Blogger Interview: with Jon of FreelanceFolder.com

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In December, I had interviewed Jon of FreelanceFolder.com. Jon had successfully setup a “group blog” - something that I had plans for.

But that interview didn’t see the day of light because I’ve been busy with another project of mine and have neglected BlogClout a bit <shame-on-me>.

Better late than never - right? So here is the interview with Jon:

1. Can you give a quick introduction of who you are and what you do?

Hello, I’m Jon from Montreal Canada, my blog is located at SmartWealthyRich.com and I also run a multi-author FreelanceFolder.com with a bunch of really skilled writers

I’m a freelance writer, blogger, designer, and a musician.

2. Why did you start Freelance Folder? Did you have any specific goal in mind before you started blogging?

I wanted to start another blog and a multi-author blog was the way to go. I really enjoy starting conversations and networking with other bloggers, so after seeing pretty good results with my first blog I thought the next logical step was to start a multi-author blog.

I didn’t have any specific goal in mind before I started blogging. In fact I had no idea what WordPress was, I just downloaded it 10 months ago, installed it on my server, and voila. Now I have goals, but back then I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into - hehe

3. How has blogging changed your life?

Well a lot of things happened since I started my first blog. I quit my day job about 3 years ago leaving behind the security of the paycheck every 2 weeks. I now work my own hours, get to improve my writing skills and meet a bunch of cool people online, some of which became business partners.

4. What is the “one” ingredient or idea that played the biggest role in your blogging success?

‘It’s all about the conversations’

That’s sorta like my motto. I just love to engage in discussions with my readers, that’s the single most important thing for me. I always try to write posts that will make people want to leave a comment and connect with other readers. I love it when my readers share their own tips and tricks and give advices, that rocks. It’s all about the conversations.

5. How do you find and attract writers to write for Freelance Folder?

I first posted about it on my own blog which at the time had around 300 readers, and got a really good response. You could say I used this blog as a launch pad for FreelanceFolder. I simply asked my readers if they’d be interested in partnering up with me on a new blog. Some wanted to write on a regular basis while others were interested in writing just a post or two.

I also sent a couple of e-mails to fellow bloggers, but that didn’t work so well. Now I don’t really go out and look for writers, I just let people know I accept guest posts and I put up a ‘write for us’ page on the blog, and I usually receive 2-5 e-mails per week, which is really nice.

6. How do you generate traffic to your blog?

I’m really active on social sites like StumbleUpon (my fave), Digg, Reddit, Del.Icio.Us, and other smaller niche sites. It takes some time to build a profile, but it’s really worth it. I can spend anywhere between half-an-hour to 3 hours per day on social media sites just reading, bookmarking, subscribing, commenting, networking.

7. Whats your secret of getting so many of your posts on the front page of Digg?

I’m probably the one who knows the least what he’s doing. It never really happened I wrote a post especially for the Digg crowd, I know some people specialize in that, but I don’t. I just write and don’t really care about making sure my posts are ‘Digg-worthy’. Pretty much anything can make the Digg frontpage anyway.

One thing I do though is when I see a post is getting some traction on StumbleUpon, I’ll add the Digg button right away. It’s called the ‘domino effect’

• Stumblers see the Digg button and vote your post
• Diggers come to your site and bookmark your post on Del.icio.us
• Del.icio.us users Stumble and Digg your post
• and so on…

8. How do you monetize your blog?

I use different services like text-link-ads (not on FreelanceFolder though) and Google Adsense, but these two don’t generate much revenue. I prefer doing private ad deals. I regularly send e-mails to potential advertisers and just ask them if they’d be interested in advertising on my blog(s), sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes advertisers contact me first.

I also recommend services and products to fellow bloggers (hosting for example) and use different affiliate programs.

9. What does your average day look like? How do you budget your time?

I usually go to sleep really late and wake up… yes, late. I find my most creative time is between 11pm and 3:30am.

