Bloggasm

Simon Owens: Do you find that by hosting KBCafe blog awards at your site that you increase traffic as blogs link over to you to gain nominations?

Randy Charles Morin: The blog awards don’t seem to be increasing traffic or links at all to KBCafe. I currently have one link to the awards and those that are voting seem to be the regular crew of people that read my blog. I didn’t expect the nominations to generate much traffic at all, but I suspect that the voting phase will.

SO: As a popular blogger, do you find yourself invited to conferences to speak often?

RCM: I suspect some may think I’m more popular than I am. I have been invited to a couple smaller conferences to speak, but my wife doesn’t let me play with the other geeks at conferences outside of the Greater Toronto Area. Something about three kids driving her crazy. In 2005, I left my family for one trip to Victoria for 3 days, all business. I’ve given one presentation this year and it was at DemoCamp in Toronto.

SO: I’ve noticed that you display Google ads on all your blogs. How effective have they been for you?

RCM: I experimented with Adsense for two years (Jun 2003-2005) and made about $200 total. Finally, one day, I took the pill and stopped placing ads way down the right sidebar and put them in the middle of the Web page. Revenues jumped from several dollars per month, to several dollars per day. I still don’t make the $274 per day, the big goal, but I’m well on the way.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

RCM: I don’t think there’s five blogs that everyone should read. We all have our own interests and blogs are all about the long tail and niches. So, let me suggest 5 of the best niche blogs.

* The biggest news of 2005 was the Google IPO and launch into super stardom. The best place to follow the good and bad of Google is the Inside Google blog authored by Nathan Weinberg.
* As a native of Toronto and a technologist, I’m interested in two things. The rise of RIM and the fall of Nortel. Mark Evans’ Northern Telecom..and Tech blog is where I keep on top of my local tech happenings.
* I love getting a different perspective on the Web happenings. To get that perspective you have to go oversees and read in another language. For me that’s Philippe Janvier’s .Conforme blog written in French. And subscribe to his blogmarks while you are there.
* Another different perspective is that of the mundane technologist who’s trying to just get his job done using blogs. That role is best exemplified by Steve Rubel on his Micro Persuasion blog.
* The biggest company in the Web industry is Microsoft and as a developer, I like to keep up to date on Microsoft technology. Robert Scoble’s Scobleizer blog is the best place to keep informed on Microsoft.

You can read Randy’s blog over here