Mike Dammann: Darren, thank you for your time to grant me this interview.

Darren Rowse: You’re welcome Mike – always a pleasure to be invited to a ‘Blog Party’

I’m not sure when exactly I’ve started noticing ProBlogger, but I recall about 6 months ago seeing your site all over the place and being referred to everywhere.

Did you anticipate such a success or did it just happen?

ProBlogger.net is a blog that has emerged over time. It’s been referred to as some as an overnight success but the reality is that I’ll have been blogging on it for two years this September.

When I started it I didn’t expect that it would ever be the most visited blog going around (and it isn’t) but I knew it was a topic that would have an increase in the amount of people wanting to explore it so I was quietly confident that it would be a worthwhile venture.

How did you get started? Was it something you’ve planned or simply sharing aspects of blogging you yourself are interested in?

I had previously been blogging about blogging on my personal blog off and on for a year or more. On that blog I’d been documenting my own discoveries about making money from blogging but it got to a point where that topic began to dominate the blog a little too much. I also didn’t see the sense in continuing to blog there on the topic on a domain that just wasn’t aligned with the topic.

The idea for ‘problogger’ as a name just hit me one day as I realized that that is what I’d become (or was becoming) in terms of where my primary source of income was.

I didn’t plan it out in great detail but just started ProBlogger with the goal of sharing what I know about blogging and making money. There was no goal for it to become anything other than that in those early days.

Where do you see blogging headed? Where do you see yourself headed? How do you believe the internet and the way people surf/search is going to alter over the next 5-10 years?

Blogging is a slippery thing to define or predict as it’s something that is still growing and always changing. Obviously more and more people are getting into it with commercial aspirations so ProBlogging is becoming quite competitive. We’re also seeing a lot of self organization going on (blog networks etc) and a whole industry of tools, services and associated products rising up. Along side blogging is an increasing focus on other technologies (podcasting, vidcasting, web 2.0 services) which all seem to be feeding off one another and converging. I suspect this will continue to happen.

Where am I headed? I’ve been slowly putting more time and energy into b5media (the blog network that I co-own). We’re only 8 or so months old and are in a stage of consolidating what we’ve done and taking a step up to the next level. This will continue to be a larger part of my own focus in the coming 12 months.

Do you read blogs like Shoemoney and Jensense dealing with more ways to generate income? I’ve also noticed you spending some time discussing Search Engine Optimization. Are you yourself studying the search engines and experimenting with new ways bloggers can generate revenue from their weblog?

I read hundreds of blogs each day including those two blogs. I try to keep my head around as many developments on the topic of making money online as I can (both inside and outside of blogging). I try to blog in a holistic way which means being aware of SEO as you suggest but which also looks at other ways of generating traffic, blog design, writing quality content, using blog tools effectively etc. As a result I keep an eye on a lot of threads of conversations and topics and don’t just focus on any one of them.

Tell us something to get to know the man behind the ProBlogger phenomenon a little bit better. What advice do you have to those who want to start a blog, but are unsure about how to go about it? What impact on the world would you like to leave behind?

I’m just a normal guy. If anything I’m a little shy. I enjoy being entrepreneurial, I’m interested in spirituality (I’m a voluntary minister in my ‘spare time’), I love photography, I enjoy interacting with people.

My advice to new bloggers is simply to start one and see whether blogging fits with you, your personality and your lifestyle. It’s not for everyone but the only way to find out is to do it and let it evolve from there. Be yourself, interact with the readers who come visiting, interact with other blogs and bloggers and write about what you love. It’s not rocket science. I’ve written an extensive series on blogging for beginners here

Thank you, Darren.

No Problem.