Blogger Interview: with Skellie Wag

Because I’ve been having problems finding time writing interesting blog posts, I thought of an idea: why not interview interesting bloggers instead? And so, without further ado, here is my first interview with a prolific blogger: Skellie Wag. Who started blogging just 4 months ago and grew her blog to 1800+ RSS subscribers in 4 short months.

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

I’m Skellie from (currently) sunny Melbourne, Australia. My own blog is Skelliewag.org. I’m also a staff writer at a number of other blogs I’m proud to be a part of: ProBlogger, Daily Blog Tips, Daily Bits and (soon) Freelance Switch. I’m trying to steal Leo Babauta’s crown of ‘Most Prolific Blogger’ .

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

I started Skelliewag.org because the process of building popular blogs and websites has always fascinated me, but it’s something nobody I know has an interest in. In a lot of ways, Skelliewag is a social outlet for me to have conversations about something I can’t really talk about with the people I know — conversations in the form of blog posts, comments and in talking to readers.

I work in a pretty boring job and another goal for me has been to find a way to make enough money doing something I love (blogging) that I could transition away from that job. As it’s part-time, I don’t have the challenge of making a full-time income, which makes the goal more attainable. I also wanted to achieve this without using traditional methods. The freelance blogging I’ve been doing has moved me towards that goal, but I’m not quite there yet.

3. How has blogging changed your life?

It’s changed the way I use my time. You discover that being bored is a luxury. Let’s just say, I don’t watch much TV. One thing I’ve made a commitment not to take time from is my family and my social life. I make time by changing the way I use time when I’m doing my own thing.

So far, I’ve been pretty successful in a short period of time. I think that’s made me more confident of my own abilities and myself in general.

It’s also changed my life financially. While I’m not well-off by any means (first and foremost I’m a student), I’m moving towards the point where I can support myself — if I live frugally — doing something I love. It will be a while before I get there, but it’s certainly had a profound effect on me.

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

Giving without expecting to receive has been something that makes many of my readers feel really positive towards me. I’ve made it my policy never to ignore a request for help/advice, to engage with commenters and to help everyone as much as I can. In return, I have a wonderful network of people who recommend me highly to others. Without them I don’t think the blog would even be worth interviewing me about.

5. What is your secret to writing such terrific posts consistently? Do you have any writing tips?

Thanks for the compliment . The great thing about writing for the web is that writing for people who scan actually encourages a really efficient writing style. My strategy is to encapsulate all the points I want to make in one sentence or a few words each, then flesh out each point in any order I choose. I also have a habit of writing the introduction to my articles last. Starting is a lot easier when you start in the middle! I then turn the summary of each point into a sub-heading or bolded text.

It’s not the most beautiful way to write, but it’s clear and quick. I think what you say is always more important than how you say it. You’ll notice that a lot of the world’s top bloggers who are worth emulating got there not because they’re great writers who abide by all the rules, but because they have something profound to say. I’m more interested in striving for profound ideas than writing a neat turn of phrase.

6. How do you attract traffic to your blog?

When the blog was younger the emphasis needs to be in sourcing out your target audience. During that phase, I was trying to write a lot of guest-posts for popular blogs, to bring in new traffic streams.

Once you have traffic to work with, I’m realizing that the focus needs to shift to social media and links other people create, rather than links you make. My traffic building strategy relates mainly to writing the best content I can — posts that my readers will appreciate, firstly, but posts with some level of attraction for social media, too. Over time, it becomes less a question of finding new audiences and more about utilizing the audience you already have.

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

I’m always happy to take on more writing work, either writing blog posts, sales pages or ‘About’ pages. The latter has been in high demand lately, which I think is fantastic. I think your ‘About’ page is the single most important part of your blog, because it’s the site where a new visitor can be persuaded to become a reader.

If you want to hire an A-grade writer whose posts spread faster than fire online, contact Skellie.

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

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Posted by Ankesh Kothari under Interviews on 07 Dec 2007
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