^[2]If you could ask 40 of the top bloggers in the world 25 questions about blogging, what would you ask? Stephane Grenier did just that, interviewing some of the most influential people in the blogosphere today in his book Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets to Creating a High-Profile, High-Traffic, and High-Profit Blog! ^[2] The book is rich with good advice, ideas, knowledge, and wisdom about getting a blog started, what to look out for, what blunders to avoid, and how to take the steps necessary to become a successful blogging superstar yourself.

I liked the approach Stephane took by asking virtually the same questions to every blogger. By asking the same questions, a reader is able to do an “apples to apples” comparison of the answers. That was helpful in my opinion.

Here’s just a few questions he asked:

• What’s your best tip on writing a successful blog post?
• What are your main methods of marketing your blog?
• Which 5 blogs do you regularly read?
• What makes a blog successful to you? Is it traffic, reach, revenue, etc?
• How long does it take to become a successful blogger?
• What’s your best advice in regards to content and writing for bloggers?
• What repels you the most from a blog (animations, in your face advertising, etc)?
• Do you make any direct money from your blog through advertising, product placements, etc?
• What is your best monetization method?
• What’s the most common pitfall new bloggers generally fall into?

I encourage you read the book to see the other questions and read the answers from each of these powerhouse bloggers (listed and linked below). Some of their answers were, well, snarky ^[3], while others were a bit more respectful of the interviewer.

^[4]

Some of the answers were surprising. I was intrigued by how many in this list hold disdain for advertising and then again, by how many make a living with their blog or directly because of it. Several seemed to feel that advertising somehow tainted the blogger. Many were involved in outside consulting activities because of their success in the blogosphere. Blogging gave them an outlet for expressing their ideas and make extra money ^[5] on the side or even establish a full time income.

What was universal was the advice to write often and to insure great content is all you publish. Reader numbers result from great content. Another universal piece of advice was to use a headline that will catch a reader’s eye.

Another (almost) universal tidbit was that no one spent any time of money on marketing. THAT was intriguing and quite the opposite of what I would have expected.

What struck me most, though, was the wide variety of people involved in blogging and the diversity of opinion on how to measure success as a blogger.

But or Don’t Buy?

Overall, I thought it was a very interesting book and well worth the Amazon Price of $16.94 ^[2] if you’re interested in learning from highly successful bloggers without having to make 40 separate contacts.

But why spend the money when you can WIN my copy? Simply email the FREE BOOK CODE at the bottom of my RSS ^[6] feed to thewisdomjournal at gmail dot com and you’ll get your name entered once for a random drawing. For two entries, enter the free book code from my Twitter feed ^[7]!

In case you’re interested, here’s the bloggers he interviewed:
Aaron Wall of SEO Book ^[8] fame
Abdylas Tynyshov ^[9]
Al Carlton of Coolest Gadgets ^[10]
Alex Papadimoulis of The Daily WTF ^[11]
Andy Brice of Successful Software ^[12]
Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends ^[13]
Asha Dornfest of Parent Hacks ^[14]
Ben Casnocha of My Startup Life ^[15]
Benjamin Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog ^[16]
Bob Walsh of 47 Hats ^[17]
Dan Lyons of The Secret Diaries of Steve Jobs ^[18]
Dane Carlson of Business Opportunities Weblog ^[19]
David Armano of Logic + Emotion ^[20]
David Seah ^[21]
Derek Semmler ^[22]
Dharmesh Shaw of On Startups ^[23]
Eric Sink ^[24]
Ian Landsman of Userscape
James and Alex of Google Sightseeing ^[25]
J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly ^[26]
Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror ^[27]
Jeff Clavier’s Software Only ^[28]
Jennette Fulda of Half of Me ^[29]
Jennifer Perry of 101 Reasons I Hate Being Fat ^[30]
Jessamyn West of Librarian.net ^[31]
Joel Cheesman of Cheezhead ^[32]
Jonathon Snook of Snook.ca
Manolo of Manolo’s Shoe Blog ^[33]
Neil Patel of Quick Sprout ^[34]
Pamela Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation ^[35]
Patrick McKEnzie of MicroISV on a Shoestring ^[36]
Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist
Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach Your To Be Rich ^[37]
Rob Walling of Software By Rob
Rohit Bhargava of Influential Marketing Blog ^[38]
Seth Godin ^[39]
Stephane Granier (yes, the book’s author interviewed himself! – hey, why not?) Follow Steph ^[40]
Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion
Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar
Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey ^[41]

There were a LOT of software/computer related bloggers included in this book. Notably absent from the list:

Brian Clark of Copyblogger ^[42]
Darren Rouse of ProBlogger ^[43]
John Chow ^[44]
Steve Pavlina

I suppose it would be impossible to include (or even get) an interview with every influential blogger, so leaving someone out was to be expected. Perhaps a Blog Blazers Part 2 could come out in the future?

[tags]blog, Blog Blazers, ProBlogger, Copyblogger, book, book review, technorati[/tags]

About the author

Ron has written 1082 articles on The Wisdom Journal.

The founder and editor of The Wisdom Journal ^[45] in 2007, Ron has worked in banking, distribution, retail, and upper management for companies ranging in size from small startups to multi-billion dollar corporations. He graduated Suma Cum Laude from a top MBA program and currently is a partner in a national building materials company.

If you enjoyed what you just read and would like to get FREE email updates with the freshest articles from The Wisdom Journal ^[45] delivered right to your inbox, subscribe today ^[46]! It's ridiculously easy and you can unsubscribe at any time. Since your email address is never sold or abused, you can subscribe with confidence, PLUS you'll get free reports/guides/eBooks, subscriber only benefits, and other perks.

• Blog ^[45]
• Twitter ^[47]
• Facebook ^[48]

_{»crosslinked« ^[49]}