Lee Rowley

Lee Rowley started Blogger’s Workshop as an accessible resource for people who want to earn extra money, or even earn a living, from their blogging efforts. Lee spent nearly a decade working in Corporate America, and he was miserable the entire time.

Through blogging, he was able to finally free himself from having to answer to someone else. According to Lee, what sets Blogger’s Workshop apart from other make money online blogs is that he lays it all out.

He lets people watch both his successes and failures unfold, and he is not afraid to admit it when a project blows up in his face.

Deepak: How do you define the success of a blog? Is it traffic, readership, revenue, brand image or anything else?

Lee: For me, blogging success comes from knowing you provide something of real value for your readers. If you can’t wait to blog when you get up in the morning, you’ve found your success. (Of course, being able to keep the lights on and the house off the auction block is a big plus, too.)

Deepak: When did you decide that you finally reached success with your blog?

Lee: I think it was when a reader referred to one of my posts as an ‘indespensible manifesto’. That was also when I realized I had a reputation to uphold!

Deepak: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?

Lee: 12.563. Exactly that long. No, really, it’s all dependent on motivation, willingness to learn, a bit of luck, and a steady supply of beer. It goes back to how you define success. If success means personal satisfaction, then you can achieve it on day one. If you’re talking about earning enough to make a living, it depends on the size and profitability of your niche market, and how much money is ‘enough’.

If we’re talking $10,000 a month, then you’d better pack a big lunch, because it’s going to take a while to build that kind of traction – maybe a year or two if you blog consistently and promote yourself shamelessly.

Deepak: In your opinion, who are the most successful bloggers on the Internet today?

Lee: Whoo. Well, John Chow comes to mind first, because he earns over $40,000 a month from a single blog, and still manages to have a lot of fun with it. You can tell he really enjoys what he does. Yaro Starak is probably on that list too. He’s happy with the amount of money he makes, and he’s one of the most influential bloggers I’ve run across. And though it makes me cringe to admit it, I guess you have to give Perez Hilton props for building a million dollar blogging empire simply by being a juvenile douche-waffle.

Deepak: What are the three blogs which you most often read?

Lee: Well, I read Yaro Starak’s blog, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, almost daily. Ditto for Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net. My third entry is a bit left field – I’ve been a vegetarian for about 15 years and a vegan for about 7, and I really love Veggie Girl’s vegan desserts and such. Can’t be all business, you know.

Deepak: If you saw that your close friend had the potential to be a successful blogger, what would you say to him to motivate him to start a blog?

Lee: Man alive, yol u’re not pulling any punches here, are you? Okay… my first thought is this: You’ve got unique knowledge and insights to share, and the world needs to hear them. Seriously, I can’t think of too many niches or interests that can’t be parlayed into successful blogs.

Deepak: What is your advice for new bloggers who are just getting started to help them build a successful blog?

Lee: Nail down your niche before you ever write the first damned word. If you don’t know what your blog is about, your readers won’t know either. Oh, and get a good, customizable Wordpress theme. You’ve got enough work ahead of you that you can’t afford to spend time screwing with your blog’s code.

Finally, you have to remember that blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. If you expect to receive tons of traffic and make insane money overnight, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you (and probably trying to get you to buy an overpriced ebook).

Deepak: What is your advice with regard to the length of the blog articles and the frequency of posting?

Lee: Don’t make all of your posts the same length. It will bore your readers, and lock you into a blogging “formula”. Most of my posts are 500-600 words long, but I use shorter posts for quick announcements and brain farts, and really long posts (2500+ words) when I really want to go in depth with a topic. The long posts are important, because they’ll keep bringing in organic traffic for years… but use them sparingly, because no one wants to wade through a 2000 word post every single day. Save those for the important stuff.

As for frequency… don’t worry too much about posting every day. I’d focus more on keeping a sense of consistency. If you start out posting three times a week, your readers will learn to expect that. If you go a month without posting, you’ll lose your readership base.

Deepak: What has been your most effective marketing method so far for bringing new readers to your blog?

Lee: Really, organic traffic has been my mainstay. I’m not big on paying for traffic, although I’ve done it on occasion. Proper keyword research has done me the most good of anything.

Deepak: In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes that new bloggers make?

Lee: Expecting overnight success. For the first couple of months, you’re probably going to feel like you’re just talking to yourself (because you will be). It can take 50 posts or so before you start getting indexed, and a whole lot more before you really start getting targeted traffic. I can’t tell you how many bloggers I’ve met who give up after a half dozen posts or so.

