The Blogger Interviews: The Londoneer
Last week we kicked off a series of weekly interviews with bloggers from the London Bloggers Meetup community. We started by interviewing Annie Mole who’s been blogging about the wacky world of the London Underground since 2003 – winning a gaggle of awards along the way. One of Annie’s top tips for writing a blog is to write about something for which you feel passionate and it’s clear our next interviewee does just that.
This week we’ve interviewed none other than London institution The Londoneer. I’ve known the man behind the Londoneer for a couple of years now and not only is he a fantastic blogger, but a throughly nice fella too. The things that really impress me about The Londoneer’s blog are the daily posts, often written in quite some detail, all held together with great original photography. It’s by no means an easy task to write one new post every day – believe me I tried and failed miserably at this – but the Londoneer takes this in his stride.
If you like London and want to read more about its cultural diversity and being a Londoner, there are few better places to go.
Well, without further ado, I’ll hand this post over to The Londoneer…
1. What’s your blog called and what’s the URL?
The Londoneer, and you can find it at http://thelondoneer.blogspot.com
2. What’s your blog all about ( in 20 words or less)?
It’s about my life in London and elsewhere, and it serves as a good platform for my photography too.
3. When and why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in 2007 after going to a Conference where Euan Semple, the ex-BBC journalist, was talking about the joys of blogging, and encouraging attendees to try it for themselves.
4. Which blog platform do you use?
I use Google’s Blogger (which is much improved in recent months I must say, particularly on the design side as it’s now very flexible)
5. Can you give an example of how blogging has enriched your life?
Blogging has really increased my understanding of London’s complexities, and taken me to parts of it I’m sure I would never have visited otherwise.
6. Are there any blogs you recommend reading and why?
My friend TikiChris writes (?) the London Daily Photo blog, which I find an inspiration – a new photograph every single day, and it takes some dedication to keep that up I can tell you. Tired of London, Tired of Life is another good one – it covers similar ground to my blog but the author is far more concise and doesn’t ramble on endlessly as I tend to do!
Of course I can’t miss out Annie Mole’s London Underground Blog which continues to fuel my fascination with our rather quirky public transport system.
7. What three tips would you give to someone just starting out in blogging?
Just get stuck in, and don’t worry about the quality because that will come with practice.
Screeds of text without interruption can become a bit tiring, so throw in some colour whenever you can – photographs or video work well (but as a photographer can I please ask that you don’t reproduce other people’s work without their permission. It’s an almost unforgivable sin, and completely unnecessary these days anyway because even the camera on your phone can take perfectly acceptable photographs with a little effort)
Make sure that you read other bloggers’ work in your particular area of interest regularly – the better ones will inspire you, and the others will show you what techniques and writing styles to avoid!
8. If you could change one thing about your blog what would it be?
I’m thinking about moving my blog to a unique domain, but as there will be a great deal of effort involved in making sure its a seamless transition both for my readers and the search engines, I wish I’d done it a lot sooner!
9. What is the key to getting readers to your blog?
Make sure that you Digg, Tweet and update your Facebook wall every time you post something new. At least your friends will see your blogposts if no-one else does! And of course, do make the effort to get your blog listed on all of the blog directories – it takes very little effort and you only have to do it once per site. Loaded Web, Blogtoplist, Blog Catalog, Zimbio are all good places to start but you’ll find many others.
10. And finally, why do you come to the London Bloggers Meetups?
I meet fascinating people with fascinating stories to tell, and you never know where that next conversation might take you…
Thanks, mate.
Thanks Andy – I hope London’s fledgling bloggers will take heart. If you want to express yourself online it is all about getting stuck in, but I won’t pretend it’s not hard work sometimes – it’s worth it though :)