Blogger Interview Series - Ben Barden
2 September, 2008 - Blogging, Interviews - 8 Comments
This is the sixth interview in my Blogger Interview Series. It comes from Ben Barden, an up and coming member of the blogosphere and founder of the content management system, Injader.
Interview With Ben Barden.
Q. If, while running a new blog, you were allowed to promote your blog using just two methods, what would those two methods be and why?
“For new blogs I highly recommend Entrecard. There has been a lot of discussion about Entrecard on various blogs, and how it doesn’t work for everyone. I think your chances are pretty good as a new blogger on Entrecard, in fact they are far better than with other blogging network. But if you try to get people to visit a site that doesn’t really have a clear focus and lacks quality content, I don’t think any blogging network will magically bring subscribers to your site. Furthermore, you get out what you put in, so if you drop cards and post in the forums, Entrecard can generate extremely positive results.
I’d recommend StumbleUpon because it’s brought some huge traffic spikes to my blog, but this isn’t really something you should do yourself - submitting your own posts is a bad idea (I’m speaking from my own experience here). So the other method I’d suggest is one of the two that you suggested in your “self interview” - commenting on other blogs. It really helps to get your name out there. Of course, you do have to write good comments. Writing “nice post” on all the high traffic blogs you can find won’t make a huge amount of difference, and some may view you as a spammer.”
Q. If you could write a guest post for any blog but were only allowed to write one guest post in your entire life, which blog would you write for and why?
“I’d write for ProBlogger because Darren consistently writes high quality content and I would be honoured to have one of my posts published there. Exposure would be good as he has a large number of subscribers. The main reason I haven’t done this yet is because sometimes you do only get one shot, and the impact of writing a bad post on a high traffic site is potentially lethal to a blog. Some people say that bad publicity is still publicity, but I wouldn’t want my first high profile guest post to be bad.”
Q. At the end of every talk I do, I include a “Random Trick to Tip” slide. This is one sentence of advice, usually entirely unrelated to the rest of the presentation. If you could give one sentence of advice to bloggers, what would that be?
“Write what you know and what you like, because blogging should be achievable and enjoyable.”
Q. Please give us a link to your favourite post on your blog. This doesn’t have to be your most popular post. Just the post which is your own favourite.
“I think that my beginner’s guide to search engine optimisation is worth a mention.
In the post I have taken a different approach to most other blogs who write about this subject. I’ve mostly avoided the things that you shouldn’t have to worry about, and focused on the things you can control.”
Thanks for taking the time to answer those questions, Ben.
Having the Balls to Write a Guest Post
A lot of people are scared about blogging. The fear of pressing that publish button is very real for many people. But even more people are scared about writing as a guest blogger.
My own opinion is you just have to go for it. The first ever guest post I wrote was for John Chow. In the post, I claimed “PageRank is Dead!“. It was pure controversy, because I thought that was a good way to blog. Ugh. I look back on that and realise I’ve learnt so many lessons. I no longer try to use controversy because it creates a bad image (in my opinion). In the end, the post was well treated by most people, it received 124 comments (it’s up there with the most comments of any post on John’s blog, I think), but it also received a lot of attack. Many people didn’t like it and went out of their way to publicly attack me. It was an awful choice of guest post, but in the end I learnt a heck of a lot of lessons. I don’t regret writing the post because I learnt a lot. I came out of it a better blogger, even if it wasn’t the best blog post in the world. 
I hope you enjoyed the interview with Ben. Please let us hear your thoughts in the comments about guest blogging and the rest of Ben’s interview.
Past Blogger Interviews
Self Interview - Interview with Jamie Harrop
Chris Garrett - Professional blogger and co-author of the ProBlogger book
Jeremy Schoemaker - Blogging “high-earner” and Internet marketer
Liz Strauss - Authority on relational blogging and life motivation
Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) - The absolute authority on blogging, with approximately 50,000 subscribers
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Posted on 2 September, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
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I need to get around and use EntreCard, I have yet to try it out.
Susans last blog post..NeoBox
I can’t say I’ve ever used Entrecard either, Susan. Maybe I’ll go try it too.
Hi Jamie - Great interview. I’d heard of Entrecard before but I haven’t checked it out yet.
I’m glad Ben mentioned writing about stuff you enjoy - that is really important if you’re going to blog every day. I guess a lot of the folk who pack it in after a few weeks aren’t really enjoying their topic.
Hey Cath,
Yep, I’m glad Ben mentioned that too. It really is so important.
Thanks again for the interview, Jamie.
Entrecard has helped me to grow my site from zero to 160 subscribers, so it’s certainly worked for me.
Ben Bardens last blog post..Review - Thou Shall Blog
Hey Ben,
I still haven’t tried Entrecard. I really must give it a go sometime.
I’ve been using Entrecard several months. At first I put a lot of time into dropping cards on other blogs and spending all my credits on running ads. Now I am much more casual about it. Yet my traffic is about the same from it. I think the key is to get to know a few/ several others bloggers who are in your niche and just go visiting them, leave comments. That back and forth traffic does a lot more than spending an hour dropping cards without really connecting to/ with anyone.
Lauras last blog post..Blogger Backup
Hey Laura,
It sounds like everybody using Entrecard has different results. I know Ben’s experience has been fantastic, but I hear a lot of negative experiences too.
Thanks for stopping by and writing your comments.