Read on to find out more about the blog and the secretive person behind it!

How was GeekMBA360 born?

It was a confluence of several factors. Since my college days, people liked to talk to me about career issues. I functioned like an “informal career counselor” which made me realize that people are hungry for down-to-earth, honest, and realistic career advice.

I witnessed several layoffs over the years so I feel strongly that there is no loyalty in corporate America. Hard working employees need to have the resources and support to help themselves to navigate job market and make career decisions and I feel that my blog can be that resource. Hence, the financial crisis gave me a sense of urgency to start the blog. I feel that a lot of folks were ill prepared for such a  major financial crisis. I’d like to help.

Last but not least, I love writing. I read a lot of blogs too which made me feel compelled to join the rank of bloggers.

I love the GeekMBA360 branding – “Career advice at the intersection of business and technology”. How did it come to you? How did you develop and maintain it?

I know that my niche is at the intersection of business and technology. I have a technical background, but I’m also very interested in business side of things and got an MBA a few years ago. So, I want a name that  reflects both tech and biz side of me. That’s how I came up with the name GeekMBA. However, the domain name “geekmba” was taken. I had to add something to it. One day I was watching the CNN news program “Andersen Copper 360″. I thought 360 is an easy-to-remember number to add to “GeekMBA”.

I’m glad that you like this brand. I was actually a little bit concerned about it! I was worried that having the name “MBA” in it might limit the readership — I want a blog that is helpful to professionals, not limited to business school graduates. Also, I know some people don’t like MBAs — they appear to be arrogant, overly analytical, and clubless at times. I was afraid that my brand might have negative connotation to some folks, but it all seems to work out so far.

You seem to be very careful about privacy, with no name or picture of you on your site. This is a rare thing in the blogging world, since it thrives on being “personal” and “easy to relate”. Why remain anonymous? How does this affect your blog? Does it affect your blog?

Great question! I’m actually a very open person, a straight shooter in real life. Sometimes it kills me remain anonymous in my blog because I love to connect with people.

I am very careful about privacy largely because of two reasons:

1) I have a full-time job, and blogging is a only a side personal project. Given the subject matter of my blog, I really want to avoid any mix of my day job and my blog. All of the examples I use in my blog were from my previous jobs, not my current job. I want to avoid a situation where co-workers read my blog and think that I’m referring to something at work. So, for now, I’m writing anonymously to prevent any unnecessary speculation/guessing.

2) I want my blog to have a brand that is separated from me, the person. This is not easy to to do since blogging is authentic, personal, and social by nature. But, my entrepreneur philosophy is to build a profitable venture with a system and a brand, so that the start-up venture will have a life on its own without being associated to me. We’ll see if I can succeed in doing this.

How do you monetize your blog? Have your methods been profitable? What is your advice to bloggers who want to earn money from blogging?

This blog is profitable. The monetization methods include ad networks for display ads, affiliate (e.g. Amazon) and premium reports (I currently have 3 premium reports on sales.)

In term of making money from blogging, my advice is to have your own product for sales since it is better than affiliate commission. On the other hand, affiliate commission is better than ad networks.

Favorite topics to rave about? Rant about?

I like to rave about individuals who have the courage to pursue their own path, and find happiness along the way. I also provide honest and balanced perspective on MBA education as well as practical, from-the-trenches career advice on job search, start-ups, and so on.

I rant about work place politics and frustration and the daily challenges to balance professional and personal demands.

What’s your favorite advice to those who have been severely affected by the recession?

The Chinese phrase for “crisis” consists of two characters: danger and opportunity. If you lost your job or lost a lot of money in the stock market due to the recession, it’s a personal and/or professional crisis on the surface. But think hard and think creatively about the hidden opportunities – you will definitely find them.

We know you as Andrew Rickmann but what is it that you do for a living?

I work on the policy team of a financial services company. In essence what we do is to take the regulations that apply to financial advisers and produce easy to read documentation that applies to their situation. The aim is to provide practical answers to questions they have about the actions they are required to take.

I notice you operate multiple blogs. How difficult has it been to keep them all updated on a reguar basis?

Well, it is arguable how well I have managed it. I still focus on WordPress, because it is the most active, and that tends to mean the Habari blog is slower, and my opinion blog, which is probably closest to my personal blog, is updated even less. I am forcing myself to take a photo every day and so the photoblog is fairly easy, although, right now I am struggling to get any color into my shots.

One of the things I have taken to doing is making sure that where a plugin can be produced for both WordPress and Habari I release one for both. Coming up with ideas is probably that hardest part.

