBSs through modem (Bulleting Board System) and onwards. I was online with Mosaic on 1993 and it was incredible - there were graphics now, not just the good'ol Lynx and text. I'm quite happy that web has evolved since then, but then again - isn't it great to remember those horrible yellow-backgrounded websites with all things flashing in your face and 20 banner-ads popping before you closed the last 5...
I've been fortunate to be a part of all that, and see how we got where are now. It's been an interesting journey and we're just getting started..
About how many hours per day do you spend blogging?
It depends, but I'd say anything from 10 minutes to several hours, average being somewhere around 1-3 hours.
Do you track RSS feeds and if so, how many do you usually track daily?
Yes I do, and at the moment my Google Reader has 75 RSS Feeds in it. From which 15 or so blogs are on my "must read" lists.
Some other feeds in the 75 I follow are different alerts that don't get posts that often and all my own feeds as I want to see that those feeds are ok when they go out.
Do you use Digg, and why or why not?
Yes I use Digg. Front page of Digg is powerful marketing strategy if you manage to get there and also great market research, as you get post and article ideas by looking at what people are "digging"
Do you use Stumbleupon, and why or why not?
Yes I use StumbleUpon. I use it to find new blogs and websites I might like, and it's working very nicely now that it's starting to pick up what I like.
So I use it to "stumble upon" new things, which keep things fresh to me and possibly find some ideas to write about in my blog too.
What promotional techniques work best for you and why?
The best promotional techniques for bloggers are: Article marketing, blog commenting, forum posting, search engine optimization and guest blogging.
Guest posting is very powerful, so get to know the best blogs in your niche, and offer to write guest post or two to their blogs. Prepare your own blog and put your best writing to the posts and articles you publish just before and after your guest post is published on the other blog.
If you could post on any blog in the world, which one would it be and why?
TechCrunch. I love it, it's huge and I admire the fellows who set it up.
What mistakes have you made that you could warn others about?
I didn't start earlier. And I didn't start on WordPress right away.
So don't wait, take action now and start building your online brand and assets. And go for WordPress, self-hosted of course.
What are your top five blogging site picks and why?
These five blogs are the my favorites and each one of them have helped me to get where I am now. To some degree, I might not be where I am now without these blogs.
Why those 5?
As said, because these 5 blogs pushed me to start blogging and inspired me to keep going, and all these blogs have tons of information for any blogger, Internet marketer or online entrepreneur.
Anything special you have planned for the near future?
I'll just keep on going and writing more great stuff on my blog at Technology Alchemist's Trek in the Blogosphere.
Thanks for the interview and I'll see you all in the blogosphere!
