Marsha Ingrao – Always Write

Interview with Janice Wald

Go behind the scenes with Problogger from Mostly Blogging, Janice Wald as she shares some of her successes and failures breaking into the blogging market.

Welcome to Always Write

a blog for newbies and fun bloggers, writers, and photographers

I’m your hostess, Marsha Ingrao.

Today I’d like to introduce Janice Wald. Her name is not Patrick, but she is a problogger and teacher.

Hello Janice, welcome. Would you like some coffee as we begin? I just happen to have some fresh iced coffee. My husband makes the very best combination of coffee. I add the ice. There, I’ll try not to spill!

I found your blog this month as I’ve read new blogs recommended by friends and friends of friends. You’ve had a lot of success as a blogger at Mostly Blogging.  

What is the one thing that has contributed to your success as a blogger?

Without a doubt, networking has contributed to my success. According to blogging influencer Daniela Uslan, my superpower is networking. I feel that you shouldn’t expect people to come visit your blog after you press PUBLISH. You need to do the work. If you don’t engage with your readers and expand your audience, it’ll be a waste–of your time, your talent and your words. So share, connect, and talk to your readers.

One of the things that has made a huge difference for my blog has been doing blogger outreach. This includes taking the time to read, comment and share other bloggers’ posts. Not only does it help build relationships with other bloggers, but It actually helps to bring traffic to my site as well. If new visitors to my site click “like” or make comments, I visit their blogs and make thoughtful comments about their posts. I also find new bloggers to network with at blogging events such as Meet and Greets.

I do that too, but I get overwhelmed with the sheer number of blogs, then I end up just reading one post when each person on my email list may have written five posts that I’ve missed. I read that one of your friends spends 2 hours every day reading blogs. That’s a huge expense of time if someone is a problogger part-time and working full-time like you are. 

How do you balance blogging and your personal life? 

In the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer created a character named Edward Cullen. Because he wasn’t human, he didn’t need sleep. During the time that people slept, he learned to be proficient at many skills.

Janice, we can see that you have developed many skills. So are you saying that the answer is not sleeping? Yikes! Maybe you are superhuman like your blogger friend said about you.

It is hard to settle on a schedule that works with life, Marsha. I wrote this post How to Blog and Easily Have Time to Sleep. In that post, I suggested a blogging schedule that works for me.

I have since changed my schedule. If you agree with my reader that  busy bloggers need to be superhuman, the proposed blogging schedules in this post may be just what you need.

Ralph, a friend of mine also wrote about his schedule in a post, How to Blog and Still Live a Quality Life, that your readers might enjoy. Let me just quote a bit of that post that your readers will enjoy.

 I was keen as mustard when I began blogging over 3 years ago. I would Follow everyone who looked my way. A jellyfish using a jack hammer would get a Follow. I had 3 blogs, FB with a messenger, G+, normal emails, drafting new posts, visiting other blogs and Satan’s spellbook (the WordPress.Com Dashboard) to contend with.

 PLUS I was spammed rotten, 100 comments an hour for a few days until I found what I thought was a topical Mystery Man comment that I had approved in the middle of 8000 comments. Deleted, the spam went. I almost threw my laptop over the balcony.

Over time I reduced my blogs to one, exporting posts I wanted to keep into http://bluefishway.com/.

Emails! Ha! There was only one thing to do. Go into Blogs I Follow and reduce them from 200+ to 50. Mainly friends and quality are left. I will never Follow blogs that reblog, single photos, haiku (can’t undersand it), multi-posts per day / week.

– Ralph Whillier

It thrilled me to read Ralph’s article. He is My Favorite Ralph (MFR). You and I have lived in Ralph’s community together, and I did not even know it! Ralph has some great ideas there. He’s always telling me to slow down. But I can’t hold a candle to you!

But back to time management, so basically, you are recommending keeping to a schedule? I’m really curious about your Friday when you “promote my MostlyBlogging subcommunities on Twitter,” but that sounds like another entire post. Let’s move on to my last question for today. 

If your blogging career ended today, what legacy would you leave behind?

I expected a rush when I was proud of my writing and fulfillment from expressing my analysis to the blogging community.  In addition to getting all I expected, I found a niche, a community of bloggers who share my passion for writing.

I hope that answered your question.

Yes, I think your answer tells us more about the legacy blogging has left on you. In so doing, your blogging has left a mark in many hearts. We try to measure every bit of success in education, but I do not think we can measure the success of a blog adequately because it sprawls all over our lives and into the lives of others. 

It networks us, to go back to your first answer. 

Janice, thank you so much for being with me and my readers today. It’s been an honor to talk with a problogger that has raced to the top, like you have. A special shout out to Ralph, and thanks for his post as well.

I hope you will be back as a guest post or another interview.