Beginner Blogger

This is the fifth installment of guest interviews where I had the pleasure of interviewing Henri Junttila from WakeUpCloud.com

Here’s the interview:

Firstly could you give a little information about yourself ?

Henri Junttila. 23. Spain, born and raised in Sweden, just moved because I can’t take the cold. Internet entrepreneur extraordinaire.

How did you get into blogging?

I wanted to find a platform where I could express myself and reach as many people as possible, blogging was the best choice. My goals are to connect with as many (right) people as possible and help as many as possible. Simple, powerful and passionate goals are crucial. When I knew what I wanted I joined the Authority Blogging course by Chris Garrett and it has allowed me to progress faster than I could have imagined.

Is wakeupcloud.com your first blog? What would you say the purpose/niche of your blog is?

My first real and serious blog. I do have other blogs, but they are more meant to make money from affiliate marketing, adsense and so on, so there is not the same degree of passion as in the Wake Up Cloud. My purpose is as I said above, connect and help. The niche is self improvement for conscious people.

What made you select the niche that you blog about?

It is what I am deeply passionate about. Without passion you have no chance of succeeding with your soul intact, so make sure you choose something you really love. You hear people say that you have to work your face off, which is true, but it isn’t work when you’re following your passion and that is exactly what I am doing.

How much planning and time did you spend before launching?

There was as much planning as necessary until I felt ready to launch. I used to be an over-analytic perfectionist that planned everything to death. I have changed that and it has allowed me to take action much quicker and get stuff done. Here’s what I did:

1. Uncovered my passion
2. Thought about how I would differentiate myself
3. Bought a domain name
4. Joined a blogging course
5. Took it one step at a time
6. Took massive action

So many people want to know how everything will work out, but I say plan just enough to get going, because when you start taking action, you will be in a much better position to adjust, calibrate and focus your efforts.

Do you make a living online? Currently employed?

I make a living through my niche websites at the moment, but I have some surprises in store for the Wake Up Cloud readers in the coming year, so if you aren’t a reader and want to dramatically transform your life and increase your freedom, you might want to stop by (shameless plug, I know, forgive me).

Is there anyone you look up to in the blogging world that you base yourself on? Anyone you go to for advice? What is your inspiration?

Steve Pavlina’s blog is the only one I have read during the last 3-4 years, so he’s definitely been an inspiration. But his writings have been more of a confirmation, because often I think of something and then he writes it. The synchronicity is amazing. For blogging advice at the moment I go to Chris Garrett from chrisg.com, he has incredible skills.

How well has your blog done? (Stats wise)

My blog is under 4 weeks old. It has almost 200 subscribers (RSS+E-mail). It has averaged just under 100 unique visitors since launch.

What is your main source of traffic?

At the moment I have no main source. My traffic comes from an incredible amount of different sources. I comment, guest post, connect and tweet. I am subscribed to 100+ excellent blogs and try to comment on all of them. That is how I was able to launch and instantly gain traction. I then started guest posting more, which is incredibly effective if you do it right.

What are your main strategies for your blog? (maybe top 5)

1. Content
2. Helping & connecting with my readers and fellow bloggers
3. Guest posting
4. Commenting
5. Twitter

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

I believe in the 80/20 rule, the pareto principle, which says that there are 20% of tasks that will give you 80% of the results. I am fairly organized and constantly focus on doing what gives results, but I am by no means someone who writes down every detail. The top 5 things I do can be seen above. Less is more when it comes to success. Focus on a few core tasks and do them over and over again, especially guest posting, writing your own content and connecting with others.

Are you making money with your blog/Plan to make money with your blog in the future? If so – how?

I am not making money with my blog right now, but that is because it is under 1 month old. I plan to launch my own products and perhaps a few other services. I am not sure, so I will not reveal anything yet.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

Nothing. I feel like I have done everything right and that is (I think) because I am ruthlessly discriminative. What I mean by this is that I do not participate in tasks that I feel do not produce results.