Here’s what a ‘typical day’ looks like:

• wake up
• make coffee
• check e-mails
• start reading blogs
• leave for the recording studio (I’m a guitarist)
• check e-mails again
• write/blog/brainstorm
• work on projects for clients (design, paid writing gigs)
• spend some time on social sites
• go out, take some time off
• sleep

It’s like that pretty much 7 days a week

10. Any product / service of yours that you would like my blog readers to know about?

I’m always looking for more work, whether it’s to design or customize a blog, write blog posts or articles, or if you simply need advices about blogging, I may be able to help.

Editors note: If you need to setup a blog - Jon is the guy to go to!

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)

Posted by Ankesh Kothari under Interviews on 14 Feb 2008
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The Microsoft Strategy

Its been a long long time since I’ve posted here.A  (I’ll tell you what I’ve been upto very soon.)A  Because its been a long time, I wanted to start out with a super-duper stellar post.A  But thats just delaying things.A  So let me start out with a hypothetical brainstorming post that will likely not help you unless you are one of the top execs at Microsoft.

Microsoft recently made a bid for Yahoo.A  Their reasoning is: to beat Google’s 75% dominance in the search and online advertising market, they have to partner up with Yahoo or they’ll never become numero uno.

I think thats a disastrous move.A  Two stale companies can’t usually beat a nimble company.A  Just like you-and-me can’t team up on LeBron James and defeat him. We have to improve our skills first.

So how can Microsoft improve their skills?A 

To know the answer, you have to ask one more question: how did Google achieve the #1 position online?

1. Google created a search engine that gave out far better results without any clutter

2. Google then created or bought ad space or partnered with others so that their ads can be shown.A  (While you search / while you check emails / while you surf other websites.)

So lets evaluate each of Google’s dominant fields and see how to beat them.

Search Engine DominanceA 

I’m of the opinion that there can be no better system than listing search results on the basis of how many other websites link to yours.A  Links are the votes that determine online popularity.A  The only other option is to chase the idea of human voting to determine popularity.A  And for that, Microsoft will have to buy StumbleUpon.com from eBay or create something similar.

Advertising Dominance

Why is Microsoft lagging in their online ad sales?A  Because they don’t have as big a reach as Google.A  And so most merchants only use Google Adwords.A  What can Microsoft do?A  Use Google API to match up with Google.A  By using Google API, Microsoft can come up with a “one-click-import” feature where merchants and advertisers can import their Google Adwords campaigns to Microsoft instantly!

Microsoft can then work on their “reach” to one-up Google.

Email Dominance

How to beat Gmail?A  There are 2 ways to come up with a better email system.

i. keyword@username.MSN.com email addresses.A  By allowing people unlimited email aliases, they can have better control over spam.A  For eg: if I wanted to register at WSJ.com - I would give my email id to them as: wsj@ankesh.msn.com.

ii. Pay people to email.A  Share the ad revenue that Microsoft earns via email ads with the users.

Browser Dominance

Because FireFox uses Google as the default search engine, Google has bagged a big share of browser searches without their own browser.A A  Microsoft has to open up their browsers so that others can create extensions and add-ons for IE browser too.

And as long as Microsoft is doing that - they might as well allow people to create extensions for MSN messenger too.A  And maybe people can come up with extensions for the desktop too?

Ads on Other Websites

Two things Microsoft can do:

i. Buy WordPress.com to compete with Blogger.com

ii. Give a bigger share of revenue to publishers than what Google gives.A  And lower the minimum payment threshold from $100 to $20.A  And pay on a weekly basis.A  Improve the payment terms and lots of publishers that use Google Adsense will move to Microsoft.

Aquisitions

Instead of Yahoo, there are other better properties to buy.

i. WordPress.com

ii. ebay.A  By buying eBay instead of Yahoo - Microsoft would also get StumbleUpon.com (the only other technology that hold the promise to make their search engines better than Googles), Skype.com (a far better instant messenger) and PayPal.com (an obvious match with their ad program)!

iii. Facebook.A  To extend their advertisers reach.

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)

Posted by Ankesh Kothari under Misc on 07 Feb 2008
Comments (10)

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