Interview With Professional Blogger Gayla McCord
Written by George Manty · March 27, 2007
Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gayla McCord, a work at home mom, and professional blogger (she blogs for a living). Gayla currently writes for – owns, and/or maintains 12 blogs, including a Work at Home Mom blog and MomGadget.
I am sure you will enjoy the interview, so without further ado here goes…
Q. Why did you get started blogging?
I originally started blogging for a writing gig I was doing that consisted of writing articles. They introduced me to blogging to keep the articles up that way rather then adding them to their website page by page.
Q. What was the first blog you ever read?
The first blogs I read were political. I started getting into reading them more because of the last election. Before that, I didn’t realize they were quite as popular as they were.
Q. What blogs do you read on a regular basis?
I’ve got several in my Google Reader, but the ones I read most often are those found in the sidebar of MomGadget.com
Q. What are your favorite blogging tools?
I LOVE Qumana. It’s a blog writing tool that allows me to easily post to all my blogs without having to log out, log in, and out again from the various blogs I have.
Q. How much time per day do you spend on blog related activities (blogging, promotion, design)?
I work in my home office from 7:00 AM until 3:30 PM daily. Once I have all my blogs updated, I then venture out to work on social networking, promotion, etc.
Q. You wrote in this post that you made $4602.00 in February from your blogs. You use quite a few different methods to monetize your blog. What is the best form of monetization that you’ve used on your website?
Google Adsense is actually my 4th top money maker. The strongest performance comes from niche products that I promote on niche sites. I believe if you are passionate about a product, believe heavily in it, it shows. People will more likely purchase from an honest product review then they will from a “store front” website.
Q. Which kind of blogs do you think this form of monetization works best for?
Niche Blogs and Niche Products go hand in hand. As an example – if you blog about vacuums, naturally a dyson ad will do quite well.
Q. What is the best way you have found to bring traffic to your blog?
Commenting on other blogs and joining forums that are similar in topic.
Q. You give a lot of good advice on blogging, If you were to write a formula for blogging success, what would it be?
The most simple formula for blogging is simply to be passionate about what you write. Write as if you were never going to get paid for it. Because most likely you won’t for the first six months to a year. And be consistent. Don’t throw in the towel too early. There really is no easy or quick way to make money on the net – contrary to what some ads might say.
Q. One last question, If you weren’t blogging what would you be doing?
Before I began working from home, I was a buyer for a convenience store chain. I loved it and would likely return to that industry. I just love trying products and selling them. It’s in my blood.
That was a very well written article, I wish she went more indepth on her advertising techniques but I have to say she has a lot of good resources on her site I’ve never been there before today.
I was very happy with the interview as well. Her blog does have really good resources.
Glad you liked it,
George
Thanks for that tip about Qumana
Pretty cool to get to know her. Great work George.
Thanks Garry.
1dollar,
I don’t know why I have never mentioned Qumana before. One of my co-workers uses it for his blog and loves it, I have never tried it, but probably should.
I {heart} Gayla – thanks for this interview, George!
Thanks to everyone for visiting my sites from this interview!
Amanda ~ I’m not the best at talking about myself, so if you have any direct questions, feel free to ask them. I’m always willing to answer questions as best I can.
I {heart} Wendy too
I’m telling you, I don’t know when I’ve ever encountered so many upbeat, positive people as I have in the whole blogging community.
George, thanks again for asking me to participate here on Can I Make Big Money Online
You are welcome Gayla. It was my pleasure to interview you.
All the best,
George
I tried quamana i didn’t like it I’ll just stick with logging into all my own sites, one by one
Great article! I’m going to check out some of her ideas… especially the Qumana one!
Bev
Great Interview! You are a wealth of information when it comes to blogging I tell yah! Great stuff!
Thanks Delecia
Great interview George…and Gayla!
Those are the questions I’ve been dying to know too! =)
Keep up the great work. I’ll be back.
Great interview! Gayla’s a fountain of useful information. Every time I read something she’s written, I learn something new.
Hi Gayla! I’ve just been interviewed by George – that’s how I found this interview.
You mentioned promoting niche products and AdSense. What other methods are you using to monetize your blogs? (Perhaps George will be kind enough to refer this question to you.)
Hi Allan ~
The methods I use and find most beneficial are:
Niche Products (I have found that if I use a product, like it enough to develop a loyalty to the product, I can sell it just as well or better then their own sales reps.)
Adsense
Commission Junction
Adbrite
Text Link Ads
Blog Ads
Clickbooth
Amazon
That just about does it