image - Mitch Mitchell

Blogging Advice From Expert Blogger Mitch Mitchell (Interview)

November 27, 2011 by 73 Comments

Mitch Mitchell Offers Some Blogging Advice

image - Mitch MitchellMitch Mitchell, of I’m Just Sharing, is a very well respected businessman, consultant and a very experienced blogger. Mitch was kind enough to allow this interview and offer some blogging advice for our readers. I am sure many bloggers will benefit from his advice and replies. Thank you Mitch, let’€™s get started.

Q :I know that writing content comes easy to you so I will go in the other direction. What blogging advice can you give bloggers on holding the reader’€™s interest and determining what types of content, in general, should be edited out and what should be included?

image - Mitch MitchellI think most people should look at writing that might hold a person’s interest in the mode of telling a story. I’ve met very few people who can’t tell a story; sure, I’ve met some who start and then veer off for awhile, but eventually they always come back to the story. We love to be entertained, and someone telling us a good story, hopefully a true story, is always engaging. I will add that even if you know you’re writing for an adult audience that you make sure your language is safe for everyone to read. Too many curse words, too many large words, too many technical terms that people don’t understand and you’ll lose a lot of your audience. One last thing; if you’re writing to educate, don’t skip any parts; that’s always frustrating to the reader when someone assumes that the reader will definitely know the next part.

Q: Along with I’m Just Sharing, you have several successful niche blogs, including SEO Xcellence, Top Finance Blog, The Syracuse Blog and Mitch’s Blog. These are “real” niche blogs, i.e. not AdSense or automated blogs, and they stay updated. What drives you to blog in this fashion and what do you and your readers gain from the effort.

image - Mitch MitchellTwo of those are easy; they’re blogs geared towards my businesses and thus are there to help me show expertise in those areas. The Syracuse blog is a blog about local things that I’ve always wanted to have because, strangely enough, there are a number of people in this area who don’t see just how great a place this is, even as the snow capital of the country. Sure, we have some issues to address here and there, which I’ll touch on, but overall central New York is a great place to be and I like highlighting it. The finance blog is interesting in that I have a lot of people who want to write guest posts for it, and it’s rare that any of those posts would have been something I’d have written, or at least in the fashion they write them. Overall, I have outlets for all the things I want to talk about and, hopefully, I’ll stay with just these 5 blogs, but you never know. For the readers, I figure that they’ll find what they’re looking for and if I have it then they may stay for awhile, in which case the few things I do market on those sites might get a quick look and an occasional purchase as well.

Q: You are a very social person and I know you love interacting on Twitter. What do you see for the future of blogging as it relates to social media? How important is social media for blogging and what blogging advice can you offer bloggers.

image - Mitch MitchellI’ve seen many people writing about the death of blogging. It’s a pretty ridiculous statement because if you look at Twitter and see what people are sharing it’s mainly one of three things: news stories, video links or blogs. Most pictures shared on Twitter are attached to Tumblr accounts, which is a strange type of blog but, in many eyes, counts as a blog. People love information and love to share information, and bloggers that actually seem to have something to say will always find an audience willing to promote them in some way. I think there will be more people blogging and using either video or audio for the purpose as time goes by, but people will continue to share what they like and thus social media will become the most important medium for bloggers in helping to get their contributions out to the masses. My overall advice would be to make sure you make it easy for people to help you get your word out; put in widgets so people can share your content on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and G+ for now, and keep up on the new things that might be coming.

Q: There’s one similarity that I’ve found in most successful people and you are no exception; successful people have a lot going on. I found the same thing when I interviewed Extreme John.

You have many websites, you write for other blogs, you are a consultant, and you’re married with friends. I am dying to know how in the world you manage so many things and keep everything together. I know you stay up late because I can send you an email or tweet at midnight and get a reply in a manner of minutes. How on Earth do you do it?

image - Mitch MitchellI’m nuts! lol Actually, it depends on two things: one, how busy I am and planning my time. If I’m really busy I plan my entire day, including break times, so that I can get to everything I want to get to. When I’m not as busy then I try to get ahead on things such as blog posts, which I can schedule, which in essence is planning ahead for those times when I might get really busy again. There are times when I’ve written posts as far out as 3 weeks on some blogs, which is a great help, and other times when I have to plan the time to make sure I write a post on whichever blog’s turn it is for that date. Of course working from home means that I get to set my hours, and I tend to do my best work later in the evening.

