This is the list of Malaysian bloggers I pay much attention to, or at least caught my interests for awhile now. I decided to interview them and share what’s their success behind their blog.
The question I asked was,
“What do you think is the MAIN reason that most bloggers who set out to build a successful blog online fail?”
and..
“What can new or struggling bloggers do differently to avoid that?”
Here are the replies:
Joyce
“Because they’re trying too hard. Because they’re not doing it for the love of blogging. If you genuinely love and want to share a certain information, it will touch readers and bring them back for more.”
James Yeang
“I would say most of them fail because of lack of momentum. They get all excited but after a few months they realize they have a tiny readership and then just slow down, then quit altogether.
Most people including myself had that period of small readership. I remember getting very excited because i had 60 uniques for the day! But as a blogger , just stick through the lean times, and realize that you’re blogging for yourself and enjoy it. If your passion can carry you through, you’ll be at least moderately successful in the long run.”
Hong Kiat
“I guess most failed they think of “$” first before everything else; I.e, how to make money from the site, where to put ads; which ad network should i sign up with, etc. This is wrong and it often bring you off track.”
“Do it only if you enjoy doing it, make sure you are writing things that you are good at or interested in. Readers are able to tell if you are blogging passionately or simply just because you want to maintain 3-4 posts a day.”
“Good articles attract readers, readers build traffics, traffics makes you money.”
Ken Wooi
“1) The main reason for unsuccessful blogs is the excessive focus over quantity rather than quality. Many bloggers have the perception that the more entries on the blog, the more traffic they get – which they deem as successful. But IMHO, that doesn’t reflect true success. Although the term “quality” might defer depending on the type of blog, entries that require effort and time are usually more distinctive and interesting.
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2) One of the failure traits faced by new bloggers is being overly money-driven. The one and only reason they set up a blog is to earn money, money and money. Money kills, and to avoid that – one has to focus on the content first. Honestly, earning money through blogging is a responsibility. And only with great blog entries, comes great responsibility.
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3) Starting a niche blog but not entirely knowledgeable in that topic. Many bloggers opt for a personal blog because they can write entries that relate to themselves. But when it comes to niche blogging, niche bloggers require the strong interest, willingness to discover and in-depth knowledge to be as good as the rest – if not better. Most importantly, don’t start a niche blog because it can drive more traffic – start it because it’s an interest you wanna share.”
tehtarikmemoirs
“Firstly many bloggers would come in blogging with wrong mindset on why they wanted to this in the first place. The result would always be the same, what used to be an interest for them to blog later on becomes a chore for them to do. Secondly would be the attitude of bloggers among their own peers. Due to the social nature of blogging, obviously it demands us to be sociable to make ourselves seen among other bloggers”
“I guess what bloggers can do different is to never attempt to do this on your own. When I started out, I had the support of my TeamTehTarik not only to continue improving my blog but to do it together as a group and I think that is a key factor in the development of a person’s blog.”
Josh Lim
“Well first you have to look into what constitutes a fail.
Is a fail:
1. Lack of significant traffic despite regular updates
2. Giving up on updating before anything in particular can be achieved?
If 1. I would say that perhaps they are not leveraging enough on their
existing social networks (eg Facebook, Twitter, visiting other people’s
blog and leaving REAL comments, not just ‘visit my blog’) to promote their
blog. If they are new online…well, I’m quite sure that your closer
friends would appreciate an SMS that you’ve started a blog.
If 2. I always say that “starting a blog is easy, maintaining a blog is
hard”. Think of yourself as a one-person publishing team – you determine
editorial direction, writing the articles and photography, and marketing
and promotions. And for advertising sales, you can find us at Advertlets,
lol 
New or struggling bloggers would do well in determining an ‘editorial
direction’. As in, a template for what your blog content can be – it could
be a few categories such as Food, Relationships, Events, etc. Knowing what
you’re going to blog about in advance helps because…you can tailor it to
suit your lifestyle. For example, if you have a busy full time job, you
might not want to focus on writing long, philosophical articles. Lastly,
remember a blog is more about consistency and an overall experience that
people can visit regularly rather than just a few good posts (think of it
like a TV series rather than a movie – conscise posts, doesn’t need to be
long but needs to be regular).”
Gloson Teh
“The main reason bloggers fail to build a successful is because they don’t have a plan. You must have a plan – otherwise you’ll be just “stuck there”.
So, in order to have a plan that will go well, new bloggers must be passionate about what they are blogging, determined to succeed, very social, and patient. ”
Fatboychef
Blog | Twitter
“Just like all other media, blogs and blogger need to identify who they intend to reach in the first place, and with what message. Also, just like other media, you really have to be quite unique in some way in order for you to have that extra edge. Be it stunning photographs, or a fabulous writing style, or perhaps even sensationalism. If you really have nothing special to say, then its best not to say anything at all. Let’s face it, blogging isn’t for every Tom Dick and Harry, and there is no shame in NOT being able to be a successful blogger, if by success you mean having the number of hits and generating large revenues from that. Some people blog for their own personal satisfaction, and if so, you shouldn’t be perturbed by the numbers game.”
***
(Some thoughts from Ah Bing)
I hope you learn something from these bloggers, I chose to interview them because they have been blogging consistently for period of time, some even years to get recognised. And now, they have their own loyal audience, which was built up through time.
Who is your favourite Malaysian blogger? and what questions you want me to ask them? leave comments below.
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