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I have been wanting to get couple interviews lined up for the readers at Work N Play. Since then I have emailed some influential and successful bloggers, some replied and were kind enough to take some time out of their busy schedule for an interview and others have yet to reply.

For the next couple weeks you will find one interview post ( each week ) on this blog with a successful blogger. This will allow me and you to know the blogger better and learn from them as they share some advice and suggestion as to what we should do to succeed in blogging.

Today’s interview is with Ian from Ianfernando.com.

Let’s get right to the interview,

Most of us already know about you and your blog and ventures. But for Work N Play readers who might not know you, could you please give them a brief introduction?

Ian: No Problem. My name is Ian Fernando and I have been on the internet for quite sometime. I started making money from the internet when I first started making a Pokemon website, back in high school. (Ancients Years Ago) I was always in to web design and made multitudes of websites on angelfire and geocities. It was just recently when I started to get into blogging and it makes sense to me since I can track and speak what I had on my mind about a specific topic.

Tell us a little about Ianfernando.com, theIanternet, BadCircuit and ClickBankViews.com? By the way, last time I checked ClickBankViews it was parked on SEDO. Are you trying to sell it?

Ian: IanFernando.com is my main blog and website. It hosts my train of thought and keeps a log of what I have been doing on a money marketing stand point. I put more concentration into my blog maintenance than any of my other websites.

BadCircuit.com used to be a technology blog, but I soon turned it into a virtual storefront. I was getting hammered with keeping up with tech blogging and could not keep up with the changes. I even started a small team with writers but they in turn were not producing and were not of help. I finally decided to just turn BadCircuit.com in to a virtual storefront for electronics.

theIanternet.com was my first domain and I actually wanted Ianternet.com but someone already had it. theIanternet.com was supposed to be a website of all my favorite web things in a website. Almost like a bookmark dashboard, then I quickly got bored of it and turned it into a blog directory, then I turned it in to an ecommerce shop, then turned it into an article directory. This is the final version for theIanternet.com.

ClickBankViews.com was a review directory for multiple users to just talk about ClickBank products. Everyone always talked about how ClickBank products are scams and they are just informative information which can be found on the internet at any time. Well I wanted users to post their experience of the product they bought for others to read, it was just dedicated to ClickBank products. It did very well until someone wanted to purchase the domain. This was the first time someone emailed me to buy the domain, after an inquiry of my domain. I have decided to park the domain, to get higher bids since the first bid was low. The domain is up for sale and it is a good time for me to read domain selling and flipping. Any buyers?

What is the Importance of Social Media Marketing?

Ian: I think this can be viewed in a different way because the question is broad. Social marketing is important to become viral but it is important when it comes to a networking point. Social Media Marketing is marketing and marketing involves networking. Creating relationships is the essence of social websites. Also this can be viewed as not that important because it can be viewed as spam. For example, I was successful to take advantage of Myspace before they started to filter out marketers, marketing to friends and their friends. Now look at Myspace it is all spam.

Besides content, what other factors do you think attracts readers to a blog?

Ian: I like to create interaction within the blog. That is why I concentrate on looks and navigation on my blog. I included dynamic content, videos, and polls to entice the user to interact. If they interact they have a feel of what the ‘user experience’ may be. These are the most important factors for a website, creating a great user experience.

Can you really make money online, especially blogging?

Ian: I believe you can, since I did but not enough to replace my day job check. I have made good money with ClickBank Products, PPC Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, eBay, etc. Blogging is one of my harder projects because users come to read information; blogs are the new news media. Readers are really not that interested in purchasing something. I do make money from my blog by simply selling blog real estate and writing some reviews about a specific product that is being launched.

Blogging is more of a media balance between real and opinions. Blogs are all opinionated answers to your questions, it is someone else’s experience on their topic. Blogging can be used as a leverage such as creating that review for an affiliate product.

Does a blog has to have a niche?

Ian: A blog is an opinionated story of a topic. So if you are writing a story it already has a niche. If it is about yesterday’s fishing trip or today’s golf lesson, you are already writing about a niche. A blog in general is already a niche, once you buy your domain or you start to write your first topic.

What do you think is more important to analyze while valuing a blog - RSS subscribers or traffic in general?

Ian: I believe RSS. The reason is because these are already targeted readers. Traffic is just traffic that may come from other sources, search engines, directories, etc. But will those readers ever come back to your site? Probably not. RSS readers proves to be loyal readers and read your blog or website on a daily basis, so RSS I think is very important when valuing a blog.

Has blogging replaced the Vonage check yet?

Ian: Sighs. No – this is kind of funny because I was estimating it would replace my check by the end of this year. Since I had a steady check and a steady income from the internet my goal was to quit at the end of this year after the holidays. But recently I was given a raise and since my goal was to replace my check, my estimation of quitting has increased because my salary has increased dramtically. Damn 9-5!

What Projects are you currently involved in?

Ian: am currently working on 2 projects. I am currently working on a new website for this Christmas season and doing some PPC campaigns with affiliates. So you will see a new website under projects and websites soon.

What would be your advice to new bloggers?

Ian: READ READ READ READ READ READ READ! Whatever you want to do with blogging, read the basics first. If you have the basics you have a great imagination on what you can do. It is really that simple.

When you blog make it personal and do not pretend to know something you don’t. There are a lot of bloggers that do this and it kills the blogosphere. Blogging is a user’s experience, so it may not work for you. Put some personal touch to your blog as well, it is your blog. Do not get stuck into just one topic spread it out a little bit but keep it on the same playing field of your niche.

What would be your advice to new entrepreneurs?

Ian: Same as bloggers, READ READ READ READ READ READ! Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. If you can not figure how to turn on a stove, you can not be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs rely on failing most of the time. They want to take their ideas and put it in a position where it may fail and challenge that situation. An entrepreneur’s worst nightmare is not being a failure. If there is no failure, that means we have reached the end of success.

One last question, what would you like to be known as first - Blogger or an Entrepreneur?

Ian: Entrepreneur, since I have many ideas which I want to put in production. I think of a situation and usually research a lot about it until it has met my requirements to pursue a challenge. I like problem solving, it keeps me going. When I was web designing I was changing my website layout multiple times because I like the challenge of creating the design, once it was done I was already bored.

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I would like to personally thank Ian for taking the time to answer the questions I emailed for the interview. We all know blogging can be time consuming and Ian certainly has his hands full with other projects. Thanks for your time Ian

As I had written at the beginning of this post, each week one succesful and influential blogger will be interviewed, as long as the blogger responds to my emails ( I have been fortunate to interview couple bloggers already ). I am not sure what day of the week the interviews will be posted ( not very good at predicting and organizing ) but you can stay updated and never miss a post or an interview by clicking here

Tags: Interview //