One of the worst interview questions that you can ask another blogger is:
"What is your blog about?"
Not only does it give the impression that you haven't really taken the time to read the site, but the answer that you give will be nothing more than a repetition of the author's "About" page.
Instead, write an introduction to the interview where you tell your readers what the blog is about and then get right into asking the interesting and probing questions with it's author.
A more interesting question also encourages the author to write more. A question that probes and makes the author consider some of the thoughts behind their site will receive a longer response than a question that asks them to simply describe it.
To illustrate, try asking:
"Has the focus of your blog changed from when you first started it?"
You may find that you receive a much more in-depth answer than the "what's it about" question!
Corrin from Almost Urgent likes to plan vacations that she's never going to take! I suggest that everybody who reads this goes to her site and leaves a comment telling her to finally, "take a real vacation!".
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Corrin: I started my blog in July of 2005. I honestly started it because I had to have an account to comment on some of my friend's blogs. I started building my blog after they hounded me to join in. My first post questioned whether I was extroverted enough to have a public journal, and I guess I answered that question real quick!
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Corrin: I'm in the midst of transferring everything to my own domain, so hopefully lots of exciting things will happen in the next five years to keep it abuzz with updates. My current website has started earning me a little money, and I have to admit that's a nice perk, so hopefully that trend will continue.
Kumiko: You've said one of your interests is "using Travelocity to plan vacations I'll never take". Why do you feel you'll never take them?
Corrin: I'll eventually take every dream vacation I plan, but for right now it's the usual "no time no money" story. I did just splurge and book trips to London and Las Vegas, so maybe I'm phasing out the phantom vacation searching. The money my blog is bringing in has a lot to do with the amount of fun outings I get to take, so hopefully the both of them will keep getting bigger and better.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Corrin: I read loads of blogs, but the one I would recommend the most is Clicked (http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/). It's written by Will Femia, who is part of the MSNBC family, and it's the first blog I checked on a regular basis. I've been addicted to it ever since it started, and have turned lots of other people on to it too. I share information I find there all the time. Sometimes I just forward it to friends, other times I link and elaborate on my blog.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Corrin: Somebody who is a tad of a voyeur, loves to click lots of links, doesn't mind hearing lots of stories about a cute little weiner dog, isn't offended by the occasional foul language, isn't afraid to leave lots of comments and call me out on things, and has a blog of their own so I can get to know them...the same kind of person I'd be friends with.
Catriona over at Ami-chan.net is a professional fortune teller! And I think she knew exactly what I was going to ask her before I even asked it! How cool is that?
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Catriona: My blog there is not very old at the moment. I only started it in September of 2006. I partially started it to teach myself how to customize WordPress and work with .php coding, and also because I wanted to take my blog to my overseas family off one of the freeservers were people were randomly friending it who I did not like or know.
While having it on my domain means that people will still stumble across it, especially those who have it bookmarked because of the Sailormoon fansites I run/ran. I feel I can do a lot more with it there, and I can password protect entries about my family that I don't want the general public to see, and my family can still read them without having to sign up for an account somewhere which was one of the biggest problems with having things on a freeserver.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Catriona: That's an interesting one. Originally I wasn't keeping things up very well, but I perservered, because I want to keep my family up on things that go on before they're 'old news' and also with the hope that it will help me better my own writing. I'm finding it very interesting researching things on parenting and writing about them it helps me formulate my own thoughts and keep my mind clear so I can do things right for my son. I also really like sharing with people interesting things I find. There's so much going on around the internet and it gets more and more every day. Through joining communities to help myself with my parenting and with my finances I'm finding out so many interesting things that will hopefully help other people too. I also hope to improve my writing skill. I went to college for journalism but I found I really didn't like that environment once I had my degree. So, this also helps me to feel that I didn't waste my time at college.
Kumiko: You're a licensed fortune-teller! I guess the answer to previous question is correct! Why did you decide to become professional?
