Welcome to the 17th edition of the Bloggers Face-Off. As I mentioned last week, I will be experimenting with biweekly matches this month, so expect to see them every other Tuesday.
Do you use WordPress? Then you certainly know our first blogger, Mark Ghosh. Mark is the author of WeblogToolsCollection, probably the most popular blog on the Internet featuring WordPress themes, plugins and related news.
Engtech is another famous blogger. Recently he changed the name of his blog to InternetDuctTape.com. It is a suitable name, given that the blog is a must read for people interested in programming, technology and blogging tips. Now to the interview!
| Mark Ghosh |  Engtech |
|
|---|---|---|
| 1. How long have you been blogging? | Since early 2023 | 1 year on internetducttape.com, 4 years including personal blogs that no longer exist |
| 2. How many hours do you dedicate to your blog daily? | Between three to four hours of work, scattered throughout the day | 2-4 hours on average (I don’t blog every day) |
| 3. How many page views does it generate daily? | Between 10k and 15k | 4000 to 6000 |
| 4. Do you make money with the blog? | Yes, but I spend most of it on authors and servers | No, wordpress.com does not allow ads |
| 5. What is the biggest blogging mistake you did? | My biggest blogging mistake was, well, there are lots of them. I make small mistakes all the time and try very hard to minimize the bigger ones. *knock on wood* | Not getting my own domain name, and not switching to a more customizable hosting solution once I realized blogging was going to be serious business |
| 6. Do you think Alexa is reliable? | It used to be but I am becoming more disillusioned every passing day with Alexa. My traffic and user numbers have doubled over the past quarter but my rank has fallen in Alexa | Not at all. The only people I would trust to give an accurate measure of traffic is Google |
| 7. How long should a blogger wait to monetize the blog? | At least six months in my opinion. The possibility of making money poisons the reasons for blogging | Less than one year  |
| 8. If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be? | Blog for the sake of blogging. See you if like the idea of reaching out to strangers and if you do, participate in the conversation with enthusiasm and passion | Set a goal, and only do the things that align with your goal. Use blogging to compliment an aspect of your life, but don’t let it turn INTO your life |
| 9. What is the best promotion method you have used? | Competitions. Developers and visitors love them and it gives sponsors a chance to get their name out | Building relationships with other bloggers and getting linked to by bloggers with wider audiences |
| 10. What is more important, the content or the design? | Both. Design and content are both responsible for bringing users back to your blog. A beautifully designed blog without any content is useless and vice versa | Design can get attention, but only content will keep it |
| 11. If you could read only one blog, which one would you pick? | techmeme.com. Not a blog per se, but definitely my first read | Beats Entropy – like sex, reading blogs is better when you’ve really gotten to know someone |
| 12. What is the secret of your success, expressed in one word? | WordPress | Non-abstruse |
Subscribe Daniel on July 3, 2023 | Filed Under Bloggers Face-Off