Q: Personality is something you often write about in your blogging, as are the other topics mentioned (you cover a wide range of topics), how much of your personality do you attribute to your blogging success? Are there certain types of personalities that are not suited for blogging therefore more likely to fail? Sorry, a tough question but I can’t think of a better person to ask.

image - Mitch MitchellI like to think I’m engaging and come across as relatively nice. I think that’s important, likeability, even when touching upon tough issues, like my racism article on my business blog recently. That was an honest post of something that happened to me and I tried to tell it not only as my reality but as more of a general human interest story, hoping those that may never encounter something like it would feel it and empathize with me, even if they couldn’t fully understand it. I also try to do that sort of thing when I decide to complain about something. However, I don’t complain all that often and I don’t whine either. I think those that do that, that come across as hating everything or griping about something all the time will lose an audience fast. If you’re railing against the system and have specific points, you might gain readers who agree with your point of view, and they may be loyal. But the majority of people won’t comment on those posts because they’re afraid of either being challenged on their points of view or having someone else seeing them agree with a point of view that might not be “safe”. One last thing; sustainability. If you feel you really don’t have much to say or that blogging is going to be a real challenge, don’t even bother. Few people will follow someone that can’t write an article at least once every couple of weeks. It’s the people who stop by regularly that become your biggest supporters, so treat them like guests in your space and they’ll show you love in many ways.

There you go.

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With:
About Brian D. Hawkins

Blogging superhero by day and internet super villain by night. Blogger, future online millionaire and an all around great guy.

Comments

  1. Mitch Mitchell says
    November 27, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to this interview Brian, and I hope it helps people with some of their blogging questions. Onward and upward! 😎

    Reply
  2. Scott Jones says
    November 27, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Loved that interview. I love the idea of having a story around each post. That’s what I try to do to keep my readers engaged but at the same, I try to keep my post short and concise and sometimes this is not possible with a little story. Also, being a new blogger, I find it hard to manage many sites at the same time.

    Reply
  3. Caleb says
    November 27, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    I’ve known Mitch online for quite a while when ImJustSharing was still young and one thing you can count on is that he will speak his mind and make no apologies for it! Good interview especially the parts where Mitch discusses the things ppl tend to shy away from commenting on 😉

    Reply
  4. Herbert says
    November 28, 2011 at 7:19 am

    Excellent interview Sir Brian. I am also an avid reader of Sir Mitch and his works are all incredible 🙂

    Reply
  5. Mark says
    November 28, 2011 at 5:33 am

    Learned a lot from this problogger. also I am happy to know more about this guy. THanks For interviewing him here.

    Reply
  6. sai krishna says
    November 28, 2011 at 6:24 am

    hah very nice interview hawkins.keep rocking 🙂

    Reply
  7. Olawale Daniel says
    November 28, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    Hi Brian,

    This is a perfect work by you in bringing Mitch here. I will be the next person to feature him on my blog soon, maybe tonight… 🙂

    Reply
  8. Charles says
    November 28, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    I think Mitch makes a good point about story telling and veering off track. I can’t say how many posts I’ve started that have done just that. I love his url, awesome branding.

    Reply
  9. Mitchell Allen says
    November 28, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    Brian, those were some good questions for my buddy, Mitch. Thanks to both of you for eking out a lit bit more about the blogging life.

    I am constantly amazed by Mitch’s prolific writing, especially since he goes deep on a lot of topics. Whatever the future brings, I’m sure Mitch will be writing about it, somewhere!

    Cheers,

    Mitch

    Reply
  10. Jarrod says
    November 29, 2011 at 4:30 am

    Great interview. I also believe that writing a story as part of your post is really essential. It gives a personal touch to your post, makes your readers aware that you’re not spinning your articles and it’s written by a real person.

    Reply
  11. Anonymous (Read Comment Policy) says
    November 29, 2011 at 8:49 am

    I liked this idea. It’s always very interesting to read about people whose blog you visit every day! Thanks a lot for sharing this post

    Reply
  12. KateW81 says
    November 29, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    Learning from the pro is very exciting and interesting. Thanks for the sharing this great interview.

    Reply
  13. Atish says
    November 29, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    great interview here. Its good to meet a great blogger. Thanks for the interview.

    Reply
  14. Matt Kinsella says
    November 29, 2011 at 8:54 pm

    Great interview with loads of great advice. I often worry about my writing style and wonder if it is going to hold the readers attention so it’s great to read these tips and I hope it will help improve my blog.

    Reply
  15. Mark says
    November 30, 2011 at 4:24 am

    Mitch Mitchell is one my inspiration. I am very much fond of him and he really makes blogging fun. I am actually reading his blog daily. Im Just Sharing is the best blog.

    Reply
  16. ioana moise says
    November 30, 2011 at 5:19 am

    a very nice information from Mitch Mitchell and very good interview i am new in blogging don’t know about Mitch Mitchell ,but information is really good which he deliver thanks for that

    Reply
  17. JamesW says
    November 30, 2011 at 9:22 am

    thank you for the interview, It’s always good to know how the big players think and what’s their opinion.

    Reply
  18. Kira says
    November 30, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    Wow thank you for sharing this interview Mitch Mitchell and Brian. I agree with the points being discussed especially the part where telling story is important. I am also getting lost in that part.

    But anyway, I’ve learned a bunch of tips from this post really. So great.

