He’s an accomplished blogger, author, and entrepreneur who knows a thing or two about online business/marketing.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at Chris’ backstory and find out what makes him one of the most successful bloggers out there.

We’ll also explore some of his best tips and advice for aspiring bloggers who want to supplement day job income and make more money through amazon’s affiliate program.

So if you’re looking to learn more about blogging from someone who knows what they’re talking about, keep reading!

Who is Chris Guthrie?

Chris Guthrie started his first blog back in 2007 as a way to keep track of his online poker progress.

He quickly realized that he enjoyed writing and sharing his thoughts and experiences with others.

From there, Chris went on to launch a number of successful blogs, including Make Money Online, Sellaband Musician, and Problogger Jobs.

He’s also the author of two popular eBooks: Blogging for Profit and The Ultimate Guide to WordPress SEO.

Chris has a wealth of experience in online marketing, SEO, and social media.

He’s used his knowledge to help grow many successful businesses, both online and offline.

In addition to his own blogs, Chris has consulted for some of the world’s top companies, including Coca-Cola, Dell, and MTV.

Like other internet entrepreneurs, Chris is a strong believer in the power of blogging.

He’s seen firsthand how a well-run blog can generate leads, build an audience, and even make sales and be the source of earning money online.

Chris is passionate about helping others achieve success with their own blogs and businesses.

Chris’ E-Books on Amazon

If you’re interested in learning more about blogging from Chris, then I highly recommend checking out his two eBooks on Amazon: Blogging for Profit and The Ultimate Guide to WordPress SEO.

These books are chock-full of Chris’ best tips and advice for building a successful blog.

The names and short descriptions of the books are as under:

Book 1: Blogging for Profit

In this book, Chris shares his secrets for making money with your blog.

He covers topics like choosing the right niche sites, building an audience, and monetizing your blog.

If you’re looking to make money blogging, then this is the book for you.

You can find many niche websites which are more profitable in the world of internet marketing.

Book 2: The Ultimate Guide to WordPress SEO

In this guide, Chris teaches you everything you need to know about optimizing your WordPress blog for search engines.

He covers topics like choosing the right keywords, setting up permalinks, and improving your site’s overall SEO.

If you want to learn how to get your WordPress blog ranking higher in Google, then this is the book for you.

Chris Other Books

In addition to his two eBooks on Amazon, Chris has also written a few other books that are available for purchase. These include:

Book 1: Buying Websites: How to Invest In Online Real Estate

In this book, Chris shows you how to buy and invest in online real estate.

He covers topics like finding websites for sale, due diligence, and negotiating deals.

If you’re interested in investing in online real estate, then this is the book for you.

Book 2: How To Make Money As An Amazon Associate:

In this book, Chris teaches you how to make money by promoting products on Amazon.

He covers topics like finding the right products to promote, getting traffic to your affiliate links, and making sales.

If you’re interested in making money as an Amazon affiliate, then this is the book for you.

Book 3: How To Make Your First $1,000 With Online Surveys:

Like other guide books, Chris ‘ book on online surveys covers topics like finding the right surveys, maximizing your earnings, and avoiding scams.

If you’re interested in making money with online surveys, then this is the book for you.

Book 4: 5 Proven Methods For Making $1,000+ Per Month With Websites

In this book, Chris shares his five proven methods for making money with websites.

He covers topics like affiliate marketing, display advertising, and selling products and services online.

If you’re interested in making money with websites, then this is the book for you.

Chris’ Blogs

In addition to his books, Chris also runs a few blogs of his own. These include the following:

• Make Money Online: Chris’ flagship blog, is all about making money online. He covers topics like affiliate marketing, blogging, and SEO.
• Sellaband Musician: A blog about making money as a musician by selling your music online.
• Problogger Jobs: A blog about finding and applying for blogging jobs.

Chris’ Top Tips for Aspiring Bloggers

If you’re looking to start a blog or take your blogging to the next level, here are some of Chris’ top tips:

1. Find Your Niche

It’s important to find a topic or niche that you’re passionate about.

Not only will this make writing your blog posts easier, but it will also help you build a loyal audience.

2. Do Your Research

Before you start writing, be sure to do your research.

This includes both researching your topic and understanding your target audience.

By taking the time to do your homework, you’ll be able to produce high-quality content that your readers will appreciate.

3. Be Consistent

Building a successful blog takes time and effort.

To see results, you need to be consistent with your content creation and marketing efforts.

Set aside time each week to work on your blog, and stick to a posting schedule.

Additionally, be sure to promote your content regularly on social media and other channels.

4. Test and Experiment

Finally, don’t be afraid to test and experiment.

Try new things, and see what works best for you and your blog.

Over time, you’ll develop your own unique style and approach that will help you stand out from the crowd.

An Interview with Chris Guthrie

Lots of bloggers start out blogs of their own to document and share their stories of online success and marketing.

This is one of the driving forces for why I started my own blog at ZacJohnson.com.

Today we have an interview with Chris Guthrie who has a blog at MakeMoneyOnTheInternet.com which covers all of his internet marketing tactics such as making money with Amazon’s affiliate program, buying and selling blogs and much more.

1. Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

Hey, I’m Chris Guthrie and run the blog MakeMoneyontheInternet.com.

I started that blog because of the extra free time I knew I was going to have.

Back in 2009 I was making thousands of dollars a month from the websites I built in the extra hours after work and when I left my day job I wanted to write about what I was learning on a blog sharing my experiences.

2. What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

On my blog I share case studies with real numbers for things that I’ve successfully done to make money online.

So for example I sold one of my websites in a six figure deal so I wrote about that.

I wrote 20 tips I learned while making over $90,000 in commissions from Amazon and more recently I showed an example website I bought for $4,000 that I was able to pay off in under 7 months (and has now more than doubled the earnings I first paid for it).

Additionally I interview other internet entrepreneurs that are building businesses and earning a living online.

I only ever picked this niche because I was making a full time living from my websites by working less than full time hours so I wanted to start a blog so I could share what I was learning.

3. How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

I have a bunch of websites in my portfolio but for this blog I monetize primarily through my email list by selling products related to areas that I have expertise in or with software designed to help people save time.

For example, finding guest blogs to post on is normally a manually process so I built software that helps to find blogs that accept guest posts more automatically: Guest Post Hunter

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

One of my first glimpses into blogging and the money that can be made from it came from John Chows blog way back in like 2007.

What I wish I knew then that I know now, is that there is an absolute TON of money to be made outside the relatively small niche of talking about online business like I do on my blog.

As in, I’ve met people that have sold their blogs for 7+ figures and I know of others doing $200k+ net per month from their blogs in niches that you just wouldn’t think there is a ton of money in.

So ultimately my biggest suggestion is don’t get into the niche of online business.

