Meeting Peter Chen, Blogger
Once in a while I surf the Google nav bar to see who’s there. It’s a fun way to do some random exploring and sometimes I land on a jewel as I did when I found the blog of a man named Peter Chen. What caught my eye about this blog, Blogger for Dummies, (now called Blogger Help) was that it had screenshots that were described and labeled with meticulous detail.
Little did I know that this was one of several blogs that Mr. Chen has on two of which are dedicated to Blogger. This blog alone led me to want to interview the man.
Interview with Peter Chen
His Blogs:
Blogger for Dummies aka Blogger Help,
Blogger Tips and Tricks,
Enviroman Says, and
Food as medicine.
Liz notes: Peter has so many blogs. I went straight to the interview.
Peter, What led you to make your blog?
I am retired and have plenty of free time. I need some activities to fill up the free time.
I notice that you haven’t updated one blog since April 23rd. Why is that?
You must be refering to Blogger for Dummies. Someone told me of possible interference from Wiley Publications because of the “for Dummies” in the title. Rather than building up the content of the blog, and then having face the decision whether to take them down later, I decided to start a new blog at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com. There is still sizable, useful content at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com plus significant inbound links, so I am leaving it as it is and will be making an announcement of the shift on the blog later.
What are your blogs and what are they about?
These are my blogs:
Blogger Help at http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com
A resource for those using the very popular Blogger blogging service. Although meant for Blogger, many of the tips are also relevant for those using other blogging services.Blogger Tips and Tricks at http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com
This is the replacement for http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com . It will eventually will be my main blog.
Enviroman Says at http://enviromansays.blogspot.com
An environmental blog. That blog was set up specifically for a cartoon character Enviroman and an artist friend was supposed to help out with it. That didn’t work out, so it has ended up with Enviroman making comments on the environment.Food as Medicine http://foodasmedicine.blogspot.com
A blog focusing on using food as a mean to health. As Hippocrates had put it, let your food be your medicine and medicine be your food.
To what do you credit your very high site meter count?
This is probably due to the high number of people seeking solutions to blogging problems. And I think the content are well written, easy to follow and understand, so visitors tend to come back for more, as the statistics show.
What advice do you have for a new blogger starting out?
Pick on a topic in which you have an interest. Then you will never tire of the work involved.
What blogging platform do you personally recommend and why?
I use Blogger. It is free, unlikely to go out of business as it is backed by the Internet giant Google, relatively quickly picked up by search engines, easy to use even by beginners, and the template is highly customizable. Recently there were some glitches, and complaints about a non responsive support which has put off some people, but it has affected me relatively little, so I will continue to use Blogger. I personally had got a problem with a frozen blog unblocked by Blogger support after an email. And a reader has written in to say that his blog which he accidentally deleted got undeleted after a series of email. So Blogger support do respond to emails.
There you have it — the experience of blogger, Peter Chen. He’s made good use of Google’s free Blogspot platform and finds that it works for him. Using free accounts has it’s upside and it’s downside. Be sure you look carefully before you decide that’s the route you will go. Many successful bloggers, such as Improbulus and Freshblog have done fabulously and many others swear that you need an independent account.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
This is going to sound a little weird, but I always like it when you feature bloggers of different ethnicities (including me!). Sometimes blogging can seem very white….
Hsien Lei,
That doesn’t sound weird at all. I went around England one year, trying to explain that very thing to them by saying, How would you feel if the only book you could find to read your kids that had a white person in it was Pippi Longstockings?
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I hear the MESH conference suffers from that problem in a BIG way. Bad enough there aren’t any women. . . .
It’s up to us to make that change — even by choosing photos of folks of different ethinicities.
Whew! I’m glad you didn’t take that comment the wrong way. I received an email the other day from an Asian-American researcher who practically accused me of discriminating against my own kind because I had quoted a white researcher instead.
In terms of pics showing ethnically diverse people, that’s why I loved this banner for National Women’s Health Week so much.
So are we going to storm MESH next year? 😉
Hsien Lei,
I think that we not only should go, but that you and I should be speaking together there — on this very topic. AND that Jeremy, Darren, Shai, and Duncan should be encouraging us to be righting up our proposal about it.
What a dream it would be to go! But I’ve got a little one at home to take care of. Maybe by teleconference? Or you can go and be my mouthpiece. 😉
He’s old enough to bring him with us. We could take fine care of him. Where is MESH next year anyway?
Think of it. Me 6ft, blond and old, you young, Asian, and beautiful. What a visual statement that would make. Then we’d start talking and we’d have them seeing how smart women bloggers are. 🙂
ROFL!! Your description of us is hilarious. Don’t forget that I’m 6 ft too. Just kidding. I’m more like 5′ 7″. heehe But not too short as Asian women go.
No clue where MESH is next year. Somewhere in Canada. 😛
Hsien,
I think this is a plan worth considering. Just think. Jeremy would have the pleasure of meeting BOTH of us at the very same time!
That alone would make it worth it. 🙂 We could probably sell ticket to that and fund a whole new blog network from that one session. 🙂
Which reminds me. Are you going to BlogHer this year? That’s one that I’m likely to go to one of these days because my parents live in the SF Bay Area and it’s in the summer when there’s no school.
I AM going, but the first day is already sold out. So I’ll be there for the first day cocktail party and the second day. If you get there for the first day and have the same schedule we can go “do the town.”
Sounds good. I’ll let you know if I’m going. Would love to give you a big hug in person! 🙂
It goes both ways!
Big hugs and dinner!
You’re just not going to let me have the last word here, are you? hehe
Hi Liz,
Peter Chen @enviroman here again. Just to let you know that I am on Twitter where I am enviroman. In the official Blogger Help Group where I am a Blog*Star, my username is also Enviroman. Hoping you can edit this post to include my nickname enviroman. Thanks
Peter Chen
Follow me at Twitter
BTW my daughter found this post when she googled Peter Chen