Interview with Jeremy Day of Insightwriter.com

Interview with blogger Jeremy Day

This is the interview, that I've been waiting to publish for weeks. I am pleased to announce the special guest interview with top blogger Jeremy Day of Insightwriter.com. When I need some advice this is one of the top blogs I visit for personal development and life skills.

Please introduce yourself to our readers. How long you been blogging? Your hopes and dreams? Where you’re from?

Well I have been blogging for about four years now. I originally started out with blogger just doing more personal blogging for family and friends. In October 2008 I bought a domain name and started writing for everyone who would benefit from it. My hope, at least with my writing, is to use this blog to reach out to an ever expanding audience to help inspire them to greatness I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA and currently live in Denver, CO. USA.

You’ve been blogging since 2004, what inspired you to get into blogging?

A friend of mine is a sys admin who keeps up with all the latest technology and trends and informed me about it. Blogging has been around for a long time. A few bloggers can say they have been blogging since the 90's but Blogger made it big in this decade. Wordpress, Typepad, and everyone else made it even bigger. I say all that to say that I have been keeping a journal for a long time and I love writing. There are many benefits to writing, but the biggest one for me is that it gives me the ability to see my thoughts outside of my mind.

This allows me to process things better and it helps enhance my clarity on a lot of issues. Writing shouldn't be underestimated. In the end, I figured if I could gain clarity and understanding through reading my writing, maybe some other people could benefit from those insights too. Thus, Insight Writer was born...

What is the most important thing you have learnt about blogging and how has it shaped you as a blogger?

The last one was long. Ill keep this short. Blogging is about community. Communities benefit the individuals in them. I have learned to create an environment where community matters and I direct my efforts to that end. If you are writing to benefit your community you will do just fine.

What is your favourite method of generating traffic and why?

Stumble Upon. Again, its a great community. Its easy to find like minded people. And its organic. With a few tips and strategies any blogger who makes friends on Stumble Upon will eventually find a lot of traffic coming to them. I think the same can be said for any community. Don't underestimate the power of forums either.

I’ve noticed that you’ve created a blog carnival called: “carnival of personal development”, how is that going? Does a blog carnival provide you with some great content, if so how much? Plus is it a good method of traffic generation?

Ahhh, carnivals... I have real mixed feelings here. My carnival is going great. We get upwards of 100 submissions every week. There is a lot of great content in there. And it does provide decent traffic for what its worth.

The key about carnivals is they are useful for building links. One at a time. This is a slow way to do things, but it works. Many people will post the same article to many carnivals just to get the maximum amount of links they can. I think this backfires in the end though because usually the links aren't worth much.

I consider the Carnival of Personal Finance to be the best carnival that I have seen yet. Why? Because once again it resembles real community. Its main advantage is that is operates outside of blogcarnival.com They have there own website and it is pretty established. Articles are scrutinized for quality and only a few make it to the carnival.

As for my carnival, at least 20 or 30 of the submissions are uncategorized or they submit more than one article. The worst part is that I make this very clear in the directions and people still do it. I tell all my hosts to delete those ones.

Through all my frustrations I am considering shutting down the carnival. I'm a "go big or go home" kind of guy and this middle ground is killing me. While the carnival benefits a lot of people it is not what I had hoped it would be. It needs to be separate from blog carnival, its needs it own website, and it needs more work. All things Im not ready to do quite yet.

Out of the roles associated with blogging such as: writing, networking, social media, traffic generation, link building etc, what is your favourite role in blogging and why?

Wow, good question. And a tough one. Although writing is high up there I have to say networking and social media. Those go together because I see them as being the same thing. Some might disagree but they are. I have met some great people online and that makes networking my favorite thing about blogging.

What is a typical blogging day for you like? Are you full-time or part time?

Certainly part-time. When I am in blogging mode I have at least 5-10 tabs open on my browser and I am speed reading like you wouldn't believe. When I am writing I usually just go with the flow and an article appears. I do an edit and then I post. I must say that time management is huge in blogging, and if you haven't learned it elsewhere you should certainly learn it here.

Where do you see yourself in 12 months time and in 5 years time? Do you have any dreams for Insightwriter.com, perhaps turning the blog into a full time business?

These multi-part questions are going to make me write a novel! First let me say that I have no plans for blogging being a full time business. The thought has crossed my mind but as I read stories of bloggers who moved into full time blogging I realized it was an unrealistic goal.

Most current full time bloggers didn't even know they could do it. They ended up there one day and realized that they could do this full time so they did. I can guarantee you they had no such expectations when they started out. And remember that many "fulltime" bloggers have other sources of income.

As for the future, it is uncertain for me. I am trying my best to live in the present. I am doing this now because most of my life I have been a forward looking person. In 5 years my only hope is that I will be married and possibly have my first child be on the way.

If you could start blogging from day one again, bearing in mind all the skills you’ve gained over the past 4 years. What would you have done differently?

Honestly nothing. Blogging is still a great big learning experiment and you should treat it as such. There is always more to learn because blogging is many subjects converging into one. Subjects such as your niche knowledge, Internet knowledge, marketing knowledge, psychology, social media, programming, SEO, and everything else you can think of. It really never ends. I will say this. I wish I had started this in college when I had more time. It hurts to know that I can't commit more time than this, but it is what it is. And I enjoy it for that.

You do cover some useful topics on personal development, personal finance and personal health. Have you ever attended seminars and given any speeches or attended any conventions to address your ideas before?  Do you provide consultancy in your area on these topics?

I've been to quite a few seminars conventions, and conferences, but I have never really given a speech or done consulting work on those subjects. It is coming down the road though. I can guarantee it. I have a passion for seeing kids do well and I love to inspire them in any way I can. My first goal is to speak in schools to kids and things will branch out from there. I am concentrating on some other things right now, but this whole process will start in the next 2 years. I am excited for that!

Thank you again for the opportunity to talk a bit more about blogging and Insight Writer. You ask great questions James! I look forward to the comments!

Thank you Jeremy for your time. This is one of the best interviews we've had on the atmmultimedia blog. Jeremy Day is the top blogger from InsightWriter.com. His blog covers information on: personal finance, self-improvement, blogging and life skills.