Also, failing to make a plan before you begin is a big one. You really have to know why you’re doing this, and how you’re going to reach your goals, if you expect to keep writing about the same topics for years on end.

Deepak: If you had ever said to yourself ‘I wish I had done that when I started my blog’ what would it have been?

Lee: I would have used internal linking right from the beginning. Going back and building a directory by hand is a major pain in the ass when you’ve already written hundreds of posts.

Deepak: What turns you off from other blogs (such as lack of quality content, blatant advertising, etc.)?

Lee: Really, the biggest thing for me is lack of blogging personality. I care as much about the blogger as I do the content. I want to know that your heart is in it, and you’re not just spitting out information to show how smart you are. Bloggers without a sense of humor also tend to bore me pretty quickly.

Deepak: How much money do you make from your blog per month (approximately), and which has been your best monetization strategy?

Lee: Right now I’m at about $4000 to $5000 a month… but a lot of that is indirect. My blog brings a lot of business to my copywriting/marketing company, Java Joint Media, which has been great. Aside from the copywriting gigs, affiliate marketing is my best monetization strategy.

Deepak: What is your most interesting story related to your blog and blogging experience?

Lee: Well, I was in a bookstore about a mile from my house, and this guy walks up to me and starts ripping into me. Apparently, he read my blog, and he was mad because he hadn’t yet made a pile of cash using my advice. It was completely surreal, having some guy who knows you from your blog (although he only lives six blocks away) blaming you for his failures. I mean, I can tell you how to use a hammer, but if you don’t practice pounding nails, you’re never going to build a house.

Deepak: What is the biggest opportunity that came your way because of your blog?

Lee: A couple of months ago, I landed a $10,000 copywriting project with a guy who found me through the blog. That was a pretty happy day. I also did an interview with Odesk’s Brian Goler a while back, which brought me a nice bump in long-term traffic. I applied to give a speech at BlogWorld Expo this year, but I apparently didn’t make the final cut. Imperialists…

Deepak: Any other comments that you would like to share?

Lee: As I frequently tell my readers, there are a lot easier ways to make money (both online and offline) than through blogging. I just can’t stress that enough. Blogging takes patience, persistence, and personal development. If you’re going to do it full time, it also takes approximately 297,364 ibuprofen tablets. It’s fine to make money with your blog, but if that’s your primary focus, you’re going to have a long, hard slog ahead of you.

Also, make friends in the business. Leave sincere blog comments, use social media, link to other blogs without their owners asking you to, and if you find a great post on someone else’s blog, tell your readers about it. As much as blogging may seem like a competition, it’s not. Some of your strongest allies will be bloggers targeting the same niche market, if you play nice. They can help you succeed, especially if you show them you’re willing to put forth the effort to build your blog correctly. See, that’s how I approach it – talk dirty, but play nice. It seems to have worked so far…

Madhur Kapoor

Madhur Kapoor is a 23 year old blogger from India. He is a Computer Engineer by profession and a blogger by passion. He has been passionate about computers ever since he got one at the age of 14. Most of of the time, you will find him in front of his computer trying out some random application or reading some technical stuff.

Apart from blogging, he also loves playing Computer games and watching football and he is ardent supporter of Manchester United. He started blogging during college time as he wanted to share his computer knowledge with other users and also learn a lot of things in the process.

He runs WhoisMadhur.com, a Technology and Software Review blog; where he writes about freewares and computer tips which helps computer users a lot. Apart from that, he also writes about Football on TheSoccerPitch.com and about games on GameBojo.com

Deepak: How do you define the success of a blog? Is it traffic, readership, revenue, brand image or anything else?

Madhur: For me, a successful blog is one which is helping other internet users by providing quality content and also having an impact on their opinions.

Deepak: When did you decide that you finally reached success with your blog?

Madhur: It is a tough question to answer as success can mean different thing to different people. I see a lot of blogs around me that are doing well and so my aim is to always work hard and improve my blog. But I do feel happy when I get emails from users telling me that some of my computer tips have helped them a lot.

Deepak: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?

Madhur: That depends from person to person. I have seen blogs getting a lot of lime light in there first month and some taking even a year to reach the same milestone. It all depends on the niche that you have chosen, your expertise in it and the amount of effort you are willing to put into your blog. Apart from righting good content, you should also know how to promote it.

Deepak: Who are the most successful bloggers on the internet today according to your opinion?

Madhur: There are a lot of successful bloggers around. To name a few I would pick Darren from ProBlogger, John Chow, Daniel from DailyBlogTips and Steve Pavlina.