Catriona: I hope so! That's in some cases a bit of a sordid story. I've done tarot for money on and off since I was in high school and first participated in a psychic fair. I worked at a coffee shop doing readings while I was in college and I found I really enjoyed reading for people and helping them out that way. It's so nice to feel that you lifted a weight off someone's shoulders and helped them feel comfortable about things which they have going on.
I want to make sure I do things right now that I'm older to set an example for my son; setting up several nights a month in someone else's shop and earning 'under the table' is not doing that. I was hoping to earn money at home being a hypnotherapist, which I'm also certified to do, but the legalities in my home city mean I can't run that sort of business from home, and my mother-in-law who had volunteered to babysit so I could travel and visit other people and do hypnotherapy in their homes is not well, so we had to re-think. I decided that I could fall back on my tarot reading instead as that is something you can do over messenger and phone and still help people just as well as you can reading for them in person, whereas that doesn't really work with hypnotherapy. I always want to do the best I can at any profession I take on, and while certain clients were willing to do hypnotherapy over the internet I just don't feel that I can help them properly that way, but through trial with some willing friends and members from a mom's forum I'm on I found that I could read accurately for people over messenger and phone so I decided to go ahead and switch my business. Getting the license was just further making sure I was doing things the right way, and won't get in trouble from anyone in my area who might not like what I'm doing.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Catriona: I'm really just starting to branch out and read blogs that are not those of my LJ friends. One of the main ones that I get a kick out of is: http://hippiespelunker.blogspot.com/ . She's a wonderful lady that I met through a parenting forum, and her entries make my smile. She has all kinds of funny anecdotes about her life and her family which give me pointers and in some ways an eye to the future given she and I have a lot in common in many ways.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Catriona: I'd like to think that other people with families or who are thinking of starting families would find advice and also know that they're not alone in things which are going on with them, especially if they're fellow geeks.
For a truly interesting read, head over to Ami-chan.net!
Think the internet is just for the young folk? Think again! Marisa will show you that age is no barrier to creating a high-quality blog over at Marisa's Dandelion Patch.
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Marisa: I started my blog at livejournal in October, 2000. The following year, November, 2001, I registered my domain, mydandelionpatch.com. and embedded my livejournal there for a while. Eventually I installed WordPress and imported the whole blog to it. So the blog itself turned 6 years old this past October while the domain turned 5 this past November.
I first started blogging after a dear friend introduced me to LJ. I was working full time for the first time in two decades and trying to be a good mom to 6 kids. A couple of the kids were being typical and getting into trouble now and then. I needed to vent. I'd always enjoyed writing so blogging came easy for me. My job was tech support for an ISP so blogging gave me a creative outlet. Not to mention it allowed me to state my opinion and imagine that someone, somewhere might actually pay attention to it.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Marisa: I see my blog growing and evolving beyond my own life. I'd like it to become more of a day-to-day commentary on the world as I see it rather than a chronicle of my life as I live it. I'm hoping as well to work towards increasing its page rank, but that's more of a marketing goal than a personal one.
Kumiko: It's rare to come across a blogger who openly admits to being an opinionated grandmother! Do you feel like you're in a minority?
Marisa: Absolutely. I know only a handful of bloggers or online friends who are my age. I'm not uncomfortable being in this minority but it isn't something I can easily forget. Every so often there'll be some comment somewhere from someone under the age of 30, making derogatory comments about those of us approaching 50. Like this one: http://digg.com/tech_news/Sorry_you_can_t_have_the_internet_you_re_over_70 I had to comment in that thread but it didn't matter. Those young people believe that 50 is too old understand computers and nothing I said would cure their ignorance. Time will cure them, though. :)
Beyond that, I'm proud of my age and my blogging. If my age and gramma status sets me apart, even a little bit, then that's good. I want to stand out although I hope I stand out because of the quality of my writing and my wonderfully fascinating mind, too. :)
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
I love reading Miss Skeet: http://skeetsclutteredlife.blogspot.com/ and hope to meet up with her when I get to Hawaii later this year. She's closer to my age but is a new blogger. Very talented writer.
