The Next Level: A Crazy Little Thing Called Blog - Interview

When Margaret from Nanny Goats In Panties agreed to this interview I was thrilled. She's been blogging since 2005 which is about fifty years in blog life and she is goooood! Margaret has a wildly popular "Humor Blog" and has consistently delivered with every post generating smiles and laughs for her ever-growing and dedicated following.

Okay, I admit it, I have a blog crush on Margaret and hope to be her when I grow up. She's remained focused on her writing and grown her blog to "the next level", written an award winning video game, had numerous articles published and she's working on a novel. Impressive, huh!

Margaret has agreed to share her secrets for success with us. So regardless of the size or type of your blog, put your feet up and read on. This interview is loaded with experience and advice. Oh, and there's a surprise for you at the end too.

Q. Is blogging your day job?

A. Heck no, it’s not my day job. It’s more of a swing-shift job. The actual writing of my blog posts isn’t what takes up a lot of time, it’s the traipsing all over the Internet visiting with other bloggers for tea and cookies and such that winds up taking a lot of time. I did get laid off from my day job last year, so that does allow more time for tea and cookies right now.

Q. I get the impression that your Followers and Commenters are the tip of the iceberg for your total readership. Yours strikes me as a blog that "the masses" read on a regular basis like they would a particular column in the newspaper for example-- for a daily dose of "Margaret humor". Obviously content is king and yours is fabulous. Do you have any advice on growing your readership to "the masses"? And, is there a daily readership/traffic number to aim for to be considered "the next level" of blogging?

A. First of all, thank you very much for saying my content is fabulous. I really appreciate that. And may I say I love your outfit. It really brings out your eyes.

Anyway, forests of cyber trees have been clearcut for this topic and many people consider themselves “experts”. And want you to buy their book. Sometimes I think the only way to really drive traffic up quickly is to post nothing but viral videos and pictures that aren’t yours. Or even better, porn! That would really bring in the traffic. Clearly, I’m doing it all wrong. But since I want to attract people who like my writing, it’s taking a lot longer to build an audience.

I’m not aware of a specific number to reach to be considered “the next level”. I just put myself out there and maybe someone tells a friend. If I knew another way to attract the masses, I suppose I’d be rich from blogging. Or an expert. And people would be buying my book.

Q. Was there a turning point or a particular event that caused your blog exposure to "pop"?

A. You know what? My exposure has been one long slow boring growth line with no “pop” whatsoever. I’m still waiting for my big “pop”.

Q. I'm not familiar with the workings of BlogHer. How does Blogher enhance your blogging?

A. BlogHer serves different purposes for different people. It’s huge and I only know a little bit about the workings myself. For me, it’s a network of women bloggers who I can meet in real life once a year at a really big conference. I also participate in their Ad Network, which generates a small amount of revenue (I’m talking pizza money, folks). It doesn’t really enhance my blogging in terms of its content if that’s what you mean. It is a community, however, which is the best thing about blogging for me.

Q. HumorBloggers, Sacramento Top 25, Mighty Media and SITS are a few affiliations you have. How have these enhanced your success? What advice would you give to other bloggers interested in using these types of sites?

A. Just belonging to any network such as these can enhance your success in the same way that networking in person can enhance your success. You get to know people who in turn introduce you to other people and so on and so on. You never know who is going to find out about you and invite you to that big party where you meet the Steven Spielberg of the Blogosphere who offers you a big Hollywood movie deal. But you’d better have that completed manuscript in your back pocket the whole time. You have to create your own opportunities, but you can’t expect results overnight, although you are allowed to fantasize about overnight success until you’re blue in the face.

Some networks are very supportive and encouraging and make you feel like you’re part of a community. My advice would be to try them, but not all of them at once. If one of them isn’t working for you, drop it like it’s hot and move on to the next one.

Q. Interviewing Uma Thurman is pretty cool. How do you get involved with celebrity interviews (and/or book reviews and movies) on and on-going basis?

A. They all come from different sources. The Uma Thurman thing happened because I’m a part of Mighty Media (which happened because of all that networking). Someone in the group knew a guy who knew a guy who worked for the PR firm for the movie and they arranged a sort of promo campaign that included interviewing Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, and the director of the film. There is no specific “way” to get involved in these things. Start making friends in the blogosphere and over time opportunities will arise. Just don’t keep looking at your watch, waiting for the opportunities, or you will go nuts. Speaking of which, have you noticed how no one wears a watch any more?

Q. What, if any, are the tricks of the trade for using Facebook to promote your blog? Does it help? How time consuming is it?

A. I added NGIP to the Networked Blogs app and invited friends to follow it. I didn’t set up a separate FB page for NGIP, because I use my personal page to pester everyone about new blog posts. I think Facebook helps because I see traffic coming in from the Facebook site. Using Facebook for blog promotion isn’t time-consuming. It’s that insidious Bejeweled Blitz and Farmville that robs me of my days!

Q. What has your experience been with advertisements on your blog? Is this a true revenue generating stream?

A. I’ve only ever tried two ads. One is the BlogHer Ad network, which pays you based on your traffic. The other ad is one that I negotiated directly with the company to place a link in my sidebar. Would I call that a true revenue stream? Meh. It beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but it won’t pay the mortgage or anything. Then again, I’m not aggressively seeking ads.