Deepak: What are the three blogs which you read often?

Madhur: The three blogs which i read often are Problogger.net, DailyBlogTips.com, and TechCrunch.

Deepak: If you see that your close friend has a potential to be a successful blogger, what would you say to him to motivate him to start a blog?

Madhur: I will tell him to first select a niche or a topic about which he plans to blog. Then devote some time daily as well as reading other blogs. Set some small milestones and try to achieve that. And most important, be patient.

Deepak: What is your advice for new bloggers who are just getting started to build a successful blog?

Madhur: Blog about something which you are passionate about. First focus should be towards writing good content and providing value to readers and not to make money. Be patient, sometimes it can take a while before you actually start making money from your blog.

Deepak: What is your advice regarding to the length of the blog articles and frequency of posting?

Madhur: Frequency of posting depends on various factors and varies from blogger to blogger. Ideally, it is better to maintain some consistency. The length of the blog posts also varies from blog to blog. It also depends on the type of blog and the content. But if blogger is writing a long post, he must make sure that he highlights some important points there.

Deepak: What has been your most effective marketing method so far which brings new readers to your blog?

Madhur: For me commenting on other blogs and social networking with bloggers have helped the most. If you write come quality comment on other blogs, you will get your blog noticed. Other sites like Stumbleupon, Digg etc also help but blog commenting is a must. You also end up making a lot of friends this way.

Deepak: In your opinion, what is the most common mistakes that new bloggers do?

Madhur: Most of the new bloggers start blogging thinking that they will start making money from the very first day. They monetize there blogs too early and all you see in there blogs is low quality content and a lot of ads. That is enough to drive readers away.

Deepak: If you had ever said to yourself ‘I wish I had done that when I started my blog’ what would it have been?

Madhur: I wish I had chosen a different domain name for my blog. At that time, it was mostly a personal blog so I went for WhoisMadhur.com which does sound a lot personal.

Deepak: How much money do you make from your blog per month (approximately), and which has been your best monetization strategy?

Madhur: I make around $600-$700 a month from my blog. Adsense and Infolinks are my highest earners. I do write Sponsored reviews occasionally and they also get me good money.

Deepak: What is the biggest opportunity that came your way because of your blog?

Madhur: It has helped me a lot during these recession filled times. I got a job with a leading software company but the joining date got delayed due to current scenario. So thanks to blogging, I managed to earn a good amount of money while sitting at home.

Deepak: Any other comments that you would like to share?

Madhur: To all those who are getting into blogging, be patient and don’t lose hope. It may take a while before you start making money but remain patient and confident.

Ivan Widjaya

Ivan Widjaya is a is a 31-year old blogger from Indonesia. He is a self-proclaimed newbie.  By positioning himself as a newbie, he learns a great deal, including how to make money online.  Suppressing one’s ego has certain perks, such as a willingness to learn new things, regardless of one’s current achievements. Ivan Widjaya has a loving wife, and two children, a boy and a girl.  He loves basketball, soccer and design.

Ivan runs a business blog – focusing on small and online businesses because his passion runs to entrepreneurship. Noobpreneur.com is not his only project. He runs MyWebEstate.com, a website/blog development service business, and also invests in dozens of web properties.

Deepak: How do you define the success of a blog? Is it traffic, readership, revenue, brand image or anything else?

Ivan: To me, a successful blog is measured by its worth in helping, influencing and enhancing others, while being profitable on its own.  Brand image, in my opinion, is above anything else, as it commands the others.

Deepak: When did you decide that you finally reached success with your blog?

Ivan: Never.  I treat a blog as any other business (not as personal diary or something like that). A business does not reach a point of success; a business can only reach milestones.  However, I do consider my blog to be successful when I receive a testimonial that states that it has changed someone’s life and/or fortune.  And then of course, in financial terms, I consider a blog to be successful when it evolves into a multi-author blog that allows me to earn income passively and write articles only occasionally.

Deepak: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?

Ivan: You can definitely be a successful blogger in less than 30 days! I know bloggers whose blogs received a great deal of attention within the first few days of blogging.  The key is the right mindset, the right opportunity, and the right niche at the right time.  The question is, are you ready to get out of your comfort zone and learn as much as you can from trusted sources, fast?

Deepak: In your opinion, who are the most successful bloggers on the Internet today?

Ivan: I favor Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse.  Of course there are some other big names, such as John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker, but I like the down-to-earth approach of Yaro and the expertise of Darren.

Deepak: What are the three blogs which you most often read?

