I’ve been following Caroline Middlebrook’s blog since I started What Sells Online, and I must say that she is one of the most inspiring bloggers I’ve seen online. Most importantly, I’ve learnt a lot from her posts, which greatly helped in setting me on the right track with my own online marketing efforts.

With this, I thought it was timely that I conducted an email interview with her, and post it here so that everyone can learn from her. Here’s the transcript:

1. What are your virtues that you think have made your blog successful?

In a word - Honesty. I have always spoken my mind, been open about what I am doing and about my opinons. I know I have been labelled the “honest blogger” quite a few times and I like that.

2. What are the common mistakes / assumptions you think are made by new bloggers?

Hmm lots:

* Thinking that just writing is enough, and not marketing
* Thinking of other bloggers as competition, and not wanting to link out
* Thinking they need to be expert writers to have a good blog
* Spending more time on the theme than the content
* Over-monetizing to the point of cheeziness

But the biggest mistake that new bloggers make is giving up too soon! It’s always tough and slow at first, but once the ball gets rolling it rolls faster and faster. Right here you have approached me for an interview which means a back-link and exposure for me. This is at least the sixth interview I have done yet do you think I was interviewed in the first month? No.

It really does get easier all the time and I think many bloggers either quit or sell up just when they’re about to hit it big.

3. On being an expert writer, don’t you think bloggers need to have substantial substance in their content to be a success? After all, content is key in retaining subscribers. Also, some level of good writing skill would be necessary to make content interesting.

Yes, at the end of the day people go to a blog to read the content so it has to be compelling in some way, whether in the form of usefulness, entertainment, humor or whatever. However, I don’t agree that writing skill is necessary, though that largely depends on the content and the audience.

4. How much of time (as a percentage of your total time) approximately do you spend on writing? And how much time do you spend on marketing? Since traffic to your blog has increased significantly, do you now reduce your time spent on blog marketing efforts?

I used to track my time quite comprehensively but I haven’t done so recently. I’d say I probably spend around 30% of my time marketing. And yes, it has reduced since the readership has increased, as I now find that opportunities to promote my blog seem to come to me, rather than me always having to seek them out.

5. How do you relate blogging and selling niche products online? Do you cross promote between the two, particularly products that aren’t related to making money online?

My personal blog is just used to document my journey and I do not use it to promote my niches in any way. On more general terms, if I found a niche that was fairly successful with Adsense and affiliate sales, then I would incorporate a blog in order to increase traffic.

6. Thus far, what works best in generating relevant traffic for your blog?

There is no doubt that the best source of relevant traffic for me comes from all the other blogs in the same niche who link to me. Some of those links are placed by me in the form of comments. Of course other people also choose to link to me, which always sends nice traffic. Other blogs in the niche are like gold - hence that’s why I say it’s such a mistake to regard them as competition.

7. How about generating traffic for your niche blogs or niche websites? Would your traffic generation strategy be any different? Would the commenting strategy still work here?

I only have one niche site that has generated any revenue for me so far. I tried the commenting strategy but it was a no-go actually as I simply couldn’t find many real blogs in the niche and those that were around didn’t exactly foster a conversation. For that niche I have to rely almost exclusively on search engine traffic. It’s totally different from my blog.

Thanks, Caroline!