Having said that however, my blog traffic continues to grow and that 2^nd ad was placed very recently, so maybe there’s future there. And then there’s the Kindle revenue (*rubs hand greedily*)

Q. In what ways have you found giveaways to be useful and how do you source your products?

A. I’ve only hosted two giveaways. NGIP is a humor blog so it’s difficult to work them in, but I wanted to see what kind of potential exposure I would get from an event like that. There are a lot of people out there who only enter giveaways, but maybe they’d see my blog and actually enjoy reading it and possibly come back again. My subscriber count jumped up about 150 readers during the giveaway and fortunately, didn’t fall back down after the giveaway was over.

I don’t actively seek products for giveaways. If I wanted to do them more often, I could say YES to every email I get or approach the people whose products I want to give away, or put something on my blog that indicates that I do giveaways, but then I’d be a Giveaway Blog and that’s not what NGIP is about. Giving away a laptop isn’t funny. It’s awesome, and I’d do it in a heartbeat if someone asked, but it’s not funny.

Q. What was your thought process for customizing your blog-- Does/don't/must-haves? (And what happened to your archived comments?) When is it time to go beyond the standard template and invest in your blog design?

A. First of all, I use plain old Blogger, although I try to make it

look like I don’t. You’d think with being a software developer for 20+ years, I’d have some fancy schmancy thing of a blog, but I’m too lazy.

The vain part of me didn’t want to see the “blogspot” part of the URL, so I bought nannygoatsinpanties.com, which surprisingly wasn’t already taken, so now I just redirect to that domain. I also don’t like Blogger’s limited commenting system, so I initially switched to Haloscan which SUCKEDSTAYAWAYFROMIT and then recently switched to Disqus. That last switch made me lose all my Haloscan comments from the last year and a half (to answer your question of what happened to them).

The following DO’s and DON'Ts are totally my opinion which you are free to ignore:

DO have easy-to-find links to your Twitter profile, email contact info, and RSS feed subscription options, because for that one second it occurs to a visitor that they may want to subscribe to your blog or they want to tell you something (like “Can I pay you millions of dollars to advertise on your blog?” or “Would you like to interview Johnny Depp?”) you have to make it easy for them because after 5 seconds they will just give up and move on.

DO blog with first-time visitors in mind. If you are trying to attract readers, that means you have to capture their attention on their first visit. References to people or events that aren’t self-explanatory will alienate your first-time visitor. Don’t say “Rufus came home today, thank goodness” and then act as if everybody already knows who Rufus is and why it’s such a good thing that he came home. It only takes one sentence to fill us in real quick without boring your regular readers who already know Rufus’ habit of running away all the time and that he is your goldfish.

DON’T have pop-up ads on your blog. It’s annoying, and people may not come back if you annoy them.

DON’T get all fancy with text colors, like green writing on a colorful textured background that renders the text unreadable. Don’t make people scroll around that flower in the background that keeps getting in the way when they get halfway down your page. Which is more important, that your blog be beautiful? Or that people can READ it, and maybe subscribe to it so they can read some more.

DON’T have music suddenly blare all over your readers when they get to your site. What if they’re at work and all of a sudden the whole office is treated to George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex”? If anything, give them the option of playing your music, don’t just default it to YES.

As far as when to change your template, that’s entirely up to you. Some people want to appear more “professional” or whatever. And it may open more doors for you, opportunity-wise. Also, a more customized template can be a great way to express yourself, like your clothes. It’s just one more thing you can do to “take your blog to the next level”.

Q. What advice do you have on submitting stories for publication. Is there a standard procedure? Do you write and submit completed stories or do you submit story ideas for consideration first?

A. When it comes to fiction, you must have a completed story and one that has been revised to within an inch of its life before you even THINK about submitting it. And definitely have someone who doesn’t love you take a look at it. They will catch things you missed. Do not have your cheerleaders critique it. Cheerleaders will tell you that your story is fabulous no matter how crappy it is. Cheerleaders will not help you make your story better. The standard procedure for submission is simple: ALWAYS FOLLOW THE PUBLICATION’S GUIDELINES.

Q. What can you tell us about the Kindle gig and how that came about? (Yes, you can subscribe to NGIP via Kindle!)

A. The Kindle gig came about by my going to the Amazon Kindle publishing website and telling them, “Hey man, I wanna put my blog on the Kindle” and they said “Okay”. In other words, anyone can do it.

As a thanks for reading Margaret's interview and to encourage you to VISIT MARGARET at Nanny Goats In Panties AND LEAVE A COMMENT on her blog, YOU can enter to WIN a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card.

All you have to do is leave TWO comments-- Leave one comment BELOW on my blog, AND one comment HERE at Nanny Goats In Panties THANKING MARGARET FOR THIS INTERVIEW.

All entries must be received by midnight Pacific Time, January 7, 2009 to be eligible. You must have a blog to enter-- No exceptions. Include your email please. Comments must be made on both blogs at the above specified links/posts. ( HERE and BELOW on this post.) One entry per person. $25 US dollars. Drawing will be random. All results are final.

Thank you Margaret!

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna

Photo Credits: All property of Nanny Goats In Panties