Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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The Ageless Project: David Wilkinson

Filed Under Guest Writer, Interviews, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

the ageless project


A Problogger in His Teens

by Keith Dsouza

Did you think that age could deter you from blogging? Did you think that a 13 year old only can accomplish things in school?

Well lets break the myth today. Blogging is ageless.

David Wilkinson has shattered any idea that blogging is restricted by age. . . .

David Wilkinson, a 13-year-old blogger from Manchester, England, was born on February 15th, 1994. He has been actively blogging since the age of 12. In that short time, David has become a full-time Problogger and Internet Professional without affecting his studies. He is also the CEO and founder of Zi Media.

David also likes to play golf in his spare time or hooks on with his Xbox 360 or his gaming PC. He also has an interest in Photography but meekly says that he is not a expert at that yet.

Vital Stats

Name: David Wilkinson
URL: http://www.tech-zi.net
Birthdate: 15th February 1994
Birthplace: Manchester, England – UK
Current Location: Manchester, England - UK

What David Blogs About

David writes at Techzi.net and also owns Affiliate Defined. David writes about technology and has quite an engaging way of doing it. He mixes humor with his writings that many of regular readers have come to appreciate.

Reading through his blog, I was surprised at how easily a reader could digest the information he provides and laugh while doing it.

David’s categories include Internet, Gaming, Gadgets, Web2.0 and many more.

Getting Candid With David

Here are a few questions we asked David and what he had to say. .

Successful Blog (SB): How old were you when you came across blogging?
David Wilkinson (DW): I started blogging in July 2006 which would have made me 12. Admittedly, it was complete fluke that I ran across blogging at all and I have a spammy AdSense arbitrage website to thank, ironically enough.

SB: How did the interest generate within you, knowing that you are of such a tender age?
DW: I’ve always been an entrepreneur - trying to sell things to my friends and try out new methods of work. I’ve also always showed a natural interest and a burning curiositry for anything out-of-the-ordinary, or even slightly different. Blogging presented itself to me in a strange way (see above), but I don’t regret it for a second.

SB: Did something influence you to take up blogging?
DW: I’d always had a passion for writing and like to have my views known. I knew XHTML and a bit of CSS and with the help of Blogger managed to get a site running pretty quickly. I soon picked up on sites like Engadget and Gizmodo, along with the other “usual” technology blogs you’ll run across who dictated the direction my writing took. My style, being arguably different from the masses - aimed to please and not just inform and reading my blogs for the first time, alot of people won’t pick up on the underlying humor and jokes that long-term reads will. I guess my biggest influence however was the relationship I had with my readers, and for that - I thank them.

SB: What are your most memorable experiences when you started blogging?
DW: Ha! One stands out particularly strongly, as it happens and it was perhaps one of my first ever backlinks I was to receive. I’d reviewed NABAZTAG, a French Wi-Fi Rabbit-turn-evil-villain-turn-RSS-reader-turn-alarm-clock and the makers had picked up on the article and linked to it. Being new to the whole concept of blogging, I went off and wrote three or four posts ranting on my blog about how “famous the blog was”. Oh boy - I had a long way to go… ;)

SB: Do you think blogging is ageless? If not a ProBlogger, would you have still chosen to blog regularly at your age?DW: Ageless? Certainly. If not a ProBlogger would I have chosen to blog? Bear in mind, when I started to blog, I *wasn’t* a ProBlogger. I was just your average geeky kid (which I’m proud to say I still am). Today, I’m not sure I *would* class myself as a ProBlogger. Six months ago, maybe, but my focuses and earnings have shifted from one place to another and today my main focus is affiliate marketing. Despite this, I have to admit that the blogosphere is one of the safest and most fun environments online with such a community element to it that it’s hard not to grin broadly at the random adventures of Timmy the cat and Darren Rowse’s next big thing.

SB: Could you give us some quotes on how blogging can be an ageless experience.
DW: It’s nothing like a 9-5 job. There’s nothing stopping you from doing your schoolwork AND blogging. I guess it’s flexible “working” hours, to be honest. There’s nobody to tell me off (besides my blog readers) or whine at me for not writing (besides my blog readers) or dock my pay if I turn up for “work” late (besides my advertisers). ;) Hehe… At the end of the day though, it’s one of them things that ANYBODY can do with a keyboard and a mouse. You don’t need to be 18. You don’t have to be younger than 60. You don’t have to have an IQ of ten-thousand and one. You don’t even have to write well so long as you have an interesting story to tell. A breath of fresh air in a controlled world.

Thanks, David. We couldn’t agree more.

Be ageless and let the world know. Great thoughts come from every age and all over the planet.
–ME “Liz” Strauss and Keith Dsouza
Work with Liz!!

10 Bloggo-Fears That Go Bump in the Night and How to Make Them Worse

Filed Under Basics, Successful Blog, ZZZ-FUN | 43 Comments

Blogger Nightmare

help me

It’s the middle of the night. The wind is blowing. The moon is high. Creaking noises are sounding. Memories of comments are running through your head, and you’re thinking of emails you sent that went unanswered.

You had such hope when you started blogging. It was daytime. You were always laughing then. Now you’re just shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. Your bloggo-fears have taken over with the things that go bump in the night.

