Kevin Muldoon Of BloggingTips

An Interview by jeff

Kevin Muldoon has been building and maintaining websites since 2000. Jack of all trades and master of nothing, Kevin Muldoon has traveled a lot in the last years but has always stayed up to date with internet and web development issues. Kevin is most widely known for running BloggingTips.com but he also runs his own personal site at System0.net.

BloggingTips.com has been around since March of 2007 yet it is already one of the top spots to go to for tips on blogging. How did you manage to take a brand new domain and turn it into a powerhouse within such a short period of time?

I am extremely pleased with the progress the site has made and I don’t want to downplay the sites success however I actually think that the growth of the site has been very slow. BloggingTips currently has 3,000 subscribers but since starting there has been around 1,450 posts, quite a lot more than similar blogs who have more subscribers. Also, there are many blogs which started around the same time who have a bigger following.

Although growth has been slow, the site is still growing every month and as long as that continues, I’ll be a happy man.

BloggingTips is a multi-authored blog. What are some of the challenges of managing a multi authored site versus managing only yourself.

When you are only blogging for yourself you only have to manage your own schedule but with many authors you have to make sure that everyone is singing from the same hymn book. If you set things up right from the start then this is actually quite easy to do however I have made some mistakes along the way.

All authors of BloggingTips post on set days so that posts are evenly distributed ie. so there isn’t 10 posts one day and 2 the next. I work my posting schedule around the schedule of the sites authors which is great because it allows me to work on other things when I know there are 2 or 3 posts already scheduled.

When I first started the site I gave authors the freedom to write about any blogging related topic they wanted but this was a huge mistake as many authors were writing about very similar topics, a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Due to this I parted ways with several authors and from then on in I asked authors to cover specific subjects.

I have to say I have been very lucky so far. 95% of the writers I have worked for have been great but unfortunately I have had a few problems. When I first launched the site I paid writers in advance on a monthly basis as I knew some writers had some problems getting paid in the past so I wanted to build a good solid relationship with them. This was a terrible mistake.

When a few writers left I had to chase them for monies owed. Normally this was ok but 2 or 3 writers were very unprofessional about this. A few months ago I parted ways with a writer who had been paid for the month ahead but when I emailed him about it and explained my reasons he never replied. A few emails later and still no reply so I had to start a paypal claim which unfortunately, never went my way (as usual Paypal stay out of these kind of transactions).

Due to these problems I now pay in arrears. Most bloggers are happy with this anyways though it is a shame that a few unprofessional bloggers act in this way as the majority of bloggers I have worked with have been great.

I know that other blog owners have had similar problems too but looking back I have been very fortunate. The current writing team is great and I speak with most of them on a regular basis. Whenever they can’t make a post for any reason, they always email in advance and let me know and then catch up with the post later.

Some people think that blogging about blogging now a days is like beating a dead horse. Do you agree with that sentiment or is there still a lot that can be discussed?

As long as blogs are popular there will be things to discuss. As long as new blog services are launching there will be websites who review and rate them. Many of the topics which blogging blogs cover are applicable to all webmasters (eg. search engine optimization, promotion, domain names, hosting, programming, social media etc) though I would say a larger percentage of bloggers need this type of help because they have less experience in web development.

I do think that there is still enough interest in blogging for their to be more high profile blogging blogs too. When I think high profile I think ProBlogger, DailyBlogTips, Performancing and The Blog Herald : blogs which all have a history of posting good posts consistently on a regular basis. I think BloggingTips is approaching that kind of status but it’s not quite there yet.

Hopefully within the next year or so BloggingTips will be around the 10k subscriber mark but by that time there will be several more blogging type blogs at the stage where BloggingTips is at just now. That’s the beauty of the internet!

How do you come up with ideas for content for BloggingTips?

When the site started many of my posts were tutorials explaining how I resolved problems which I had. As the site started to grow I got more emails asking for help so I rarely struggled for post ideas as I could answer those questions in my posts. I still get questions from visitors asking for help though most emails are from companies telling me about the launch of a new service or website and if they are relevant to blogging I usually post about them.

I also subscribe to a few dozen blogging related blogs, particularly those which are known to break news.

Last but not least, I look at common questions which crop up on blogging related forums. If I see a lot of people with the same problem I sometimes spend some time researching it so that I can write a tutorial which resolves the issue.

How long did it take before the BloggingTips forum ended up with a life of its own?

I launched the forums just a few months after BloggingTips was launched. Though there have been times with some activity, it’s only been the last few months that a loyal bunch of members have started hanging out there every day and chatting about blogging. Forums are notoriously difficult to get going but I’m really starting to see a sense of community developing there and it’s very encouraging.

Is there anything special you did with BloggingTips in terms of SEO?

Not as such. The sites design is optimized with the post title using a H1 on post pages etc and I’ve tried not to have too many characters on the home page too.

I do monitor keywords through Analytics semi regularly though I haven’t tried to target certain keywords extensively or written posts specifically for the search engines.

In general I’ve found that the more technical type posts get less comments however over time they generate more traffic through the search engines.

How important has the community been in terms of helping to make BloggingTips.com a success?

They have been vital. Right from the start they have been open and supportive of me and the blog. I have came across lots of subscribers who have recommended the site to other bloggers on other blogs and forums and help promote the site. Many also vote for articles via digg, stumbleupon and other social sites.

You appear to be someone who is continuously on the hunt for good domains or forums to purchase to add to your collection. Will you be doing your own blogging network some day?

It’s not something I have planned in the near future but I wouldn’t rule anything out. If I was in a good position to pick up a good blog and develop it more then I probably would a chance on it. BloggingTips remains my priority though and in the next year I will be looking at more ways to generate income from the site.

Any tips or tricks you can give our readers for building up an audience sooner rather than later?

The first thing you need to do is take the time to write good posts. Without good content, a blog is worthless. After that you need to generate some buzz for those posts and get your blog noticed.

To get traffic quickly to your blog you need to be active. Leave good comments on blogs and forums and become proactive on a social site like dig, stumbleupon or mixx. This can be timeconsuming though so a healthy advertising budget would certainly help, particularly in the first few months of a blogs life.

Last but not least, what is the future of blogging?

I think blogging will be here with us in some shape or form for a long time. Over the next few years I believe the major growth will be in mobile blogging. Most smartphones are now coming with blogging type software preinstalled (eg. lifeblog) and most can use Twitter and other microblogging software too. Just a few months ago Wordpress released a version for the iphone so that people could blog on the move.

Over the next few years I’m sure that we will see more and more blogs being launched as there are still many countries where internet usage is increasing by a large amount every year.

You can catch Kevin sharing his knowledge of blogging at BloggingTips.com and be sure to join his BloggingTips forums to participate in his community. Lots of great people over there.

This Interview was published on November 5, 2008 at 5:00 am • Did you like it? Subscribe!
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