Chris Garrett Q&A by Rachelle Money, 22 July 2008

Chris Garrett is a professional blogger and co-author of the recently published ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Wordtracker's journalist Rachelle Money caught up with Garrett to pick his brains on how to crack the mini industry of blogging.

Rachelle: On your own blog, chrisg.com, you have said that there's no money in blogging, yet your book title claims that there's a six figure income to be had. What's the truth?

Chris: “The book actually says the same thing. Me and Darren (Rowse) emphasize a couple of times that this is not a get rich quick scheme and although there's money, don't think 'pack in the day job and I'll make a bigger income (from blogging)'. There is money to make but it's hard work and you have to choose the right battle.”

Rachelle: How do you blog for dollars?

Chris: “For Darren, he made money out of things like AdSense and Chitika, (a blog advertising company which Rowse claims has made him more than $250,000).

"My approach is that I made money because of blogging and not from it. I sell consultancy and services from my blog, and then there's Brian's – Brian Clark of copyblogger.com – approach to sales. He makes money from content through membership and gaining audience and then selling them products.

"Blogging is a tactic and a route to an audience, it's not a business in itself. We would rather think of it as focussing on your own audience and finding ways of pleasing them and paying your bills too.”

Rachelle: What are your blogging tips for someone starting out?

Chris: “You have to ask yourself, what have I added that's new? If all you're doing is adding content or editorial and not commenting on it then what's the point of reading your blog? You might as well just go to the original source of the link.

"Linking out is important too. If you are linking out then you need to stick to a theme or know what you're talking about. You have to continue the conversation and take it forward so your audience will feel inspired - they will want to contribute to the conversation, they will be entertained or get some value or information from it.

"Be unique. There's not a lot of it around because people are writing for themselves or want to write to make money rather than ask themselves 'What does my audience want?' 'Can I deliver that content?'”

Rachelle: With millions of blogs out there how can I make sure mine is unique?

Chris: “Keyword research is great for locating a niche market and is also really important for working out if a niche has legs. If nobody is interested in the niche then you've gone too narrow and if there's too many people in the niche then you've gone too wide.

"The niche could be 32 to 40-year-old professional women or a demographic, a topic, or even an attitude. You have to find a way to connect the audience and keyword research will tell you not only what niche to go for, but what topics to write for that niche.”

Rachelle: Do you do keyword research before you write your blog entries?

Chris: “I don't do keyword research for my own blog but I do do a lot of it for clients. The funny thing with my own personal blog is that I want to keep talking to my small but engaged audience. It's not about traffic but people who really want to hear from me and buy my services. I'd rather have 10 people that really want to hear from me than a million that I kind of miss.”

Rachelle: Do you think business blogging is a waste of time?

Chris: “I think corporate blogs can be useful but I have advised companies in the past not to do it. Some businesses are not set up in a way that they can blog, but they do have article sections. If you go to a corporate website it's me, me, me and it's a picture of the chairman - and the chairman's wife has probably selected the color scheme.

"They are not going to be able to blog very well but they will be able to get the benefits of Wordpress content management system. They will get the benefit of having articles and getting links to those articles, but there has to be the right culture to successfully blog and get an audience.

"A lot of businesses look at blogging as a silver bullet but a good company blog is a symptom rather than a cause. I think it's a shame that companies think, 'we need a blog' but don't really get what that means and the commitment that it brings.”

Rachelle: How do you manage comments?

Chris: “I always say that the comments area is like your home and it's your house, your rules. If people are being plain nasty and not adding anything to the conversation then don't publish the post. You aren't deleting it, you're just not letting it go live. Provide a comment policy so you can set out the ground rules and if someone breaks those rules the comment doesn't go live.

"I see comments as being vital because of the engagement aspect.

"If you really take care of what you write then other people's opinions are just other people's opinions. Your reputation will grow from it rather than be damaged.

"Comments can be good for search engine rankings too but I have a feeling that Google downplays the comments section because it attracts so much spam.”

Rachelle: On your blog you said the 'Build it and they will come' theory is crap. Why?

Chris: “Content is King but without an army guarding him he's just a man in a funny hat. You have to have great content because that's the foundation that everything else is based on, but people have to know about that content. You could have the best invention in the world but if you lock it in your cellar who's going to know about it?

"You need good quality traffic and that comes from fellow bloggers. I link to somebody else who's writing about online marketing or blogging and send people who are interested in that subject to them because I get the same in return.

"In terms of converting to regular readers then links from other bloggers is the way to go.”

Rachelle: How do you get other bloggers to link to you?

Chris: “To get on to their radar you have to comment and email them and get some sort of relationship going or use a service like Twitter to get into conversation. It's not self-promotion you're after at this stage, but networking. I think everybody, even if it's just for a week, should comment on as many blogs in their niche as they can. Commenting is great for getting to know other bloggers, it helps your writing, and helps you develop your own thoughts and ideas.

"The main thing is to have content that is linkable, and things like top tens always seem to work well. The other thing I'd say is that formatting is important too, so when you have a picture, bullet points or quotes it makes it more 'skimmable'. Dense blocks of text are off-putting and people won't bother reading it.“

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (Paperback) by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.

For more on blogging go to our blogging articles page.