This is the new edition of powerful, successful and inspirational interviews in the series of Journey of a Professional Blogger, interviews on EASKME.com.
Today we are going to publish interview with a professional Blogger, Interview with Buzz Tatom Montana Ranches.
Other people are reading : The Process of Personal Branding
Q : Please share about yourself and your story to enter in blogging?
Ans : I started blogging for The Odee Company which was a printing company I owned for 24 years. I got into blogging as a way to drive traffic to the site. I grew that business from $1 million to $10 million in sales by the time I sold it. I retired to Montana and grew bored in 6 months. Started teaching marketing at Montana State University. Helped my wife start an interior design business in Big Sky, MT and grew it from 0 to $2 million in sales this year through blogging and other marketing. I have just taken a Partnership in a Farm and Ranch Real Estate brokerage firm. My job was to launch the website( Venture West Ranches) and get it ranking. It went live in September and we are well on our way to first page status. I have been hired to take it from a small Montana Ranch Brokerage to a mid tier Regional Farm and Ranch brokerage firm. I hold a BBA from Texas Tech University and an MBA Southern Methodist University. I have found blogging to be a very good way to build traffic and brand for a business. Between keyword research, linking and blogging a website can become a very powerful tool in building a business and creating wealth.
Q. How the idea to make your own blog came in your mind? How you found the right people to develop it and what big obstacles you faced?
Ans. I started reading about internet marketing and keywords before it was really cool. My printing business needed a bigger presence in a very large regional market(Dallas). I was able to start and build the blog to where it had several thousand daily visitors and I became an authority in answering printing questions on the net.
The blog was done myself. At that time, you could rank with short blog posts and I would do @ 3/week around printing information. Very few blogs used pictures at that point but I would link to Youtube videos showing howtos and explaining the printing processes. Some of my printing videos are still up and have tens of thousands of views.
Time was a major obstacle considering I had 50 employees and was still churning out 3 blog posts a week. It helped that they were short posts but I had to be very efficient. I would spend Fridays after most of my employees left, brainstorming ideas. After the brainstorming, I would target having rough drafts over the weekend that I would edit and publish through the week. There were many doubts early on, on what I was doing and whether it would pay off.
Q. Can blogging really change someone`s life?
Ans: I tell my students that there is no time in the history of the world that someone can compete with multinational corporations and large marketing budgets like today. The internet and blogging has leveled the playing field for marketing to niche markets profitably for anyone that is willing to put in the work and effort to learn the SEO business.
Blogging was a big part of allowing me to retire at 48. It gave me customers that I would have never met in markets that I never even knew existed or were in their infancy and growing fast. Blogging is a wealth building tool. It is not overnight but if you are willing to work it can change your business and your life.
Q. What are your favorite internet marketing tools?
Ans. I love Long Tail Pro's keyword research. I have been using it for @ 1 year and it has paid for itself many times over. I also like Open Link Profiler. It is a very good all around tool to help you build links, pick keywords and see how competitors are ranking
Q. What is your daily schedule? and how do you maintain your tasks?
Ans: I get up early and get into the office a couple of hours before anyone else. I allow myself one day to come up with blog post ideas. The other 5-6 days then go into research, picture acquisition, writing, editing and posting. I usually will pick one day for link building. Once people show up in the office I do my normal day job of finding farms and ranches for clients.
Q. Blogging have different definition for different person. What is it for you?
Ans: Blogging is finding interesting content that is related around your keywords and sites. For instance, I am writing a series about Montana wildlife that are found on ranches here in our very wild state. I have enjoyed it and it brings real interesting stories to readers of my blog. That eventually leads to traffic and notoriety for my site and customers to Venture West Ranches. This allows us to spread into other states and give more people opportunities to change their lives and their clients lives. All of this above starts with the blog. The right choice of keywords and putting ideas out there that you think might be interesting to someone. That to me is blogging.
Q. Which are your favorite blogs?
Ans: I like Hi Sugarplum just because I know the story behind the woman and she went from being laid off to having a very successful career blogging. I like Peak Prosperity because I think like him and respect his opinion and what he is trying to do and I have about 10 SEO blogs I subscribe to which if I had to pick one it would be webris.org. I enjoy all of the blogs just due to new angles on the art of SEO.
Q. How much time do you spend on social media promotion and SEO of your blog?
Ans. I spend about 5 hours a week on Social Media. Yes not enough but still kind of getting rolling on that. Considering the number of jobs I have at the moment I deemed SEO of the blog and webpage to be the chicken before the egg, so to speak. I spend @ 15-20 hours on the SEO.
Q. How much time do you spend for blogging daily?
Ans. As we discussed before I have my day of planning the week's blog posts. I then do research fro the articles and then the writing of the posts. Overall, I spend about three hours per day on average approximately six days a week. My goal is to get three blog posts done every week.
Q. Message for Readers?
Ans. As I tell my students there has bnever been a time in the history of the world where a David can take on a Goliath and win. It takes effort, determination and countless hours learning how to blog, SEO and link build but it can change your life and your business. I have done it three times now.
Q. What do you like about eAskme and how it can be more helpful for readers?
Ans. I like the different topics and angles you take. There is always fresh content with fresh stories that are interesting. I don't read any of the posts that I don't walk away with something new to try, new angle or new insight and many times it is a reminder of something that I have forgotten or maybe got lazy on.
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