My three new favorites are: Osman's language blog, http://www.lingulangu.org/, very new but already showing great promise. JimiMorrison's Head, http://www.internetseriousbiz.com/ because it always makes me smile. Can't wait til he unveils his new parenting blog (he isn't a parent!) The Rock Chick, http://lifeisrantastic.blogspot.com/index.html, a brand new find and one of the most entertaining blogs I've read in a very long time. I want her to be my BFF.
And the funniest, most creative blog that I've been reading for much too long to even remember is http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/, the fugfest of Heather and Jessica, my alltime favorite online personalities.
(I know, when do I have time to write with all that reading?)
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Marisa: I would hope that anyone who enjoys good writing, creativity, imagination, humor and deep thought would find something at My Dandelion Patch to enjoy. As my blog evolves, I'd like to see people of all ages with many different outlooks reading and commenting on my posts. I've always enjoyed being around people who think for themselves and challenge my beliefs. Those are the people who help me to learn. Those are the people I want visitng my blog. Oh, people who can make me laugh, too.
Tyler at BigBigNews certainly has a blog with a difference! It's not so much a personal blog as a comedy blog (although he'll tell you it's a 'news blog') that has some absolutely hilarious postings. Tyler has a gift for taking regular news and filtering it through his "eccentric" mind to create laughter. Before reading the interview, I strongly recommend watching the following video to see exactly what I mean:
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?Tyler: Well, bigbignews.net is only 6 weeks old, so it's still just a puppy, which basically means it still poops on the floor and chews on socks and stuff. I started the blog basically to pick up chicks, you know? I heard that chicks love bloggers, so I taught myself about the interwebs and built myself a homesite, which became bigbignews.net
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Tyler: I think 5 years from now bigbignews.net will be a household word that people associate with integrity and journalistic excellence. Anyone who has seen our special report on Digg.com knows, we give it to you straight, no fluff, no "he said, she said" and certainly no "yada yada yada" -- we just stick with the facts, and so far the reaction has been great.
Kumiko: Your reporter Heywood Jablome is hilarious! Can you fill us in on some sordid details of his personal life?
Tyler: Well, Heywood just seemed like a natural choice for steering the ship at bigbignews.net. Heywood just exudes sincerity, which is exactly what we were looking for. He came to us from a friend in a 12 step program. You know, Heywood does have a dark past with sniffing paint, but that's all behind him now, for the most part.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Tyler: Being a news site, I tend to read LOTS of stuff on the webnets, certainly johnchow.com is a favorite. John is such a clever guy, and how can you not love a blogger who takes photos of his dinner? You don't see Donald Trump showing you pictures of his dinner! John just takes it to the next level.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Tyler: The people who follow BigBigNews, or "BigBigNews-ers" as I like to call them, are basically discriminating people who expect more than what's happening at the typical news sources. Of course there's NBC, ABC, BBC, and even CNN, but there was no BBN, so naturally we just jumped right in and filled that gap.
Thanks Tyler! I'll certainly be changing from CNN to BBN!
Looking to add a little color to your life? How about adding a little Bruce Springsteen? If you are, you need to check out Janey's site - Further On Up!
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Janey: 14 months old. I started it haphazardly...I actually was responding to a friend's blog who had gone to New Orleans with me to do relief work after Hurricane Katrina...After I wrote my comment, I found I couldn't submit it on blogger.com until I registerd for a site myself...and hence, my blog was born...
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Janey: I hope in 5 years it will have evolved into something more organized with more focus...At this point, my blog is an exercise in writing more concisely...
Kumiko: Each of your posts uses a different color text. What goes through your mind when choosing the color for the post?
Janey: I appreciate color and shape...If I have a picture in my post, I choose a color that accents the picture...if there is no picture, usually it is related to a mood...
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Janey: Currently I have been visiting: http://altjirangamitjina.blogspot.com/ .I visit several others but this one is a comfortable environment to hang out in...The writer is very down to earth, friendly, and has a love for music...and his dog...
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Janey: Probably someone who likes the works of Bruce Springsteen since his music and tours have been littered throughout my blog from top to bottom, cover to cover... And probably someone who is just interested in reading prose...and has a sense of humor...