How about the monetization aspect? Have you started to monetize these blogs or are they still considered a hobby?

I make no money from any of the blogs. It isn’t so much that I wouldn’t like to but I really feel that making a concerted effort to generate money from them would take a lot away from what I like about doing it. I have added the odd affiliate link here or there, and if a project came along that I thought I could make some money off without compromising things then I would consider it.

There are times when I have been tempted to dump the blogs to save funds on hosting but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It is also important to note that the things that tend to bring in money really do require more time.

You currently reside in the U.K. In your opinion, is blogging picking up within your neck of the woods? What about social media and the other aspects related to blogging?

I think blogging is very strong in the UK, as is social media. Off the back of the first UK WordCamp some guys up in the North have organized get togethers and a wide range of people have turned out to those. There are also a lot of other tech groups that meet all over the north of England. There is a lot of good work that has come out of the UK and I don’t see that stopping any time soon.

In my day job no one really has blogs or even knows about twitter, so these things aren’t mainstream. Facebook is huge though. I really feel the north of England, the Leeds Manchester Sheffield triangle has as much talent as any valley in any country.

What are your thoughts on blogging in general? Is it a viable medium? Is it a waste of time? Why should anyone bother doing their own blog?

I think in some places it has lost its way a little. That may be because of my feelings about monetization, but I would like to see, and I think I am seeing it a little, a resurgence in personal writing. Individuals writing for themselves instead of publishers using blogs as just another traffic driver.

I do think blogging is a viable medium. Some people say it has crossed over so blogs are really just websites now, and that may be true, but I still see a clear distinction between people who are blogs and websites that have regular content. I think it does depend on what you want from blogging. It isn’t a waste of time for me because I have met some great people through it, got a bit of reputation amongst a few people, but I doubt my blog will live on after I decide to leave it. It won’t endure.

I think everyone needs to decide what they want to do with their time. blogging is one way to output something while you do whatever it is you do and connect with others that do it.

In terms of publishing software, you’re focus has primarily centered around WordPress but recently, you’ve been dabbling with Habari. Why the change in favorites?

It isn’t so much a change in favorites. WordPress has been moving away from me rather than the other way around. I am not an early adopter as such, but what I always liked about it, and what interested me in it was the technical challenge and the potential. As more and more is done with it there is less and less to be done. As more gets wrapped up in the core there is less to say about where it should go except that more should be taken out of the core. That is the fundamental divide between me and the WordPress user base.  Recently, by looking at the Habari project I have seen more potential in WordPress and tried to impact on it in my own way. Habari is a very different beast though. Right now it is much more aligned to what I want, it just needs that initial user base to kick start it.

For me, WordPress has also been getting slower. There is a whole load of Javascript that has to run just to run the admin side. Habari is very light, very simple, and to the point. You would be amazed at how much faster it is to write a post.

I haven’t abandoned WordPress though. It is still very interesting. I was shown some new things today that I really like and has got me thinking that there is a big future for it yet.

What is the future of blogging?

I think the traditional divides will eventually rear up again, dividing the hobbyists from professional developers, dividing part time writers from those that are paid to write. One thing that cannot last is blog owners taking advantage of eager writers. I will be happy to see that end and to see really talented writers get paid properly and mediocre writers have to go back to school. Where I end up on that heap doesn’t concern me overly.  I don’t know how the space will divide but just as there is a clear economic divide between Facebook users and Bebo users the same will happen with blogs between different age groups, different social groups and different economic groups. I just don’t see the psudo-communist ideals that have been attached to blogging lasting. I hope I am wrong though.

In the short term though, it’s all gravy.

My names Lachy, I’m a 14 year old web developer from Australia. I got started about 3 years ago just with HTML and then moved onto coding other peoples sites, and worked up from there to develop PSDtoWordPress.com. Now I’ve just launched www.Uncoverr.com, a book resource for designers and developers.

Speaking of Uncoverr, that’s the site we’ll talking about for the majority of this interview. How did you come up with the name and what is the sites purpose?

Well, I was buying Uncover.org and had everything developed but then the buyer decided to pull out and I couldn’t think of anything else, so Uncoverr it was. The site is basically just a resource for designers and developers to find books in a range of categories, along with author interviews and book reviews. I’m really hoping to get the users to contribute the reviews!

Book reviews. Care to share your monetization strategy with us?

My lack of, more like! It’s basically just Sitepoint and Amazon affiliate links. Had over 350 clicks, guess how many conversions? That’s right, none! It’s really frustrating. I’m going to start doing some A/B testing soon, but hopefully I can get my act together. Sitepoint sponsored me, but this month I opted in for books instead of money, I’m doing a massive contest next week.

