Random Thoughts

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Today I have the amazing privilege of interviewing Caroline Middlebrook. If you’ve been around blogging for any length of time, you already know who she is, however for any newbies, check out her blog at Caroline-Middlebrook.com/blog

1. As you’ve discussed on your blog, you were/are a computer programmer. What background and education do you have?

Well I was entirely self-taught up until a few years ago when I decided to make it a bit more official and go to University and get a degree in Computer Science.

2. How did you decide on blogging as a career?

I didn’t decide on blogging as a career :o) I quit my day job because I didn’t want to spend my life working for somebody else. I had originally planned on developing software but decided to start out with some Internet marketing. The blog was only put up to report on my progress with the Internet Marketing projects. Since I first quit things have evolved a little and I have decided not to continue software development for the foreseeable future and the blog has actually started making some money on its own. However, I would never consider myself a blogger as such - that’s just my voice.

3. Your blog is still fairly new and you have quite a following; What do you think is the most important factor in your success?

My honesty. I have blogged every detail of what I have done for better or for worse so the blog is very ‘real’. Other people can see what I’m doing it and replicate it if they choose to. I’m also quite vocal in my opinions about the Internet Marketing industry and I speak my mind on my blog :o)

4. Have you made an mistakes in getting started that if you could, you would go back and do differently?

Hmm that’s an interesting question. For the first few months I tried various things and nothing really worked but to be honest I wouldn’t really change anything because I have learned so much along the way and I feel as though I am really enjoying my work at the moment and I feel very positive about the rest of 2008. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t made the mistakes that I have made so no, I wouldn’t change anything.

5. What are your thoughts on affiliate marketing? Do you do any affiliate marketing and if so, what are your favorite programs?

I’m not much of an affiliate marketer to be honest. The only taste of it that I have is where I have promoted the odd program on my blog and I also promoted my webhost in an ebook that I wrote. That has been quite successful and earned me a few thousand dollars so far which was rather nice.

6. Looking into the future, do you have any quantifiable goals that you would like to accomplish in 2008? (traffic numbers, rss, alexa etc)

I do have goals but I prefer not to discuss them openly. On a more general level obviously I’d like to see my RSS readership continue to grow on a monthly basis and I would also like to be able to successfully launch one or two products. Lastly, I’d really like to be able to set up a niche site that has nothing to do with Internet Marketing and make that profitable.