It’s easy to see that because so many people talk about the money they make but even at $10k per month for instance – reaching the popular “six figure” mark in business blogging – that is relatively little compared to what else is out there.

5. What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

I actually don’t spend a ton of time reading other marketing blogs. I’m a firm believer in taking what you know and putting it into action and if you’re just reading blogs but not doing anything with the information then there’s little chance you’ll be able to take what you’ve been reading and profit from it.

If you want to read about how I’m making money doing all kinds of stuff that’s great, but I share the info on my blog so that you will take action with the information I’ve shared.

With that said about the only blog I visit daily is joystiq.com so I can read about video gaming news when my mind gets tired of working on something (it’s hard to stay on task while working from home)

6. Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I’m a big fan of just the plain old Google Adwords Keyword Tool if you don’t have a lot of money.

Beyond that I use a variety of premium plugins on my WordPress sites like EasyAzon (my creation) and others that help with saving time or making something automatic that’s normally manual.

7. What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Pick a niche that you’re interested in, that you have existing knowledge about and that has the potential to make money.

I see far too many people starting blogs about earning money online when they’ve never earned any money online.

Perhaps people like me are partly to blame for sharing income results etc. but the whole blogging / make money online niche as a whole is incredibly small when compared to the opportunities outside the space.

I have friends and acquaintances making 7 figures a year in “boring” niches.

8. What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

If you’re starting a blog and entering a competitive market (they’re all competitive, but some more than others of course) and you aren’t significantly different than the incumbents (in a meaningful way to your target reader) your chances of success are much lower.

No one needs to read the same blog, written in the same style about the same topics everyone else is covering.

9. If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I’d only spend money on a domain name and hosting (themes and plugins etc. as well though too).

When you’re first starting out though you don’t really need any money to grow a blog.

You should just be focusing on how to get traffic to your blog and one of the best ways of doing that is by positioning yourself in the market differently than the other bloggers are.

10. How can readers of the blog get in touch with you? (social/blog urls)

The best way to get in touch with me is through Twitter and at my blog.

Thanks again Chris for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Before WordPress, it was quite a process to create content and go live with a site of your own — now it’s simply a matter of a few clicks.

With all of this in mind, it’s now easier and popular than ever for people to dive into the world of blogging and affiliate marketing.

Many of the individuals featured within our Meet the Bloggers series all share these common traits… and here’s another success story to add into the mix!

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

Hey there! My name is Louie and I run Buzznitrous.com. I’m a blogger and internet marketer.

If I recall correctly, I owned my first blog back in 2004. I manually installed a blogging software (not WordPress) on my web server and published my first post (which was about the Euro 2004 soccer tournament that was being held in my country) in that summer.

At the time, there wasn’t a clear idea of what blogging was all about — at least, not to me. And, as such, I didn’t give it much thought.

In January of 2005, I created an online community for web developers that featured discussion forums and, a few months later, a companion blog. That’s my oldest standing blog ever, it’s 12-years-old at the time of this writing!

During my career as a programmer (although having a college degree in Marketing) I continued launching other projects, communities, and websites aiming to attract more and more traffic and trying to make money online.

One of those projects was actually a personal blog where I wrote every day about what was going on in our society and life. Surprisingly it became one of my most popular blogs and gathered a growing number of readers and followers.

By being contacted and reaching out to other bloggers, I finally realized what’s that thing they call “blogosphere” is; it’s a whole world on its own, unquestionably.

For another project of mine, I developed my own CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress from scratch because I wasn’t fully satisfied with how WordPress let me customize some of its core functions and ran a viral videos blog on that platform for about five years.

Following that, I decided to build a new blog to share my money-making-online experiences. I knew there were thousands of blogs of this kind out there but most of them just tell how much they are making and don’t actually show how they do it.

There was a gap to fill and that’s why and when Buzznitrous.com came to life.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My blog focuses on online business and people wanting to start a blog for their business. The goal is to help and inspire people who want to succeed online, regardless of their level of expertise: from beginners to seasoned veterans.

I felt there was a need for a quality resource that would answer and solve this kind of audience’s questions and problems in regards to everything that relates to online business and its different subcategories (such as Internet Marketing, SEO, Blogging and Personal Development) by showing how things are done instead of just telling how much I made online.

I try to achieve my goal by constantly challenging myself to build and reach success in all sorts of endeavors — from the “simplest” ones (like building an affiliate website) to the more advanced (like launching an online startup or developing a brand to sell) — while documenting every step of the process from zero up until the desired outcome, with both my successes and failures included in the mix.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic

At the moment, Buzznitrous is being monetized through affiliate marketing. I don’t promote just any product, though.

I only recommend tools, products or services that I’ve used or tried myself and think can be helpful to my audience. I’m not a fan of hard selling stuff; I rather just soft pitch things by explaining how product A or B have helped me reach my objectives.

I make sure to write long, in-depth reviews so that my readers are well aware of what they are getting into if they do decide to go and make the purchase. A good example of that is my review on the Wealthy Affiliate training academy. It’s so thorough that I even get comments from people thanking me and saying that I sure haven’t left any stone unturned.

In the future, I’m thinking about launching my own products or tools for that blog’s audience, but… one step at a time!

On my Niche Website Project Case Study — I’m publicly building a niche website and describing everything I do to make it profitable — one of the rules is to make money through the Amazon Associates Program. The initial goal was to earn $200 a month from Amazon, but that niche website has already reached the $1.5k-in-a-month milestone.

For my older websites, I use Google AdSense — which is not my preferred income source, by the way.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

I basically wish I knew everything about blogging I learned over the years. If I did, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time before really starting to blog professionally and launch my online businesses.

To me more specific:

Take action

This is the number one lesson that I’ve learned: TAKE ACTION! There’s no need to be afraid to fail.

Quite the contrary, welcome your failures and mistakes; they are invaluable lessons that will shoot you up to the next level. If you fall down, at least you’ll move one step closer to reaching your goals than you would if you just stood still by not taking action.

Niches

When you are trying to figure out what to blog about, the key is to find a niche that makes money but yet you know how to and like to write about.

I wish I knew about niches and that I should focus on just one topic and try to build an audience around it; instead of writing about everything and, in the end, about nothing.

The amount of work

Blogging is a lot of work! If you want to do it right and come up with something valuable, you have to be aware that researching, writing, publishing, optimizing and promoting will take a huge amount of time.

So it takes commitment and you need to be productive and consistent.

Email list

It’s common knowledge that building an email list is one of the best ways to promote your blog, especially to a loyal audience. It’s hammered into the head of every bloggers, yet not many people take that advice.

I wish I had looked at email marketing with another set of eyes. If I had taken the time to really understand and bet on building email lists I would have reached my goals more easily and quickly.