So how did you plan the launch of Uncoverr? Have you seen the results you were expecting?

Well, I planned it pretty badly to tell you the truth. I just used my connections with a few blogs to get launch posts. I was expecting 5000+ visitors first day, but it was more like 1000. Next time I think I should get a lot more posts done and leverage social media first day.

How does Uncoverr become a better source for reviews than Amazon itself?

I find that a lot of Amazons reviews are short, 1 paragraph at most, you find the odd one that’s a lot bigger. We show very in depth reviews and usually have an author interview to go along with it. We have a nice easy way to find the books, a lot more thorough than Amazon. You don’t get results that aren’t web development related, because we have only added those types of books.

Books seem to have a culture of their own. For example, one person mentions a book he or she read and someone else chimes in with another. A good reason why book clubs are still popular. Have you been able to tap into that audience to get user participation on the site? Is that something you’re looking into down the road?

We don’t really have the regular audience to have that user participation yet, hopefully we will soon. Later down the road we actually do have plans to start a book club service. A very cheap price and you’ll get 2 books a month along with 1 ebook. We plan to first increase the user participation and get a nice subscriber count.

In the beginning of the interview, you mentioned you were only 14. Pretty young I’d say. Has your age been a restricting factor at all with regards to operating these websites/businesses?

Definitely. I’d love to say it hasn’t, but you get those people that reject you for your age, people that won’t work with you. I never really mention my age to my PSD to WordPress clients just in case! But I don’t think it should let it limit you, in anything other than client work I don’t think it’s much of a factor except for the initial starting money we have and the time we can spend. We have to balance school work, social life and work, gets a bit tough sometimes.

With a good amount of experience already under your belt, what advice can you give those young or old who are thinking about launching their own blog or web business?

Network. Network. Network. It’s not what you know – it’s who you know.

What do you think the future of blogging is?

I think blogging still is going to be the same concept for a long time, but the software involved will get a lot more complex to cater for sites like mine. I think it will be a lot more community oriented and commenting will advance. But apart from that – I’m clueless.

How did you get involved with Blogging and why do you blog?

Ok, great question.  I got involved in blogging about three years ago when I had a couple of clients that were interested in starting a blog and wanted me to help them set it up and show them how to run it.  So, in order to help them out, I began to blog myself and after about a year, it became an everyday way of life for me and my business.

You’ve gone from just being a blogger to a full blown podcaster. Describe the transition from one to the other. Also, what are your thoughts on podcasting as a whole?

Well, like most things, going from blogging to podcasting was an easy transition.  Since blogging is writing down your thoughts for others to read, podcasting is verbalizing those thoughts for people to hear.  Podcasting is still a growing technology.  Even though there are those who feel that podcasting has run it’s course, I strongly disagree.  Podcasting is just beginning to get it’s legs, so to speak, and learning how to go from crawling to walking.  With podcasting having so many facets, such as audio and video podcasting, not to mention translating your blogs to an audio format, just another way of podcasting, the sky is still the limit for this technology.  I believe that we will see even more to come in 2009 than we have already seen in the past 3 to 5 years that podcasting has been actively working for many.

With that said, you have had your ups and downs with various video streaming websites. What can you tell those who are thinking about skipping audio and going straight to video streaming?

Yes, it’s true, I’ve had my share of issues with the video streaming sites.  I think I’ve tried every one that is currently available and they all share the same basic issues along with not having the necessary backbone of hardware to handle the onslaught of users currently on their services.  My advice to any one who wants to go straight video is, make sure that you are prepared to live with the frustration of the video streaming service when they are down, having technical glitches or even losing your recordings.  All this will happen, especially when they are having tremendous server overloads.  Also, be prepared to share your space with LOTS of, sometimes scary and downright silly types of live shows that are representative of these services.  You may not want your videocast to be shown in this light.  Carefully check out what other types of shows that are streaming on the service you choose.

Monetization is a hot topic for many people and for obvious reasons. Which techniques have you used and have you been able to make a living producing content for a living?

I have tried several types including affiliate programs, banner ads, Google Adsense and even offering my own products.  Because I have a small following right now, I cannot produce much if any amount of income from my blog.  I have had no success with the affiliate programs or banner ads.  I have had some reasonable success by offering my own products, such as eBooks and software.  It seems the personal approach works best for the small time blogger that doesn’t have thousands of readers and visitors.

Can you describe to us what the NMP Network is and your goals for it? Also, how difficult has it been to run your own network?

