Fleeing The Social Scene

After I got roped into the Blogger March Madness over at Derrich.com I was intrigued. I’d stumbled upon the blog at MyBlogLog a few times in the past but that March Madness post made me take a look at it a bit more seriously. Since then Derrich.com has become one of my daily reads. This past week I got a chance to interview Derrich about the blog, and about finding a bit of fame around the blogosphere with his March Madness posts. Here’s what Derrich had to say:

1) So it looks like derrich.com has been around since about October of 06. It just kinda starts up and goes. No real hello world post or anything. Was that intentional Also it seems like you’ve been using advertisements from the start. It seems that these days there can be some debate about when to start advertising on your blog. Did anything or anyone influence that decision to start the ads from the beginning?

Derrich: Well, my first post was about my son and his first soccer experience. My initial intention was to write about similar experiences, so that post best represented my purpose at the time. But that obviously developed into a number of topics. I guess I thought an introductory post would have been too short and left alot of questions to be answered with regard to my goals for Derrich.com. I just started to write and never looked back. As far as advertising, I’m an entrepreneur at heart. So, it was a no-brainer for me to try different ways to make money from my blogging efforts.

2) Your blog just kinda says it how it is. No real rhyme or reason. Starting out did you have any grand plan for the blog?�? Any particular methods in mind for growing the site and your number of readers?

Derrich: Well, being that it’s a blog marked by my name, I’m not pressured into making it a niche blog.�? I DID feel that way initially…tried to cater to other financially-minded (is that proper English?) people. But I like many things, and Derrich.com represents those things. If you met me in person, I wouldn’t talk about the stock market 24/7. But it’ll be in there somewhere. And so will cars, “that video I saw on YouTube yesterday”, and some sports among other things. I don’t plan on growing the site much more.�? It is what it is, I suppose. And I do realize that only a handful of people will stand my rants.�? And that’s ok with me. I basically hate everyone else. Ok, not really.

3) Since your blog seems to cover quite a range of topics, what are your favorite topics to write about?

Derrich: I love sports, particularly the Spurs and football…college and NFL. I played football in college, so its still programmed in my psyche. I love watching videos online, so I also choose to share those when I come across a good one. And I like sharing my blogging experiences with others. At first, I did this because other bloggers were doing it (trying to squeeze the Derrich square peg into the “how to blog” niche). But now I only write about something I experience that I think will help bloggers.

4) So let’s get this out of the way. You are a Spurs fan. What was your favorite part of the playoff run this past season?�? It was fun seeing you blog about the playoff run, as Ed Lau and I both had our hopeful NHL teams. Yes, neither of us had the right team. It seemed you were the blogger rooting for the right home team.

Derrich: Actually, my favorite part of the playoffs was the Golden State/Dallas series. It wasn’t necessarily that Dallas lost, but that Golden State was so hungry that the games were exciting. As far as the Spurs are concerned, I just love to sit back and watch them prove nay-sayers (aka. Spurs haters) wrong. Maybe next year your hockey teams will prevail. I’ll be sure to follow your commentary.

5) Now your March Blogger Madness tournaments seemed to be quite a hit for you. How did you plan for them?�? They seemed to be the perfect competition at that point in time. Dare I say you set off the blog contest buzz?�? Also can you share how your blog has changed since March, in terms of traffic overall and number of subscribed readers.

Derrich: I’d love to think that I had something to do with it. The idea just came to me one night while watching Sportscenter. Then, coincidentally on CNBC the very next day, they featured an author, Richard Sandomir who wrote a book titled The Enlightened Bracketologist. So I incorporated that into my post and voila: instant traffic. I received much more in the second iteration as I urged participants to link back to my blog to have their readers vote on Derrich.com. Gizmodo was really the only A-list blog to participate, and they definitely brought me buge numbers.�? Since then, my readership has grown from 4 to 54 and I get about 400-600 uniques per day…give or take 100. Derrich.com is definitely a good example of slow and steady growth. And I should mention that you didn’t do too bad yourself…taking out a couple of heavy-hitters. Shows how far participation will take you.

6) Link trains. Those things are also designed to help out with traffic and linkbacks. It seemed you were in the middle of most of them. What’s your opinion on them. Did they help you out?

Derrich: The only link train that seems to have had the most success is the ViralTags train. It knocks out the most links in the smallest amount of room. It is still going strong it seems. There were questions regarding its effect on PageRank, but I have yet to see any detrimental effects. As a safeguard, I’ve started to include a few more internal links per post than usual…just in case.

7) Back to the money (yes we all love it, and we all want to know how to make more of it) It seems that your site has more than a few monetization methods going on. Can you give us the run down on what methods you are using on your blog. Also how well do they work?�? If you don’t mind the question, approximately how much does derrich.com bring in monthly?

Derrich: Well, I just posted my June 2007 earnings. I made $343.11 in June…and about the same the month before. It’s not as much as some other blogs with similar traffic and content, but I’m not concerned. I use Google AdSense, TextLinkAds, PayPerPost, and AuctionAds the most. I think AdSense works very well followed by PayPerPost (although it generates more money). The one intangible I’ve realized from PPP is the community I’ve adopted from that group. It has proven to be a great resource in this social marketing point in the Web 2.0 timeline.

So i don’t know for some reason the Internet is broken and you can only subscribe to 5 blogs, what are they and why?

Derrich: Wow. Thanks for putting me on the spot, Matt. I think in no particular order my list would include Problogger.net , WallStreetFighter.net, Stock Trading 101, Bill Simmons (aka Sports Guy on ESPN), and Gizmodo. Funny thing is…I don’t visit those daily, but they obviously fulfill some interest or need depending on my mood. I visit an average of 20 blogs per day.

9) Last question, as a reader of your blog it seems like you’ve become increasingly more popular in recent months. Where do you see yourself and your blog 6 months from now?�? How bout 1 year?

Derrich: I’d like to think that my undeniable charm and pleasing wit are responsible for the growing popularity. But I think my efforts to become more involved in communities coupled with my newfound attention to better SEO are to blame. Each time I post something, related searches seem to place Derrich.com in the first page…and in some cases in the first spot. Last I checked, about 26% of my daily traffic comes from Google, Yahoo!, or MSN. In 6 months, I really don’t see much change…perhaps a larger readership. In a year, a new layout may be in the works and a new car too.

Thanks again, and if i don’t talk to ya before the 4th, have a Happy Holiday.

Derrich: No…thank you, Matt.

EDIT: So i lose at the basic copy/pasting game�? I just edited this and did a copy and paste from my email.Sorry about the errors everyone!

I’d once again like to thank Derrich from Derrich.com for giving up a bit of his time to do the interview. Hopefully you learned a bit more about the man behind the blog.

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