Outsourcing and delegation

I wish I knew about outsourcing but, more important than that, I wish I had learned to delegate some of the more time-consuming tasks than I can have other people doing for me.

Even if you know or are skillful enough to learn something (like video or image editing) you need to realize that money spent on hiring help is not wasted, because your time is your greatest asset.

Related: 15 vital tools for the content creator’s arsenal

Bet on paid tools and services

I wish I wasn’t such a cheapskate and had put aside a bit of my budget to get some tools and services instead of trying to do everything manually or depending on free tools alone.

You’re right in assuming that when you start you don’t have much money to spend and you can obviously use free tools (and you should!).

But, when the money starts rolling in, it will be the right time to bet on paid tools and services that will help you reach higher business standards and make your life easier.

Related: 10 must-use productivity tools for your blog

Other profitable niches

I wish I knew that the “online business” or “make money online” niches aren’t the only ones or that they’re the only niches people can make money from.

There are more than thousands of potentially awesome niches out there and many of them are much simpler to target and more profitable because the competition is low and creating content and ranking high in the search engines becomes easier.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

To be honest, I don’t visit many blogs or have much time to read them these days. There’s a lesson in that too: there will come a time where you just have to stop spending so much time reading online business/marketing blogs or participating in internet marketing forums and start putting what you’ve learned to good use by taking action.

I like having frequent readers and loyal fans and hope they stay for long but I want them to grab my tips and advice and really use them on their own projects. Of course, they — like me – can switch from being frequent readers to becoming readers that come to update themselves on the latest tactics, strategies, and trends, to see what’s working now.

That being said, I can’t really say I pay daily visits to a set of blogs. But the ones I visit the most are SmartPassiveIncome.com, NichePursuits.com, and ShoutMeLoud.com.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Since I can only mention three, here are some of the tools and services I use:

To get new content ideas there’s Buzzsumo (great way to find pieces of content with lots of social shares that you can then replicate — not copy — on your blog).

For keyword research, Long Tail Pro is a great tool. And for social promotion, I like to utilize JustRetweet.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

If this is your first blog, my advice is to focus on a specific niche and be sure it’s something you’re passionate about, feel you could write a ton of content around (and for many years to come) and that there’s money to be made there.

Bear in mind that this blogging business is very much like growing a plantation; you plant the seeds now to harvest your crops several months later. Meaning that you shouldn’t just give up if you don’t see any exciting results in the first three to six months or, sometimes, even later.

Focus on your daily or weekly task and not on the overall outcome. Be persistent, bet on a strategy and on a single traffic source at first. Try to master it and you’ll see something finally coming to life later on.

Also, don’t mimic anyone else. Be yourself, be different than the pack. Pick a unique angle to try and stand out from the crowd.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Readers like uniqueness and honesty. They want to read stuff or consume content from a real person like them with whom they can relate to. A blogger needs to treat his/her readers like real people and care for them.

In this business — if you’re blogging professionally you have to see your blog as a real business — it is very important to build relationships both with your audience and fellow bloggers.

If you build relationships with your readers, you’ll have loyal fans that can help spread the word about you and your blog. If you build relationships with other bloggers, you’ll support one another and help promote your businesses along the way.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I wouldn’t need that much money to begin with; just a good idea for a niche, focus, a unique angle on which to base my writings, persistence, determination and commitment. When my content strategy would be all lined up, I would get a domain name and some type of web hosting (you can get those for $50 or less a year).

In a second stage, after publishing some pieces of content, I would use the rest of the money to get a professional-looking theme.

People say that “content is king” and it still is but, tell me, who would you rather link to: a nice, professional-looking, freshly updated website or an ugly, amateur-looking one with outdated posts?

The beauty of your blog layout and design and the care you put in your website or blog plays a very important role nowadays and will continue to do so in the future.

Finally, with everything in place (niche idea, unique angle, domain and hosting, some content published, theme set up) I would outreach to other bloggers to try and guest post on their blogs to get to be known in my niche and bring traffic and readers to my blog

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

People can get in touch with me if they go over to Buzznitrous and visit my “Contact” page. They can either send me an email just to say “hi” or to introduce themselves or visit my social places on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They can also join my mailing list to get my latest blog updates and exclusive content I send to my subscribers.

Thanks again to Louie Luc for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

This is something we see very often in the world ‘make money bloggers’ and ‘affiliate marketing‘. Since both of these platforms are based around making money online, it kind of only makes sense to start a blog and document that process as well.

This is something quite similar to what Jon Dykstra has been doing at his site. Learn all about Jon and his blog in this latest installment of Meet the Bloggers.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I’ve been publishing niche websites full time since early 2012. Despite ups and downs, my publishing business has grown steadily over the years.

I operate in several very different niches. It’s a business I love and wouldn’t do anything else. Outside of running my publishing business, I’m very happily married with 2 young boys.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

I pubish several niche sites and each have a their own focus. Sorry, I don’t reveal my niche sites except for FatStacksBlog.com which is the blog where I write about what I do as a niche site publisher.

The focus of FatStacksBlog.com is to share tips, tricks and strategies I use to build a niche publishing business.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

I monetize each site differently. Some mostly with ads. Some mostly with affiliate promotions. Some by selling digital products. Some incorporated with all three.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

I wish I was a bit more patient when starting out. I’d probably have a much bigger business. I took shortcuts and deployed too many tactics in the beginning resulting in failed sites.

Had I focused on quality since day one, I’d be further ahead. Quality is my mantra now… serving the audience.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

Three (3) websites I visit daily are BusinessInsider.com, AuthorityHacker.com and the GreaterFool.ca.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

Three (3) key tools I use are Jpegmini, Viraltag and AWeber.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

My advice to someone starting out is to focus on quality, especially if going the blogging route. Serve your audience and put out the best info you can.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

In the beginning of my niche publishing business, I focused on affiliate revenue. I ignored display ads. I then discovered a guy earning a lot of money with AdSense.

I paid him for a consultation and he explained how he earned so much with display ads. That was a game changer for me and since then I’ve earned well over a million dollars with display ads.

While display ads are just a part of my revenue mix, I now consider it a very important revenue stream and a very effective revenue stream.

Related:

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

If I had $100, I’d pay for hosting and get to work. There are plenty of free hosting providers and free blog sites that will help you get started for super cheap. I recommend checking them out before you build a blog.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

I can be reached at FatStacksBlog.com via the contact form.

Thanks again Jon for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Some people thing the industry is flooded with too many WP help sites, while I still think it’s a great way for anyone looking to start a blog or become a better blogger, but also a great way for them build a brand and business of their own in the process.

This is exactly what Jitendra has done with his own network of sites, while also building a nice following and business of his own in the process. Learn more about Jitendra and his sites in this latest edition of Meet the Bloggers.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

Hey Zac , thanks for lot for this interview.