The NMP Network started as New Media Pro about two and a half years ago.  When I started consulting other podcasters, I decided I wanted a brand that would stand the test of time and still convey the message I was trying to instill.  About a year or so ago, The NMP Network (NMP stands for New Media Pro) was born to serve as a portal for the different shows and videos I produce.  Today, it still does that, however, it is now also my main portal for my blogs, several that I write myself, and for the shows and video as well.  It was difficult at first starting the network, just like any new business venture, you have to start from scratch in most cases, and starting this venture was no different.  I had to bring together all of my blogs, most for the shows I produce, and the different blogs I was maintaining, into one place, so that it would be easier to update and maintain.  After doing this, my blogging efforts became almost routine, instead of the giant chore I had prior by having to make sure every site, every blog, was updated when they needed to be, etc.  Today, The NMP Network also has guest bloggers posting as well as different segment hosts from my Friday Night Podcaster Training Show, posting their show notes and making the site more of a hub of information than it ever was before.

I noticed that you now have a premium content section of your site online. What constitutes premium content? What can people expect if they choose one of your premium content packages?

The Premium Content is a mixture of Private label Rights Articles, PLR Videos, PLR Software and eBooks and Master Resell Rights Products, such as eBooks and software.  There are four levels of content and each level gets a specific type of content.  For example, the first level, Bronze, gets PLR Articles and nothing else.  The Silver Level, gets the Bronze content as well as PLR eBooks.  The Gold Level get the levels below and adds PLR Software and the Platinum Level get everything below along with PLR Videos and MRR products.  In this way, the members get not only quality, but quantity too.

Any tips, tricks, or suggestions you can give to bloggers, podcasters, or video streamers?

Well, the main tip I can offer to bloggers is to use a quality platform such as WordPress Self Hosted from WordPress.org.  In this way, you can customize and setup your blog any way you like and you won’t have to bend to any restrictions like you do with the hosted services out there currently. For Podcasters and video streamers, make sure you have the proper equipment and test it out BEFORE you try to go live to insure that you are ready to give not only quality content, but a quality performance too!

What do you think is the future of blogging?

I think blogging will be and already is for most, the next web site.  Instead of learning HTML and hiring a web designer, you can easily get a theme you like or want and make simple modifications yourself and you can be online in no time at all and also consider the SEO that your blog brings you, it just can’t be beat!  That being said, a blog will also let you not only showcase your products, services or business, but you can use the same blog site to showcase yourself without selling yourself short or detracting from your main topic of your blog.

First, tell us just who exactly is Jade Craven and what it is she does for a living?

Quite frankly – I’m a university dropout who had a nervous breakdown about 18 months ago. Prior to that, I was a kick arse journalism student who wanted to eventually break into the magazine scene.

Do you currently operate any other websites besides theprolificwriter.com?

I have two other public blogs that I will be launching by the end of the month. One is www.australiarevealed.com and the other is a local niche blog, www.geelonggirl.com . I have a portfolio of 6 or so sites that I’ll be working on over the next year and testing different monetization methods. I’ll then narrow them down to the most profitable and keep working a core group of sites, including the Prolific Writer.

You call Austrailia home just as Darren Rowse does. A very notable figure in the land down under. Have you had the chance to meet Darren in person? Also, what is the blogging scene like in your neck of the woods?

I haven’t had the chance to meet Darren in person, yet, although I’d really love to. I live in Geelong, a large city about an hour away from Melbourne. I believe thats helping with accidental networking as I’ve really been able to identify with a lot of his tweets about football and travelling. The blogging scene locally is awesome. I go up to Melbourne regularly and there’s always this feeling that I could be walking past some of my blogging idols. These guys aren’t common in the larger blogosphere but are really big in the local blogging scene; people like Skellie, Karen Andrews (www.miscmum.com) and Neil Creek. On a larger scale – we don’t have the conference/convention scene in the same way that the US does. It’s signifanctly more time consuming and expensive to do so, which is a shame. I’d love to meet some of my overseas blogging idols, like yourself.

On  Theprolificwriter.com, you have an old but still relevant article on Twitter. How have you used social media to propel the blog forward and create those network connections?

I’ve never really understood the power of social media until I started using Twitter. I spent all of 2008 just trying to form friendships with a lot of the people I admired. I went into social media without any intentions of drawing traffic to my site, or building a brand. I’d pick people out that seemed fascinating and just get to know them better. I chose Shai Coggins and Darren Rowse mainly because they were technology geeks. Those connections accidentally helped me get 3000 visitors in my first week of blogging.