Ivan: I visit Yaro Starak’s blog quite often – Entrepreneurs-Journey.com — and, of course, Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net.  The other one is Vera Raposo’s SmallBusinessBranding.com (it was a web property of Yaro Starak, acquired by Vera Raposo.)

Deepak: If you saw that your close friend had the potential to be a successful blogger, what would you say to him to motivate him to start a blog?

Ivan: Start blogging in your spare time, and then get out of your job as soon as you can.  And, oh, don’t forget to monetize your blog the right way! It’s amazing that there are so many great blogs out there that are having difficulty making money online; some even don’t try at all!

Deepak: What is your advice for new bloggers who are just getting started to help them build a successful blog?

Ivan: It’s a bit cliché, but here goes: Don’t give up – blogging can be frustrating at times … no income, low traffic, lots of work … But soon enough, if you are consistent and resilient, you will see results.

Deepak: What is your advice with regard to the length of the blog articles and the frequency of posting?

Ivan: That depends entirely on the niche you are targeting, and the type of blog you have.  Is your blog a news or magazine-style blog? If so, you might want to post a couple of times a day. In my case, I try (hard) to post once a day, since I have proven that posting frequencies do affect your traffic, especially in early stages of your blog’s life.  I think a blog post every two or three days is acceptable to most readers.

Regarding blog article length, I think that from 400-500 words is the optimal article length.  But again, that depends on your blog’s style.  I recently saw some people do some micro blogging, just like Twitter.  They post in 140 characters or so. I also saw some people who wrote long, enticing articles, such as StevePavlina.com.

Deepak:What has been your most effective marketing method so far for bringing new readers to your blog?

Ivan: Social bookmarking and blog commenting.  Period.  Getting your article on the first page of Digg or StumbleUpon will bring humongous traffic, the targeted kind.  I also enjoyed Reddit, although the members can be harsh sometimes (i.e., I often get comments like “Useless post,” or “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”)

Regarding blog commenting, never mind that the so-called experts say that you should comment on do-follow blogs.  That’s simply BS (oops…). Comment on blogs that you feel add value to yourself, and have your say in that blogs with something that can be useful for others.  Posting “Hi, great post!” won’t do much in terms of blog marketing.

Deepak: In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes that new bloggers make?

Ivan: Trying to make money from their blogs too quickly.  Here’s the logic: what would people visiting your blog think if all they saw were two or three blog posts with Google Adsense and 125×125 banner ads all over the place? Give value, and when the time comes (you’ll know it!) you can start monetizing your blog.

Deepak: If you had ever said to yourself ‘I wish I had done that when I started my blog’ what would it have been?

Ivan: I should have started some ten years ago when blogging was not as common as it is today – that way I could have reaped the benefits of being the “first entry” in the market.

Deepak: What turns you off from other blogs (such as lack of quality content, blatant advertising, etc.)?

Ivan: Rants, whines and angry comments. People don’t need that stuff – people need useful content that can help them live a better life.

Deepak: How much money do you make from your blog per month (approximately), and which has been your best monetization strategy?

Ivan: These days, Noobpreneur.com earns about $300-400 a month.  I try to limit paid reviews and text links as they are flagged red by Google. (Noobpreneur.com was a PR5, now a PR3).  Noobpreneur.com saw better days about six months ago, when I made as much as $700-800 a month.

The best monetization strategy is actually paid reviews! Advertisers can see whether your blog is visited regularly and well-read by visitors, and they are willing to splash out some money to get their website, product or services to the front of your blog’s audience.  Of course, I don’t take every incoming advertising request – I wouldn’t give junk to my readers, would I?

Deepak: What is your most interesting story related to your blog and blogging experience?

Ivan: It’s actually a challenge writing 40 reviews a month (that was six months ago) – your blog gets filled with “colourful” topics, and even I lost a reader or two thinking that my blog was becoming a “review junk” blog!  Since that time, I have limited paid reviews and charge a higher price for a review.

Deepak: What is the biggest opportunity that came your way because of your blog?

Ivan: I was a victim of recession – I lost two franchise units – all thanks to the recession. My blogging and web investing has allowed me to live through my entrepreneurial passion (instead of getting back into office work to make ends meet).  So yes, I live and support my family 100% from making money online!

Deepak: Any other comments that you would like to share?

Ivan: Umm… that’s it for now. Oh, just one more thing I would like to remind you of, however. Don’t give up.  Never.  Ever.  You don’t know what giving up will cost you! (In my case, giving up would cost me personal bankruptcy.) Cheers!