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!!