Ironically, I was offered a guest post on Problogger before my blog was even finished. I’d emailed Darren a couple of times asking blogging questions and one was too complex to answer via email. I had a brief chat about aussie tax structures – of all things – and at the end, he said that he’d be willing to help when it came time to launch. I took advantage of that kind offer last week. A couple of my posts were tweeted and then retweeted. I’ve had my content linked to by a couple of top sources and its helped give me a solid start.

What are your goals for the site? Despite recently launching, are you already on your way to achieving those goals?

Very much so. I’m aware it’s very hard to monetize the blogging niche and currently, have little intention of doing so. My main goal was to accelerate the learning process. I’d been watching the blogosphere for a year and felt that I’d learnt all I could without taking action on it. Since launching, I’ve learnt about the power of leverage and how people respond to information. Honestly, I learned more from one high profile guest post than I did from a 6 month blogging course. Eventually, I want to turn the site into a hub for prospective writers. I want to take it beyond blogging and show the many ways people can make a viable income from their writing.

What advice would you give someone who is in the position to launch their own blog?

Make sure you know how you want your site to evolve over time. I have a rough 3 year plan for all my sites which detail how I can extend it beyond a blog should I need to. This helps to know exactly what audience you want to target, and also the content you want to write.

Also, make sure to network, network, network. Don’t do it for personal gain, do it because you genuinely want to. When I tweet someone, it’s because I genuinely want to be part of their world. Often, people will recognize that and be more than willing to help you out when the time comes.

What do you think is the future of blogging?

I think the future of blogging is going to be amazing. I think we’ll see blogs go beyond the typical wordpress set up and become these huge ‘hubs‘ of information. New forms of media will be embraced and eventually, mainstream audiences will realize that the blogs are where the authentic information is and will start flocking towards it  Blogging and new media will change the face of marketing even more than its done and I think that us consumers will be better for it.

What is it about Plagiarism that has driven you to create an entire blog focused around the subject?

It started out as a deeply personal battle, people plagiarizing and misusing my own work. When I first started thinking about blogging in this field, I wasn’t trying to create my own, but find someone else who had one so that I could follow it and keep up with changes in the area. Sadly, no such blog existed, so I decided to create it.

Since then the thank you letters an the questions I’ve gotten have really made it worthwhile, when I talk with writers and artists that have been plagiarized, I always see myself as I was when I first discovered it and am glad that I can be there to help them, even if it is just in a small way.

Plagiarism seems to be one of those aspects of blogging that just seems part of the process. Can the war against Plagiarism be won or do you think bloggers will always have to contend with the issue?

I don’t think the “war against plagiarism” can be won any more than the war against crime. That doesn’t mean it is a futile effort, hundreds of thousands of men and women every day put on blue uniforms to fight crime knowing that there will always be criminals.

The point of dealing with plagiarism is not to eliminate the problem altogether, but mitigate its impact and deal with the cases that put the blogger, artist, etc. most at risk. We won’t be able to stop every plagiarist, but we can limit the damage it causes and we can harm the economics of plagiarism by increasing the risk. These are small, but important victories.

Well, considering I have your brain to pick, what are some tips, tricks or suggestions to mitigate content theft.

The first tip is to simply be aware of the probability that it will happen. Though it sounds silly, the most common response I get is people telling me that they can’t believe anyone would plagiarize their work.

Second, actively search for and look for your work. If you are a blogger, use digital fingerprints to track how your RSS feed is used, if you create more static content, use Google Alerts or other tools to track where your work appears. Even if you have no interest in fighting plagiarism, this can help you track your audience.

Beyond that, learn the laws that are applicable here, including the fundamentals of copyright law and the DMCA. Obtain a good DMCA stock letter and learn how to use it well. It only take a little bit of time to understand the important parts of the law but can save headaches.

Finally, learn to pick your battles. License your work fairly, I tend to favor Creative Commons, and target only the true bad guys, it saves you time and lets you keep that important moral high ground.

Based on you being a co-host for the popular WordPress podcast hosted by Charles Stricklin, you are obviously a big fan of WordPress. Why have you chosen to stick with WordPress vs the myriad of publishing platforms that exist on the web today?

A big part of it is familiarity. I admit that. I know WordPress well, I know the plugins and I know the tools. Simple questions such as “How do I defend against a Digg effect?” are already answered for me.

However, the more important reason is that WordPress has the features I need and seems to be constantly improving, despite a few minor gripes with it, it is by far the most feature-complete publishing platform for what I want to do and is also the easiest to use and maintain. It’s the combination of simplicity, power and extensibility that keep me coming back to it time and again.