What do you do when you've got expensive medical school bills to pay but don't have enough money? Start a website of course! Jacob from Zerotomed.com is doing just that and was kind enough to tell us all about it!
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Jacob: My blog was started on November 11, 2006 because I wanted to have a place to show people my websites as well as show them my goal of one day paying for medical school by means of the internet. It started small, but despite it's few months of infancy, it's done rather nicely for itself.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Jacob: In five years, I might still own the blog, but it won't be about my owning websites anymore. It will probably go to a personal blog that people can read up about, since I will be in medical school and my goal would have been accomplished. But, maybe I'll still own websites and update the blog once in a while.
Kumiko: Your blog is about trying to pay for medical school. Do you think that you will achieve your goal?
Jacob: I do think that I will achieve my goal in the next few years I have before I have to go to medical school. I figure that the first year will start slow, but as time goes on, more websites might appear in my network and I will be able to afford the huge fees that come with going to medical school. ZerotoMed.com will just be my way of showing the world my quest to paying it.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Jacob: Another two blogs that I read often is www.lithman.com and www.kingnomar.com . They are both about small time internet business people that are trying to get bigger. They're like me in the sense that they don't make thousands a day like others do, but they still love what they do and hope to make more.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Jacob: The type of reader that I recommend reading my blog are other internet entrepreneurs as well as people that might be aspiring to do similar things. I think that if someone has a goal and loves the internet, then this blog is one that will be able to tell everyone that goals and dreams are possible. So, anyone that has a dream to succeed should read this blog.
Heavy metal and politics. It's a combination that doesn't come together often enough. Luckily for the blogosphere, it all comes together at Dodgeblogium!
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Andrew: I started my blog in December of 2001. I started in reaction to 9/11 as did many other major bloggers.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Andrew: I see my blog continuing on in a similar form. It will probably far more technologically enhanced as things havebe going ahead quickly. I suspect, for instance, that I will have more readers using their phones to read the content.
Kumiko: Your site has a political edge. What current causes and campaigns are you supporting?
Andrew: My blog has a political edge in the sense that I comment about politics yes. But as a producer on the BBC put it my blog has:
...bloggers who combine a taste for heavy metal music with a taste for heavy metal politics... [Dennis Sewell - BBC-R4]
I continue to write about Islamist terror all over the world, the ongoing threats to Israel existence, the cause for an English Parliament in the UK and I continue to project practical libertarian ideas.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Andrew: One of my all time favourite blogs is www.colbycosh.com. Colby is one of the best writers in the blogosphere and continues to write cracking pieces on various subjects. He is as good as Mark Steyn the columnist most bloggers who are not on the left admire.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Andrew: Someone who has eclectic interests. They are probably into politics, heavy music, libertarianism and are anti-Islamist/statism & pro-Israel/US/Anglosphere. They probably don't mind being offended every so often and don't shock too easily.
So if you don't shock easily, go take a look at Dodgeblogium!
The internet can be a dangerous place with lots of scammers trying to get your money? Why not give it to me instead? Haha! If you worried about scams or looking for more info on one, you need to check out all of Lee's information over at Scamtypes.com
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Lee: Scamtypes is only about 9 weeks old, having started on the 17th December last year. I started it for a number of reasons, the main one being that people attempt to scam myself personally many times a day, especially since I became a regular user of the internet. Most of these attempted scams are so transparent and laughable that I actually became interested in finding out why others fall for them.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Lee: I see the blog becoming absolutely huge. I could post 5 different email scams a day minimum just from my own inbox! I now have family, friends and even work colleagues so interested in this topic that they are relaying stories back to me too. Having begun this project I now feel like I have a desire to discover scams everywhere - I guess I'm just a very cynical person at heart.
Kumiko: Your site has great advice to avoid being scammed on the internet. Have you ever been scammed?
