in Young Bloggers · July 18, 2009

Young Blogger Interviews #2: Liane from Better Blogging for Bloggers

Here we are on week two of this series with a great blog­ger who I have just found out about a few weeks back. Her name is Liane, and she has a really great com­mit­ment to her great blog.

As a mat­ter of fact, she has been writ­ing on the same blog for two years now. That is the longest com­mit­ment to a blog that I have seen from some­one under 18 yet, and I jumped at the chance to get an inter­view from her!

Luck­ily she was able to answer the ques­tions for this post quickly and filled her answers with great infor­ma­tion (espe­cially ques­tion #8). Enjoy!

1. To start off, can you tell us about your­self and your blog?

My name is Liane and I run Bet­ter Blog­ging for Blog­gers Dot Com.

I’m cur­rently 17 years old, a fresh­man col­lage stu­dent at a pre­mier uni­ver­sity (see, blog­ging and school are com­pat­i­ble). Just cel­e­brated my birth­day recently and as you can see, I’m still alive and blog­ging. Kid­ding. I’m a blog­ging guru and a pro writer.

2. What got you started in blog­ging at such a young age?

It was mostly curios­ity. Some­one just told me about it, I had no idea what that guy (which is a friend of mine) is talk­ing about so I ended up Googling every­thing. The rest, as they say, is history.

3. Do you have more than just a blog? If so, tell us about it.

I only run one blog (Bet­ter Blog­ging for Blog­gers Dot Com). But I’m open to blog con­sul­ta­tions and con­tent creation/contribution. Back then, I used to work for design­ing projects but it was cut-off since I’m with­out a lap­top as of now (I hope to buy one within the next month).

4. In about a para­graph, what would you say your blog means to you?

That’s a tough one. Well, as time grew, I can say my blog is almost like my vir­tual hub, a place so close to me that I can’t resist not check­ing it at least once every 24 hours. It is like… an exten­sion of myself.

5. How do peo­ple react to your age on your blog?

Haha. I like this ques­tion. I never fail to get a “wow, you’re so young to be so good” (or some­thing along the lines) every once in a while. Peo­ple are usu­ally sur­prised, espe­cially the older ones who have been around for ages here in the net. It’s cool. I mean, I get to prove that “age doesn’t mat­ter” and you can suc­ceed as long as you believe you can. The best part, I get to say “if I can do it, what more can you?”

6. What lim­i­ta­tions do you face as a blog­ger under 18?

A lot. But I can say my lim­i­ta­tions have been less­ened as time passed by. Back at 15 years old was the real tough times. If I get to face the com­puter for more than 3 hours with­out any home­work what­so­ever, they [my par­ents] won­ders what I’m up to – again! Finan­cially, was the real issue. The first time I went to Pay­Pal, I was really sweat­ing. I didn’t have a clue of what I’m sup­posed to do, and I’m dead scared if there will be fees for cre­at­ing an account. Haha. Mem­o­rable times.

7. Are your par­ents aware of your blog? If so, what do they think of it and what impact do they have on it?

Yes, they aware of it. But only as much as I want them to be. Good thing they’re not over look­ers. I don’t get any sup­port but I’m not dis­cour­aged as well. So I was just fine by myself. There was that time though when I said I wanted to buy my own domain. I was so ner­vous, I didn’t know how to prop­erly explain. In the end, I real­ized I could buy the domain with just my Pay­Pal money. Haha. Geez. If I had known sooner it could have saved a lot of unnec­es­sary talks.

I tried to explain blog­ging though once, I think they got a vague idea. I set­tled to the expla­na­tion that “I write online”. They’re more com­fort­able with that one. Lol.

8. What are the advan­tages of blog­ging young that “older” blog­gers don’t have?

On the seri­ous aspect, I think our main advan­tage is that we don’t feel a cer­tain “need” to do this. Most blog­gers turned to blog­ging as their sub­sti­tute to earn their daily liv­ing. Unlike them, there’s no need for us to rush things in order to make money online. Some­times, I just treat blog­ging like my daily Face­book blog. Major­ity of the older blog­gers’ tar­get is to really earn, and we can’t blame them. We still have our allowances in the first place :D

Our gen­er­a­tion are the hard­core “techies” so I think we have more skills in han­dling the tech­ni­cal stuffs. For exam­ple, I did my own blog theme, like how many kids now know their way around Pho­to­shop. Most older blog­gers just buy their own since they have lit­tle clue on how to build one from scratch. We’re good at those kinds of stuffs.

Also, we learn fast too, good and friendly com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills (thanks to Face­book) and are eas­ily loved because we show respect to the older ones. Plus, they usu­ally are a lot kinder when talk­ing to us young ones.

Best of all, we know to have fun!

9. What is your biggest accom­plish­ment as a young blog­ger? What kind of things do you see your­self doing by next year? How about 3 years?

My biggest accom­plish­ment? My suc­cess in blog­ging I believe. I’ve been run­ning a great blog and peo­ple turn to it for advice. It’s so good to get that feel­ing of help­ing oth­ers, even at a young age.