I am Jitendra Vaswani professional blogger and Digital marketing consultant from India. I am founder of internet marketing blog BloggersIdeas.com. It is my first official blog. I also run by digital marketing agency DigieExe.com.

I am engineer by education and digital marketer by profession.

i got into blogging when I was doing my job as SEO specialist in one private company, one of my friend told me that blogging is good resource for making money online and as I was good in SEO so my friend told that start a blog as freelancer and you can learn more while blogging.

So thats how my blogging journey begins. Till now I am enjoying my blogging and love interacting with fellow bloggers too.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My focus for blog is affiliate marketing. I choose this niche not only because I am good at it, but there are also many high-paying affiliate programs to choose from. I prefer to do things where I am good at it. I don’t want to mislead anyone where I am not very intellectual.

So internet marketing is very growing niche and I love to guide webmasters in SEO, blogging & various digital marketing niches.

My blog : BloggersIdeas focuses mainly on product reviews, SEO updates & latest digital marketing trends news.

I also run my tech Blog TechNoven.com where I share tech news. This niche is new for me and I am learning a lot in this niche.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

There are tons of ways to make money blogging, but I currently monetize my blog through these things listed below

• Adsense alternatives
• Paid ads
• Sponsored Reviews
• Paid Guest posts
• Affiliate Marketing product sales
• Selling services through my blog
• Brand Ambassador Partnerships (Currently one of the Brand Ambassador Payoneer in India)
• Event Management & Speaking( Newly started)

I don’t want to stick to any particular monetizing stuff. So I keep experimenting new stuff on my blog. I dont depend on one resource of income. I keep on exploring because depending on 1 resource for income is not good. Marketers should keep on exploring new ways to monetize traffic.

I would suggest all newbie that dont depend on 1 monetizing method keep finding more. Most blogger make these mistakes by depending on 1 resource of income and they then suffer financial crisis. Blogging is very competitive niche so without exploring you cant succeed.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

I wish I had computer at the age of 15 I could started blogging at that age. Because currently I am seeing many of teenage blogger who are rocking in blogging and have good knowledge of internet marketing terms like SEO, SMO , PPC , PPV & others.

When i started blogging I wasn’t aware about hosting things, I suffered lot of problems of hosting with my blog. So wish I could have someone who have guide me by choosing right hosting.

Also I wish I could have right mentor in beginning of blogging because having right mentors help you to succeed more.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

There are many blogs I visit daily but I love these blogs.

• Nichepursuits.com
• Backlinko.com
• Matthewwoodward.co.uk

I would advise all budding blogger & marketer please keep a habit of reading blogs because through authority blogs you will get updates what is going on in internet marketing world.

So keep a tab on all these updates. You will increase your knowledge and will be able to perform better on your plans.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I use many tools for my blogging But I would recommend these3 tools

• Adwords: Keyword tool
• SEMrush: Keyword Research
• Ahrefs: For tracking backlinks
• Openlinkprofiler.org: Backlink tracking
• Buffer app : Social sharing
• Some blackhat Tools
• Moneyrobot
• GSA Search engine Ranker

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

For someone who is starting his/her blog. Keep a tab on these crucial things

1. Choose a good domain name
2. Choose the right type of hosting
3. Choose a niche which you are good at
4. How many blog posts you need in a week or month
5. Make a strategy plan & act on it
6. Have time for social media sharing & interaction too.
7. Choose right mentors

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

I have received tips from various top marketers and I have followed their tips very seriously.

The best tip I received is that never depend anyone on blogging. Try do things on your own and search on internet for solution.

Too much dependency kills your talent. So avoid it.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I would choose a expired domain to work on it. Cheap domain names from GoDaddy are a great way to build and make that blog a micro niche blog which don’t need huge investment. Write 2-3 articles on it and build some backlinks for it and you can rank & make money out of it.

Micro niche blog is good investment at 100$.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

My readers can get in touch with via my blogs or social profiles

• Tech blog: https://www.technoven.com/
• IM blog: https://www.bloggersideas.com/
• Personal portfolio: https://jitendra.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JitendraBloggerSEO
• Twitter: @JitendraBlogger

Thanks again Jiendra for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Some of the best blogs in the world are ones that started as one thing and ended up as another. That’s what’s amazing with blogging — anyone can start a blog and there are no rules that you must follow once you get started.

John Hunter kept trying to convince his work that they should get into the world of blogging, but he kept hitting the wall. Instead John took things into his own hands and started a blog of his own and never looked back.

Learn more about John and his series of blogs in this latest edition of Meet the Bloggers.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

My background is in improving performance of the organization (management improvement).

From there I moved into software development as I had difficulty getting the IT departments to deliver what was needed and found it easier to just create it myself.

Over time my official role moved into the software development department; while I also retained responsibilities for management improvement.

I actually got into blogging when I suggested my organization should create a blog for the benefit of the organization and repeated attempts to make that happen failed. I just decided to create my own blog. This was similar to how I had decided to just create my own software solutions – though in this case I did it outside of work.

At that time (2004) I had my Curious Cat Management Improvement website. I decided to start with a science and engineering blog (I worked for an engineering association) and one for management improvement.

I wasn’t really sure I would have that much to say about science and engineering so I wanted to give both a try to see if blogging would be a good fit for me. I started on blogger to get a quick and easy feel for how it would go and if I wanted to continue.

After a few months I decided I liked it and launched self hosted blogs using WordPress: Curious Cat Management Improvement blog and Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog.

As part of the launch of the self hosted blogs I also decided to also launch a 3rd blog: Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog. I have been active with those blogs for 10 years now. I also eventually convinced work to launch a blog, though it is dormant now.

I authored a book based on my management blog – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. I used Leanpub which does a good job of automatically converting your blog to a draft of a book.

Then I had to do fairly heavy edits, but it was a great start. I discussed the process in a podcast with Leanpub.

2.) You author several blogs in different niche, why did you choose those niches?

I write about what interests me, that is how I decide. I have added numerous blogs for that same reason over the years. If I keep wanting to write posts that I don’t think fit in an existing blog and decide it is worth a new blog I create a new blog.

A couple that I started on topics that interested me had a duel motive; I was also motivated to see if they could bring in some cash. Years before I started my digital nomad lifestyle I was planning for that idea (or something similar) and so I was trying to build up some sources of income.

That experiment, to bring in cash from the blogs, hasn’t worked very well for me. A couple of web sites have done much better in bringing in money for me over the years. I just think that is how it worked for me not some innate difficulty in making money from blogs.

Over time the topics of those first 3 blogs, and one new one topic (travel), have remained the main topics that I have an interest in blogging about; still I have launched several new blogs in niches under those topics, and a couple outside them.

