The Blog Entrepreneur Is In The Spotlight For Doing What?!?

The Blog Entrepreneur

The Blog Entrepreneur has found himself in the spotlight, whether he likes it or not.
This is officially the first “spotlight” post. Bill from TBE has kindly agreed to be our first.

Put your tongue back into your mouth, it’s not like that.

The Blog Entrepreneur …

Clean, uncluttered, not stuffed with ads.

How about that? Same here!

Blogging Essentials

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Ok, know we get to the good stuff, the interview.Landon:

Hi Bill, how are you?

Bill:

I’m good Landon, always busy but that’s how it is.

Landon:

I hear ya, a task that’s never done. Thanks for doing an interview with me, let’s get right into it.

First question

With The Blog Entrepreneur and Blogging essentials, which are you more involved with?

Bill:

No question, the blog that I spend the majority of my time on is TBE.

I purchased the domain Blogging Essentials on a GoDaddy expired domain

auction.

I liked the domain name and I like blogging about blogging, although there

are a billion of those sites out there.

I don’t know where I am going to go with that domain, I may sell it, or

I may develop it into a WP resources site with all of the best plugins and

Wordpress themes available in one place to download.

I’ve even considered a multi-author blog.

Open to ideas if you have any but it hasn’t been a priority.

Landon:

I like the idea of a multi-author blog, let’s discuss that further in the next few

days.

Landon:

Do you feel that networking with other bloggers is

A. important

B. very important

C. the most important aspect of what we do

Bill :

A: I think it’s definitely an important part of blogging and one that many

beginning bloggers neglect.

Networking takes on many forms and you have a lot of options.

Commenting on other bloggers sites, emailing them, social sites like

BlogCatalog etc.

I would rank it as Important if I had to select a choice. The blog and

the content is still the most important thing in my opinion.

Landon:

What are the top 3 things you want in a private membership site?

Bill:

I don’t belong to very many membership sites but I did recently join

one called the Hive at Performancing and I participate at BlogCatalog

quite regularly.

I don’t know that I have a top 3 things but what I am looking for out

of a site like this is the exposure to other bloggers both to promote

my content and to learn from them.

I think there are so many opportunities to network and socialize

that a site like the Hive MUST positively set itself apart from these

other sites.

It has to offer value to its members otherwise they will not return.

The Hive is only 10 dollars a month, which is very inexpensive, but

even for that it should strive to be more than just another internet

forum.

Landon:

I completely agree with you on that.  Too many are just unorganized.

When you “find” someone who you want to network with how do you initiate

contact?

What do you do first?

Bill:

I don’t know. I guess I don’t have a play book for it, most of the

bloggers that I have become friendly with I have befriended through

BlogCatalog or right through my own comments section.

Every blogger is different, so no one set game plan will work with all of

them.

But as for me, I am a blunt and to the point kind of guy. If you want

something from me, then ask.

Landon:

I’m going to throw gas on a fire here, don’t answer if you don’t want to…

With the major mental separation between purist bloggers and hard core

marketers sharing the same avenue of self promotion via the blogosphere,

where do you fit?

And in the end, do you think it matters what the other side thinks?

Bill

No worries here friend, I throw plenty of gas on the same fire.

I am a live and let live kind of guy and really don’t understand

all the fuss.

If you are a purist blogger and want to write an ad free, affiliate

link free blog, then by all means do it and vice versa.

I don’t know why people seem to have the need to convince those

who don’t think like they do that they are wrong.

I am going to write the blog that makes me happy and hopefully

in the process it will be useful to other people.

There are all kinds of readers out there, readers for the purist blog and

readers for the marketing blogs. Cater to your own tastes and leave

the others alone.

Landon:

What are your top 3 membership sites and why? What do they offer you?

Bill:

I only belong to one paid site, and that is the Hive, but the others that I

would list as well are BlogCatalog and SitePoint.

BlogCatalog - friendship, discussion, socializing etc.

Hive - Networking, Social Media support.

