Blogger Interview Series - Erica Douglass
15 October, 2008 - Blogging, Interviews - 8 Comments
This is the tenth interview in my Blogger Interview Series. It comes from Erica Douglass of Erica Dot Biz. Erica is the third of my interviewees who I’ve actually met in person (Chris Garrett and Al Carlton been the others). We spoke briefly at HostingCon in 2007. Erica is a driven and determined women, with a real passion for working for herself and making her own future. She was making $400 a month at 14 years old, and since then has gone on to sell her six year old Web hosting business for $1.1 million before taking her blog from zero to over 1000 subscribers in 10 months. Of all my interviewees, Erica probably has the most down to earth, real, inspirational story of all.
Interview With Erica Douglass.
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?
“Guest posts are excellent. Also, writing great content that other bloggers pick up on and blog a response to.”
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 pick Steve Pavlina’s blog and write a somewhat controversial post. He has a great audience - full of passionate people who really want to do something with their lives. It’s an audience I aspire to have, too.”
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?
“Don’t be afraid to monetize your writing. Selling ads will earn you a poverty-level income, but selling ebooks, videos, podcasts, interviews, and more can earn you an income big enough to turn your passion — writing great content — into your career.
Your blog shouldn’t be all about selling your content — good free content is essential to keep growing your readership — but most bloggers I see don’t sell enough, and often have to hold down full-time jobs. These bloggers are excellent writers and can garner an audience of thousands of subscribers, but they can’t make ends meet with their blog. It’s a travesty to see them unable to earn a living doing not only something they love, but that their readers clearly get a lot of value from.”
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.
“One of the most consistently popular posts on my blog is called “The REAL American Dream (Hint: It’s NOT Owning A House!)“
This post is controversial and flips traditional values on their head. I’ve received many “thank you” emails from people who saw a fallacy in paying thousands of dollars more per month to own a house than to rent an equivalent one. It’s great to know I can be an influence in helping people make better financial decisions.”
Thanks for taking the time to answer those questions, Erica.
“Don’t be afraid to monetize your writing”
I think that tip from Erica speaks to me very highly. Yep, I’m scared to monetize my writing. Last time I monetized this blog, I lost all focus for my writing and suddenly, blogging seemed like a business and not a hobby.
One day, I’m sure I’ll get over my fear and find a way to join my hobby with some financial rewards. Erica’s advice is good, so I intend to follow it. Not today. Not tomorrow. But when the time is right, I’ll get over my fear. And so should you, if you’re in the same boat.
I hope you enjoyed the interview with Erica. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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
Ben Barden - An up and coming blogger with his own unique perspective
Al Carlton - Influential blogger with a 50,000+ subscriber base
Hunter Nuttall - Recent 500 subscriber achiever and convert to professional blogger
Cath Lawson - The go-to female entrepreneurial blogger
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Posted on 15 October, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
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I have the same kind of problem Jamie, As soon money comes into it, it stops being quite so much fun and more about the money. I spend a lot of time blogging though so I am certainly planning on finding ways to make a little off my efforts.
Andrews last blog post..Theme authors: give us choices
I think when I get around to adding adverts on this blog, I’ll ensure I don’t get all trigger happy and check the earnings every hour. Once a week maybe.
I’d like to get in to the mindset of the adverts being there because of the writing, and not the writing being there because of the adverts.
I think that’s a pretty good attitude to have. I have always treated them as incidental ‘hope I get some cash’ items instead of having any link to the writing but I have also been very lazy about it as well, just throwing adsense up. I definitely would like to use the ads to add value to the site for visitors instead of just taking it.
Andrews last blog post..Theme authors: give us choices
Hi Erica - that is really good advice. I only just started to really monetize my blog lately. I wanted to wait until I’d built up traffic but if I’m honest, I should have done it sooner - I just didn’t make the time.
Some folk don’t like to monetize their blogs because of criticism they’ll get from others - but I wish more would do it. We can’t write for free forever.
I try to tie in a product I like to the article, rather than to write an article especially to sell something and put a link into a review page on my blog. It’s too early to say how well this will work mind you.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Be A Business Success Story, No Matter What Your Age
“We can’t write for free forever.”
That’s a great motto for every aspiring blog money maker to have!
Hunter Nuttalls last blog post..MBTI Trial Week 1: Extraversion (Recap)
Agree with Hunter. That’s an excellent motto for a blogger to blog by.
Thanks for the excellent comment again, Cath.
Hi! Jamie, thank you for posting this. I’ll definitely link back to it and your series of interviews on my blog.
I admit I’m guilty of the same thing — I’ve been waiting for my blog redesign to complete before fully monetizing my blog. But really, that’s more of an excuse than anything. I obviously have some work to do, too.
Keep up the great work — I’m enjoying your blog!
-Erica
Erica Douglasss last blog post..Why I Became A Blogger
[...] Jamie Harrop interviewed me, and then compiled my interview, along with interviews of 9 other interesting bloggers, into a free ebook. The ebook gives insight on how to grow your blog to thousands of subscribers. Thanks for thinking of me for this series, Jamie! [...]