Not to worry. Wait, sorry. Indeed with just a little more worry, you have the power to take those concerns beyond the blogosphere. Go for it. . . . become a mess on the floor.

The Top 10 Bloggo-Fears and How to Make Them Worse

As you read, remember, the more you buy into these the better at crippling yourself you will be. Here’s your chance to prove you’re good at something besides misspelling words and looking like a fool.

If you’re faint of heart, read no further. Jumping without a parachute and shooting yourself in the foot requires a certain sort of dedication to being a . . . hopeless blogger.

On this deep, dark, dastardly night, you no longer have to be a shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. You can be crippled and hopeless blogger too — melted down into unrecoverable mess. Follow this Top Ten List, and you’ll show the world what fear is really for.

On the other hand, if you would rather get out of your funk and come back to us. . . .

Definitely, positively, and for sure, surround yourself with positive people, because positive people make positive thing happen. And frankly it’s looking like you could use a few Here are a few blogs you might check out.

Think Positive Blog

orbitnow!

Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak

The Chief Happiness Officer

Positive Communication

This post was part of the b5media business channel theme on fear. If you enjoyed it, would you give it stumble? Thanks!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Other b5 business bloggers talk about fear.

FEAR in Home Business - Find Every Available Resource
Investing Fear Factor: Know Your Risk Tolerance
Fear and Social Media
Freelance Writers and the Fear of Success and/or Money
FEAR and RISK - You don’t know what you don’t know.
Fear And Trembling
Symptoms of productivity phobia
Fear? Think This Is A Stretch Do You?
The four letter word that keeps us from success
Fearing the Taxman: When Not To Be Scared

More fun:
Desperado: The 7 Payoffs of Making Your Blogging Relationships Suck
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesn’t Use Search
Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

Blogging Lessons I Learned in Dancing School

Filed Under Customer Think | 24 Comments

One-and-a-Two

ballerina bag via morguefile.com

I learned these lessons about blogging in dancing school, when I was a wee thing.

  1. Looking in the mirror can be distracting.

  2. When I try to be someone else, I’m not graceful.

  3. Expression isn’t much, if I don’t know what I’m doing.

  4. Stuff that looks easy sure takes practice to do well.

  5. Smile.

My dance teacher was brilliant.

The World Wide Web didn’t even exist then.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Mystery Reading 10-27-06

Filed Under Basics, Great Finds, Successful Blog, ZZZ-FUN | 11 Comments

Click the pulled quote.

NIL Can This Blog Be Saved

Were you listening?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

The Blogging Goals Project

Filed Under Basics, Branding, Marketing, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 6 Comments

The Writing Project

Darren Rowse suggested a Group Writing Project in which participants considerted and shared their writing goals. I thought is was a worthwhile and timely event. So I did my part, My Father’s Saloon — a Blogging Story, about the place I want blogging to hold in my life. Other folks took other routes. All together there were 130 posts written, if I counted right.

Here are the highlights, most from folks we know. Stop by a few; have a read; leave a kind comment, if you time. I’m sure that everyone would appreciate hearing from you.

Inquisitive minds wanted to know.

James Martin starts everyone out with the crucial question. Why Do Blogs Exist? Meanwhile Yehuda is working on his own question — How I plan to take over the world. While Melly asks Is it True I should have Blog Goals?

Analytical ones were quite focused.

Ann Michael took a Sanity Check! Hock Ng considered Being a Purple Cow. Trisha discussed Blogs, my Goals and Everything. Rod at Wintermute added perspective in Blogging for Myself. Sheila Scarborough was quite clear. She said to Prevent a Midlife Crisis - Blog!

Manly men took up the challenge.

Easton Ellsworth put a prize possession on the line. If I Don’t Keep This Blogging Goal, You Can Have my PEZ Dispenser. Ben Yoskovitz vowed to Get Rich or Die Trying (OK not really, but it sounds cool, No?) Jack, on the other hand, took the opposite approach. 365 days left to kill this blog - this is what I call a killer Blog Goal.

Rugged individuals did their thing.

KimBahLee says Blog less. Kristonia Ink! speakth the 11 Commandments of blogging in the Blog Bible. jason Boog confesses in the latest blockbuster film, “Jason Boog Always Screws Up His Goals.”

In the end it all comes down to a small list of priorities. Mayvelous has hers down in
The Great Determinations of Mayvelous.

Why Do This?

Group projects like this worth are always worth considering. If you have the time to participate — they are often a win-win-win for a small investment. Knowledge shared here is wide and varied, highly useful and fun. Links made here strengthen the web-like connections of the Internet. Connections shared by us — folks in the middle are sharing these links, not A-Listers.

Collaborations like these are also great promotion for every blog involved. It’s branding, letting people know you exist, who you are. Relationships start. New discoveries are made. It’s participating becoming part of the conversation. Imagine commenting on that many blogs in just a few seconds. The impact is exponential and lasts a long as any blog reader who reads your blog, any blog writer that links to yours.

The best part is I’ve already discovered new blogs and new bloggers I really like. Nothing can top that as a reason to participate. This is one more way to be part of the conversation.

How might you carry this home to your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
See the NEW BLOGGER PAGE, if you’re looking for serious.
See the category ZZZ-FUN if you’re not.

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