SitePoint - The internet marketplace. I use it to buy and sell

Landon:

Back to the networking thing - Whom (what kind of internet professional, affiliate,

copywriter etc) are you most interested in building relationships with?

Bill :

Well out of necessity the first people that I tried to form a relationship

with were people who could help me learn to blog or build a blog.

I befriended a graphic designer who helped design the header and get

my site set up.

It was truly hideous looking at one time but looks pretty good now.

As for the rest I don’t have a targeted group in mind. I think if you are

smart enough to see it, most people have something to offer you.

I get a lot of my post ideas from comments that people leave or threads

I read at BC.

I think if you CAN, then you would do well to get a few of the bigger

bloggers to put you on their radar.

Tyler Cruz and John Cow would hardly exist if it weren’t for

John Chow.

Vic and Courtney Tuttle have worked well together, etc.

No question the more people you can have on your team the better.

Landon:

If your were to build a crew, starting right now, to build a group of marketers

for the benefit of all, who would you reach out to?

Bill:

For the benefit of all? That’s kind of an impossible question to answer

because everyone has different wants or needs.

I will answer it for myself and tell you that Yaro Starak has developed

into a first class marketer when it comes to product launches.

A new face on the net is Gyutae Park at Winning the Web is building a

reputation for building a buzz and creating a stir.

Another blogger that brings a first class sense of professionalism to

everything he does is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.

I really like him and his style. He offers a lot of value to his readers

and seems to be a first rate guy.

Landon:

Where do you see your self in 12 months?

Bill:

You ask tough questions….I see myself trending away from niche

website building and more towards blogging.

I have a very demanding day job so I only have a limited amount

of time for this activity and I have grown to really like blogging a lot.

I do see myself starting a few more blogs in other niches and I am

going to be a regular contributor for another internet marketing

blog as well.

The owner of that site isn’t able to write regularly, so he is recruiting a

number of contributors to help generate content and keep the doors

open so to say.

I don’t see any more time than that. I would like to see TBE have a

PR4 or higher, Alexa of 50k ish or better as well.

We’ll see how it goes but one thing is clear, I am enjoying every bit of it.

Landon:

What is your biggest driving factor to build a web presence?

I know why your doing the web thing, but what drives you to build your brand

in the way you are?

Bill:

My “business model” if you want to call it that for TBE is not to

monetize via affiliate income or paid posting but rather private ad sales.

I am trying to build a quality blog that has traffic and readership that

will make it attractive to advertisers.

I will sprinkle in some affiliate income from a few programs here and

there, but my main source of income is going to be private ad sales.

I have a long way to go as I have only been blogging at ALL for about

3 months.

I am not a fan of the tens of thousands of MMO blogs out there that

do nothing but recycle whatever John Chow wrote last week or have

3 or 4 affiliate links in every post.

I don’t need the money from blogging so I can focus on building a

quality product that I am proud of, rather than having to rely on it

for income.

I still have a long way to go before I get my content and ability to

where I will be happy with it but I can tell that I am getting

better every day.

Landon:

Bill, thanks it has been a pleasure. I will be in touch over the next few days to discuss

some ideas about Blogging Essentials as well as some other things. We will also

do a follow up interview in 3-4 months to catch up on all the happenings with you.

Bill:

No worries Landon, take care.

Well, there you have it, our first interview. I believe it went very well, you might

not believe this, but before I asked Bill to do this interview, he and I had never

crossed paths.

We actually met briefly in HIVE. Briefly… if you can even call it that. I commented on his

blog in his “introduction” post.

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If you don’t have it yet grab our feedWe will be bringing some awesome people in for interviews, and here’s a sneak peak at next

week’s spotlight… Ryan Caldwell from College-Startup and The PopCrunch Show.

In the next couple weeks we will also be interviewing

1cat.biz

Courtney Tuttle

Ben Cope

Don Miller

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Did I mention we aren’t screwin’ around?!?Want more? Grab the feed. We also have a special treat coming for you in the next two

weeks, and I promise you will be sorry if you miss it!

If you’d like to ask Bill some other questions, or nominate someone else for us to interview,

do so in the comments section below!

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