Why did I start my about page with this quote? Just because. It’s one of my favorites.
Hey, I’m Greg. Welcome to Dear Blogger. I first discovered blogging in a “WordPress For Dummies” book two years ago at Barnes and Nobles. Reading through it, I was deeply intrigued. So deeply that I spilt my coffee all over the darn thing. Feeling guilty, I bought the book for $20. Fate? Perhaps.
- I read the whole train ride home. It was October 2010. That night, I proceeded to start up my first blog, a college Wikipedia called Honest College. It was more fun than anything I had tried before.
- After 6 months of blogging, my work was featured in the Huffington Post alongside BroBible (here’s the feature).
- Two weeks later, I was offered gigs writing for Sony and Adobe’s new product divisions. My apartment filled quickly with new software, random stuff like T-shirts, even a new laptop.
- After 1 year of blogging, I was recruited by the City of New York to manage this website used by millions of small businesses each month. Still doing that, lots o’ work.
- At the 1.5 year mark, I was flown to the Adobe HQ in San Fran to witness creation of CS 6. (thank you Ivy!)
This was my first paid trip and it sort of convinced me I could actually do this blogging thing for a living.
- At the 26 month mark (that’s now) I’m travelling the globe with my “Mac in my knap-sack”. I frequently get gigs on blogs like ProBlogger, Hongkiat (big in Malaysia) and my new favorite, PickTheBrain. I’ve come to love blogging more and more each day. Most often I’m based in NYC.
Some say I’m a quick learner. I’d say I’m a quick learner only when I find something that I love. My grades in university would suggest that!
So why did I create Dear Blogger?
Because I truly like helping people. That little moment when I see I’ve shared knowledge with a reader, and it has actually helped their efforts, makes all the work associated with blogging worth it.
People forget that good blogging is about adding value to the reader’s life. It’s not about getting more fans, traffic, and links to your blog. That’s all part of the process but it’s become such a focus that it clouds what you as a blogger can offer people.
I want to bring the focus back to real issues in blogging. I used to write on most failed college courses, but there was a lot more demand for this.
Have you heard of Dear Blogger?
No? Then check out my welcome to Dear Blogger post. Dear Blogger is all about answering blogging questions quickly, painlessly, and without the fluffy jargon the web is so full of these days. Ask me a question on email (greg@dearblogger.org), Twitter, or Google+.
You can even ask how my day is going 
That’s about it, you should probably hop onto an entry of mine now because that’s where the magic really takes place!
Oh, and occasionally I consult too.
Think we could learn from eachother?
Hope you feel at home here at Dear Blogger. I’m always around to help.
To Great Blogging,
p.s. If you learned anything new here how about a share? Just click to the left!
Dear Greg,
I came across your blog while surfing through the net. There was a mention of your blog and a 25 year old who runs the blog. It intrigued me much to Google it and find Dear Blogger.
Needless to say, I loved reading through the posts (only few I have read until now and decided to bookmark it).
I am a blogger myself, and would love to get connected with you for further discussions. Kindly share your email ID with me.
Sumana
Hey there Sumana!
Well yeah, it’s a great blog
Subscribe and I’ll give you my “email ID”
Keep on reading!
Great story!
Hey Fiona!
Thanks – what’s yours?
Very nice article. I certainly love this site. Continue the good work!
Appreciate it blagoje! Come back soon!
Hmmm… I pretty much only Blog about my Chat Program I’ve been Developing as a passion for the last 7 years… I probably take all of this way too seriously but I plan to have the most powerful chatting tool in the World before I’m done… lots to do… our todo list just keeps growing and growing while I wait for several stock investments to pay off to fund further Development!
Best of luck with your new career… self employed sure has a nice ring to it – Mag
Hey Mark, does indeed.
What’s your program? That’s a competitive niche but I commend your investment. Keep growing the user base!
It’s called MagChat… does a number of things differently than traditional chat programs… we tried to approach this as a clean sheet of paper type project… actually there has been precious little innovation in Chat programs since I used to run a 50 line BBS… we’re still in the middle of the Development process which will pick up again once a few of my investments pay off, to fund it. Word Processors, Spread Sheets etc… all have undergone tremendous evolution and novel idea improvements… Chats still basically the same… I think because it’s always been considered a throw away application and not much a revenue generator…. we began the project simply because we wanted a better chatting tool for ourselves… no plans to commercialize this… it’s a free service and will always remain so… right now only runs on Windows (any vers) but our todo list has native iOS and Android clients as well… 8,000 sound clips from movies, tv, politics, etc… and around 7,000 images & emoticons & smileys… once the Code Base is done I plan to try and get CNET to review it… it’s been a labor of love and a fun project to date to work on… also since I work from home, an easy way to still have social interaction with my friends
Keep up the good work! I will follow you on Twitter.
Thanks Loyce! Seeya there.
Hey Greg, Nice to know you Greg!! I would love to know the bloggers first and then their blogs. If a blogger is dear, the blogs would be more dearer. Ain’t I right DearBlogger? Subscribing
Hi Koj!!
Exactly, it’s dearly loved place here.
What are you bloggin’ about lately?
Hi Greg.
I came directly to this ABOUT ME page from Ehsanullah’s link in FB.
I was wondering if ABOUT ME is this interesting, then what would be your article’s like
Subscribing To Your Blog Right Now !!
Greetings,
Akhil Pulotil.
That’s awesome Akhil.
Oh, trust me they are out of this world. Spread the word!!
Great blog and very nice owner! I cordially greet
Right back at ya Nadia!
“People forget that good blogging is about adding value to the reader’s life. It’s not about getting more fans, traffic, and links to your blog.”
