And the answer is: there are no age-limits!
Today I would like to introduce to you the youngest successful blogger in the blogosphere I have ever met.
Being only fourteen-year-old he’s already getting a revenue from his web log (Kid Tech Guru) and after only two months of blogging he has got over 13,000 unique visitors, 130 subscribers and still going strong.
His name is Xavier Lur and he is from Singapore. I think being that young and being that successful at something everyone is willing to achieve is very tough and enviable quality. I think he could teach every of us something valuable.
Hi, Xavier. Please introduce yourself shortly and describe how you entered the blogosphere and how long you have been blogging?
I am the guy behind the tech blog – www.KidTechGuru.blogspot.com. As a 14-year-old blogger, I am one of the world’s youngest professional in the world. I am living in Singapore and studying @ Maris Stella High School.
First of all, I would like to thank Alvin Phang of GatherSuccess.com. I stumbled across his newspaper ad few months ago and attended his complimentary workshop. I was inspired by his amazing blogging feat he has achieved and I started blogging too.
How usually people react when they get to know the fact that you are the youngest problogger on the net and what your parents,teachers and friends think about it?
As you can see in my blog, many of the comments are about compliments. Some people praised me and asked me to keep up the good work whereas some don’t believe that I am a 14-year-old. Once, a person even says that someone is helping me out with this blog. The answer is “No!” KidTechGuru is solely done by me.
Let me tell your something surprising. That is neither my friends nor my family members know that I am blogging! I just wanted them to know naturally, which means that they will know KidTechGuru when they Googled my name or maybe when I become famous.
Tell us about your techniques, like when you decided to put ads on your blog and which affiliates you think are the most profitable?
I feel that traffic is the lifeblood of a blog. It is important for one to first achieve a reasonable amount of traffic before putting up ads. I do see some amateur bloggers putting ads everywhere in their blog despite only blogging for a week and with a low visitor count. What I am trying to say is that, you can’t earn money if you don’t have a good traffic source.
I have heard that one can earn at least a five-digit income monthly if he or she joins an affiliate program, provided he or she is good at it. At the moment, I am not attached to any affiliate programs because firstly I am still working on my traffic. Secondly, I am not as money-minded as some bloggers. I just want to share my tech knowledge with people around the world and benefit from this blog.
However, I think that Clickbank is the most profitable affiliates in the Internet arena because most professional bloggers such as John Chow and Alvin Phang use it.
What is the most harmful action blogger can do for his own popularity?
Spamming. Some bloggers do spam on sites whereby the owner does not moderate comments whereas some spam on chat box just to get traffic to their blogs.
Would you be able to live on your own without parents’ support only on money you are making from your blog?
Currently, I don’t think I can live on my own yet without my parents’ support. I have only made about US$100 from blogging, all thanks to Bidvertiser ads and some donations made by some great souls. Maybe a few years later…
When you go to college it’s likely you are making enough money from your blogg to make it your niche - what do you think you are going to study - technologies (as your current obsession is) or advertising and media (as your new way of making money)?
If I were to go to college (which I will most probably go), I would love to study about business. My ambition is to become a financial investor and blogging will be my hobby. Currently, besides studying and blogging, I would read up the latest news in business magazines and checking out the stock indices online such as the Straits Times Index and the Dow Jones. Sometimes I will observe oil prices too.
What are your future plans - you’re going to support your current blog, maybe start a project or open new blogs?
In the coming years, I may probably change my current free blogging platform to a premium hosted blog with the KidTechGuru.com domain name. Unfortunately, a guy who is from the Philippines who claims himself as the “Youngest Pinoy Kid Technology Guru” snatched up the www.KidTechGuru.com domain name. I checked out his Technorati profile and found out that he is actually an adult. Go check out his Technorati profile @ http://technorati.com/people/technorati/juliunizeer Scroll down and you can find his “KidTechGuru” blog.
What would you suggest to amateur bloggers - which aspects to cover at the beginning, which aspects to spare?
When you start a new blog, you must set goals. For example, how many visitors you would want to achieve in a specific time span. It is important to set goals because goals will guide a person to the path of success. Also, blogging tests a person’s determination and proactiveness. In this context, proactiveness means that we must look for traffic ourselves to give our blogs more exposure instead of typing on keyboards, waiting more people to visit our blogs. This means that not only amateur bloggers but every blogger needs to instill this mindset.