Bloggers come from all walks of life. They are big, small, and everywhere in between. Has their ever been a ‘fascinating’ moment for you with regards to blogging?

I suppose one of the strangest moments for me was shortly after I started consulting. I took a trip out to San Francisco to meet with a then-new client. When I showed up at their offices for the big presentation, I noticed that everyone was interested in and eager to talk with me. I was a bit confused but I found out that my blog had been required reading for almost everyone there and that my writing had had a huge influence on what they were doing.

It made me take a step back and realize exactly how far we can sometimes reach out without even realizing it.

Can you describe for us what it’s like to write for a site such as the BlogHerald? I like to think of the site as the all stars of blogging under one roof.

Being asked to write for it was definitely one of the greatest honors I’ve received since I started blogging, it was one of those moments where you realize that you’ve achieved something of importance while blogging.

As far as what it is like to write for them, it is hard to say. I decided that they brought me on because they liked what I did on PT and elsewhere so I try hard to not change it too much, just add broader topics and shift the focus to make it a bit more broad.

Even though it can be intimidating to try and speak to such a large audience, I try to put that out of my mind as much as possible (other than when deciding on topics) and do what I’ve always done.

Can you describe some of the opportunities that have opened up for you that can be directly or indirectly attributed to blogging?

I now work full time as a copyright/plagiarism consultant. I never expected that to happen when I started the site but I learned over time that there were people that had use for someone like me and were willing to pay. I was as stunned as anyone.

So the greatest opportunity I suppose is the chance to make a living at it, which I’ve been doing now for well over a year (after another year of being part-time).

Other than that, I would say that the travel has been the best. I just got back from the Netherlands and before that was in England. I’ve also been all over the U.S. for this job and these are all opportunities I don’t think I’d have had without blogging.

I would say that, overall, it has been a very enriching force in my life and I am very glad that I decided to give it a try.

Ok Jonathan, time for the flagship question! What do you think is the future of blogging?

I definitely see the future of blogging as being more multi-media. I know I personally have been dipping my toes more in audio and video over the past year and plan to increase those efforts after the beginning of the year in a major way. This is partly due to the YouTube revolution but, more importantly, due to the declining barriers of entry into these media, especially in terms of skill required.

Other than that, the future of blogging is going to be about growth in all directions. We’re going to see more of the ridiculous and silly, but also more of the serious. More and more great minds are going to get involved with blogging and more and more of the dialog about our society is going to take place on the Web, away from TV and newspapers.

I’m not one that thinks mainstream media is doomed, it will always have a place, but its role as an influencer of policy and of people will wane some as it moves more toward being a straightforward news source.

The real question though is will this idea of blogging as a profession become more common and that is a tough one. Most pro bloggers, like myself, do so indirectly from their activities, the advertising revenue simply is not there for 99% of bloggers unless you do something unethical.

I see nothing wrong with blogging as an amateur activity and most great bloggers are amateurs, but as with anything the more time and energy one can afford to put into their work, the better the product and, at some point, that is going to require funding.

If blogger business models can be hammered out, the sky is literally the limit for what blogging can do.

This interview, however, is not about his disease. It is about him. It’s about how he managed to view his disability as a powerful motivation to make something out of himself. He cultivated his “this” abilities and managed to become an inspiring personality in his country. Instead of dwelling on the things he can never do because of Pompe, he focused on the Internet and became a blogger, freelance writer, and owner of Sparkplug Studios. Find out more after the jump!

What are your “this” abilities? How did you develop them and continue developing them?
I consider web designing to be one of my “this abilities”. Most of the things that I’m doing now I learned on my own. While I got my design fundamentals from college, my web design skills were courtesy of books and the internet.
Another skill that I’m proud of is writing. You see, over the years my hand dexterity has deteriorated to a point where my abilities to draw or paint are severely limited. So I turned to writing. While I’m not by any means a good writer, I do okay with blog posts and short articles. Writing is therapeutic for me because it allows me to convey what I feel. Most of my writing though has been limited to tech stories (mostly Mac related). My blog serves as the only outlet I have for other topics. Although I haven’t had time to update it recently, I plan to revive it in the near future.

What was the inspiration behind Sparkplug Studios? What difficulties did you overcome in building your own start-up company?

Sparkplug Studios was born out of necessity. I knew that if I wanted to work I would need to create my own opportunities rather than expect people to give them to me. I didn’t see myself working in a corporate environment so the logical step would be to go into business. Although the past year hasn’t been good for Sparkplug Studios and we have had to wind down operations.

What other projects are you currently handling?

Right now I have a contract with a client for short-term, full-time work. That’s what I’m concentrating on right now but I still have a few side projects such as creating the website for our non-profit organization (www.psod.org.ph).