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

If I could give you 3 words of advice it would be to:

1. Join a blogging course
2. Love your topic so much that you would do it for free, otherwise you won’t make it
3. Use the 80/20 principle
4. Take action
5. Fail a lot and adjust

What are future plans for your blog?

My plans are to grow it much more in the coming year, build my readership, provide tremendous value and transition to making it my main source of income. I have come to realize that making a living doing what I love is not only possible, but highly probable when I work hard. We are all here for a purpose. Let’s not waste it by chasing something useless, like money. Money is good, but not when it controls your life.

Henri
http://www.wakeupcloud.com
@henrijunttila

I hope you enjoyed this guest post interview with Henri. If you have any questions or comments leave them in the space provided below.

If you would like to be interviewed for Beginner Blogger head on over to the contact section and shoot me an email – I’m sure we can work something out

If you enjoyed this interview you may also enjoy…

1. Guest Post Interview with Derek Jensen

2. Guest Post Interview with Mike CJ

3. Guest Post Interview with Jay Bailey

Popularity: 33% [?]

This is the forth installment of guest interviews where I had the pleasure of interviewing Derek Jensen from LifeNotion.com

Derek is a young passionate up-and-coming blogger that brings together technology tips and how you can apply it to your lifestyle. The approach of his blog is brilliant as he combines the specific niche of new technology and how to apply that to your lifestyle. So really anyone can benefit from reading his blog.

Derek has a lot of informative and interesting things to say in this interview so I invite you to listen to every word he has to say. He also has some great tips for bloggers.

Here’s the interview:

Firstly could you give a little information about yourself?

Hello everyone, I am Derek Jensen.  I am 20 years old from Ames, Iowa, which is a college town home to Iowa State University.  I currently attend the university, majoring in Community and Regional Planning, and staying busy in leadership roles in my fraternity (Beta Theta Pi).  As major hobbies, I draw and blog.

How did you get into blogging?

Blogging never really interest me until last year around this same time.  What sparked my interest was seeing how blogging could be a hobby that you could make money from and I would like to thank Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.  In addition, blogging really interested me cause I saw an opportunity to tell a lot of people my views, opinions, and ideas about really anything. (I think my family and friends were tired of me telling them all my ideas and views).

Is LifeNotion your first blog? What would you say the purpose/niche of your blog is?

LifeNotion was not my first blog.  Since picking up on blogging I have went through two main blogs prior to this one.  Those past ones were “Influlive” and “FeedMe! Post” .  Influlive was a blog that focused on what I was learning from my studies at Iowa State University, related to my field of study.  FeedMe! Post was a blog that was heavily inspired by boingboing.net.  At this blog I would write posts that were basically a repost of what had already been posted, but just offer my own opinion.

Many blogs these days still do this, but I wanted to go a different route so I started this blog, LifeNotion.  The tagline that I strive to base my content off of is “Tip to Make Life and Technology Easier”. This tagline is the niche of the blog and for further explanation, LifeNotion provides people looking for more than just what is new out there, they are looking to see what they should care about the technology.

Additionally, I have started a new category called, “Tech Help” that offers tips for a quick help instead of applying it to a lifestyle.  Lifestyles are basically the categories for this blog, with some of them being “at home”, “at work”. “educational”, and “personal”.  The main purpose for LifeNotion is to give readers and anyone else an idea of what they could do with specific technology and I offer detailed ways, since I apply them to a specific lifestyle.  I mean, why should someone that wants to see what they can do in terms of “at work” want to read something under the leisure category/lifestyle.

What made you select the niche that you blog about?

I selected this specific niche through a very long trial and error process.  During my early days of blogging (the blogs I previously mentioned) I basically was testing the water to see what my passion was and if I could express it to everyone through blogging.  One blog post that really made me rethink but still find my true passion, was a post by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, “How to Choose a Niche Topic for your Blog“.  This post not only allowed me to rethink on what my next blog was going to be, but it made me really think about every step in forming my blog from the ground up.

So, specifically I picked this niche because I feel there are many technology blogs out in the world today, but there are very few that actually are fully original content and strive to relate it to people’s lives.  See to me technology and life are very cohesive and in order to do that you cannot just report the most recent news. If they want the most recent news there are blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch, so I wanted to provide an originality technology blog.

