Beginner Blogger

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.
………………………………………

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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