Blogger Interview: Caroline Middlebrook

Today’s interview is with Caroline Middlebrook.  Caroline runs the aptly named blog, Caroline Middlebrook,  at http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/.  She just recently released her newest ebook guide on building niche sites with wordpress.  Make sure you check it out.

• Question #1: You just released your ebook on developing niche sites with wordpress.
  What effect has that had, if any, on your website?
  • Well one of the biggest marketing efforts that I did was an email campaign which was quite successful so it has brought in quite a lot of links and traffic. Mainly though, the biggest effect has been the income that it has generated for me 🙂
• Question#2: What tips could you give a fellow blogger who wants to put together his/her own ebook?
  • Load up your favourite wordprocessing software and just start writing. Once I got started it was a lot easier and now that the book is finished it’s a lot easier to go and make edits to it. It can seem daunting to write an ebook if all you have done so far is write a blog post but it really does get easier as you get into it. You don’t need a brilliant topic because you can always tweak it part way through – just get started and give it a go.
• Question #3: Software suggestions for ebooks?
  • The free (and open source) Open Office software is very good and also has the built in facility for exporting the file to a PDF which is very handy. Other than that, no software is really needed.
• Question #4: What do you feel are the keys to your success?
  • I think the biggest factor is that I write in a very different manner to many other people in the IM niche – I don’t pretend to be an expert, I don’t use marketing hype, I will honestly slate something that I don’t like and I am not afraid to blog about my failures. People find it refreshing and I think a lot of newbies resonate with me because I started out from scratch just like they did.
• Question #5: Do you feel that the niche blog arena is becoming saturated?
  • No of course not. People have been saying that for years! Really I don’t think there’s any such thing as saturation in a niche – it’s all about supply and demand. The only reason there would be a lot of competition in a niche is because the demand is high and there’s always room for just one more good blog!

My thanks goes out to Caroline for her willingness to answer my questions.  Make sure you go over and check out her blog.  She’s just gotten a new design recently and it sure looks sharp!