Time for a new Bloggers Face-Off.

In this edition we have two long time DBT readers who have very popular marketing blogs. The first one is Adam Singer, who blogs at The Future Buzz. If you are interested in marketing, PR and social media (not to mention the intersections between those fields), his blog is a must read.

The second one is Eric Friedman, author of Marketing.fm. On his blog Eric explores how technology affects marketing, and he is always coming up with interesting stuff, so check it out.

Adam Singer	Eric Friedman
1. How many hours per day do you dedicate to the blog?
Approximately 2 hours daily	1-2 depending on the day. Sometimes more for interviews\podcasting editing time
2. How many page views does your blog get daily?
On average ~1,500 but on days I go hot in social media, it spikes much higher	700-1000 on average and exponentially more when I get solid traction on a post
3. Do you make money with it?
I don’t make money from my blog directly – but indirectly it is worth far more. As a communications professional, it is appealing for clients to be able to have access to an active blogger. It also helps me experiment with how ideas spread and establish my credentials by sharing case studies/ideas/strategy in an open format	My blog played an important role in getting me my current job, so technically yes. I have run advertising to test out new forms of technology and ad units in the past, but all in an effort to experiment and learn. I have a better understanding of ad products once I have used them “in the wild”
4. How long did it take for you to reach 1,000 subscribers?
Around one year	2 years
5. Can one build a popular blog on a free WordPress theme?
Absolutely – if you look at what Seth Godin has done with a default TypePad theme, you’ll see it is possible to create a white-hot blog based purely on strong content	Absolutely. Content is king and is proven by those popular bloggers on the default theme. It helps once you have an established readership to build a quality archive page and surface old posts, but good writing always trumps good looks
6. What is the biggest blogging mistake you did?
Not starting a professional blog sooner. I had been keeping a personal blog since 2005, but only decided to launch a niche-focused blog in 2007. Wish I had done that far sooner, as I would have benefited from a strong wave of growth during that time	Making mistakes is the part of blogging that helps you learn the most – I would say blasting RSS readers with updates when I was editing podcast posts accidentally
7. Twitter is a distraction or a good promotional tool?
Great promotion tool for your blog content, but also a distraction if you’re not careful. I spend most time focusing on producing the absolute best writing and not worrying about Twitter. People will share your material if they like it, doesn’t have anything to do with how much time you spend there	Clearly I am biased, but I legitimately feel it is a great promotional tool. It has been great for feedback, ideas, quick polls, and of course promotion too – but in the end it just extends the conversation of a good post
8. Do you think AdSense makes a blog look unprofessional?
It depends on what you’re doing with your blog – if you’re keeping a blog to help your career and establish your credentials, ask yourself if it is really worth it to pocket a few hundred from AdSense monthly. I’d rather use screen real estate for things my audiences find interesting instead of making a little extra cash	Thinking about ad placement is key to a good design. AdSense can look silly when contextual relevance fails, but overall a well placed contextually relevant ad should ad value and in turn provide a more professional feel to a blog
9. If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?
Write on what you’re passionate about and you really can’t fail	Start today. I have helped tons of bloggers at all stages of life begin writing and the hardest hurdle, even more so than hosting, domain names, setup, etc… is starting to write
10. What is the best way to increase website traffic?
Get on the radar of social media power users. They won’t share your content unless it is top-notch, but when it is, interested, connected people are the key to driving massive amounts of traffic	Treat your blog like an island. It needs supplies, traffic ports, trade routes, and visitors to remain habitable. Ignore one or more of these metaphors and your blog can become a deserted and desolate island fast – pay attention to each and you will have a favorite destination of visitors who want to come back

Tech blogs are the bread and butter of the blogosphere. Launching one is no guarantee of success, but if you manage to set yourself apart from the crowd, the returns are pretty good. Just consider that combined the two blogs that we are featuring today receive around 50,000 daily page views….

The first blog is Techie-Buzz.com, authored by Keith Dsouza. If you are interested in software, freeware utilities and Internet tips, make sure to subscribe to Keith’s blog.

SimpleHelp.net is our second blog. The man behind it is Ross McKillop, and he basically answers to all sorts of tech questions, making the blog a must read for people interested in tech tutorials and how-to articles.

