Photography: Cairo dumping grounds by Ahron de Leeuw

In my time I’ve interviewed many different types of people. None of them were particularly famous, but all of them were interesting.

Interviews are one of the most under-utilized forms of content, and both bloggers and webmasters are guilty of overlooking it. Most people assume that they’ll never be able to interview anyone of interest to their readers, but most of the time this isn’t the case at all.

In this article, I want to show you how to lock-in great interviews with interesting people.

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This week I want to take a look at Boing Boing, one of the most popular and profitable blogs in the world, and work out what makes it tick.

I’ll be discussing the content elements which have helped make Boing Boing so popular, and most importantly, explain ways we can adapt these strategies to our own content.

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Photography: An artist’s signature by Slewrate

I have dim memories of the time I spent creating my signature, and looking back on it, I didn’t give the task the attention it deserved. Now the signature I’m stuck with is somewhat jagged and messy, and I’d go back and change it if I could.

Despite its short-comings, it does get one thing right: it’s unique, and like any good signature, can’t be copied.

This week, I want to discuss how signature content is created — content your readers won’t be able to get from anyone else.

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This week I want to take an in-depth look at Freelance Switch, a blog for freelancers. I think this site is worth examining because it’s experienced the kind of rapid growth we all dream of: from 0 to more than 10,000 subscribers in under four months.

I’ll be looking at the site first and foremost from the perspective of a reader, because I think getting inside the minds of readers is one of the best ways to discover what works and what doesn’t work about your site.

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Photography: Trapeze by Hillary H

Advice on ways to make money through your website or blog is monopolized by webmasters talking to webmasters, bloggers talking to bloggers.

One vital part of the equation is often ignored, and that’s the perspective of the target - the readers whose clicks are generating money for others. It’s impossible to browse the web and not be exposed to ad-supported content. Monetization is aimed at all of us.

In this article I want to look at monetization from the perspective of the reader: what works, what doesn’t, what annoys me, what makes me want to click an ad. My thoughts are divided into two areas: tricks, and trust.

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