How much planning and time did you spend before launching?

Before I actually got this blog up off the notepad, it went through lots and lots of planning.  I would say that the amount of time putting into the beginning stages of blog is a very mixed issue, meaning that some would say you should just start your blog as soon as you got the idea where others say you should spend quality time thinking it all out to insure its success.  With being in the field of planning and not wanting to have this blog all of sudden be tossed, I put a lot of time into planning this blog. I wanted to make sure my idea was reasonable, the name for it was catchy but understandable and that my tagline effectively described the content that readers can expect on the blog.

Do you make any money online? How are you monetizing your blog?

I currently do not make any money blogging online, but I have setup my blog with Google Adsense and some affiliate programs through LinkShare and Amazon.com. My personal opinion in terms of monetizing your blog is that in the beginning stages try and make it a less of priority because what you need to advertise the most is your content.

Is there anyone you look up to in the blogging world that you try and model yourself on?

The one person that I look to in blogging is Pete Cashmore.  Pete Cashmore is the founder of the ever popular blog, Mashable.  I look up to him because of the content that he publishes and his history in blogging.  There was a Pete Cashmore interview published on YouTube that really sets the tone of why I look up to him.

He is a true entreprenuar, which is someone I have always wanted to be and since I read his blog almost everyday if not every four hours and I have informally connected with him.  I try to model myself not only after the content he provides his readers, but his overall goals.  I do not really knowing his specific goals, but I get a feeling that he wants to provide the best content out on the web related to his niche, social media, and do it because it is fun and enjoyable.  Sure, he is out to make a profit, and so am I in the future, but the behind the scenes work from him is what really inspires me as a blogger.

How well has your blog done? (Stats wise)

Since LifeNotion’s founding this October, I have had 487 visits, a 54 percent bounce rate, and an average time on site being around 8 minutes.  Additionally, on a daily basis I get an average of 20 to 30 visitors. But, with my blog being very new I  plan to expand it further and hope to see more traffic.  One thing I enjoy, in terms of stats, and continue to focus on keeping is the amount of average time on site the same and the bounce rate pretty low, not going above 60 percent.

What is your main source of traffic?

For sources of traffic, Twitter and Facebook have been heavy contributers with me having a specific account for Twitter (@lifenotion) and then a LifeNotion Facebook Fan Page for the blog. But other than these social networking sites, I get my traffic from the blogs I tend to comment on the most.  These blogs are SteitBlog, Problogger, and Mashable.

What are your main strategies for your blog?

Here are my top five strategies for my blog, LifeNotion:

1. Write original and great content!
2. Keep the blog transparent to the tagline, mission, or purpose of the blog.
3. Connect with any readers through the comments.
4. Meet and connect with people through Facebook and Twitter.
5. Offer great feedback when commenting on other blogs to gain the trust.

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

The typical tasks for my blog are first checking any messages or comments I have received in the past day to see what people are saying about my blog. Then, I go out into the blogosphere and see what people are writing about.  That is when I make a decision to write about something that would be perfect timing or I write about something I have been planning to write anyways.

Then, for marketing LifeNotion, I publish links to any of my new posts with the StumbleUpon shortening service on Twitter and Facebook.  The StumbleUpon shortening service (http://su.pr/)  is known for creating more traffic than bit.ly or just a regular hyperlink.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

I would do these 3 things:

1. Make sure you are able to set aside the same amount of time each day to work on your blog for at least a months time.
2. Meet new friends that would be of interest with what you are blogging (and connect with them) before you actually start your blog, because then you could just be annoying them instead of just saying hey yeah I just created a blog about this.
3. Do not heavily promote your blog in the beginning.  Have your comments on other blogs and just talking to others about it that maybe interested to the promoting.

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

While coming up with your niche for your blog and then all the details that come with it, come up with your first 10 blog posts.  Make sure these first 10 blog posts represent all different aspects you want to talk about within your niche on your blog.  Content is very important on blogs and this will not only help you determine whether this niche is your passion, but it will get you a head start on your blog when you “release it”.