Keith Dsouza	Ross McKillop
1. How many hours per day do you dedicate to the blog?
About 2-4 hours on a regular day and 6 hours on the weekends	Depends on the day. Sometimes not at all, sometimes 16 hours. When I started out I did a string of 14 hour days for 3 or 4 straight months. Last month, I spent about 12 hours total working on my site
2. How many page views does your blog get daily?
The blog gets more than 15,000 page views everyday	Around 35,000 page views per day
3. Do you make money with it? From what sources?
The monthly revenue is around $2.5K per month, its consistently growing every month. The revenue mostly comes from Google AdSense, Infolinks, Affiliate Programs, Direct Ad Sales and Sponsored Reviews	Yes, my blogs are my sole source of income. I use AdSense, several CPM networks and a couple of affiliate products
4. How long did it take for you to reach 1,000 subscribers?
A pretty long time I must say, not that I noticed it initially, because most of the time I was focusing on increasing traffic, now I also concentrate on getting more regular readers to the blog	I honestly don’t remember. Due to the type of site I have, the number of RSS subscribers has never been an accurate reflection of its popularity or traffic. 80% of my visitors come from Google searches.
5. Can you build a popular blog on a free WordPress theme?
Yes, as long as you customize it and make it unique along the way.	Absolutely yes. As long as you customize it enough, use your own logo etc.
6. What is the biggest blogging mistake you did?
My biggest blogging mistake came in the initial lifespan of the blog, where I took a break for few months and did not concentrate on it, that period was the peek for bloggers, and many of my friends made it big, however I still regret it and have been working hard to nullify that mistake	Not talking to bloggers in my own niche and paying too much attention to “pro bloggers”. I’ve since found the “pro bloggers” often provide very general information that doesn’t apply to all sites or topics, in fact some of their advance can actually hurt your site. Daily Blog Tips (obviously) and Copyblogger are two that I do read regularly though
7. Twitter is a distraction or a good promotional tool?
It’s a great promotional tool. On the other hand, I do find lots of post ideas from Twitter and also use it to communicate with others, overall I love the simplicity of the service	Depends on the blog topic/niche. For me, total waste of time. I use it merely as a tool to chat with friends, not at all to promote my blog
8. Do you think AdSense makes a blog look unprofessional?
Yes, but it depends on placement of the ads, if placed improperly it turns out to be more intrusive to end users, AdSense ads are more likely to be clicked by search engine users and they should be targeted more at them	If it’s the blog for a large corporation/well established company – yes it would be hugely unprofessional. If it’s your *own* blog, AdSense is totally acceptable
9. If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?
Don’t worry if you can’t write on a day to day basis, blogging is all about relaxing and giving your best, mistakes do happen, but then without mistakes how would we learn? So stop worrying about less traffic and revenue, they are bound to grow someday	It’s absolutely possible to make a living from blogging, but it won’t happen overnight. Pick a topic you’re interested in or you’ll find it more of a drag than any 9-5. Find friendly people in your niche and ask for advice. Try and find a topic that the ‘average’ person finds interesting
10. What is the best way to increase website traffic?
Organic traffic from search engines are the biggest traffic puller for all the top blogs, so concentrate on content, learn how to optimize your title and URLs for SEO, these matter pretty much, when Google or other search engines decide to show your blog on which position you sit at in search results	Write as much content as possible. Because I have a “tutorial” site, I look for questions that people frequently ask (on message boards, Yahoo Answers, etc.) then write the answers to those questions. The more questions I answer, the more traffic I get. It is very much worth mentioning – my answer to this question does not apply to all blogs. Don’t write something just for the sake of writing. You might end out with a very boring site

It is Tuesday, so time for a new Bloggers Face-Off. On this edition we have two interesting bloggers.

Gary Arndt is the man behind Everything Everywhere. In the case you are wondering, the name of his blog is right on the mark. Early in 2007 he decided to sell his stuff and start traveling the world. His blog is where you can find his thoughts, experiences, and a log of his journey.

John Struan, on the other hand, blogs about art, t-shirts, gadgets and a lot more on his blog Super Punch. John is also the proof that you can make a blogspot blog successful.

