If you’ve never heard the name Caroline Middlebrook, it’s either because you don’t read Make Money Online blogs, or you simply don’t pay attention to comments left by readers. Caroline became widely known by bloggers following posts from Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse regarding her commenting strategy. Since then, her blog’s RSS count has been growing at a fast pace and she keeps on releasing high-quality posts on a regular basis. Caroline’s story is fascinating, and so is her journey in the blogosphere. Hope you’ll enjoy the interview, I really enjoyed interviewing her.

Caroline, the Software Developer

PiggyBankPie: Caroline, you recently became the talk of the town in the blogosphere following articles on how leaving comments helped you bring traffic to your blog. People then rushed to your blog trying to get to know you and one of the first thing they learned, is that on August 22nd you had handed your resignation as a full time software developer to become a full time Blogger and Internet Marketeer. 3 months later, do you think you should have started part-time instead of diving in without putting a feet in the water?

Caroline MiddleBrook: Actually I did not quit to become a blogger, or even an Internet Marketer. I quit because I knew in my heart of hearts that I would never been truly happy working for somebody else. Work-wise, software development is still my passion and my aim is to make a living by developing software of some kind. I chose to do Internet Marketing first because I figured it would be easier to get a little money rolling in quickly and whatever I learned about marketing could be applied to any software that I develop later.

In hindsight, I wouldn’t change a thing. I made the right decision and I have been learning a tremendous amount since I quit. My short term plans keep changing but that’s mainly because new opportunities keep landing in my lap which is just great. I tried to do the whole part-time thing before but it just didn’t work for me - I need to be able to immerse myself in what I am doing and I couldn’t concentrate on my day job when my head was full of business ideas so I just had to quit.

PBP: It’s obvious for anyone reading your story that you’re a real geek, and hey, I’m one too. But geeks usually love software development and technical matters, but blogging on Internet marketing is not as geekier as being a code monkey. Do you think you’ll miss this technical and challenging aspect of your past career?

CM: See above :p I have every intention to continue in my geekdom! But in my experience, most technical people are not marketers and most marketers are not technical. If I can master both skills I will have a real advantage.

Caroline, the 30 Day Challenger

PBP: The 30-day challenge (30DC) totally opened your eyes on Internet marketing but you failed to reach the $10 in 30 days target. Did you do your homework during the challenge and were you able to find your 7 distinctive and non-saturated niches as suggested by Ed Dale?

CM: I did my homework, but in my own way and not completely following Ed’s advice. One thing I really struggled with during the challenge was the way in which it was presented day by day without us having any kind of roadmap showing us where we were going so I felt like I needed to see the bigger picture. In the absence of a bigger picture, I made up my own, and got it wrong. I intend to re-do the 30DC challenge in a few months time, hopefully I will fare better then.

PBP: What did you like and not like about the 30DC?

CM: A lot of what I liked was also what I didn’t like. For example, I grew to really enjoy Ed’s videos and yet at the same time because video was the only format available, it frustrated me when I wanted to go back and recap on something without having a notes version. As I mentioned in the question above, I didn’t like that I couldn’t see the big picture.

PBP: Do you think Internet Marketing as reached a point of saturation in 2007 or you believe there’s still room to make a good living out of it?

CM: The Internet is still in it’s infancy. When people talk of saturation it is because they can only see what is right now. You think the Internet is going anywhere? I don’t think so. There is no such thing as saturation - there is room for everyone and I believe that just about anyone can make a living from it.

Author’s note on the 30DC: If you have been active in the 30DC forums last August, I (Patrick) was the leader of The Teamless Team, until I couldn’t connect to the Internet for 3 days because I moved out to a new house. When I came back 3 days later, all members had vanished, so I ended up being team less

Caroline, the Blogger

PBP: During the month of September 2007, your RSS stats peeked at 132 subscribers, which is very respectable for a New Blogger in such a short period of time. What did you do to get such a good start?

CM: Ahh I had a real helping hand from the 30DC. I chose to start the blog at the point at which I handed in my resignation so I publicized the fact in the 30DC forums and all of my initial subscribers came from there. This was a few days before the challenge ended so the forums were absolutely buzzing with activity and I capitalized on that.

