One of the things that I enjoy most in life is taking interviews. I have worked as a journalist for over a decade and I have interviewed dozens of people from all walks of life in my country. Since I started professional blogging on March 2006, I have enjoyed interviewing people even more. So, I am always on the look for interviewing bloggers. Today, I like to introduce you Brad Ney. No, he is not a famous sports personality. He is a blogger but even he does not write about sports. Yesterday, I accidentally stumbled upon on his blog called Brad Blogging and I spent around one hour reading the content there. Brad’s blog is about “Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help”. If you are a blogger then I would surely recommend you to visit there and I am sure that you would enjoy his blog. I took the interview by email and here it is for all the readers of Sports37:
Razib Ahmed: How long have you been blogging? How many blogs do you have?
Brad Ney: I have been blogging for around 1 year now and run just one blog (for now).. BradBlogging.com
Razib Ahmed: Your blog is about “Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help”. There are many blogs related to this field and some of them are indeed very successful. What do you think that your blog’s uniqueness in this field?
Brad Ney: The unique thing about my blog is that I do my very best to actually help people with their blog related issues and/or questions. Many blogs post general “Tips” on various topics within blogging, but I often encourage any user to send me an email with their problem for a personal response and resolution. If the questions are broad, I can sometimes even write a post about them to help other people, with the same general question.
Razib Ahmed: For a newbie blogger what 3 important tips you would like to give?
Brad Ney: Hmmm, 3 important tips.. Here are some that I personally use when I run my blog:
1 - When running a blog, it only gets easier as time goes on - The hardest part about blogging is deciding a niche and content “mindset” (if you will) about what you are going to write about, your writing style, etc. Once you have that down and begin writing great content.. People will visit.
2 - If somone pirates your content on to another blog WITHOUT attribution to your original article, (it has happened to me more than once) don’t over react. There are numerous guides that help you through the process of removing the article and/or making the author credit you.
3 - Try to respond to your readers. If someone leaves a comment/opinion about an article you have written, write a response and leave it under the person’s comment. This shows that you actually care about what your readers think and provides them a different point of view.
Razib Ahmed: What is your future plan regarding your blog?
Brad Ney: Future Plan.. I think the route I’m going to go with Bradblogging, is to just keep doing what I’m doing.. providing useful content for readers. I’ve currently hit record high RSS Subscribers & Traffic, so I think I’m doing something right :D. Another thing I will do in the future is run a large blog contest, as my last one was very successful.
Razib Ahmed: I noticed that your blog does not contain any advertisement. Is there any particular reason for that?
Brad Ney:- Haha, Well, Finding some has been difficult for me. I don’t really blame myself though, these rough economic times could explain it.. Everybody cutting back on spending. As far as PPC (pay-per-click) goes, I didn’t really see a decent return on placing ads inside of the articles, so I ditched them entirely. I also find that too many ads can distract visitors from your content.. which is never a good thing.
Razib Ahmed: What is your favorite blogging platform (Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type etc) and why?
Brad Ney: Wordpress is my favourite blogging platform for two reasons: One, because it is the only one I’ve ever used and Two because it has loads of plugins, coding support, and users that are always creating something cool for the blogging platform.
Razib Ahmed: Are you a sports fan? If so, let us know something about your favorite team and player.
Brad Ney: I enjoy watching NBA basketball, my favourite team would probably be the Phoenix Suns.
Razib Ahmed: The ongoing economic crisis has hit the blogosphere hard as we saw many big blogs and blog networks either getting shut or down or trimming down their blogs and bloggers. Do you think that 2009 would be better or worse?
Brad Ney: As I stated in #5, the economic crisis never helps the financial situation of the larger blogs and networks. It really depends on whether we are able to pull out of this depression that we are currently faced with, which would most likely balance all of the instability of the system.
Razib Ahmed: Something about your personal and professional background.
Brad Ney: During my spare time, I also manage a small web design firm called, “Fresh Never Frozen Design” which I really enjoy doing.
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