What are future plans for your blog?

The future plans for my blog are to keep writing great content, attracting people to my content all over the blogosphere and general public through connecting with people and commenting on other blogs.  As soon as I got a good amount of content already published I will begin to work on promoting the LifeNotion name to make is a brand.  I will do this once I have a good amount of content because then I can promote my most popular posts or posts that best resemble the purpose of LifeNotion.

Best Regards,

Derek
http://www.lifenotion.com
@lifenotion

I hope you enjoyed this guest post interview with Derek. If you have any questions or comments leave them in the space provided below.

If you would like to be interviewed for Beginner Blogger head on over to the contact section and shoot me an email – I’m sure we can work something out

If you enjoyed this interview you may also enjoy…

1. Guest Post Interview with Mike CJ

2. Guest Post Interview with Jay Bailey

3. Guest Post Interview with Zeeshan Siddiqui

Popularity: 9% [?]

This is my third guest post interview with a well known blogger with a great online presence – Mike CJ from mikeslife.org

I am really grateful Mike took the time to take this interview. He’s one of the bigger, well-known bloggers out there that I really look up to. What impresses me the most is the amount of time he gives to people. He spends a lot of time on social media sites interacting with his readers and followers which is something that some people tend to ignore these days.

A true honest guy that I could really see myself enjoying a bbq, drink and watching sports with. Oh and he’s also really into blogging too!

Here’s the interview:

Firstly could you give a little background information about yourself?

I’m Mike CJ, I’m 47 and I live on an island called Lanzarote, one of The Canary Islands. We’re just off the Saharan coast of Africa and we’re Spanish owned. I’m a full time professional blogger.

How did you get into blogging, Mike?

I was pulling back from day to day involvement in my offline business, and needed something to fill that gap, and to earn me some substantial money. I’ve always really enjoyed writing, and have been doing so for years, so it made perfect sense to start a blog or two!

Is mikeslife.org your first blog? What would you say the purpose/niche of your blog is?

Mike’s Life wasn’t my first blog. That was www.lanzaroteinformation.com a travel and news blog about the island we live on. We started that just before Mike’s Life, and my wife continues to run that one on a full time basis. Mike’s Life followed very soon, as I wanted to help other people with a passion for writing learn how to blog and earn a long term sustainable income from blogging.

What made you select the niche that you blog about?

I chose the Mike’s Life niche, because there seemed to be lots of blogs out there to help people who were already blogging learn how to earn money from it. Mike’s life is aimed more at people who can and want to write, earn a living from blogs. It’s a subtle but important difference.

You obviously did a lot of prior research before launching your blog? How much planning and time did you spend before launching?

I spent six months, researching and understanding how the market works, reading other people’s blogs, and getting to know the industry and the market. That gave me enough information to write some sound objectives for our blogs.

Do you make a living online? Would you say a comfortable living? How long did it take you until you reached that ‘I can now earn enough to quit my day job’?

I quit my day job so I could blog full time, which I know is really unusual. That did give me an added incentive! You need to factor in that my wife is full time in this job with me. We were earning what I would describe as one full time income in four months, and we were making enough for both of us at around seven months into blogging.

You seem to have a great presence online, very approachable, very friendly and easy going. Do you attribute this to your online success? Is there anyone you look up to?

The thing with blogging is that it is a relaxed, easy going place, and yes I always want to be approachable. To be honest, I really don’t like the way some people suddenly become “too important” to stay in touch with new and learning bloggers once they’ve “made it”. I’ve always promised to remain in contact with readers, and never to resort to that.  I look up to anyone who reads my blog! But also Chris Brogan who shows how to stay approachable when you’re at the top, my friend Nathan Hangen, with whom I’m writing the book Beyond Blogging and Darren Rowse, who is simply the most helpful blogger there is!

How well has your blog done? (Stats wise)

Mike’s Life is now 10 months old and is getting just over 1,000 visitors a day, viewing around 3,500 pages.