PBP: On September 21st you published the article My Plan for World Domination - Comments! This strategy marked a turning point in your blogging career, let’s be honest, that’s what made you a star in the blogosphere. Who inspired this idea?

CM: Lol, it wasn’t inspired by anybody, it’s just one of those things that happened. I started commenting on other blogs and as I found more and more blogs to read I realised I needed to organise myself a little so I started posting about how I did that. It’s just one of those things that evolved.

PBP: The comments you leave on blogs are rarely basic remarks such as “yeah dude, this rocks!” I could tease you by saying they are sometimes post in a post. Let’s called them pillar comments in honour to Yaro. Did you notice a significant difference in your “referrer stats” when leaving pillar comments, as opposed to shorter ones with less food for thoughts?

CM: I’ve never left the short variety so I can’t really answer that question. I went from being completely silent, to having an opinion and once I had an opinion I shared it and I can be quite verbose so often the comments were quite long. But as soon as I started commenting I did see trickles of traffic coming in from all over the place so I knew it was working.

PBP: Correct me if I’m wrong, but while digging into your blog’s archives, it looks to me like you’ve found your writing direction, or may I say your niche, around October 1st. Your focus turned towards social media and you left aside personal related posts. You came up with more frequent pillar articles, and as a consequence your RSS stats nearly doubled reaching 259 subscribers. Is this the result of your Commenting Plan for World Domination?

CM: Yeah I guess so. When I started the blog I didn’t really have a plan (I still don’t), it’s really there just to document my journey into this online world and share my insights as I go. I started to gravitate towards Social Media and hence just started posting about that. Right now I’m about to start doing some work in affiliate marketing and if that works out for me then I’ll blog about that - I’m really just winging it!

Caroline, The Web 2.0er

PBP: On October 27th you published the first post in a series dedicated to Twitter. Do you feel like Twitter is a love it or hate it Web 2.0 idea? What made you fall for it?

CM: That’s an interesting question. When I first saw Twitter I thought it was just a waste of time, and it wasn’t until I saw it as more of a marketing tool that I started to like it. I think it is a bit love/hate - there are those who are like I was at the beginning and see it as nothing more than a time waster so they hate it. Others love it.

PBP: In your first podcast you mentioned that you would start a software project in January 2008, regardless of what your Internet marketing income level is. January is coming soon, have you changed your mind? Will you be exploring Web 2.0 ideas? I’m asking simply because I have a hard time picturing Caroline Middlebrook coding an accounting system Can you tell us a bit more about your project?

CM: Damn, that is soon isn’t it! You know I had forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder! My original intention was to learn web development techniques and then write web software but since that podcast I have discovered a new idea of developing an online course about software development. That project would involve both programming and Internet marketing so that is likely to be the software project that I work on, and yes I need to get my skates on if I am going to get started on that in January!

Caroline, The Writer

PBP: Everyone’s waiting for your free revenue-generating niche site ebook. Just the idea of teasing the public by blogging about it once in a while is brilliant. What can we expect? Tell us a scoop…

CM: Hehe it wasn’t my intention to teaste actually! I just got started on it at a bad time and personal circumstances have made it difficult to work on it since. The book is really about Wordpress. Out of the ‘box’, Wordpress makes it easy to setup a basic blog but what a lot of people don’t realise is that it can also be incredibly effective for creating more standard niche sites with static content. So the book is basically a complete step-by-step walkthrough of me setting up a niche site (designed to generate Adsense revenue from SEO traffic) with Wordpress and all the details that go along with that.

Quick and Dirties…

PBP: Mac or PC?

CM: PC!

PBP: Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari?

CM: Firefox.

PBP: Do you use an RSS reader? If so,which one? How many RSS feed do you subscribed to?

CM: FeedDemon, and about 50 blogs in all.

PBP: Favourite Web 2.0 site (other than Twitter)?

CM: StumbleUpon

PBP: Favourite WordPress Plugin?

CM: Askimet spam protection

PBP: Favourite Blogger?

CM: Yaro Starak

PBP: Mentor?

CM: Personally, Steve Pavlina, Business, Yaro Starak

PBP: How many hours online per day?

CM: Far too many. Sometimes 10-12 but I intend to cut that down to no more than 8 and spend more time interacting with real live people in the flesh!

PBP: Caroline, thank you very much for this interview.

CM: No problem, was a pleasure.

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