The Curious Cat Blog Network has grown to 18 blogs. I would say about half are fairly active, over one post a month, and others are less active but still worthwhile (in my opinion).

Orangutan with baby at Semenggoh National Park, Borneo, Malaysia by John Hunter

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

Not very well. I use AdSense and Amazon’s affiliate program and occasionally direct advertisers contact me. I don’t do any monetization on a majority of the blogs.

I think the experience and reputation may well provide benefits for a career that outweigh direct monetization (consulting, freelance work, being hired, giving seminars, etc.). I probably have benefited that way, but it is hard to measure what success is due to.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

The only thing I wish I knew that I can think of, I still don’t know: which is how to find someone to find direct advertising for me.

Just waiting for people to contact me about advertising brings in the more money that other streams of revenue. I believe it has to be profitable to pay someone knowledgable to bring in more advertising.

Marketing and seeking advertisers doesn’t interest me much. My attempts to find a service that finds advertisers has not worked and attempts to hire someone to find advertising for the blogs has also failed.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

I use Inoreader daily to manage my blog feeds and read lots of blogs; but I don’t have clear leaders or any individual blogs I visit daily.

Daily, I read: Reddit, HackerNews and Twitter.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I use Inoreader to organize blog feeds, WordPress to power my blogs and Hootsuite to schedule tweets.

Screenshot of the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Write about what you are passionate about. Most blogs fizzle out fairly quickly. I think largely because people tried to write about something they don’t care about – or they just don’t really want to write.

Finding out blogging isn’t for you is fine. But not giving yourself a fair chance to like it is a shame. And that often happens when someone picks a topic they are not passionate about.

Most success takes time, and more time than most people think. Prepare yourself for a marathon, don’t think you are going to do a great job for 2 months and be hugely successful (though if you have some other huge following you could – musician, comedian…).

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

The best advice is what I mentioned above; write about what you are passionate about. When you are passionate you are not only able but excited to learn about the topic and then share ideas that are worthwhile with your readers.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I would use to pay for hosting a WordPress blog on my own domain.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

• Twitter: @curiouscat_com
• YouTube: Curious Cat Travel
• John Hunter online (Google+, Reddit, Trip Advisor, Wikimedia…)

Thanks again to John for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

I personally do a lot more than blogging and I love my job. If you were to ask travel bloggers, I’m sure you would hear the same.

Gary Arndt is a travel blogger and he also has quite the following online as well, with over half a million followers across his social networks and he also has quite the blog as well.

I’m quite jealous of all the places Gary has visited and after reading this “Meet the Blogger” interview I’m sure you will be too!

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I started a personal blog back in 1997. It wasn’t even called a blog back then, it was just my personal website.

When I decided to travel around the world, it was natural for me to start a website to document the trip.

I had previously taken a trip around the world in 1999 and I created a small website for the people in my office to follow along, so I saw this as something similar.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My blog documents my travels around the world. I have been traveling around the world non-stop since March 2007. During that time I have visited over 140 countries and territories and all 7 continents.

Last month I was named the Photographer of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers and in 2010 I was named as one of the Top 25 Blogs on the Internet by Time Magazine.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

My monetization strategy right now is endorsements and sponsorships. This is a very different approach from what most bloggers do.

I’m able to do this because…

1. travel and tourism is the world’s biggest industry with $12 trillion in annual global revenue
2. I have one of the largest personal audiences in that industry

When I decided to try and make a full time living doing this in late 2007, I knew this was the option I wanted to pursue. There are several reasons for this:

It requires less work.

Once you establish a relationship with a company, you aren’t in constant sales mode. You just need to continue that relationship.

I have been working with my primary sponsor, G Adventures, for over 3 years now. They are the world’s biggest adventure travel company and I travel with them many times a year.

It establishes myself as a premium brand. My associating myself with reputable companies, it solidifies myself as being reputable.

I’m able to maintain it while traveling.

I have a travel schedule that would exhaust most people. I’m always in foreign countries and out exploring the world.

That radically limits the amount of time I have to create ebooks, do SEO or focus on affiliate marketing. Most of the traditional avenues of blog monetization would be very hard for me to do given my schedule.

I’m looking at diversifying my revenue in the near future. That might include a book, photography work shops and perhaps another website.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

Things have changed so much since I started, I’m not sure how much would still apply back in 2007. I supposed I would have jumped on to ceratin social media platforms sooner than I did (and I was still rather early).

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

• I have over 100 sites in my RSS reader. Some of my favorites are:
• Universe Today. Science and astronomy in particular are interests of mine. I always try to visit related sites when I travel.
• PVPonline.com. Not a blog per se, but I’m a friend of Scott Kurtz and I’ve been reading it for over 10 years.
• GigaOM. There is so much technology news out there, I’ve cut back on almost everything. I have kept GigaOM in my reader, however.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I don’t actively do any SEO. I don’t have any tools o manage social media. There are a few services I use to keep the blog up and running:

1. Smugmug. I use Smugmug to host 100% of my images. I highly recommend people not host their images on the same server that their blog is on.
2. WP Engine. They do dedicated WordPress hosting. Since I moved to them earlier this year, I’ve had almost 100% up time and things are much faster. I pay more, but it has been worth it.
3. Cloudflare. Most people ignore DNS hosting. Cloudflare provides a psudo-CDN and well as an extra layer of security.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Don’t quit your day job.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

If you want to be successful, you need to be in this for the long haul. I see too many people who start a blog and then expect to be a success in 6 months. This is probably going to take years.

You have to be able to keep going even when it seems that no one is paying attention. If you don’t give up and keep trying to improve, something eventually will.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I’d guess I’d use the money to buy a domain, open an account an Aweber and pay for hosting.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

I’m everywhere online. You can find me at:
Twitter: @EverywhereTrip/
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere/
Instagram: https://Instagram.com/EverythingEverywhere/

Thanks again Gary for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

More people are traveling and blogging everyday. The “travel blogger” niche is just exploding and not only can it be a lucrative niche to get into, but it’s extremely fun and a great way to expand on your life experiences as well.

Carol Cain is a great example of a travel blogger who is documenting her journeys and having fun along the way. Get inspired and discover what it’s like to be a travel blogger with our excellent interview below.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I started a career in public relations and started blogging after I left my job to be more with my kids.

I traveled around NYC, my hometown, with my kids and found inspiration in how they took in the city and the things I saw we could do together. It quickly grew from there.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My blog is about food and travel, with some lessons on blogging and life sprinkled in between. My goal is to inspire others to get out there and live life to the fullest as I try to do each day.

