In this interview, Benny Hsu of Get Busy Living Blog shares some answers to over eleven questions that people usually ask themselves about how to start blogs, get traffic to them, make money from them, and be as useful as always with the content they publish for readers who arrive on their websites.
To Benny
1. Why did you get into blogging and decided to start your own blog?
Table of Contents
- 1 1. Why did you get into blogging and decided to start your own blog?
- 2 2. How are things going so far? Have you been able to achieve the goals you set out when you first started?
- 3 3. Here’s what most people ask themselves when their blogs still get little traffic: How do I get more? What do you tell such people? What can they learn from your story growing Get Busy Living?
- 4 4. How long have you been blogging, on what topics – why? (share your story)
- 5 5. How many hours do you spend blogging every week, today, a month ago, a year ago, and what are your reasons for spending that amount of time on your blog?
- 6 6. What’s your definition of great content? How do you go about creating great content yourself?
- 7 7. Networking is said to be a good thing. What have you done, or do today, to connect with other bloggers, leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners in your niche and other niches?
- 8 8. What’s the one thing you’d spend most of your time doing if you started a new blog today? Where would your focus be? (do share your reasons please)
- 9 9. What can one do to create a blog that says what’s been said over a thousand times differently and still manage to attract readers and get their content shared?
- 10 10. People are obsessed with getting more traffic, money, comments, followers…Tell me, what should they really focus on when they start worrying over the numbers – for example how they only have a few followers and people come to their site after working really hard on their site for months?
- 11 11. What’s your advice for someone who starts a blog because they simply want to make money online – and they think that blogging is the best way to achieve this goal?
- 12 12. How much effort did you put in your blog before you made your first USD 100 from it – and how did you make the one hundred dollars?
- 13 13. What steps did you take to go from someone that doesn’t make money blogging to someone who makes money blogging?
- 14 14. What are some non-blogging things you had to deal with in your life in order to keep growing your blog into what it has become today?
- 15 15. What is the best advice you received that has helped you stay with your blog and continue improving it? (If you remember where the advice came from, mention names please)
- 16 16. Any ebooks, courses, products or services that you highly recommend other blog owners to get now?
I decided to get into blogging because I love the way I’m able to communicate to anyone in the world.
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I wanted a place where I could talk about what I liked and find people who shared the same interest. I created it mainly as a creative outlet for me.
2. How are things going so far? Have you been able to achieve the goals you set out when you first started?
It’s been going well. I have 30,000 visitors a month to my blog.
I would like to have grown much larger by now, but I know it’s cause I haven’t put in the time and effort needed.
However it is still growing slowly ever month. I haven’t achieved all the goals I’ve set out for the blog yet, but I know it just takes time to focus on it.
3. Here’s what most people ask themselves when their blogs still get little traffic: How do I get more? What do you tell such people? What can they learn from your story growing Get Busy Living?
Get more traffic by doing guest posts on other blog.
Write great content so that readers will want to come to your blog and read more. Also form relationship with other bloggers.
Don’t ask them to share your work all the time, but if you feel like you wrote a great post, you could ask. That’s what I did.
I also left a lot of comments on other blogs to add to the conversation and get to know the blogger better.
I’ve been blogging for three years now on personal development. I’ve been fan of it for many years because I wanted to find out how I could change my life.
I have always been interested in finding the right buttons to push in our mind to help us reach our potential.
5. How many hours do you spend blogging every week, today, a month ago, a year ago, and what are your reasons for spending that amount of time on your blog?
A week I could spend 10 hours at least because for me the writing process takes awhile.
When I first started my blog, probably the first year, I spent double or triple that.
I was networking, reading blogs about how to blog better, optimizing my blog, and writing content.
It was important for me to really learn the ins and out of blogging if I wanted to become a better blogger.
6. What’s your definition of great content? How do you go about creating great content yourself?
Great content provides value. I want people to walk away with a good feeling. Not just “oh that was nice”. For me I write about the topics that I would want to read.
Sometimes I write content as if it were only for myself because I’m sure some other people would want to read the same thing. Personal stories can be great content too.
Stories of struggles and triumphs always inspire.
7. Networking is said to be a good thing. What have you done, or do today, to connect with other bloggers, leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners in your niche and other niches?
When I first started out, I would go to their blogs and leave comments.
Sometimes if I liked their Facebook fan page I’d leave a comment about something they posted.
Or I’d be on Twitter sharing their content or having a small conversation.
Going to conferences is also great because you get that face to face interaction.
I think creating content that people want to read and share. If you write content that’s been done so many times and isn’t unique, it won’t be memorable.
So my focus would be on creating great content.
To put their spin on it. People read blogs because of the content, but they also read because of the person that is writing it.
I write about personal development. It’s a crowded market but I still have long time readers because they enjoy my point of view or how I write.
So write in your own voice because no other blog will be the same as you.
10. People are obsessed with getting more traffic, money, comments, followers…Tell me, what should they really focus on when they start worrying over the numbers – for example how they only have a few followers and people come to their site after working really hard on their site for months?
Work on great content. If you get a new visitor to come to your blog, and you have boring content. They’re never coming back.
Have something great, and they’ll come back. Focus on writing content that is going to make people glad they found you.
11. What’s your advice for someone who starts a blog because they simply want to make money online – and they think that blogging is the best way to achieve this goal?
I’d say if you want to start a blog with the goal of making money there are much better ways to do it. A blog alone isn’t going to make you money.
You can’t put up ads and get paid that way unless you have millions of visitors a month. If you really want to make money from your blog, have a plan from the start.
How are you going to do it?
Create your own products? Promote others? But throwing up a few ads isn’t going to make you the money you imagine. Usually, a blog is just a platform and people have other ways to make money online.
12. How much effort did you put in your blog before you made your first USD 100 from it – and how did you make the one hundred dollars?
I made my first $100 from selling my own product. I put a lot of time into it. I don’t remember how many hours but it took me months to create the slide, record the video, and put it all together.
13. What steps did you take to go from someone that doesn’t make money blogging to someone who makes money blogging?
Treating my blog like a business. If I wanted to make money from it, I had to stop thinking of it as a nice hobby, and really look into the business side of it.
How to monetize it, how to create products, how to engage with my readers.
14. What are some non-blogging things you had to deal with in your life in order to keep growing your blog into what it has become today?
Make time. We’re all busy and it’s easy to not make time to blog. In order to blog, or do anything else, you’ve got to set aside time for it.
Try and do it the same time everyday if that’ll help you stick with it.
15. What is the best advice you received that has helped you stay with your blog and continue improving it? (If you remember where the advice came from, mention names please)
The best advice I’ve gotten for my blog is to choose a topic I’m interested in. I had to imagine if I could write content for it for a year before I started because a blog needs content. I knew I could because this is a topic I really enjoy.
That’s why I’ve been able to continue to blog three years later. I’ve started many blogs before with just the focus to make money, and the topics I chose were not interesting to me at all.
16. Any ebooks, courses, products or services that you highly recommend other blog owners to get now?
Read blogs like Copyblogger.com, Problogger.net, and Smartpassiveincome.com to learn more about how to be a better blogger.
To visit Benny Hsu’s site and learn more about him and the work he does, click here. If you’d like to share your thoughts, experiences or suggestions, please do so in the comments below.