Your last posts discussed your thoughts on faith. How has your faith in God helped you in dealing with Pompe?
I wouldn’t say I’m a very religious person. In fact in that aspect I think I’m still sorely lacking. I do have faith though – I believe in God, His greatness and His goodness. I’m certain that without God I would not have survived this long. There are a lot of things in my life that have been nothing short of a miracle, believe it or not. I shouldn’t really even be alive today but yet I’m here talking to you. I almost died when I was nineteen. Doctors said I wouldn’t live past the age of thirty but I believe that God made it possible.

I believe faith is a very personal subject. It’s really between you and your God. I don’t want to impose my faith to others but I will share it with people who are willing to listen.
What is your philosophy on life, the universe, and everything?

I believe that we’re put on this earth to make a difference in other people’s lives. This is so much evident now as we’re going through the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy. I see people’s heroism. That’s the reason why we’re here on earth. Somehow, in the course of our lives, we just forget it. In times of hardships though we remember it. We just need to live it everyday instead of just times of crisis.

Another thing is just to try and be the best that you can be. You may not be the best in the field you want to get into but you should still work on maximizing your full potential.

What are the lessons you learned in your difficult journey against the disease?

Life goes on no matter what. Life doesn’t stop because you’re sick or what. You need to push forward and move on. Also it doesn’t mean if you’re sick or have a disability that you can’t do anything anymore. You need to find something you can do and do that.

Disability is like a wall that’s put in front of you that you can’t climb but that doesn’t mean you can’t go around it. So you need to focus on things that you can do and not what you can’t and try your best doing that.

What’s next for Juan Magdaraog?

Honestly, right now I’m not sure yet. All I know is I want my life to matter. Working for me right now is a means to an end. I work because I want to save up and be financially independent so I can do the things that are important to me such as trying to help people with rare disorders.

I just pray that God gives me the strength to continue fighting through Pompe disease so I can do other things that matter.

Naturally, this got me curious, so here’s a brief interview with Brian on running a truly niched blog. Enjoy.

Candy Addict is a blog about candy. When did you launch it, and what made you do it?
I started it in October 2005. I’ve always loved candy. I had some free time in my schedule and really wanted to start a fun site that maybe more than just my friends would read. I looked to see if there were any other candy blogs and there were a few, but none of them took the approach that I wanted to take, so I figured I’d go for it. As far as I can tell, Candy Addict is currently unique on the internet.

Are you concerned that your blog could make people eat more candy, get fatter, and lose all their teeth?
Nope. I doubt my site will make people eat more candy. They were going to eat candy anyway, we just steer them to good candy.

That’s probably true. Have you been approached by people disagreeing with your point of view on this?
Not much really. There was this one blog that was a low-fat, no-sugar diet blog or something. The lady that ran it was an author of some books on the subject. She left a few comments saying how I should be ashamed for promoting candy and I’m pretty sure she signed me up for some no-sugar newsletter. I couldn’t unsubscribe to it so it now gets labeled as spam every time I get it. Besides her, most people have been great.

I know that Candy Addict has presented some opportunities for you. Could you tell us a little about the doors the blog have opened for you?
Well, I and the site have been mentioned in numerous newspapers and we have been mentioned on many radio station. I was interviewed live on a radio station via phone, and the site was even mentioned on a cable TV show. I have also had opportunities to audition to be a host for two different new food-related TV shows.

That’s some nice spinoff opportunities for sure. How did those auditions go? Will you be on TV in 2008 or what?
I haven’t heard back from the first so I assume that’s a no.

The second I just sent last week – no word yet. I’m doubtful though. I’m not an actor. Two of our Candy Addict writers did get interviewed on camera for a pilot for a new food show though. They might make it on TV. We’ll see.

Candy is quite a niche. How do you monetize, and how does it work out for you?
AdSense, affiliate links, Text-Link-Ads, Blogads, direct ad sales are the ways the site makes money. I didn’t start Candy Addict to make money. I have always loved candy and wanted to write about it. I always thought if the site made $100 a month, I’d be ecstatic and that would keep me stocked in candy. Now I’m not making enough on it to ever retire, but it gives me some money to play with each month.

What’s next for Candy Addict? How can 2008 be a better candy year for you and your blog?
Well, we are getting more and more traffic each month and I need to hire some more writers. There is just too much candy news/topics to cover. We have 8 writers now – I’d like to hire maybe four more. We’ve also dabbled with video candy reviews and got some great positive feedback from our readers, so I’m looking to do more of those. Other than that, we’ll just keep publishing articles that Candy Addicts love to read.

