Yaro Stark - Entrepreneurs Journey : Blogger Interviews

 Interviewing Yaro Stark from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

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Brief Intro about yourself?

I’m a 29 year old Australian who sounds like a Canadian currently traveling around the world and blogging at the same time. I’ve made money on the Internet since I graduated university - about 8 years now. Today my six figure business is based on blogging.

How did you get started?

My first blog was created for a small business I used to own. It was a proofreading service were I connected Phd students and professors who edited the papers of international students who had trouble with English.

Do you run your blog under any “Media” type site? Like I run mine under the control of Gurilla.net

No, I’ve always “owned” my own blog first on MovableType then WordPress and always on my own domain names.

How long have you been blogging?

Since November 2004.

Whats your strategy with your blog in general?

My blog is the lead generator for my business. It attracts traffic, creates relationships and spreads my name and brand across the web.

From there I monetize my blog using advertising, affiliate products and a sales funnel.

How do you get rss readers?

Nothing too strategic here - I put the RSS button in a prime position and write content so good people want to subscribe to see what I write next.

Could you tell me, in as many words as you can, what made you stand out in blogging?

Consistency, good writing, use of multimedia such as podcasting, relationship building with the right peopl and having experience to draw on so my content was real.

Do you give out freebies?

Yes, a free report called The Blog Profits Blueprint and various other free videos and content.

Whats your opinion about the importance of PR in a blog’s life?

Do you mean press coverage or pagerank? Pagerank is not that important, it only helps with convincing advertisers to sponsor your blog and to create a perceived level of credibility for your blog.

Publicity is one way to drive traffic to a blog - certainly an underutilized method by most bloggers, but not mandatory for success.

Do you consider the top100 list at 45n5.com as authoritative?

Yes and no. I think most top lists have subjective criteria for assessing the rankings. Not everyone values the same metrics in the same way. It’s certainly a handy resource to find good blogs in our niche.

Any thoughts on my post on Blogs are not the authority, the Bloggers are?

Blogs are simply the tool the person behind the blog uses, so of course that make sense.

Would you sell out your blog at some point?

Possibly - if the price was right - but it would be a very tough decision because my blog is my passion at the moment too.

Do you think people should sponsor wordpress themes?

Sure - why not - it’s all about marketing and providing value.

What’s your take on sponsored reviews?

Personally I don’t like doing them, but I think they are an appropriate monetization option when they have full disclosure.

What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?

Good content on a consistent basis. Or money - lol!

Did Aweber play a vital role in your growth?

Yes and no - again AWeber is a tool and there are plenty of similar tools out there so it’s not AWeber that is critical. The email autoresponder and having an email list certainly helps with my growth.

Do you think Pagerank plays a vital role in a blog’s life?

See the above response in the PR section - and no, it’s not critical at all in terms of the green bar, but it certainly is relevant as part of Google’s algorithm. Bloggers should at least understand how it works.

Could you give me a statement for everyone using the feedburner hack here:

Numbers that don’t represent reality are obviously nothing more than fake badges. The numbers that count are the ones that you decide are important - which for many bloggers is real traffic and real income.

You can’t fake that.

What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?

Content. It delivers readers, it’s the key to good SEO and of course all these things are “traffic”.

Did you ever consider selling links to those underground link sellers, you know, the ones that mail you and ask you to sell in-content links and pay per year.

No - they demand too much and pay very little for it.

Did you ever get an offer of selling your blog out of the blue, if so how did you react to it?

No - nothing along those lines except automated spam messages.

Overall what do you think of blueverse, once again be as blunt as offensive as you can.

I’m not familiar with Blueverse besides seeing it climb in the 45n5 rankings. Unfortunately every time I go to look at the site it won’t load for me. I’m sure it’s a solid blog given it is growing.

Any tips for my readers?

Just keep on blogging and don’t let setbacks stop you from always giving the best you can.