I can see myself prob­a­bly run­ning a small blog­ging com­pany within the next three years. I’m try­ing to learn inter­net mar­ket­ing right now and hope­fully, I’ll be suc­cess­ful in it too within the com­ing years.

10. What is your one best piece of advice for those under the age of 18 who are look­ing to start their own blog?

The best piece of advice? Go ahead, blog and have fun! Blog­ging is great, it enhances a lot of skills and enriches you as a per­son. Don’t be afraid to try new things, the online com­mu­nity is so full of opportunities.

Lastly, don’t get dis­cour­aged by your age. The young blog­gers group are actu­ally com­ing as strong com­peti­tors in dif­fer­ent niches right now! Just believe in your­self, if we can, then so can you!

{ 2 trackbacks }

Young Blogger Interviews #2: Liane from Better Blogging for Bloggers | Adobe Tutorials
July 23, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Interview with Liane, BetterBloggingForBloggers.com founder | AlreadyInspired.com
November 22, 2009 at 6:34 PM

{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Corey Freeman July 18, 2009 at 8:05 PM

Awe­some inter­view! I always love learn­ing from peo­ple more suc­cess­ful than myself. Some really inspi­ra­tional answers here. Thanks for shar­ing Liane. :)

Good luck with your con­tin­u­ing suc­cess.
Corey Freeman´s last blog ..The Easy Way to Annoy the Hell Out of Read­ers My ComLuv Profile

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2 Liane YoungBlogger July 20, 2009 at 5:10 AM

Thanks Corey! Young blog­gers like you also inspires me a lot :D
Liane YoungBlogger´s last blog ..Blog­ging Odds: Seize Suc­cess by Con­quer­ing Them All Right This Very Moment My ComLuv Profile

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3 Nick Tart | JuniorBiz July 18, 2009 at 11:16 PM

Regard­ing #8, that’s the best answer I’ve ever seen to that ques­tion! You’re absolutely right, young peo­ple are in it to have fun. You don’t see any young peo­ple pro­mot­ing get-rich-quick-schemes because they don’t need to. They’d rather do things right. This will ulti­mately make them more suc­cess­ful than their crag­gly counterparts.

Great inter­view, Alex and Liane. I really enjoyed it!
Nick Tart | JuniorBiz´s last blog ..Learn How to Spell ‘Entre­pre­neur­ship’ Once and For All My ComLuv Profile

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4 Liane July 19, 2009 at 4:08 AM

Wow Alex. This inter­view looks bet­ter than what I thought it was when I handed (mailed :) ) them to you.Thank you for the oppor­tu­nity! I’m feel­ing absolutely great right now. Thanks also to Corey and Nick! My best wishes to all of you guys :)
Liane´s last blog ..Blog­ging Odds: Seize Suc­cess by Con­quer­ing Them All Right This Very Moment My ComLuv Profile

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5 S.Pradeep Kumar July 21, 2009 at 10:17 AM

I had to explain a lot to my par­ents for domain reg­is­ter­ing, as they are not tech-savy ! :D

I cre­ated Hell­Bound Blog­gers when I was 17 ! :P

And I really like the 2nd Ques­tion. This one is close to my heart and it is same as mine.. cheers ! ;)
S.Pradeep Kumar´s last blog ..List Of Cool Blogs To Write Guest Arti­cles My ComLuv Profile

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6 Loy July 27, 2009 at 2:42 AM

Amaz­ing! Just goes to show that age doesn’t mat­ter in blog­ging. Read­ing inter­views such as this makes me more inspired to work harder and bet­ter in my blog­ging endeav­ors. Kudos to you Alex and also to Liane.

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7 Caden Grant July 28, 2009 at 1:44 AM

Sweet inter­view. I just recently came across Liane’s blog and she is a great writer.

It’s rare you find some­body who has been so con­sis­tent with their blog for as long as she has.

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8 Tycoon Blogger July 28, 2009 at 10:42 PM

very cool inter­view. I have been a fan of Liane for many months now. Liane, I love your pas­sion for blog­ging, it is contagious!

Alex, I like what you are doing here with your new blog…
Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..Mon­e­tize Your Blogroll – Do you? My ComLuv Profile

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9 fazreen July 29, 2009 at 3:56 AM

Nice interview..Hope we can be the new gen­er­a­tion of a dot com mogul!
fazreen´s last blog ..Killer List Of Blog­ging Arti­cle My ComLuv Profile

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10 me July 31, 2009 at 6:56 PM

Can’t state enough how impor­tant the entre­pre­neur­ial spirit is.

Curi­ous if any­one has caught this book yet? “The Rich­est Man in Town” by W Ran­dall Jones. I’ve read half of it so far and let me tell you it is well worth it. Would like to hear what every­one else thought of it?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446537837?ie=UTF8&tag=richestmanint-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446537837

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11 ZQ @ Travel Blog August 1, 2009 at 10:57 PM

This is a great inter­view and it couldnt come at a bet­ter time. i was a close fol­lower of Liane’s blog and had learnt a lot abt blog­ging that helped me start my travel blog.

