A bit about Joseph:

Joseph is the guy behind Blog Tweaks. He has a marketing degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He writes mostly about marketing, innovation, and entrepreneurship. More about Joseph on his personal blog.

What surprised you the most during your first one to three months of blogging?

What surprised me the most in my first three months of blogging is how much I enjoyed it. I never knew how much I liked writing for an audience before starting. I was also shocked with the kind of connections that can be made. In my first three months I had a post tweeted by Mark Cuban (the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks), and I had coffee with a serial entrepreneur. How cool is that?

On average, how long does it take you to write a post? On average it takes me between one to two hours per post, but sometimes it takes more. I wrote a guest post for ProBlogger that probably took between seven and ten hours.

Where do you do most of your writing (home, office, coffee shop, on the go, etc.)?

I write at home, at McDonald’s, and at work.

One of the best posts I ever wrote (a guest post for Copyblogger) was written at home on a computer that was disconnected from the internet. I knocked it out in around an hour, and it was good enough for the number one marketing blog in the world.

I’ll try writing this way more often…

Do you ever experience writer’s block? Hmm…I’m not sure that I do. What I do experience is distraction problems, but once I’m able to disconnect from everything and write, I usually don’t have trouble .

If so, how do you overcome it? I overcome it by keeping a long list of future post ideas. Every idea that I think of gets written down in my phone, on a notepad, or in Google docs.

If not, how do you avoid it? I avoid it by setting up specific time dedicated to writing.

Do you use a smartphone to help with any of your blogging duties (brainstorming, comment moderation, etc.)?

Yes. I use my phone to keep track of post ideas and sometimes for writing when I don’t have a computer but a post idea is materializing in my head.

Have you ever published a post and later deleted it? If so, why?

Yes, I have. The reason was that the quality wasn’t nearly as good as I wanted, so I decided to take it down.

How do you deal with criticism and negativity from other bloggers or commenters?

I’m not sure. I haven’t faced that much of this. The best thing you can probably do is find a fellow blogger to work closely together with. Having a blogging partner helps you get through the ups and downs such as mistakes, getting guest posts turned down, and standard discouragement.

Many bloggers discover monetization is more difficult than they expected. How have you handled this challenge?

Monetization is harder than people think. My solution is to think about monetization as starting a new business. I personally think that starting a business and using the blog for content marketing is the best way to make money blogging.

How much time do you spend reading and/or commenting on other blogs?

I spend a lot of time reading and some times commenting, although my reading time is decreasing. Initially, I did tons of reading; now I’m trying to write more and read less.

How do you feel about the blogosphere’s impact on traditional media?

It’s part of the game. Newspapers need to adapt to catch up and stay current, but there is definitely the need for trained journalists in traditional media to publish highly credible content. With that said, blogging is great because you can hear words straight from the source. Instead of having journalists write about people,  you can read their ideas written by their own words. That’s awesome!

What’s the biggest mistake you see other bloggers making? The biggest mistake is writing too much about themselves. Blogging is not about the author; it’s about the reader. If you figure that out, you’re much more likely to have success blogging.

Interact With Joseph: Twitter