What is your main source of traffic?

My biggest source is Google, then Twitter, then Digg.

What are your main strategies for your blog? (maybe top 5)

I simply want to grow and grow the Mike’s Life community until there are 10’s and then 100¡s of thousands of people who are passionate about writing and earning a living from doing so.

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

I focus on writing 5 or 6 posts every week, I read and comment a lot on other blogs and I’m very active on Twitter. I have done some article marketing, a couple of guest posts and a little work on Facebook, but focus on the first three as that seems to be what I’m good at.

Are you making money with your blog/Plan to make money with your blog in the future? If so – how?

I make money on Mike’s Life via a few well chosen affiliate programs, and mainly from selling my own products in the Mike’s Life shop. The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter and The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging. On the travel blog, we use Adsense, affiliate programs, a lot of direct advertising and we also sell the book I completed last year Living in Lanzarote.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

1/ Start an email subscription list earlier

2/ Make some strategic alliances with other bloggers sooner

3/ Focus more on community in the early days, rather than thinking about what I could sell to people!

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

Forget stats, forget themes, forget widgets, forget everything at first, other than writing really good, really useful content. If you do that, you’ll build audience and authority quickly, and then you can start worrying about all the other things.

What are future plans for your blog?

I just want to continue to grow it, keep writing good stuff and develop a good reputation as a helpful person.

………………………………………

So there we have it! My third Guest Blog Interview with successful blogger Mike CJ!

As I stated before I absolutely love the dedication Mike has for his audience. I think that’s something that’s really missing today, especially in big businesses, they really forget to listen.

Mike is a great example that you don’t need to have all the technical skills in the world to create a successful blog that makes money. In Mike’s case he makes a full time income with his blog and online activities. It’s all about listening to your target audience and providing them with what they want.

I really applaud Mike for taking the punt to quit his day job and go into blogging. I personally would love to dedicate more time to this blog and other online ventures.

If you haven’t already checked out Mike’s blog check it out at www.mikeslife.org.

You can also follow Mike on twitter @mikecj.

Let me know what you think of this interview and Mike’s blog in the comments section below.

If you liked this post you may also like the following…

1. Guest Post Interview with Jay Bailey

1. Guest Post Interview with Zeeshan Siddiqui

Popularity: 14% [?]

This is my second guest post interview with blogger Zeeshan Siddiqui who runs the blog dwhnow.com

I found Zeeshan through twitter. He commented on a few of my posts in the very early stages of my blog and was very kind. We both started out blogs around the same time so I had requested an interview with him for my blog.

Let the interview commence

Firstly could you give a little information about yourself – Name, age, location, current job etc?

My name is Zeeshan. I am 26 years old. I live in India but I had travelled across other countries and for about an year I lived in US. Currently I work as system analyst. I work in Business Intelligence.

How did you get into blogging?

One of my friends introduced me to blogging about 1.5 years ago. I didn’t enjoy it much at that time and left it. After reading some other blogs I thought I will like to do it as well.

Is DWH Now your first blog? What does DWH stand for? What would you say the purpose of your blog is?

Yes DWH is my first blog. DWH stands for data warehousing which is part of BI (Business Intelligence). Initially I thought I will write about my field i.e business intelligence but latter I started writing on various topics.

What made you select the niche that you blog about?

I mostly write on Technology but if I feel that I should write on any particular topic I dont stop myself.I am little bit different here.I dont agree with few blogger that you should have a niche to be successful.

Did you do any prior research before launching your blog?

Apart from reading lot of blogs I didn’t do any particular research.

How old is DWH Now?

It is about 1.5 month old.

How well has your blog done? (Stats wise)

Stats wise I am quite happy.I lost lot of stats beacuse i changed the themes few times  and I didn’t understand google analytics that well in beginning. But in past two weeks I got about 303 visitor excluding my city.

What is your main source of traffic?

My main source of traffic is referral by fellow blogger and forums.