2008 will be busy then. Any tips from your experiences with Candy Addict that you’d like to share with bloggers looking to start in similar niches?
For product bloggers (bloggers who write about something tangible that can be purchased), you should always email the company that makes the product you review. This gets your site on their radar which could lead to the company advertising on your site in the future. It could also lead to getting free products to review from them in the future.

I’d like to thank Brian for taking the time for this interview. Make sure you don’t waste your money (or teeth) on bad candy, check out Candy Addict!

Don’t know what Pownce is? The you should probably check it out before reading this, it’s open to the general public now, so pop over and get an account. Feel free to befriend me if you feel like it, just note that you’re coming from BloggerTalks in the message section when requesting friendship.

Good? Great, let’s get to the questions and, more importantly, answers then! Enjoy.

First of all, why don’t you tell the BloggerTalks readers a little bit about who Leah Culver is, in case they’re not Powncers like me?
I’m a co-founder and the lead developer of Pownce, a social messaging application. I’m also involved as a developer with OAuth, a standard for web API authentication, and am an advocate for online social network portability.

You’re involved in Pownce as a developer, and more I gather. What are your responsibilities in the Pownce project?
As a developer, I work on the Pownce website, the mobile site, and the API. Lately, I’ve become more involved in the business aspects of Pownce including marketing, press, and partner relations. I really enjoy working with the developer community and am looking forward to more of that soon.

Pownce isn’t in beta anymore. Did the launch work out as planned? Anything you had to push back?
The launch went really well. The site was down for a few minutes while we ran database updates and registered some API keys, but it went as expected. We’re always pushing forward

Pownce isn’t exactly packed with ads, the ones that are there are pretty unobtrusive actually. How will you make money?
Currently we display text-only small ads with every 15 or so notes but we also offer an ad-free pro upgrade for Pownce accounts for only $20 a year. In the next year, we hope to sell a bit more advertising and offer more benefits for our pro members without taking away from the current user experience.

There’s a desktop Pownce application using Adobe AIR. How come you chose to release a desktop app yourselves, and not leave that to API-hacking developers? And why Adobe AIR as the base for it, it being far from done and having numerous problems?
We looked at several ways to offer a desktop application and were happy that Adobe AIR works with both Mac and Windows operating systems. Right now, we’re working with developers to create a full API with the hopes that there will be many other tools built for Pownce including more desktop applications.

Pownce is constantly compared to Twitter, another microblogging tool. Do you think that’s fair?
I’m surprised at how difficult it is to describe to people that Pownce isn’t about personal status updates, but I think they get it right away after trying it for themselves. Really, it’s more about sharing stuff with people who you feel will actually appreciate it. It’s much more personal.

What’s your view on microblogging? It’s certainly a big thing these days, where do you think it will lead us, and what impact will it have on the blogosphere in the long run?
Microblogging, posting short messages, has been around for a really long time. It’s hard to tell if by “microblogging”, people really mean something closer to “social messaging”. The relationships between bloggers is really what’s changed. I’m more interested in how online social networks can shape a messaging service.

How do you envision Pownce in 2008? Where do you want to be with this project when it’s time to wrap up the year?
I’d like to move towards Pownce as a service instead of just a website, a desktop application, and a mobile site. In the short term, this means a better API and strong relationships with partners and independent developers. By the end of 2008, I’d like Pownce to be the best service for social messaging.

How will you achieve that? Have you, for instance, settled on a target audience, and know how to reach them already?
Maybe it sounds naive, but I think the target audience for Pownce is rather broad. We’re seeing people use it in so many different ways. Up until now, we’ve been a bit media shy, so we’ll definitely try to reach out more with interviews and events.

Kevin Rose, the Digg founder, is involved in Pownce. Does this mean that we’ll see integration between Pownce and Digg, the sharing of features, or something similar in the future?
Pownce and Digg are separate companies with fairly different products. We recently added ways to find your Pownce friends via other social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Digg, but the communities remain quite independent.

I think we’re starting to accept the fact that most people are active on several social networks. At Pownce we definitely acknowledge networks such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr by allowing members to embedded videos and photos in their Pownce notes. We also encourage members to display their profiles on other social networks such as their Digg profiles.

Finally, throw us a bone! What’s the next slated Pownce feature? Thousands of users are dying to know…
A full API and more mobile features. Please don’t die.

I’d like to thank Leah Culver for doing this interview with me. Check out Pownce, the Pownce blog, and Leah’s own blog of course. Yes, she’s on Pownce as well. Duh!