Lee: I was almost caught out by a paypal phishing email several years ago when I first signed up but fortunately, no, I haven't ever been scammed. However, another big reason for starting this blog is that I DO know someone who fell for an advance fee scam and handed over several thousand pounds.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Lee: Just recently I have been reading a psychology blog purely because the workings and motivations of the mind intrigue me so much that i am assessing whether to study this subject and perhaps take another degree. I can recommend it in terms of volume of content and it is well written.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Lee: I believe a great many people would have a passing interest in my blog. In fact, my referral stats show that around 70% of my visitors find the blog through typing in specific phrases from the types of emails both I and they must have received. For them it is a handy resource for verifying if they are being contacted by a bona fide company or a scammer. For others, it is quickly building into a large collection of interesting posts, with the historical and new scams being of greatest interest.
So avoid all the scams out there and save yourself some money at Scamtypes.com
One for the mothers out there is Lisa's blog - My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings. She's got some great news and commentary regarding the difficulties of pregnancy to set new mother's minds at ease.
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Lisa: I am going to a transfer right now. I started blogging in April 2006. I did it originally to keep in contact with my friends and family who live 4 hours away from me. In July 2006, I suffered a miscarriage and I used it as a way to get my feelings out about my feelings. Now, I do PPP so I making money from my blog. However, I still talk about my personal life and other things I think are cool.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Lisa: I hope I keep growing as a writer. I look at my writing when I first started and I can see the growth already.
Kumiko: You recently posted that "nobody says thank you anymore". I agree! Who would you like to thank right now?
Lisa: My mom. Now that I am a mother, I know how difficult the job really is and we never get thanked for it.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Lisa: I actually have a couple of blogs I check almost daily. I put the reason why I like them:
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Lisa: Moms I think. I talk about my daughter and my pregnancy a lot. I have had issues and I hope that me talking about my abnormal tests results will put another person at peace.
23 Spaces is my kind of site! Techy and geeky without all the technical jargon. Just like me! The site is growing rapidly and is a great destination for all those interested in the latest upcoming games.
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Morgy: My blog, 23spaces, it's young, it's only 5 months old. The main reason for starting it, is because I kind of wanted to know what it really takes to make a nice blog from scratch and of course to have a cyber space of my own where I get to write about what I like most, games and techy things!
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Morgy: Hehe, hopefully to the first page of Google results :D. Seriously, I hope 23spaces to become really big and busy with traffic, with lots and lots of enthusiastic readers. Of course that would be totally up to me so I'm planning on doing one heck of a job. And if things go well, by that time it will be a "games information" treasure.
Kumiko: As your site contains a lot of information on computer games, I just have to ask - what is your favorite game of all time and why?
Morgy: Ah, that is easy. Half life!! And all of its sequels, side-quels, everything that is somehow connected with Half Life. Half Life was actually the reason that I fell for First Person Shooter games. FPS games, always lack in scenario because it's not so important. What's really important is the graphic engine of the game, the gameplay, the element of surprise in new in-game areas, how levels are created etc. But this game has it all. Gordon Freeman as a main character - the most mysterious (but at the same time somewhat aristocratic) game characters ever created. It has an amazing background story and in terms of programming and graphics it's amongst the best (if not the best) games of this genre. And as new " Half Life Episodes" are developed it only gets better and better.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Morgy: Another site that I highly recommend, has nothing to do with games. But it's the blog of a really passionate Palestinian girl who loves and fights for her country. This is the address: http://sileas.wordpress.com Why I recommend it? Because this girl isn't afraid to say the truth and writes pretty nice.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Morgy: The person that enjoys reading the thoughts of a young female gamer or the person that wants to learn some information about new or upcoming games without getting dizzy with too much jargon and technical stuff. Of course gamers are what I could call my "target audience" but since I try to keep a friendly and casual style, anyone who is somehow connected with technology and Internet, I believe would find my blog an interesting place.
Although he humbly denies it, Andrew Wee is a definite internet guru in the world of affiliate marketing and social traffic generation. His site, WhoIsAndrewWee, has gone from strength to strength and has become a must-read for anyone interested in the world of internet marketing. He kindly took the time to answer my questions:
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Andrew: I started my blog on Jul 06. I'm an Internet Marketer and my blog's a way of building my readership and covering developments in blogging, affiliate marketing and social traffic generation.