What are your main strategies for your blog? (maybe top 5)

1. Connect better with fellow blogger.
2. Improve content
3. Write on time-less content
4. Understanding the readers of my blog better
5. Understanding google

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

I will try to read other blogs to improve the content. I just experiment with my blog to see what is giving me more traffic and less bounce rate. I am not so much organized in marketing.

Are you making money with your blog?

Yea a little bit till now only $2.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

No I will like it to remain same. Most of bloggers self learn everything.

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

Just keep doing the work be honest to your readers.

What are future plans for your blog?

I want  to increase traffic from search engine.

………………………………………

So there we have it! My second Guest Blog Interview. Zeeshan seems to be heading down a successful road.

What I really like about his blog is his posting frequency and consistency. He seems to post a blog post every day just about. His posts are all of a great length to read. You can read them within 5minutes. Fantastic blog if you’re after a quick tip.

What I also really like is the evolution of his blog. When I first saw the blog it just contained posts. Now it has lots of links on the sides which is great for SEO and great for readers to get to where they want to get to quickly. The big RSS button is big and bold but not in your face. Fantastic! I hope Zeeshan gets a lot of subscribers.

If you haven’t already check out Zeeshan’s dwhnow.com blog.

Let me know what you think of this interview and Zeeshan’s blog in the comments section blow.

If you liked this post you may also like the following…

1. Guest Post Interview with Jay Bailey

Popularity: 3% [?]

This is my very first guest post interview with blogger Jay Bailey who runs the blog Magic: The Blogging

I found Jay through twitter. He replied to some of my tweets with some great information. We started chatting through email and we came up with the idea to create an interview post for my Beginner Blogger blog.

So without further ado, here’s the interview!

Hi Jay, tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Jay Bailey. I’m a 17-year-old TAFE student who’s studying Web Design. I currently reside in Sydney, Australia, and aspire to someday make a living from blogging. In my spare time, I enjoy books, gaming, and of course, Magic: The Gathering, the topic of my blog.

How did you get into blogging?

I first got into blogging about 18 months ago. I was talking to someone about my views on a subject, I forget what, and someone said ‘You know? You should have a blog.’ The idea took hold over the next few days, and I eventually started one. That was a god-awful blog. Here’s a link to it, so you can study what NOT to do. I bet you can spot 10 mistakes in the first 5 minutes. I know I can.

Is Magic: The Blogging your first blog?

Not at all. My first blog I mentioned before, and was absolutely terrible. My second blog attempt was a personal growth blog called Grow In 30 Days. It’s actually a decent effort, but in the end I didn’t get many readers, and I didn’t really know what I was talking about. My third attempt was in the middle of Grow In 30 Days, when I decided to write a blog about Magic: The Gathering. That failed very quickly. Then, once I became disillusioned with Grow In 30 Days, I tried a new Magic blog, and that blog is Magic: The Blogging today.

What made you select a blog about Magic the Gathering?

Two reasons.

A) Magic is one of my passions, alongside personal growth, and

B) I know what I’m talking about with Magic. I’ve played it for 4 years, competitively for 18 months (has it really been that long?) and during that time I’ve constantly continued to improve and research. I now believe I’m at the point where I can be considered an above-average tournament player, and can share my knowledge with others.

In contrast, in the field of personal development, I was, and still am, a beginner.

Did you do any prior research?

That depends. On the one hand, I did lots and lots of research for Magic itself, and I’ve read thousands of articles. On the other hand, when I decided to write Magic: The Blogging, I didn’t do any research for that: I just jumped in.

How old is Magic: The Blogging?

Magic: The Blogging is about 5 weeks old. It’s a fairly new blog.

How well has Magic: The Blogging done?

Magic: The Blogging has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams in it’s first month. I’ve had approximately 1,400 visits in 5 weeks, and have obtained over 1100 unique visits. I’ve been re-tweeted by a professional in my field, and broken 50 daily visitors every day for the last week. It’s certainly a good start.

What is your main source of traffic?

My traffic is very diversified. My two biggest sources are Google and direct traffic, but two-thirds of my traffic is referred. Other sources that have given me three-digit visitor counts are:

• Twitter
• Mtgsalvation.com’s forums (a Magic: The Gathering fansite)
• Blogger.com
• Magicgameplan.com (another blog website)

I also get significant visitors from some other blogs and forums.