I chose this niche because it is one I most connect with and enjoy writing about. It’s work, but rarely feels like it, I love it so much.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

I have few ads on my site – I don’t do Adsense, their alternatives or any of that. I freelance write for other publications who pay me and take part in paid spokesperson or ambassadorships campaign programs.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

When I started really paying attention to blogging as “work” I got caught up a lot in what others told me was the best way to do things, and in what I should do to make money or increase readership.

I am a true believe in authenticity and letting things happen naturally. It’s not the fastest way to grow an audience, nor is it the most profitable. But, it’s the most authentic and most enjoyable approach for me.

“Slow and steady” works lovely for me and I’ve learned to embrace it and ignore the noise encouraging me to do otherwise.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

I write for Expedia Viewfinder, but I actually also read it because I love the writers on there and then that takes me to their blogs, which I also love.

It’s one of the projects I am most proud of being a part of because I admire the writers of it so much. Huge fan girl. I also enjoy National Geographic Travel, and Beers and Bean.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I am a big Social Media user. I don’t tweak keywords as much. I do use SEO tools for my site, but I focus a lot of networking, so Instagram is a favorite to share photography, Twitter to chat about everything, and Facebook to have more elaborate conversations.

I am not a huge fan of manipulating my blog to get people. It may sound naïve, but I just believe people will come eventually without me fixing things to get them there. I just write.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Figure out what it is you are most passionate about, not what you see I trending or you think will make you money.

Blogging, or at least the blogging worth reading, takes a lot of time and focus. If your heart isn’t in it and you are only doing it to get rich quick, you will quickly burn out and be discouraged.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Disconnect when writing. It’s so easy to get distracted by social media or critics, or whatever else. Just disconnect and write. It’s more time efficient and allows you to just focus on your message.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I would invest on a good platform and host. I would also invest on a good brand designer, but $100 is hardly what they are worth.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and of course, my blog, GirlGoneTravel.com.

This is exactly what Lewis Howes has done with his brand and business over the past few years. While every knows about LinkedIn, not many people know how to use it to their advantage and this is where Lewis has built his name and success.

In addition to his success with LinkedIn, Lewis has been all over the place, which has led him to be featured in our meet the bloggers interview series.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

My name is Lewis Howes, I’m a former (Arena Football League) player who made the transition from athlete to entrepreneur after a career ending injury. 

I wouldn’t consider myself a professional blogger, but blogging is something I do to keep my audience informed about what I’m up to and how they can continue to grow professionally, and personally.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

I have a presences in a few niches:

Sports – www.sportsnetworker.com
Personal development / Entrepreneurship: www.lewishowes.com and my podcast The School Of Greatness
LinkedIn:  www.linkedinfluence.com
Webinar Marketing: Magnetic Webinars

As you can see I have a variety of books, training products and resources. But all of them have been designed to help professionals grow their business and connect with like-minded people.

I chose these niches because I’ve personally experienced success in each of them, which qualifies me to teach others how to do the same.

Also, my sports background has given me a strong work ethic and the belief that anything is possible with courage, discipline, teamwork and the right coaches.  That’s the overall theme I try to communicate in everything I do.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

I monetize with products, membership sites, speaking, sponsorships, private coaching and creating digital products which are sold on webinars and direct marketing.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

I wish I knew the power of having a podcast.

My podcast, The School Of Greatness is…

• Quickly growing my brand
• Allowing me to form deeper connections with my audience
• Attracting stellar guests that have greatly enriched my life.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

• Socialtriggers.com
• iwillteachyoutoberich.com
• marieforleo.com
• jonathanfields.com

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging? 

Here are the tools I recommend for growing your audience and monetizing the value you’re offering.

1. Gotowebinar:  Webinars are a great way to connect with your audience and deliver high value content in a way that entertaining and engaging
2. LinkedIn:  This may not be considered a blogging tool, but LinkedIn groups are a great way to build your authority since you will be the organizer of a group.  They also give you an opportunity to create an audience that will eventually find their way to your site.
3. Video:  If you’re not using video – you’re getting left behind.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

I would suggest picking a topic they already enjoy talking about – and learning about.  Don’t just pick something because it’s popular or because you think it’ll be easy to make money from it.

First of all, there’s no such thing as “easy” money.  Delivering value worth paying for takes hustle and work.

Second, in order to continue to deliver high value content you’ll need to be a student of your topic, which means you’ve got to LOVE what your teaching or it will show.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Having a successful blog is more than just sitting behind your computer and blogging.  It’s also about getting out there in REAL life and connecting with the people you’re writing for. That’s how you gain a strong following and keep your hand on the pulse of your market. 

It’s also a great way to meet other people you can do cross promotions with. I can tell you from experience, my business took a huge leap forward when I started hosting live events and connecting with people.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

1. Select my market (FREE)
2. Buy a domain that clearly states what my blog is about
3. Immediately install an autoresponder with a free report offered (Even if I don’t have one yet.  The idea is to motivate myself to get moving)
4. Get a custom header created ($17 at www.logonerds.com)
5. Buy the most popular book (kindle version) within my niche to better understand what’s getting the attention of my market (approx $15.00)
6. Spend 2 hours browsing the book (FREE)
7. Spend 2 hours browsing popular YouTube videos in my new niche (FREE)
8. Write a 10 page Free Report on a popular topic I uncovered in my research and then install it in my auto-responder.
9. Have an e-book cover created ($5 on fiverr)
10. Write 2 blog posts (500 words each) and post them

Total Cost = $37.00

** You can take the remaining $63 and have someone on fiverr edit a few videos for you, which you can then post on YouTube each month.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Tweet me – @LewisHowes or Facebook.com/lewishowes

Thanks again Lewis for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

Even with that said, it’s always interesting to see how many different “wordpress and blogging” tips sites we can come across, and many of them are quite successful as well.

Today we are going to be interviewing the creator of Blondish.net, Nile Flores and how she first got started with blogging and turned her site into what it is today.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I started blogging in early 2001. I had been on GeoCities and started manual blogging using a 3rd party comment system called Haloscan. Just so you know, manual blogging is where you just write your post and HTML into a static page, and then paste your javascript link to your post.

As that time, I was doing free graphics, sharing my poetry, and just using my site as a hobby blog. I had several other websites I maintained that were related to some of the hugest Yahoo! Clubs (which were then going through the transition to Yahoo! Groups) in existence at that time.

Once I had my own site, I got into web competitions at The Site Fights and got 2nd two years straight out of hundreds of website owners who competed each year. I built a large following strictly for my website at that time.

I eventually found b2/ cafelog, which was the script that WordPress was forked from, and the rest is history. I’ve been using WordPress since it began.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

The focus of my blog is basically helping the creation, design, development, and marketing of a website, particularly those using WordPress.

I chose that niche because at the time, there were so many blogs that didn’t have a real focus, or the website owner was clueless. I’d already had a lot of success building sites and communities that I felt a need to help teach.