My blog is a launchpad for building relationships with other online marketers. It's been a good run so far, I'm seeing about 7,500 unique visitors coming to my blog every month, and it's growing!
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Andrew: I plan to continue building my readership and eventually launching a social networking site. I plan to grow my readership outside of the geographic strongholds of the US and Singapore and plan to see more readers from Europe and Canada and other parts of Asia.
Kumiko: You are quite well known in the blogosphere and in internet marketing circles. What has been the biggest challenge you've faced in establishing yourself as an internet marketing guru?
Andrew: I don't think I'm a guru yet. When I started my blog, it was somewhat solitary before I established contact with other marketers (and subsequently got to meet many of them at the recent Affiliate Summit West convention in Las Vegas).
I communicate with several of them on a regular basis and once I established a critical mass, it became easier.
But I'd say that the first 2 months of blogging can be lonely at times.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Andrew: Only one? I like visiting Shoemoney.com and PepperjamBlog.com to keep updated of the latest developments in search engine optimization, affiliate marketing and search engine marketing.
I think every blogger should be visiting ProBlogger.net and Entrepreneurs-journey.com to keep abreast of the latest developments from two of the top bloggers.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Andrew: Someone who's interested in generating online income on a sustainable and consistent basis.
Thank you very much Andrew. If you have an interest in blogging or marketing be sure to bookmark WhoIsAndrewWee.
This is definitely a landmark interview! Vernon from Vernon's Blog not only took the time to answer my questions, but sent along photos of his beautiful family and some music as well! He's definitely set the standard for all future interviews!
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Vernon: It's about 7 years old having morphed from my "home page" into blog. I started blogging more recently for my family and others in the church to help us learn more about the missionaries we support. That way grandparents get to keep up with our kids, and our friends and family can pray for the missionaries we love.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Vernon: Well, other than cute pictures of our children ...
We started posting songs that the girls sing with me ...
So we plan to go anywhere with the blog that the Lord wants us to go with it.
Kumiko: You describe yourself as a "tired, bald, random nerd" on your site. What's one random (legal) action you'd encourage everybody in the blogosphere to do right now?
Vernon: While it is still legal, I recommend admitting to God that you have been wrong and asking Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and become your saviour for eternal life.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Vernon: I read Mark Steyn's blog at http://www.steynonline.com/ to follow both his film and music interests as well as his hilarious and sobering political comments.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Vernon: Lately, quite a few Vietnamese folks have been listening to some of the songs we sing in both Vietnamese and English, such as Tôn Cao Danh Chúa
Looking to create a newsletter for your blog but not sure how to do it? Zookoda is an e-mail marketing program aimed specifically at bloggers that enables you to send newsletters directly to your site’s visitors via e-mail.
Why is this useful?
Most visitors will subscribe to your site via an RSS feed which needs to be manually checked for your visitors to know if your site has been updated or not. If your visitors don't feel like checking their subcriptions, there’s no way to let them know that your site has been updated or that you've got some awesome new information. With Zookoda, your visitors can subscribe via their e-mail address and receive a daily, weekly or monthly summary of all your posts right in their inbox.
Zookoda isn’t just for letting your visitors know that you’ve got a new post either. It can also be worked to create and send an e-mail to all your subscribers based a separate feed. This feature would be a great to let your readers know about things like competitions and breaking news without having to post to your regular blog feed.
Is it a money maker?
It’s not the newest tool on the block as Feedburner already enables blog email subscriptions – which I utilize on this site already. The advantage of Zookoda seems to be that you have more control over when the e-mails are sent and you have the ability to create your own. If you’re interested in using mass e-mails to promote your product/blog, then Zookoda has the potential to give you greater control over how you “push” your content.
Zookoda also has all the regular benefits of offering a feed in that it will help increase your blog's traffic and readership.
On the downside, by offering Zookoda you may lose visitors subscribing to your site via a regular feed. Many money making programs check your feed status when reviewing your blog and if your subscription numbers are low, it can hurt your ability to make money online.
I can also see a lot of bloggers using the e-mail feature to send mass "Digg me!" e-mails.