What are your main strategies for your blog?

My main strategies for my blog are:

1. Content is king. Without good content, no matter how much I market, it doesn’t matter.
2. Write a post every single day if possible. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. If you don’t have time to write every day, it’ll be a lot harder to attract substantial traffic. You can reduce posting eventually, but not while you’re actively trying to build traffic.
3. Twitter. Twitter is an excellent medium for gaining readers, since you can easily build up a network of like-minded people.
4. Forums. I post on a variety of Magic forums if I have a good article. I also provide advice, with a link to my blog in my signature.
5. Content. Seriously. Without the content, none of my stratrgies would work.

What are typical tasks you perform for your blog, both content and marketing wise? Are you organised with lists or you just take action on what you feel needs to be done?

I am, shamefully, very over-the-place with my blog work. In a typical day, I spend about an hour writing (a lot more if I’m writing a testing post, which requires several hours of Magic play online) an hour researching and an hour reading / writing on Twitter and checking stats, and other miscellaneous things.

I also try to play some Magic every day, to keep my skills sharp and to keep learning things to teach my readers.

Are you making money with MTB?

No: but that will change very soon. I’ve signed up for Google AdSense. In fact, by the time your readers read this, it’ll probably have been approved. It’s almost impossible to make money online as a minor. In the end, I was forced to appoint my father as my ‘Advertising Consultant’ in order to get around it. I’m the one in charge of the ads, but he’s in charge of the money, so I don’t have to wait until I’m 18 to start.

If you could start your blog over again, what are 3 things you would do differently?

If I could start my blog over again, I would probably:

• Work more on my technical skills, ESPECIALLY HTML.
• Incorporate such tools as images and polls right from the very start.
• Submit stories to mtgbattlefield.com more often (The Magic version of Digg, which I didn’t know about when I started the blog. I only discovered it when one of my stories got submitted there)

What advice would you give to beginner bloggers?

Beginner bloggers: Here is my advice.

• Work out what you want to do with your blog. Do you want to make money? Talk to friends? Share your knowledge freely? There’s a big difference between a blog, and a high-traffic, money-making blog.
• Stick with what you know. Everyone has something that they’re good at. Write about that. If you’re not good at it, it will show. You’ll only impress absolute beginners.
• Content is king. Write often, write well. Repeat that in your mind. If you want traffic, you want to write well, and write every day. Not every post can, or will, be a hit, but keep it up.
• Experiment. A wise blogger once told me: “Failure doesn’t come from doing things wrong. It comes from not doing enough things right.” Don’t be afraid to experiment. Keep trying new things and seeing if they work.

There are lots of pieces of advice I could give, but those are the most important ones. And listen to your audience. That’s a good one too.

I think you have a great niche and you’re clearly a great writer. Have considered getting your own domain?

I have: but while I have the niche and the writing skill, I don’t have the technical skill to produce my own website. I’d like to obtain Site Build It! But as a 17-year-old student, I don’t have 300 US dollars to buy a piece of software. I’m aiming to save up for it, and when I do, I’ll use it to build a website with my own domain.

What are future plans for MTB?

My future plans are to continue to set goals. My goals for the blog for September are:

• Reach 2500 unique visitors.
• Get 100 daily visitors.
• Get 30 comments.
• Write 30 blog posts.
• Earn 20 dollars from the blog.

At the moment, my aims are to keep writing, and keep expanding. My blog’s still in the infant phase, so I need to keep growing.
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So there we have it! My first Guest Blog Interview. Jay seems to be heading down a very successful road.

What I really liked about his blog and interview is that he has set goals, posts content daily and interacts with his target audience in on twitter, forums and related blogs. Jay is getting lots of traffic because of this.

Stay tuned for more interview like this to come. If you haven’t already check out Jay’s Magic: The Blogging blog.

Let me know what you think of this interview and Jay’s blog in the comments section blow.

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