Gary Arndt	John Struan
1. How many hours per day do you dedicate to the blog?
I’m traveling full time, and I have a travel blog, so it depends how you define it. I’m sort of always doing something which can be used as content, whether it is taking photos or just walking around a city soaking up the culture	Three hours per day
2. How many page views does your blog get daily?
Over the last 30 days, I’ve averaged about 2,000 page views per day.	8,500 for Super Punch (robots, monsters and other daily links). 2,500 for Toycutter (custom action figures, vinyl toys, and miniatures). 800 for Evil Buttons (all things Coraline)
3. Do you make money with it? From what sources?
Currently, no. I will be selling original photography soon and will be writing a book in 2009. I am also looking at some more creative advertising opportunities than just banner ads	Yes – - affiliate links, AdSense, and banner ads
4. How long did it take for you to reach 1,000 subscribers?
It took me 18 months to reach 1,000 subscribers. It took me another 87 days to reach 1,500. My site is in a very underrepresented niche. Most people find it by accident and say “Oh Wow!”. They don’t go looking for it. As it has been picking up steam, it is getting easier. I recently launched a redesign of my site and an email newsletter and the subscription rate has increased significantly	I can’t say for sure because I didn’t pay much attention. Maybe 15 months
5. Do you think one needs to post daily to be successful?
You don’t “have” to, but it really helps. I know of a few blogs with a lot of subscribers that post very infrequently. In general, the more you post, the more ways for people to find you via links and Google searches. In the long run it is a numbers game. That is why so many multi-author blogs do so well	It depends on the nature of the site. My main site is a daily links/pop culture blog, so I have to update many times a day to compete against all of the other similar sites out there. Artists with a full rss feed/newsletter can update much less often
6. What is the biggest blogging mistake you did?
Not starting an email newsletter sooner. Like many technical orientated people, I use RSS and just ignored the potential of email. Eventually the evidence became overwhelming. Investing some money in Aweber is worth it	Trying to use forums and social media to promote my site without taking the time to first become a trusted member of those communities
7. Twitter is a distraction or a good promotional tool?
Twitter has been the #1 best marketing and promotional tool I have ever used, hands down, no question. Nothing else is close. I have almost 20,000 followers on Twitter and it has been great for me	For me, just a distraction, although I realize it works great for other people
8. Do you think AdSense makes a blog look unprofessional?
Adsense is very common now. You can find ads everywhere. I don’t think it is that big of a deal. I’m not currently running adsene, but I may again in the future. Adsense works better the more targeted your blog is. Mine isn’t very targeted, so I’m not the poster child for Adsense	Like many bloggers, I wasn’t pleased a few months back when all AdSense ads seemed to have been bought by opponents of gay marriage. But otherwise, AdSense ads are no more unprofessional than any other type of ad out there. Placement and moderation is key. I display AdSense text ads prominently on my custom toy site because the ads are very relevant (places to buy toys) and therefore useful to my readers (who want to buy toys). The content at my main site is too varied for AdSense ads to be sufficiently relevant, so I instead emphasize banner ads and affiliate links.
9. If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?
1) Blogs are an established medium now. There is no more first mover advantage. You have to spend a lot of time being unknown and building your traffic slowly. The key to being successful I think is tenacity. 2) Despite all the talk of content being king, that just isn’t true. You have to spend a lot of time on marketing yourself and your site. It isn’t easy and takes a lot of time. 3) Don’t think that putting a widget on your site from a blog network is going to make you successful. If it was that easy, everyone would do it. Notice that few big blogs use those widgets. WIdgets and buttons DO make a blog look unprofessional. Use them sparingly	I actually recently wrote extensively on this topic for my blog’s two-year anniversary. But briefly: (1) give more than you expect to receive; (2) pick something you really like doing because it’s probably going to take a huge amount of time and effort before you start earning any real money; (3) play to your strengths; and (4) respect your readers
10. What is the best way to increase website traffic?
I really think that raw web traffic is secondary in importance to having a loyal following. You can get on the front page of Digg and get 50,000 visits and have it all disappear overnight and be totally forgotten the next day. For me traffic is just a means to the greater end of getting a following, which is much harder to measure. The goal of getting on the front page of Digg isn’t the 50,000 visits, it’s the 100 people from that which might subscribe and become long term readers. The key metrics for determining your following are subscribers, average post comments, re-tweets, links, and other stats which show people being invested and interested in what you are doing	It depends on what you’re good at. If you’re an expert at creating linkbait for Digg, then write linkbait. If you’re great at writing funny comments, then comment all over the place. If you’re a good networker in person, then network at social events. Do you think Demi Moore has 300,000 followers on Twitter because of her clever writing? All of these methods work. The question is which one works for you, and you’ll only find out by experimenting. Sugesting links to other bloggers, writing guest posts, and posting lots and lots of fresh content is what works for me

