Last month I set up a plan to interview four people, basically one per week, but as you already know I got lazy and I stopped doing the work, yes I admit it for the third and last time. But now that I am back, I have here another great interview with a great friend Kiesha that has taken the time to share with all you, some interesting information about her blogging career, and much more. Hope you enjoy!

Tell us something about yourself first and something about you got started blogging?

I’m a technical writer, but my undergrad concentration was Creative Writing – which is very ironic – I studied to write creatively, yet there’s not always that much creativity involved in the technical writing. I’m also blog consultant, mostly working with small business owners – I assist them with setting up and maintaining their blogs. I also ghost write periodically and I’ve been blogging for over a year now.

What did you do before you started blogging? Have you ever had a job?

Before I started blogging, I was a secretary for a public school system for about nine years, during that period I also attended college. After I earned my bachelors, I went on to teach English at the secondary level.  Then I decided to go back for my Masters and ended up teaching Composition at the same university for about two years.

Are you making a full time income or are you at least where you want to be, in terms of money?

I’m definitely not where I want to be, but I’m lining up my goals and putting plans into action. I work daily to not only build my blog with fresh content, but I also have on-going projects.  My most recent completed project is my new ebook, “A Step by Step Guide for a Better Blog,” which teaches newbies how to set up a blog and then take it to the next level fast – I wish I had a guide like this when I started blogging.

How did you really learn to blog? Like did you read any blogs or buy any products?

I actually did purchase a product in the beginning, but I can’t say that it taught me much about blogging as it was more focused on generally making money online as a whole. I learned some useful tips, but for the most part I learned to blog by reading Darren Rowse’s book “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.” I discovered the book before ever landing on his blog.  I also learned a lot from Lisa Irby’s blog.  Most of the methods I use come from those two sources.

I truly believe, though, that people really only learn to blog when they actually start doing it.  You can read all the tips you want, but if you don’t actually apply them and put them into action, they’re useless.

How long did it take you before you actually started making $1 online?

I actually made my very first commissioned sell about a month after I started blogging. The problem is that it wasn’t consistent. By the end of the second month I had made about $200 – it was very unpredictable. After that most of my earnings came from writing services I began offering – that brought the most steady income.

Most people that you talk to online have had a rough beginning, what would you say was the toughest part when you where just getting started?

The toughest part was getting the traffic. It was such a slow process – I didn’t realize how simple the fix was until one day, I just spent the whole day commenting on other blogs – that’s when I started seeing a spike in traffic.  I started posting every day, then I found a site to write guest posts for – it brought me so much traffic, I started writing teaser posts that included a link to a companion post at the end – traffic was very steady after that.  All in all, guest posting has had the greatest impact on my blogging.

If all the blogs online where deleted, besides yours, which one would you want to stay up?

I’d like to see FuelYourBlogging.com become a problog – I’m biased for several reasons, but I also believe that the editor really goes out of his way to produce posts that really stretch and challenge ideas.

For people just getting started on their first blog, what’s the best advice you can pass on to them?

The best advice is to plan ahead and create a recurring schedule of things you’d like to post. It doesn’t have to be a weekly series, you can revisit series every other week or even once a month.  The key is to get a rhythm going.

Also, planning ahead keeps you from getting totally overwhelmed.  I like to be 2-3 drafts ahead of schedule. I also keep an idea list to refer to when I don’t know exactly what to write about.

Then next piece of advice I would offer:  Be patient and don’t give up.  If things are going in the directly you’d like it to, re-evaluate what you’re doing and make a change, but don’t quit.  Lots of times when I felt like quitting I did some research and I discovered so many gaps in my blogging education that I was re-invigorated just by the thought of putting my new knowledge into action. When I found something that worked, it excited me so that I no longer had the urge to quit.  So if you ever feel like quitting, take a break and do some research.

Would you ever trade the lifestyle that you have right now for a high paying 9 to 5? why?

No! Unless the 9-5 is your own business, it’s just another form of slavery.  Yeah, you get paid, but you never really get what your time is really worth.  Time is a nonrenewable resource, by the way – one that when it’s gone, it’s gone forever. No dying person ever says, take me to the office, that’s where I want to spend my last living moments…yet many people never even live to see retirement and their last moments are actually spent at work.  (Sorry, didn’t mean to rant…)

Would you say there is a way for a new blogger to shorten their learning curve?

Absolutely – write strong quality content that is creative and energetic.  Stock your blog up with at least 10-20 posts before setting out to submit your first guest post on a decent ranking blog. Then spend about 30 minutes a day commenting on blogs in your niche (or be brave and venture outside your niche). Write comments that go beyond “nice post” of course – they need to be comments that offer something valuable to the conversation.  A good rule of thumb is to simply answer the questions that the blogger poses at the end of the post.

Another good insight would be to avoid niches that are overly crowded unless you can do something totally new and unique that will allow you to stand out from the crowd.  There are so many great niches besides the “blogging about blogging” or “making money online” – it’s so much easier to reach the top in those less crowded areas.

If you had to give one tip that’s unique and useful for a new blogger or person looking to start their online business what would that be?

Use your unique personality and perspective to your advantage – that’s the only way you’re going to be able to really leave your mark – it does no good to imitate others, especially when there’s already so many of your own personal experiences and characteristics that you could turn to.

Using personal experience stories is a great way to create unique content that can’t be found anywhere else. It’s so much more engaging and it allows your readers to really connect with you and feel as if they know you.  They’ll come to trust you that way, a whole lot quicker, and when they trust you, they’ll be more likely to be influenced by your recommendations (or affiliate links).

I have to say this was one interview that I was really looking for, because Kiesha is actually only a few miles away from where I live and its just amazing to see people here know about blogging. Most of the people are unaware of the opportunity, I’ve told people that have unique niches to move online and start a blog about that niche, but they just don’t see the potential. Oh well, their loss right?

Anyway, Kiesha is a successful blogger that many of you will start hearing a lot about soon, because she’s really making her voice heard online. I am so glad for the success of her blog and I really encourage people that are getting into blogging to check out WE BLOG BETTER dot com, because its just a great resource for amateur and experienced bloggers.

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