It’s time to motivate you guys and teach you something more and more valuable and profitable. Today, I’ll be chatting on with Kevin Muldoon, the bald and bold man who is a very renowned freelancer and internet marketer, who has been freelancing over many popular magazines and making passive income every month out of online business.
So, let’s get started with this inspiring chat!
An interview with Kevin Muldoon
Q1. Hello Kevin sir and It is a pleasure to have you here, at SBIS. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Kevin Muldoon. I am an internet marketer and blogger who has been making money online since 2000. I am widely known for my personal blog KevinMuldoon.com and my discussion forum RiseForums.com. I am also known for my former websites BloggingTips.com and WPMods.com.
Q2. As everybody know, you are one of the most prominent bloggers in the blogosphere. How did you get started?
I started using content management systems such as PostNuke in 2001, so I had a lot of experience using PHP based CMS scripts. I tested a lot of blogging scripts in 2005 and 2006.
I used blogging software for a few different projects. For example, I launched a poker blog for my poker discussion forum and a travel blog to keep friends updated about my travels. I also launched a few small technology blogs.
Then, in 2007, I launched my first proper blog BloggingTips.com. I began to blog more frequently and have never looked back.
Q3. Tell us something about your online life, your previous and upcoming projects in blogging and affiliate marketing?
I do have some ideas on what my next big blog project should be. However, before I take that step, I want to increase traffic to my personal blog. To help me do that, I am going to hire more writers so that I have more time to focus on another project.
RiseForums.com is another project that I want to develop more. There are a lot of great affiliate marketers, web developers, and bloggers, who hang out there on a daily basis. I want to build upon the good base it has and take it to the next level.
Q4. KevinMuldoon.com is one of the blogs people use to get started with blogging. Tell us the story of this great revolution.
I initially registered the domain in 2002. At the time, I mainly used it as an online profile to promote the websites I owned. I also used it to advertise domain names that I had for sale.
Later, I decided to launch a blog on the domain. However, it was never a priority. My time was always focused on other projects so I never gave it the attention it deserved. Due to that, my posting frequency was erratic and some posts were very short (though this was before Twitter, so you need to remember that people sometimes used their blogs to post short Tumblr style messages).
After selling WPMods in 2012, I went travelling in South America for several months. I then re-launched KevinMuldoon.com at the end of the year. I still consider it a work in progress. It is no where near the website I want it to be, so I have a lot of work to do.
Q5. Any special Black hat or White Hat techniques of your own?
I have never focused on any particular technique to promote my blogs. I have always placed all my energy on writing good content for the reader. Thankfully, the content has been good enough for others to link to it; therefore I have not had to resort to any black hat techniques in order to get traffic.
Q6. What are your Major Income sources how much do you make every month from your blog?
I have not really monetised KevinMuldoon.com. If you look at the blog just now, you can see that the only banner advertisement displayed on there is for RiseForums.com.
In the future, I plan on selling banner advertisements on the blog, but for the time being I want to focus on simply publishing good content and increasing readership.
Due to this, the blog only makes a few hundred dollars per month (i.e. since there is no ads on the site). Though indirectly, the blog does increase sales of my books and brings in a lot of customers to my freelance writing services. If you take those into account, the blog makes me thousands of dollars every month (you can see how much from my monthly income reports).
Q7. Any special or secret SEO and keyword researching tools?
I use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools for monitoring keywords, but I don’t have a tool I use regularly.
I tried SEMRush recently and was impressed with that. It comes across as one of the best SEO research tools out there.
Q8. Since everyone know that you are a pro blogger. What are the basic steps according to you in order to become a ‘PRO’
Making a living through blogging is about being smart and working hard. You may look at income reports of top bloggers and think that it was easy for them to get there; however all top bloggers have worked their butts off in order to make it.
If you want to become a “PRO”, you need to:
- Be willing to analyse your own faults, look at how you can address those faults and then improve as a blogger
- Be willing to improve your grammar and spend time improving the quality of your writing
- Be willing to work hard and make sacrifices in your life to reach your goal
- Be passionate about blogging and have the dedication to make your dreams a reality
In short, there is no secret to becoming a “PRO”. It’s about working hard and doing everything you can to become a more competent blogger.
Q9. Most of the bloggers quit just because they are not able to generate money out of their blogs and they also start losing interest in it. What were the things you kept in mind when you were a newbie?
When I started blogging, I had been working online for several years and was already making a good living online. Therefore, my introduction to blogging is different to those who are approaching blogging without any experience of building websites and making money online.
That being said, the principles are the same.
My advice to any new blogger who is looking to become a successful blogger is to stop focusing on making money.
If you are losing interest because you are not earning money, then you are blogging about the wrong subject. First and foremost, you need to have a passion for blogging. You also need to have a passion for the topic you are writing on.
Do not spend your time blogging about mobile phones if the subject matter bores you. Focus on something you enjoy reading about, something you enjoy talking about, and, ultimately, something you will enjoy writing about.
If you focus all your energy on creating good content, you will build a readership. Once you have a loyal readership, you can make a lot of money 🙂
Q10. Most of the bloggers are today facing the invades of the various Panda updates. What all are the things one should do to keep its blog safe from such updates?
Just keep focusing on publishing good content. I have never seen a drop in traffic due to a change in Google’s ranking algorithm because I focus on writing good content.
Increasing traffic to your website using tricks and cheats is not a problem in the short term. But in the long term, you should not be relying on traffic methods that can be volatile.
Q11. How can one maintain a proper blogging schedule?
Set yourself a publishing schedule and stick to it.
This will be different for everyone. For some, it could mean writing 5 hours a day from Monday to Friday. For others, it could be spending every Sunday afternoon writing.
It is up to you to make a schedule that fits you, your goals, and your lifestyle. If you cannot stick to a blogging schedule, then perhaps you don’t have what it takes to be a blogger.
realise that may come across as mean, but most bloggers don’t make it to the top as they do not have the discipline to write on a consistent basis. If you do not enjoy writing and find it hard to write regularly, blogging probably is not for you.
Q12. How do you use Social Media to get Traffic to your blog? Any special technique?
I am semi-active on Twitter, but I am not someone who spends a lot of time on social media as I feel that my time is better spent elsewhere.
My main strategy is:
- Auto update all my social media accounts with notifications of new articles I have published on my blog
- Share good content from other people with my followers
- Follow people that also share good content
- Interact with people who share my interests
This simple strategy is more effective at generating traffic if you have a large following, but it will still work and it is a great way of networking with fellow bloggers.
Q13. If I will ask you to describe your blogging journey within 100 words, what would be your answer?
Interesting, profitable, and enjoyable 🙂
Q14. Any advice or trick to rank our blogs well in Search Engines?
It’s simple. Write good content. Content so good that others will want to link to you without you even asking 🙂
Thanks,
Kevin
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