    Reply
  19. Erica says
    December 1, 2011 at 3:22 am

    Yeah great interview! I love Mitch’s site and I’m a regular reader.. Now after this I’ll be hanging here regularly as well! Thanks Brian!

    Reply
  20. Nichole says
    December 1, 2011 at 7:57 am

    Hi Brian,

    I really consider Mitch as one of the successful bloggers in the blogosphere. All I can say that there are still more learnings or advices he can give to us.

    Reply
    • Anonymous (Read Comment Policy) says
      December 2, 2011 at 10:47 am

      Best advice from Mitch Mitchell.I am new in the blogging field and think the info that is posted in this blog is so much effective for blogging career.
      Nice post.Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
  21. tajinder says
    December 2, 2011 at 10:44 am

    WOW!!!
    what a great info that i am in search.I am always in search of Mitch Mitchell’s blogs to get info.
    I learn many things from these blogging advices.
    I have just put my first step in the word of blogging and think Mitch Mitchell advice for blogging might help me.

    Reply
  22. Julie says
    December 4, 2011 at 3:24 am

    Great interview! I have seen Mitch around Twitter and the web. It can be hard juggling many websites, blogs, Web 2.0 content, etc. I know! It can be exhausting and I think staying true to your audience and readers keeps them coming back! A storyteller! 🙂

    Reply
  23. Anonymous (Read Comment Policy) says
    December 5, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    great interview and Thanks for posting it Brian ..its all great advice and valuable tips it would be really helpful to all blog owners and a complete guide to the beginners

    Reply
  24. Rob says
    December 7, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    Thanks for the informative interview, Mitch is an inspiration for sure.

    Reply
  25. Mitch Mitchell says
    December 16, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    I just want to thank everyone for all the nice things I’ve read here. I’m going to continue working hard to earn those nice words and your trust.

    Reply
  26. olivia34newton says
    December 16, 2011 at 6:04 pm

    I really learned a lot from this interview, Mitch Mitchell is the man, truly an inspiration for all his achievements.

    Reply
  27. William Anderson says
    December 16, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    Mitch is genius information is great but if you give info with great example easy to understanding. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  28. Jack says
    December 16, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    Haha, great coincidence. I just found Mitch’s blog (I’m Just Sharing) today (from another blog). Will make sure I check the others 🙂 Interesting interview btw!

    Reply
  29. Terje Sannarnes says
    December 20, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    It is always a big pleasure to get useful advices from such famous and successful people like Mitch Mitchell. Personally, I have managed to gain a lot of benefits for my blogging strategy from reading this interview. Great job.

    Reply
  30. Alden says
    December 21, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Mr. Mitch Mitchell really knows his trade very well.He’s an inspiration for an inspiring blogger like me.

    Reply
    • Brian Hawkins says
      January 1, 2012 at 10:06 pm

      Hi Alden, I’m a little behind on these replies. 😉 Mitch really know his trade all right, and he happens to have a lot of trades. You name it, and this guy knows something about it.

      Reply
  31. Sire says
    January 1, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    The good thing about interviewing Mitch is that he’s never at a loss for words and whenever he has something to say it is always full of useful information.

    Like Mitch I also laugh at the idea that blogs will die. I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

    Great interview guys.

    Reply
    • Brian Hawkins says
      January 1, 2012 at 10:04 pm

      Blogs aren’t going anywhere because we aren’t going anywhere. You are totally right Sire, Mitch always has great information and he’s very generous in sharing it. Thanks for stopping by, I know you and Mitch have been friends for years. 🙂

      Reply
  32. Mitch Mitchell says
    January 1, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Wow, Sire finally showed up; I’ve been validated. 🙂 Heck, he’s part of my inspiration because he had a bunch of blogs first.

    Reply
  33. Margoax says
    January 3, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    I am happy that I have found the post here…Thanks a lot!!

    Reply
  34. Rochelle Harrison says
    April 19, 2012 at 6:10 am

    Thank you so much Mitch for sharing you opinion and knowledge about blogging.

    Reply
  35. Larry Morse says
    June 23, 2012 at 2:51 am

    Yes I would say “Mitch rocks” Very influential and by the way did I say skilled?. Thanks for sharing this interview I have enjoyed reading.

    Reply
  36. Mitch Mitchell says
    June 23, 2012 at 9:54 am

    Once again I thank those of you who have commented more recently on this interview post. By the way, this is another great lesson to learn; do interviews and be interviewed because it can benefit both parties.

    Reply
  37. RobertS says
    July 17, 2012 at 3:53 am

    Mitch’s energy is infectious. I wish I could get just a fraction of his energy and writing prowess, I would without a doubt succeed. You are a great act to follow. Thanks for all you do.

    Reply
  38. Roz Bennetts says
    October 4, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    This is an oldish article but I read it as I’ve been stopping by a lot of Mitch’s blogs lately and getting to know him. Top bloke and everything here is true.

    Reply

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