Zookoda is free, so it’s definitely worth investigating to judge if it’s the right tool for you and your blog.
Dating Can Suck is a great site that explores all the horrible experiences and situations that occur while dating. If you think that you've had some bad dates, wait until you read some of these stories!
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Steve: My blog is new. I started it on February 7th. I started this blog because I am recently back on the dating scene and I am finding that it can indeed 'suck'. It can be very hard to be over 30 and on the dating scene. So when I was recently dumped by someone I was seeing I decided to share my stories and others' stories with the world. It is very cathartic for me to post my and others' experiences.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Steve: I see my blog as a massive story book with hundreds if not thousands of content contributors. A place where the masses can go and read and know that they are probably not the only one to have a particular experience. If is cathartic for me it may be cathartic for others. In some ways I see it as a resource, for those on the dating scene of 'dos and don'ts' while dating.
Kumiko: Your blog publishes a lot of stories about the good dates and also a lot of the bad dates that people have. What's the worst date story that you've heard?
Steve: I think there are so many bad dates lol. I am sure that someone else had a worse date than mine but I would have to say the worst one ever was a date that actually happened to me. We were supposed to go to dinner so we met at her home. When I got there she was on the phone, so I stood for 15 minutes in the foyer until she got off the phone. She invited me in to visit for a minute when she received another phone call. I sat for another 30 minutes. She finally hung up and apologized. 5 min later another phone call. I sat for another 20 minutes. She hung up and the doorbell rang. It was a guy who came in and sat down for over an hour and the two of them just talked business I said nothing this whole time. Finally he left and I sat there and listened to her drone on about her ex husband and what a schmuck he was. By this time my body was shutting down I had a headache but did not know how to leave gracefully. It was now after midnight, I had been there since 6:30. We never even made it to dinner. I finally left at 12:20. Oh it was hell.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Steve: I read datingwithchildren.net everyday. As a person on the dating scene it offers lots of advice and information for those of us in the dating world who are older and most likely have children. I love it.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Steve: I think any person who has ever been, or will ever be, on a date would enjoy my blog. Each reader will read it for different reasons, some to laugh, some to commiserate, and some to heal. Some people may even learn a few "dos and don'ts" items for survival in the dating world.
For all the horror dating stories, check out Dating Can Suck!
RockStartup is an MTV-style reality show that takes a behind the scenes look at the building and running of the “get paid to blog” site, PayPerPost.
Having run for the past nine months, the show has been quite diverse in it’s topics and has not only followed discussions and meetings, but also the work lives of individual PayPerPost team members.
I've watched a few episodes and the big question to answer is obviously, “Is it worth watching?”
On one hand, it’s quite interesting to see a reality show that’s based around a dot com startup. The dot com land is my main area of interest, so I find this reality show infinitely more intriguing than watching whether Paris Hilton manages to survive as a waitress on 'The Simple Life'! I feel there’s just a lot more that I can learn from watching PayPerPost's marketing professionals promote the site than watching Paris complain about having to clean a toilet!
However, it’s also still yet another reality TV show and I really feel that I haven't seen anything on RockStartup that adds something new to the equation. It’s another show based around the “find something new and cool, film young and funky people doing it, add a hip-hop soundtrack and you’ve got your show” formula that has proved to be successful for MTV and other ‘youth’ channels. The fact it’s called RockStartup just goes to show that they’re really aiming for that young blogging market with the show. Maybe I'm too old for it??
While it’s not the newest concept for a show, if you’re interested in making money online it provides some nice insights into how PayPerPost's professionals are doing it and it's infinitely better than watching Paris Hilton's exploits. Unless she brings out “The Jail Life”…now that would be the best TV show ever!!
To celebrate the 20th episode of RockStartup, their 21st episode contains a compilation of outtakes from the previous 9 months. If you like what you see, you can see the shows in High Definition by signing up with iTunes.
Christian Soldiers is run by the Reverend Greathouse and covers the mental, spiritual, physical, religious side of a variety of topics. His blog is hard to categorize due to the versatility of his writing - but that is by no means a negative. His blog contains posts that will certainly make you think and quite possibly, "rattle your cage". He was kind enough to discuss his blog in-depth for this great interview:
Kumiko: How old is your blog and why did you start it?