And when I mean help teach, it was through my blogging. There were people out there teaching and consulting, mostly opportunists giving out breadcrumbs of crappy advice to keep charging their clients by the hour.

Until 2009, I had some personal posts on my site, but those were taken down as I wanted to solely focus on the meat and potatoes that bring people to my site and make me the most money without spamming the heck out of them.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

I do in house advertisements, text links as in my sidebar, very little Google adsense, and occasionally sponsored posts.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

Wow, you are making me think all the way back then… lol. I was an English major in college, already successful in creating communities and websites, so really, it wasn’t the blogging aspect that I needed help on.

It was having better resources to learn from in creating websites. Even though I don’t have that problem today, I’d certainly be farther along.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

• Mashable.com
• TechCrunch.com
• Just-Ask-Kim.com (Kimberly Castleberry is a good friend of mine as well… actually my best friend.)

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

• WordPress – It seems I can’t live without it.
• WordPress SEO by Yoast – Great SEO tool! It’s definitely my favorite WordPress SEO plugin
• Google Analytics – This really helps me see what people are looking for in my niche and within my website.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

If you’re just beginning, don’t hesitate to start blogging. If you don’t have a focus yet, keep blogging and also keep in mind to think about what you want to do.

Blogs are much like businesses and you definitely have to plan, but if you at least get in the habit of blogging you will be ahead of those just waiting for the perfect time to blog. It is important to remember that you should be blogging about what you are passionate about, as well as have the knowledge for it. The passion will encourage you to keep learning more in your niche.

Oh, and your first blog shouldn’t be in the Blogs about Blogging niche. You can’t start a site teaching other bloggers if you haven’t raised a website in another niche first. There are a few who have turned to community blogging to drive more traffic, because they still lack the experience to maintain a blog or website on an individual level.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Keep blogging and use scheduled posts during vacation or hiatus. It really keeps your blog fueled and you don’t lose readers or traffic.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

$100 is more than enough money to start a new blog. I already do everything, have my own server and have the tools for starting any type of website. I’d probably use it towards marketing.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

• My Site – https://blondish.ne
• Twitter – @blondishne
• Facebook-  https://facebook.com/NileFlore
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/blondishnet

Thanks again Niles for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

It doesn’t matter where you live in the world, as long as you have internet access. What’s also amazing is the amount of english speaking (written) blogs outside of the United States.

This week’s Meet the Bloggers interview is with Samrath Gupta, who runs an affiliate marketing tips blog out of India.

In addition to money making tips, Samrath also does a decent amount of interviews with different affiliate marketers, which also expands the reach of his own blog and the people he interviews through the site.

All in all… a perfect example of how blogging is connecting everyone around the world together, while also helping educate others on how to build and make money in the world of blogging.

1- Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging

Hi Guys, This is Samrath Gupta here from SamrathGupta.com. I’m from India and currently working with CPA Prosperity as Affiliate Manager.

I love having fun, long drives, cracking jokes and somewhat utilizing my sense of humor on my friends lol. I love making new friends, its always my pleasure to connect with like minded people. Along with this I’m also a internet marketer and love to dig out new tricks and strategies to do new things.

The reason I started blogging was when I stepped inside this industry I had no mentor, nobody to teach me what should I do, no place to find informative posts, I even didn’t knew where to find IM’ers blog where they blog.

I found that there are tons of people who feel just like me because they also dont know where to go and where to read. So I thought why not share what I know with these folks so that they don’t face what I faced in my IM journey.

That was the main reason I started blogging and started sharing things I knew.

2- What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

HELP! Thats the only focus of my blog and I love doing it. My blog is only for people who are looking to learn and earn from internet.

I chose to blog about this industry because I love this industry and more then that I love to write what I learnt.

3- How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

Honestly, Monetizing my blog is something I don’t think of. I don’t want to divert my readers to leave the blog and go somewhere else lol.

I didn’t started the blog to sell TONS of ad space and make SUPER amount of $$$$. Nahhh.. I just sell a couple of ad space and a very few and hand picked paid reviews. Thats all for now.

4- What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

The power of community, The power of READERS!

Yes. When I first started blogging I never thought that I’ll gain such powers. When you start blogging you gain a amount of readers which increase and decrease on the basis of contents you post and I notice increase of readers every single day!

They way a hollywood celebrity becomes a super star because of his fans the same way you too become a super star of your readers and fans. You never know that you help SO MANY PEOPLE and thats an awesome feeling.

This community and power of readers can take you to a whole new level. They mention your name, recommend you at many places,etc.. You see the powers and benefits now 😀 ?

PS: I never knew that I’ll be bombarded with so many SPAM comments too -_-

5- What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

I have a hectic work schedule. I’m subscribed to the affpplus newsletter and read the top 3 blogs I receive in my mailbox. Thats easy and works good for me. I love the way affposts works! Thumbs Up Luke 😉

6- Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

My blog is based on wordpress and I’m a big fan of wordpress and its plugins. Below I’m mentioning top 3 plugins I love most!

1- Komoona Ads: If you want to sell ad space on your blog/website then you can use Komoona Ads as I myself use them and I must say they are AWESOME!

Its free to use and works like charm. Easy to integrate and no monthly expenses to maintain.

2- Mailchimp Comment Optin: This little wordpress plugin helps you get subscribers very easily. Once you install and activate this plugin, It will show a tick optin in your comment form (there are many free Mailchimp templates to choose from). So when a person is leaving a comment on your post he/she gets the option to subscribe to your list.

3- Platinum SEO Pack: The best SEO plugin! While there are many SEO plugins on the market, this one is my favorite because it makes doing SEO easy and simple.

7 – What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

You want to start a new blog? Thats a great thing but make sure you know what you are going to post about. For example if you are going to start a blog about cooking then keep 3 things in mind

1- What will be new in your blog? New recipes? Easy cooking instructions? Whatever. There are thousands of blogs on such topic and make sure you stay 2 steps ahead from others.

2- Join forums and facebook groups related to your blog. Publish your posts on facebook groups and be active on forums. In the forums you get signature just below your post. Add your blog link there. Being active on forums will give you a authority figure.

3- Make sure you are connected with your readers. Reply to their comments and solve their concerns 🙂

8 – What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

What I have discovered about blogging is that NEVER take blogging as a joke. Its not easy as it seems like and you must be serious when it comes about blogging.

If you are a regular blogger and blog often then you must be 100% sure regarding what you are writing. One wrong post can hurt a lot of people. Never forget there are 100’s of people who read your posts. One wrong or bad post and its over!

9 – If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

I’d get a domain, Hosting, A nice customized theme and especially a Brand able LOGO!

