I am happy to say I did an email interview with Dawud Miracle about his life as a blogger! I hope you enjoy. He’s a newer power blogger but he’s caught the eye of a lot of people and I just had to score an interview with this great up-n-comer!
Name: Dawud Miracle
Age: 35
Places you can spot him: dmiracle.com formerly healthywebdesign.com
Where is your website hosted? dreamhost.com
What blogging program do you use? Wordpress exclusively. I use wordpress for both blog sites, and a ’static’ website CMS. Although, I’m getting my bearings on Type Pad — more so for strategic alliances it looks like I’m forming.
How long have you been blogging? I officially started January 8th, 2007
What inspired you to blog? Lots of things. I spent a good part of the second half of 2006 getting my hands wet in the blogosphere by reading posts, watching feeds, and learning. I feel, though, I hit the ground running for the most part. I wanted a blog mostly for my site to become a hub of conversations. I see a ton of advantages for small business, and service professionals over having a static/brochure site. Traffic generation is a big reason. My traffic has grown over 600% in the 3 months I’ve been blogging. I also see social media, in general, as the way the web is heading. I think the transition will be slow but eventually most sites with have a social media interaction.
Since you’ve been blogging how many websites have you owned? I own three right now. My main site dmiracle.com (formally healthywebdesign.com), a dormant blog everydaysufi.com, (where I jumped into blogging over a year ago but it took too much time away from my work, so I shut it down for awhile. Very likely it will reawaken.) I also own sufirealities.com — A site for selling a prayer manual I made about my own spiritual practices. I’ve sold over 600 copies!
What ad programs do you use on your site? None at this time. My blog isn’t monetized, although with reconstruction that may change in the future.
What is your source of income then from your site? I generally make about 5 figures each month for web & business development, consulting, and educating my small business and service professional clients on using their websites and blogs to help grow their business.
What kind of feedback do you receive from your readers? Everyone seems to love it! They love the design and the layout. I personally would like it to be even simpler.
If your website didn’t have the growth spurt in traffic as you’ve stated would you have continued to blog? Yes. I’m fully committed to blogging because I know in my heart that it works. If I didn’t have success I would do what I do as a coach — I’d evaluate what I could be doing better or more efficiently and make the necessary changes.
What were some things you did to promote your blog? The biggest thing was leaving high quality comments on other blogs. I’ve probably left dozens of post-worth comments on other people’s blogs. That may make a great project, catalog comments that I’ve left and use them to write new posts. / I also get 1/3 of my traffic from Google, which is up 10% from my static site. / For me its about creating a relationship and being a part of a conversation. Thats mostly why my traffic has built up. I’m now just finding the need to branch into social bookmarking, and other avenues for driving more traffic. We’ll see how it goes!
Did you do any off line promotions? None really. Although I do spend time coaching clients on how to refer business to me.
Have you used guest bloggers? Not yet. I think I will though, I just haven’t found the right circumstances yet.
What tips for promotion do you have? One really, find your passion and write about it. Whether your a problogger, business blogger, or blogging about your favorite hobby. People respond to passion. So find it! Get clear where it is and tap it each time you write about it. And watch, when you really find it your traffic, relationships, and comments will go up.
What do you say to bloggers who wish to go pro? Do you recommend it? As a business coach, I would suggest don’t go pro if it’s only to make money. It is unlikely you will do the things you need to do in order to succeed. Instead, find what you love and blog about it. From your love, you can look for ways to earn an income. But if you have a passion for pro-blogging go for it! Do what you love and success will follow.
At the end of the day when you look at what you’ve created what do you think? Personally I am amazed. I’m completely floored at the success of my blog. It’s beyond what I thought. I’m completely blown away by the relationships I’ve already made with some pretty influential bloggers. I did not expect the business opportunities that I’ve found either. But overall, I’m humbled by the fact that everyday people read my blog posts and they take time to comment. That really moves me. Which motivates me to be an even better blogger and writer.
It what ways has your website effected your life? Well, I sit outside Ann Arbor, Michigan USA… How else could I have regular relationships with people from Ireland, France, Australia, Brazil , England, New Zealand, Argentina and all over the states. These aren’t just visitors — These are people I’m getting to know, personally and professionally. Without a website/blog, there is no other way I could this sort of reach. So it’s changing the way I look at people, culture, businesses economics and really the whole world.