Reverend Greathouse: I started Christian Soldiers blog October 1, 2006. We had launched a web site with static pages a month earlier. The blog was to test if it would help speed indexing and increase the search engine ranking of the static site. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about running a blog. Discovering and joining an online community was a real bonus. Now the desire to contribute to the online community has taken over as my primary purpose. We have just finished converting the static site to another blog.
Kumiko: Where do you see your blog in five years?
Reverend Greathouse: In five years I see Christian Soldiers blog helping very many people. My whole computer experience derived from my graduate school theme, Survival Strategies for Artists. I view survival from a comprehensive point of view. Comprehensive means spiritual, mental and physical. I desire to share what works and what does not work for me. Of course my goal is to be more successful than not. If larger segments of the online community find my posts valuable then that will be a measure of success of itself.
Financial topics, especially monetizing a blog, will be receiving more attention. Certainly increasing traffic will be part of that. But in addition to external physical development I have discovered the importance of internal work. I believe in the value of both mental and spiritual development. It seems like very much to take on but I have the help and support of my wife of 33 years, Reverend O’Garvey. It is because we are taking on so much that we decided to spread the work across three complementary blogs.
Kumiko: Quite a few of your posts relate to 5GW - Fifth Generation Warfare. For those unfamiliar with the subject, could you explain a little about it?
Reverend Greathouse: Napoleon was the European master of First Generation Warfare. The United States became the master of Third Generation Warfare, 3GW, during World War Two. Each subsequent generation of warfare eclipses the previous generation. An army from a later generation always proves victorious over previous generations. This is the basic theory of the generations of warfare. The United States and its 3GW military are now being challenged by 4GW efforts in the form of Afghanistan insurgents, the Taliban, Al Qaida and Iraqi insurgents. Everyone can see how that is going. Israel’s 3GW military faced Hezbollah’s 4GW military force last year. Everyone knows how that ended.
So while a few strategists are exploring 5GW there is not much agreement about exactly what form it takes. What is clear is that the next world power will achieve its position with either 4GW or 5GW. My point of view is that 5GW uses propaganda, brainwashing and conversion to achieve its ends instead of bullets and bombs. There are many attempting mind control in the world today. Those whose best master it will control the world. While these methods have been used for a long time in religious movements and the arts and more recently in marketing they have been neglected in warfare. That is changing.
I blogged about 5GW until the discussion became circular, redundant and finally pointless. I doubt if I will blog much more about it. Now I’m more interested in recognizing 5GW attacks and neutralizing them. I’ve moved from theory into practice. I believe that many other people are also doing this. I believe that together and individually we will continue to free our minds and spread the virus of freethinking. I believe the Internet is a carrier of this virus. So rather than discuss 5GW I now prefer to blog in a manner that stimulates freethinking, promotes self-liberation and leads to financial independence.
Kumiko: What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Reverend Greathouse: I cannot say too many good things about kurzweilai.net. I feel Ray Kurzweil is one of the smartest and most perceptive people alive today. I urge everyone to at least check out Wikipedia’s entry on him. If that doesn’t make you want to know more then I feel sorry for you. The Law of Accelerating Returns and Transhumanism are only two of the many areas he is active in. He deserves books written about him and I don’t feel I have the space here to do him justice. I also must mention JohnChow.com. I’ve only starting reading him recently but so far I’m greatly impressed with his spirit of giving.
Kumiko: What type of person would be interested in reading your blog?
Reverend Greathouse: I really want to thank you for asking this question. Of course I have hopes that a diverse community of intelligent and creative individuals find something of value in my blogs. But I have a difficult time profiling them. There is such great diversity in the online population. I want to be surprised. I hope to push enough buttons, rattle enough cages and yank on enough chains that people respond. Now the challenge is both in writing and letting people know what I write. I desire to be educated as to what type of person would be interested in reading my blog.
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. Be sure to visit Christain Soldiers and leave a comment to help Reverend Greathouse build his community.
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