I’ll make sure my logo stands out of crowd because logo will be your brand symbol. Make it simple, Awesome so that whenever they see it. They get to know who is behind it!

Before you get there though, check out the many free web hosts and free blogging sites that you might be able to use to get started.

You can also claim a $1.99 domain name from GoDaddy, so don’t overlook that easy savings either.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

Reaching me is very simple. You can reach me via following methods:

1. You can reach out to me via my blogs contact page https://www.samrathgupta.com/contact
2. You can add me on my facebook https://www.facebook.com/Aff.Manager
3. You can follow me on my twitter: @SamrathGupta
4. You can add me on skype: samrath.gupta
5. You can also connect with me on linkedin https://in.linkedin.com/in/samrathgupta/

Hope these methods are enough to catch me 😉

Lastly I’d like to thank Zac for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and making me post my thoughts here.

Thanks again Samrath for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

I first really started to listen to podcasts when I came across Pat Flynn and listening to his shows. It’s really amazing how many people are finding his blog as a result of the podcast and growing his audience.

Since learning more about podcasting I’ve definitely been thinking about starting a series of my own. During my research I came across David Jackson of SchoolofPodcasting.com and thought he would make for a great addition in our continuing meet the bloggers interview series.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

At an early age I was always creative. Be it poetry, short stories, and later I got into cassette decks and recording audio. So I’ve always been creative.

As a computer trainer, I had to learn Microsoft Front page, and that got me on the Internet and one thing has lead to another.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

I’ve always been a geek, a musician, and a content producer, so davidjackson.org and schoolofpodcasting.com kind of allow me to be creative and mix in some technology.

When I work in the corporate world as a technical instructor I often get pulled into marketing meetings as well. So I write what I love and interest me. I’m also a Christian so I enjoy looking into human nature, helping people, and the whole golden rule.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic?

On my website schoolofpodcasting.com I list my income statements for the past few months. My income is about 30% affiliate income (through sites like cj.com and others), 20% from membership sites I run, a small amount is from book sales (More Podcast Money), and the majority of it is from one on one consulting.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

To REALLY reach out to anyone who connects with you via comments, email, etc. When you are first starting out (and there aren’t that many), you can turn these people into your cheering squad/marketing team.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

You know I couldn’t tell you the name as I just go to feely.com. Blogworld.com has a decent blog. Hypebot.com is great for music marketing, https://managewp.com/blog for wordpress tools.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging?

I sue the Scribe plugin for wordpress for SEO tips, SEO for WordPress by Yoast plugin (same reason), and the PowerPress plugin from blubrry.com for my podcasting needs.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Much like shooting baskets, playing the guitar, etc the more you do it – the better you will get at it.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Quite writing for search engines, and just create good content. The traffic will come. Its not going to happen over night, but writing for the robots will get you nowhere.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

$8 on web hosting, and $70 on a theme, and $22 on a header graphic.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you?

My main site is schoolofpodcasting.com and my blog is at davidjackson.org.

Thanks again David for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.

A few months ago I was looking into the business of ebooks and how to make money by selling digital books through Amazon. One of the best sites and guides I came across was the one from Eric Lass over at Shuckabuck. I did focus a lot of time and effort into releasing my “Blogging Tips: Confessions of a Six Figure Blogger” book, I didn’t get to really spend any time working on releasing other short books and guides… however Eric continues to do very well in this niche, which makes him a perfect candidate for today’s “Meet the Bloggers” interview.

1.) Please tell us about yourself and how you got into blogging?

I found out about blogging and affiliate marketing through a magazine article back in 2008 from Entrepreneur magazine. The article was written on John Chow and he “make money by teaching people how to make money”.

That article got me to read his blog almost daily and finally start my own blog – shuckabuck.com. Which at that time was a blog about online poker. I did a lot of online poker from about 2002 till 2006, and I used shuckabuck.com as a way to refer people to other poker rooms and training aids.

I later found out about search engine optimization and getting traffic to my website, so I started doing SEO and created about 50 new sites from 2009 until about 2011.

2.) What is the focus of your blog and why did you choose that niche?

My focus was online poker until the United States Government shut down all the sites. My blog is now about kindle ebooks and self publishing for the most part – my little affiliate websites still make a little income, but most of my revenue comes from kindle books now.

I chose kindle books because that’s what I actually know a lot about and I can teach other people what I do.

3.) How are you currently monetizing your blog traffic? (adsense, product, paid ads)

I sell an eBook on shuckabuck.com called Publishing for Profit which teaches people a step-by-step “formula” to create best selling kindle books.

4.) What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started blogging?

Oh boy, everything. I wish I knew everything I know now back in 2008. But in order to get started you just have to do it, some of the stuff you can learn from a couple youtube videos, other things you may have to purchase a training course or “learn on the job”.

5.) What are three blogs that you visit almost daily?

I don’t visit any blogs almost daily anymore mainly because their isn’t much I can learn from them since I’m doing kindle stuff and other people are still in the SEO and affiliate marketing world.

I do recommend checking out LostBallinHighWeeds.com – he has some very interesting stuff. I would also recommend checking out NichePursuits.com and SmartPassiveIncome.com.

6.) Can you give us three recommended tools/services that you use with your blogging? (search tools, keywords, content, social)

First – Keyword Researcher (keywordresearcher.org)

This tool I still use quite a bit even though I don’t do much as far as “blogging” on a daily basis. The tool is THE BEST for finding long tail keywords from the google auto suggestions.

Second – SocialOomph.com or Hootsuite.com

Those 2 tools will let you manage and schedule your social media stuff pretty easily.

Lastly, I recommend hiring someone to do your backlinking for you so you can focus on creating awesome content and marketing your blog. The last thing you want to be doing is creating backlink articles when you can growing your facebook page or marketing your products and services.

7.) What advice would you have for someone who is just starting with their first blog?

Start now – ask questions later. It’s fine if you don’t know exactly what to do – you just need to know that you do need to start. The earlier you start, the better off you will be later.

8.) What’s the best advice or tip you’ve discovered about blogging since getting started?

Quality over Quantity. Create a valuable blog, then create valuable services or products and people will come back, and eventually the search engines will like your site. Focus on quality content 100% of the time.

9.) If you only had $100 to start a new blog, how would you use it?

After hosting you wouldn’t have much left, but other than that, I would use about 50% to get some facebook fans so you can get instant traffic when you post new stuff.

I would then use the other 50% for your first few months of an email marketing service like Aweber.

10.) How can readers of the blog get in touch with you? (social/blog urls)

They can contact me at shuckabuck.com using the contact form, at facebook.com/shuckabuck, or on twitter @shuckabuck.

Thanks again Eric for taking the time to share your advice and story with the Blogging Tips community. If you would like to learn about other bloggers and how they are finding success online, be sure to read through our blogger interview series.