- Have you ever had a thought about quitting to blog?
- Did you put in more hours of work at the beginning of your blogging career or now?
- What changes do you expect in the blogosphere 5 years and 10 years down the line.
- What do you think about the future of podcasting? Can you give some useful tips for beginners?
- Do you plan to retire? If so, when?
Wow – lots of questions Aziz, this is a nice little interview with a few questions I’ve not been asked before. Ok, let me try answer these quickly in one batch.
1. Have you ever had a thought about quitting blogging?
Yes, many times but usually the thoughts of quitting are fleeting and the result of stressful days. Bloggers can at times be pretty spiteful, uncaring and unkind (sort of like all people) and when you’re on the end of that type of attitude and attack it can be tempting to run away or throw in the towel. However I’m learning to have a thicker skin, to let other people’s snark be their problem not mine and to mind my own business a little more.
2. Did you put in more hours of work at the beginning of your blogging career or now?
I think it’d be pretty similar. The focus has changed though. In the early days it was more focused upon actually blogging. These days I spend a lot of time managing other bloggers, networking, answering emails and working on blog related projects.
3. What changes do you expect in the blogosphere 5 years and 10 years down the line?
I think I’ve previously covered this in a few places – but perhaps you might like to read my previous post on The Future of Blogging? which has a few of my thoughts on the topic to save me rehashing too much here..
4. What do you think about the future of podcasting? Can you give some useful tips for beginners?
I’ve never really gotten into podcasting. Perhaps I’m more of a text based person but I find that listening to people on a podcast (or even in video) takes me a lot longer (it’s hard to scan a podcast) and takes my full attention for longer. I know some people can listen while they do other things but I’m more single focussed.
Having said that I think podcasting will continue to grow. I think video will be bigger though.
My tips for podcasters starting out would be similar to bloggers starting out and include picking a good niche, providing useful and unique content, being yourself, being interactive with listeners and having fun with it.
Perhaps some of my podcasting readers will have a little more to say on this?
5. Do you plan to retire? If so, when?
I can’t ever see myself fully retiring. I think I’ll always work in some way. Whether or not it is in online activities I’m not so sure but at least in the short to medium term I see myself working on blogging and online forms of new media. I have no plans to get out of blogging any time soon.
