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
Comments (7)

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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)

Posted by Ankesh Kothari under Interviews on 07 Dec 2007
Comments (9)

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