Interview with Hightide Blog Publishing Network
I recently became in contact with the writer/editor, Mike, for TravelingGolfer.com a website all about golf by a frequent traveler playing at different courses. My original intent was to simply exchange links with this site to gain greater exposure in the golf world for my goal of becoming a scratch golfer. I then came to find out, on a mention for Mike, that he is involved with a blog network called Hightide Blog Publishing. I have come to find blog networks quite fascinating and was very excited to be in contact with someone at the top of there’s.
Being new to the blogging scene and really just new to the world of online content generation I am always looking for people to learn from and find it fascinating to read about how others are doing it. When Mike had mentioned he had a blog network I had to beging asking him questions, picking his brain about how he started it and how he was doing with it. We sort of evolved that into an interview format question and answer session via email.
Mike was really open about his blogging and how he and actually his family are doing in the world of blogging. He works as a Sales, Marketing, and advertising consultant (thus all the traveling and traveling golfer as well as his website on common sense marketing and sales Simplenomics.com) and doesn’t have all the time in the world to maintain the 13 blogs within the network. That is where his family has taken a role and through both he and his wife guiding their three daughters they have built quite a network of blogs and managed to make a decent income stream out of it.
My original plan was to ask questions and weave them in and out of an article on blog networks I was planning to write but his answers seemed so helpful that I want to just copy and paste the responses from our emails. I hope you enjoy!
1. What made you get started on blogging and when did you start? (Such
as was it you or the family)
I found a few blogs in early ‘05 and started to do some research. I
thought that they’d be fun and productive, so I asked my wife ( Joi ) to
start one, as an add-on to her site at www.TheMentalFitnessCenter.com.
She’s the writer, whereas I’m more of a marketer. I figured I could
market what she writes and turn that into $$$. It was around 5-5-05 that
she started the blog off that site. Soon after, the other 12 followed. I
was forced to do one or two myself, or get ran over !
2. Who all writes for your blog network?
My wife ( Joi ) writes on 11. I write on 2 full time & 2 part time.
We have 3 daughters that code, write and work on the graphics for every one.
3. How much time do you spend, and you’re other writers, on blogging per
day? What other things do you and your bloggers do, full time jobs,
other sites, enjoy life etc? And does blogging give you or them the
freedom to be self sufficient monetarily?
My wife writes around 10-12 hours most days. That includes setup and
graphics, email, etc.
She loves to cook, home-schooled our daughters and writes and writes and
writes.
I’m a masonry consultant/salesman by day. On days when I get home late,
I still put in 3-6 hours, between reading, research, email and posting.
I’ll play golf 2-3 times per week, hence TravellingGolfer. I play with
customers, suppliers and friends.
Our 2 college age daughters also work outside the family business, so
they can become better at dealing with people, both customers and
supervisors, as well as coworkers. Dealing with people, successfully, is
the key to success in any business or profession. You won’t get that in
front of a computer, at home, so I want them to work with people besides
me. I’m sure they like other supervisors more than me, anyway !
Between their part-time jobs, Google AdSense and other forms of
advertising on their sites, they are debt free, in regards to college,
as well as other walks of life.
4. Roughly how much do you make per month on your network?
We make four figures every month. That’s over $1000, but less than
$9,999. Last month was around $2500.
My wife does web design and has a hosting business, so some months are
really good, if she’s just gotten paid for a site design.
5. How much traffic do you receive per month on your blog network and
what is your most active site?
We did a little over 51,000 Uniques last month, with over 90,000 total
visits and over 415,000 pages viewed.
That was a quick run thru our server logs. That doesn’t count the sites
that my wife and daughters do for some soap opera stars and celebs. They
do several official sites and host a slew of fan sites.
The most active is different every month.
6. Do you plan on expanding your network of blogs?
Maybe 1 or 2 here or there, but only if I saw a niche that was
uncovered, and that’s a real slim possibility.
7. Do you advertise/market your sites and if so where (adwords, buy ads on sites, forums, cold contacting people) or do you rely on search engines?
We’ve not paid for any advertising. We relied on the tips we’ve gotten
from other blogs, like ProBlogger.net, to teach us how to get traffic.
Most traffic comes from Technorati, Search Engines and people clicking
thru on comments we leave on other blogs, which is the most effective
means of getting a first time visitor that I’ve found.
Ezine advertising and PPC ads are scheduled, but not for another 2-3
months.
Most paid means to gather traffic will be used when there’s a digital
product to sell off a blog.
For example, I have a book about Common Sense being edited for
Simplenomics. I have some ebooks about the golf swing that are in the
research stage for TravellingGolfer and my wife already has several
ebooks that she promotes on her blogs. Most are along the self-help lines.
8. Would you ever consider selling your blog network if the right price
was offered? If so, what is a ball park for a “right price” ?
Sure, I’d be easy to convince. I’d sell individual blogs or the whole
network.
As for the price, as of today, BlogNetworkList.com says we’re worth over
$140,000. It’s all a matter of perspective to say whether that’s fair or
not.
I’d say more, a buyer might not.
That puts each blog at over $10,000 each, which is fair for some and not
for others.
Make me an offer !
In closing Mike would like to say this to potential bloggers.
Potential bloggers need to know that it takes a helluva commitment to do
what needs to be done on one blog, let alone 13.
Here’s a test for potential bloggers. Have a friend pick a subject and
than write a post about that subject in 15 minutes or less.
If you can’t, you may not want to do this.
I gave this test to a potential blogger and he could not do it.
He’s tried to write for 3 other networks, since then and I’ve seen him
start and leave at least 3 blogs.
It’s hard work, there are issues that have to be dealt with EVERY day
and the amount of time you spend on comments and spam is obscene.
My closing
I want to say thank you very much to Mike for taking the time out of a busy schedule to answer some questions. I hope you all found them as helpful as I did. Hop over to Hightide Publishing, I’m sure there’s a blog there that will interest you.
Erik