I LOVE that you said this Greg. I’m a total newbie, and frankly blogging as a marketing tool, goes against every fiber of my being. But, just reading a few pages of your site, I truly get the sense that you’re passionate about helping people. It’s wonderful and inspiring. Makes the process seem less daunting for sure!
Thanks Greg!
Wow you really “get” me Joyce
I just got so sick of blogging answers being hard to find. Obviously this blog doesn’t have ALL the answers yet but, it gets closer each day.
Welcome!
Necessity is the mother of all invention, right?
Nobody has all the answers, but creating a platform that genuinely promotes this kind of synergy is pretty friggin’ awesome.
AND, to impart all this learnin’ with such humor and kindness, is a rarity indeed!
What a wonderful blog – both informative as well as fun to read!
Cheers Rahul!
Hey Greg,
Your blog is one of those rare finds in internet space. I love the human aspect of your blog(friendly reply to comments and always ready to help people.) Emulating your style(the interactive element of your blogging) is what i highly recommend to upcoming bloggers. Reading your story of how you ended up being a blogger is a real inspiration. Keep up the great effort and success all through the way!!!
Hey, inspiring is what I do!
Try writing from your own experiences. Write openly about items you know about and write your feelings about them without fearing being wrong. It tends to be a big mistake to copy from experts than to learn from your own errors. Your personal experience is the most precious blogging asset that you have.
Appreciate that insight Grace!
Hi Greg,
very cool advice, at least for some one like me, who is very new in this world of blogging. Your home page is very refreshing, now a days I am also spending lot of time in designing/creating my soon to be published blog. Thanks for showing the path and guiding, lets see where it takes me and my vision.
Absolutely any time Tribikram. Welcome to blogging!
I’m glad you found Dear Blogger
Refreshing eh? Thanks! My advice is keep it simple at first. Then add features. New readers should be able to understand your mission in about..10 seconds. Otherwise you might lose people (and initial readers so SO valuable).
Hey good going brother, true description of blogger and your blog title totally fits you and that’s what a blogger should be ” Dear “, i hope this blog will influence other bloggers to know kinda attitude a blogger needs.
Thanks Devagya, you nailed it.
If this blog influences just one reader at a time and makes our blogging world better, I’ll go to sleep happy
Hi!
It’s nice to came across your blog and to read about you. So, “WordPress For Dummies” does became the initial step to get to know about blogging for you. Well yes, blogging is about adding value to the reader’s life.
Best of luck for future
Regards
Nizam Khan
Still have it Nizam
I should really open it up again.
I dig Techalam, very sleek design you’ve got there.
Hey,
I came across blog through happy schools
(you wanted to know if I am right !).
. I write what I feel, like I write what is going on in my mind through words which at times can me tagged as ” poems” . It was nice to see your blog have a look at mine too ( not too gr8 as yours 
) . Anyways all the very best 
your blog is cool you have a friendly way of blogging, those smiley which you put in the end of your statements are gr8.
I started blogging a month back
Five smilies Poornima?! New record…
But mix it up a little, geez.
I just commented at your blog, very poetic indeed.
Welcome (to the club) and can’t wait to hear more from ya!
You write in an excellent way! I am your fan..:) How could you developed such writing skills? Was it novels ? Or your breakfast coffee that did the trick?
Junaid – Hehe, awesome comment. The coffee helps…could use some right now in fact. And no novels, yet. Someday…
Greg, I’m really impressed by your about me page. Check out mine and I am expecting few suggestions from you, the expert.
Good luck!
Mohamed – Tell us how you plan to change the entire industry for the better! That, and a quote from someone relevant/famous never hurts…
Very intriguing story.
Kulwant:
1) Great to meet you here
2) You comment like a PRO!
3) Would love to hear your story
You are really lucky to get that Huffpo link. But do you think after Penguin updates, back-links matter?
I’ll be interested in Greg’s thoughts but have shared my opinion below.
Quality links always matter. Penguin is designed to stop sites getting unfair SEO through links (and other methods) that weren’t earned. If you get linked to on merit then it’s always a good thing.
I daresay the best thing about the link Greg received from Huffington wasn’t the SEO benefits but would have been the chance to engage with visitors/sponsors who might not have otherwise found his site. As well as the obvious status boost.
At least that was our experience when we got linked to by a major paper.
Note: my site probably won’t interest most of you, I’m just interested in sharing my thoughts.
Hey James,
It’s kinda of like immediate benefit, then long-term, you know? And I’m always interested to check out a new site.
Definitely, the new interactions were fantastic. That and when people Googled my blog’s name I finally came up #1
It’s so funny, people seem to think all back-links were devalued post Panda/Penguin, but it’s really just the sketchy/artificial ones. For examples ones that came from nearly-dead sites, or links with misleading anchor text.
I can say this: if your site has a ton of content, and benefits from lots of authors, it probably jumped above mom/pop camps in Search. It seems the strength of all articles on a site is a huge factor now, as opposed to the strength of just one really informative, highly linked-to article.
But it’s for the better
-The Blogger
Great description! You really are talented
No, no, no. You are!
Hey Greg,
Awesome, refreshing stuff. I like the unique voice and presentation of your blog. Looking forward to seeing where it goes
- Sean
Hey Sean,
Thanks. Spent forever creating this darn page. Hopefully it goes good places. I checked out your blog, nice numbers! You don’t allow comments?
-The Blogger
Woah, you already have a great backing and so much of history behind you. Ah, you’ll be successful right away! Good luck!
Aditya
Thanks Aditya!
Great to found your blog Greg, after visiting you I’m really in love with Dear Blogger. BTW, I found you from your guest post on Daily Blog Tips.
Nice to read your blogging journey, A great blogger!
Thank you Ehsan! I’ll respond to your question tonight. Now time to field some comments on DBT.