As Eminem would say, guess who is back?

We got a bunch of applications for the Bloggers Face-Off last week, so hopefully we will be able to keep this column going regularly in 2009. I will aim initially for one new face-off every two weeks (so two per month).

Joost de Valk is a good friend mine, and a terrific SEO and WordPress developer. He blogs at Yoast.com, which is a must read for anyone interested in those two topics.

Satish Gandham is another popular tech blogger. GeniusHackers.com, his main gig, has just crossed the 7,000 RSS subscribers mark, and it covers a wide range of topics, from software to blogging tips.

We got a new table format too, which gives more room for the answers. Thanks Glen for that.

Joost de Valk	Satish Gandham
1. How many hours per day do you dedicate to the blog?
From 2 to 4 hours per day	I spend most of the time on line, chatting with fellow bloggers, reading other blogs and tweaking my blogs design. I can not exactly say “I spend 2 hours or 3 hours on my blog”
2. How many page views does your blog get daily?
Around 10,000	From 8 to 10,000 per day (70% of my traffic is organic)
3. Do you make money with it? From what sources?
Yes, about $4-5k a month, from direct ads and affiliate programs	I make around 400USD per month from links sales and direct advertising. GeniusHackers.Com is banned from Adsense for having some posts related to hacking
4. How long did it take for you to reach 1,000 subscribers?
Long	Initially I dint concentrate on increasing the feed count. You can take it to be around 15 months. My feed count raised from 500 to 7100 since December though
5. Do you think one needs to post daily to be successful?
No, being unique is way more important	I don’t think so, but you must consistently post quality content
6. What is the biggest blogging mistake you did?
Doing paid posts in the beginning of my blogging career. It’s a waste of valuable time and it pushes away you readers. I now only do sponsored posts when people have a topic that is truly relevant for my readers	My biggest blogging mistake was not having a .Com domain in the beginning. You can read more about it here
7. Twitter is a distraction or a good promotional tool?
A good promotional tool and a GREAT way to have meaningful conversations	I don’t tweet much, so its not a distraction for me. It sure is a good promotion tool if you have good number of followers
8. Do you think AdSense makes a blog look unprofessional?
Depends on how it’s used, but I’m not a fan	I don’t think so, adsense ads are neat and unobtrusive if used properly
9. If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?
Only do it cause you love it, not because you make money from it	Write quality and original content. Learn some basic html and php if you want to have total control over your blog look and functionality
10. What is the best way to increase website traffic?
Write relevant, interesting and truly unique stuff / tools etc. Just give people something they can use or think about	The best way to increase traffic is to write good content, apart from that use keywords in your post and highlight the keywords with strong tags

Readers have been asking for the return of the Bloggers Face-Off column, so I will give it a shot. I can’t promise we will have them weekly as we used to, but I really want to release a new face-off at least every month, if not every fifteen days.

Thinking about that, I figured that perhaps we could also strengthen the Daily Blog Tips community by featuring some of our own readers on the face-offs.

So yeah, if you would like to be matched with another blogger in a deadly cage fight cool double interview just let me know about it.

There is just one requirement: your blog must have 1,000 or more RSS/email subscribers.

I need to add this requirement for two reasons: first of all without it the number of applications would be unmanageable. Secondly, the purpose of the Bloggers Face-Off series is also to expose successful bloggers to our readers, and 1,000 RSS subscribers is a good mark to consider a blog successful.

What are you waiting for? Drop me an email on danielATdailyblogtips.com.