Interview: Patricia Millman, Founder of Best Site on All Things Lavender

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I am honor to feature Patricia Millman from LavenderUses.com in this very first interview conducted in Findmyblogway. Pat is the founder of best site on all things Lavender. She started her blog back in June 2010 and she has successfully creating a very active community in her blog. Every post she publish now can easily attract an average of 60-100 comments. Her last few post even manage 100+ comments.

She is always humble claiming she is new in blogging and has much to learn. However i believe she can teach us something and that is her networking skills. Probably she doesn’t realize by visiting and commenting in numerous blogs, she has actually creating a strategy of her own to attract traffic to her blog.

Whenever i visit a blog, she is always there with her comments left under the post. Her comments are like a mini post, adding value and providing her insight. I am really amazed by her consistent quality in her comments. This actually bring out her personality and the blog owner often have to stand up and start taking note of her.

Day by day, months by months, continuing her routine of networking with other bloggers has really make her popular in the blogosphere. Just like one of her post, Small Niche Big Ideas. Her niche may be small but her aspiration to succeed can’t be undermine.

Pat was very kind to give me the opportunity to do an interview with her. I hope you like the interview as much as i do! Please enjoy!

1. Most of my readers will be very familiar with you. For the benefit of those who don’t know you, can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Patricia and I am from Perth in Western Australia.  My love for lavenders was fostered by my Grandmother. She introduced me to lavender water as she called it, when I was a young child. Then as an adult I grew lavenders; after visiting Norfolk Lavender Farm. The rest of my story is on my all things lavender blog if you would like to know more.

2. How did you get into blogging?

I was surfing the net when I kept coming acrossthe term “blog”. So I emailed an internet marketing friend and asked him what it was all about and when he told me I began to Google sites that had the word “blog” in them. I eventually did a blogging course and at the end of June 2010 I started seriously blogging myself.

3. I understand you visit a lot of blogs everyday. Can you tell us who is your favorite blogger and why? You can name more than one if you like to.

My 2 favourite bloggers are Rick LaPoint and Alex Whalley. I see them as my “unofficial” mentors. Just don’t tell them Lye will you?! Rick is a brilliant wordsmith and I love well-written posts. He is also a geek, so can answer my many questions if I want to know things about Headway theme which we both have on our respective blogs. It is also where I have published my first Guest Post. He is also an accomplished and experienced marketer. If you want to learn how to market effectively, visit Rick’s blog to learn more.

Alex Whalley is a fellow Aussie so he has a heads up straight away. He writes information packed yet humorous posts about topics I need to know heaps more about! He offers help before I even ask for it. I remember those kind gestures and really appreciate all the help he has given me. Usually I ask him heaps of questions on his blog. Gives him plenty of ideas for more posts apparently.

As an aside to this question; I have connected with many other bloggers who have helped and encouraged my blogging journey and the steep learning curve I am on continually. Ben is my go-to guy for techie problems too and I just want to let you all know I so appreciate you all.

4. I actually noticed a spike in comments during August 2010 in one of your posts. You seem to be everywhere online, commenting on numerous blogs and networking with other bloggers. Do you think this could be the reason you are seeing a spike in your blog traffic?

I hadn’t really analysed when it all began happening for me. Getting a few comments to start with was both a surprise and a relief. Meant there were a few people who were noticing my small niche blog. As I visited more blogs and went back to those blogs when new posts were published, people then came to check out my blog. The traffic is now growing steadily.  Commenting and networking has certainly helped.

5. Are there any other methods you use to generate your blog traffic?

I am active on Twitter. I get traffic from there. Although from analytics (which I hasten to add Ben did for me) I am getting more traffic organically from Google which surprised me!. Being positioned well on Google has obviously helped get my blog noticed and brought more traffic to my blog. When people are looking for specific information, having good keywords helps. So Alex tells me. Also networking with experienced bloggers has helped improve my blog’s visibility. Being mentioned in their posts has introduced me to more people. Their readers will then usually come and check out my blog. Having a unique brand and being genuine has also been important. This has got my blog noticed and talked about. As you can see, my traffic comes not from one source but many.

6. How do you actually keep track of the blogs you have visited and commented?

Many of the blogs I comment on I visit regularly, I now know what days people post, whose blogs I visit and then add new ones as I discover them. Many I visit I also follow on Twitter so see when they have published by their tweets. When you comment often, it’s easy to keep track, because I don’t see it as just visiting blogs to comment. It is more about visiting my blogging buddies and joining in the conversation. With the added bonus of learning something new while I’m there.

7. How many hours do you spend in blog commenting and visiting other blogs?

My serious marketer friends if answering for me would say….too many hours! My fellow networkers would say as long as it takes and I am enjoying myself. The honest answer is I don’t time myself but it is many hours each day. It takes longer when you read the post, read everyone else’s comments and stay to comment too! But time does fly when I’m having fun.

8. One thing I admire about you is I find you commenting on so many blogs but all your comments are insightful and well crafted. How do you manage to do that?

I just read the post and then write a comment according to what I have learnt. To me it is no different to having a one-on-one conversation. I don’t think about it before the conversation starts. But once I start writing the words flow. It helps that I love being social and interacting with other people on the net. If I have been to someone’s home and had a meal, enjoyed their company and had a nice time I will let them know. Before leaving I will thank them and tell them I appreciate whatever they have done to make my time with them enjoyable. Why wouldn’t I do the same when I visit another person’s blog? After all it is their virtual real estate. I don’t really think it is any more complicated than that!

9. What is your ultimate goal for Lavenderuses.com? For example more people to understand the use of lavender etc?

Initially my goal was to share the many uses of the lovely lavender. I am now expanding my blog to include my “Patricia’s Ponderings” on blogging. So although my blog is a platform and a tool for my fledgling business selling lavender products; I would eventually like to also be a resource for aspects of blogging I enjoy such as networking and social media. A work in progress at the moment Lye, so the goal posts keep changing. Sorry I can’t be any more specific than that.

10. Finally, what is the most important thing you have learnt since you started blogging?

That to collaborate with others is the way forward and therefore asking for help is okay.

Thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

Thanks for inviting me Lye. It has been an honour to be here on your blog, answering your well thought out questions.

I hope you have a great read. Be sure to visit Pat’s site for more uses on Lavenders or follow her on Twitter for her latest updates.

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