In Conversation With Daniel Scocco And Amit Agarwal

Great Mind Thinks Alike, this is absolutely true.

I coined few questions before two heavy weight bloggers Daniel Scocco of DailyBlogTips.com and our very own Amit Agarwal of labnol.org. Expectedly on most of the issues both gave almost similar answers. Worth mentioning that while answering these questions both of these guys were unaware what other has quoted. Daniel love to explain things while Amit is a man of few words, spoke very clearly and to the point.

Well these guys need no introduction but for a newbie who want to know more about them:

Daniel Scocco started developing blogs and websites in 2005, on his blog Daily Blog Tips he shares what he learned along the way. The blog was nominated under the “Best Web Development Blog” category in the 2007 Weblog Awards, and currently it is ranked among the 500 most popular blogs in the world and among the 100 most popular marketing blogs in the world. He is also the founder of the online marketing and business training program Online Profits.

Amit Agarwal launched his blog Digital Inspiration in 2004 and is now the 40^th most-favorite blog on the Internet. Amit has appeared on TV and radio channels including BBC, CNN IBN, CNBC, NDTV, Star TV, ETV and Blog TV Singapore. He has been featured on the cover page of The Week magazine; Digital Inspiration won the Best Technology Blog award at Indibloggies 2006 and is also included in the prestigious “Blogs of Note” list compiled by the Blogger team at Google. The site also recommended as “must read” by “India Today” and is one of the top 20 blogs at Microsoft BlogStars.

Question: They say Video blogging is the next big thing? What you think about it?

Daniel Scocco: Video is huge. In fact it is not the next but the current big thing. If I am not wrong YouTube confirmed a while ago that it is streaming over 1 billion videos every day. As for video blogging, it depends how you define it. If you are talking about someone getting in front of a web cam and talking about general stuff, well I am not sure how many people will have success with that (some certainly will, but it requires talent). Independent video creations that try to explore different concepts have a bright future though.

Amit Agarwal: video blogging will get popular no doubt with the emergence of services like qik that bring live streaming to phones.

Question: Do you see any threat from “Video” blogging to the traditional/conventional “Text” blogging?

Daniel Scocco: I don’t think that video blogging threatens traditional blogging. Both media have their place. It is like when television came along. It certainly didn’t kill books and newspapers.

Amit Agarwal: They complement to each other, neither is a threat.

Question: Bunch of boys trying to make money from blogging and fails miserably, why people see blogging as a mean to make money rather than a platform to express their onion and thoughts?

Daniel Scocco: Money makes the world go around, so people will chase it wherever they can. I am not sure if the majority of the people who start blogging do so because of the money though. As for the people who want to make money blogging and fail, well, I believe it comes from the fact that they are not willing to put what it takes. Making money with a blog is no different than making money with another type of website or with an offline venture. As such, it requires a lot of time and hard work.

Amit Agarwal: Money from blogs is a long term effort and you only realize this when you get into the thing, I mean you read success stories that Mr. x is making y from blogging and you tend to thing that I too can do it, But it’s a long term effort and lot of people quit before they reach that stage.

Question: Affiliate Marketing and Blogging is a lethal combination if you know how to go about it, do you think blogging was designed for this purpose?

Daniel Scocco: I don’t think blogging was designed for affiliate marketing. In fact I am not even sure that we can say that blogging was “designed.” I see it rather as a phenomenon that emerged spontaneously on the web, and that was shaped by a myriad of factors.

Amit Agarwal: I have no clue about affiliate marketing so no comments; I never sold any affiliate product on your blog.

Question: There is flood of Blogging coaching programs in the internet market now, everyone claims to give inside secrets of how to become a super blogger and a rich affiliate marketer. What do you think on this situation?

Daniel Scocco: Honestly I haven’t checked most of those programs, so I couldn’t say if they are good or bad. The only program which I have seen the material is Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind, and I confirm it is quality stuff.  Yaro himself generated over $500,000 last year if I am not wrong, so he knows what he is talking about.

Amit Agarwal: I am not sure if they offer value, there are tons of great blogs / resources on the web that talk about blogging and communities in depth, follow them, read their archives, and that’s it.

Question: People consider you as one of the Guru of Professional Blogging, your take on that and also. Tell me who your favorites are?

Daniel Scocco: I don’t consider myself a guru. I just have a passion for business and online marketing, and I am glad that people like the stuff I share on my blogs. Some of my favorite bloggers are: Darren Rowse from Problogger.net, Neil Patel from QuickSprout.com, Leo Babauta from ZenHabits.net

Amit Agarwal: It’s a level playing field, you write good and unique content and they’ll find you. There’s no “god” in blogging, my favorite is Om Malik from GigaOM, very successful yet so down to earth.

Question: Your one single piece of advice to budding bloggers.

Daniel Scocco: If you are blogging as a hobby, have fun. If you are blogging to make money, treat it like a business and work hard.

Amit Agarwal: Work hard.

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