Thanks!
ZQ
PassportChop.com
ZQ @ Travel Blog´s last blog ..Unusual Hotels: Sleep­ing in a Jumbo 747 Jet My ComLuv Profile

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12 George Serradinho August 3, 2009 at 9:25 AM

Liane has a won­der­ful site and I visit it every week, the posts are always a great read and the infor­ma­tion is top notch. This was a great inter­view and wish Liane the very best suc­cess in the future to come.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Seri­ous Monthly Roundup – July 2009 My ComLuv Profile

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13 Enk. August 10, 2009 at 2:43 PM

Awe­some Inter­view. Pretty much moti­vat­ing ! :)
Enk.´s last blog ..40+ Awe­some Mac Work­spaces My ComLuv Profile

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14 Hubtonomy August 11, 2009 at 2:51 PM

I’d wished I had got started at a much younger age, of course the inter­net was not around when I was that age:)
Hubtonomy´s last blog ..How To Deter­mine If A Niche Is Prof­itable My ComLuv Profile

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15 Muzi Mohale August 16, 2009 at 4:10 PM

Hi Alex, first I dis­cov­ered http://www.blogussion.com through a guest post Seth did on ProBlog­ger and I must admit your work is very impres­sive for a teenager, I’m already hooked on Blo­gus­sion, after brows­ing around I then dis­cov­ered that you’re actu­ally a ser­ial blog­ger with Asnio as well. On read­ing this inter­view I then checked out Liane’s blog and decided to give her blog critic report a go, what an edu­ca­tional feed­back I’ve received from her. I’m already work­ing on the short­com­ings that she addressed and hope to estab­lish a long term rela­tion­ship with her for my South African read­ers to be edu­cated as well.
Muzi Mohale ´s last blog ..Nom­i­na­tions opens for HICA Awards 2009 My ComLuv Profile

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16 Vic of BusinessAccent August 17, 2009 at 1:10 PM

Con­grat­u­la­tions to young blog­gers and entre­pre­neurs. You guys are doing great. How I wish I have start blog­ging when I was 13 years old. I am 28 but still I con­sider myself a young entre­pre­neur since I have not reached my 30th age.

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17 New Homes Blog August 22, 2009 at 12:38 PM

Very good! I’m impressed too, that such a young per­son would see the value in blog­ging and doing it con­tin­u­ously for over 2 years.

If only my nieces would lis­ten to me! I keep telling them to start a web­site now, and in 10 years… who knows what will become of it. But they’re not inter­ested in look­ing 10 years into the future! I guess nei­ther was I when I was their ages!
New Homes Blog´s last blog ..Cash for Clunker Appli­ances My ComLuv Profile

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18 Tanay | TJDzine August 27, 2009 at 6:29 AM

Great answer to #8. That’s so true, I think we can enjoy it a bit more than peo­ple who have to blog to make a liv­ing. Also, there isn’t really the pres­sure of ‘I have to write a post today even if I have writ­ers block’.
Tanay | TJDzine´s last blog ..Web Design Trends: Mas­cots — Exam­ples, Tips and Tuto­ri­als My ComLuv Profile

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19 Essay September 3, 2009 at 5:28 PM

This arti­cle shows that blog­ging is not rocket sci­ence. We have to work hard in the right direc­tion to make money through blog. Thanks Liane.

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20 Jage September 6, 2009 at 8:53 PM

my com­ment is the same with oth­ers which is ‘wow, you’re so young to be so good’ :)
Jage´s last blog ..i-Mobile TV630, Hand­phone With TV Tuner My ComLuv Profile

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21 Hakeem - technology and gadgets September 7, 2009 at 2:52 AM

Nice blog, Thank You for these advice.

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22 Volksphone September 17, 2009 at 12:13 PM

Great inter­views. I´m look­ing for­ward to read more inter­views about young blog­ger because i am only 21 years old, too. It is nice to see how other young blog­ger act and react.

Best regards,
Volk­s­phone!
Volksphone´s last blog ..Usability-Schnelltest für die eigene Fir­men­web­site My ComLuv Profile

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23 Alex @ Storm Shadow Costumes October 7, 2009 at 10:42 AM

hreat story — I per­son­ally get a lot of moti­va­tion out of what you young­sters can achieve — i WISH id started at your age — con­grat­u­la­tions.
Alex @ Storm Shadow Costumes´s last blog ..Childs Storm Shadow Cos­tumes My ComLuv Profile

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24 Teen Blogger October 13, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Great inter­est­ing interview.

Looks like your doing quite well on the inter­views part.

Look­ing for­ward to see more inter­views on young blog­gers. Always great to know some­thing about young blog­gers.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..Top 5 Crit­i­cal Mis­takes Blog­gers Make My ComLuv Profile

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25 Puddy100 October 20, 2009 at 9:06 AM

I’m only 15 years old.. feel free to visit my blog and tell me what you think of it, okay??? http://www.unzipped-to-humanity.blogspot.com

;)

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26 Hesham @ FamousBloggers November 22, 2009 at 1:47 PM

Great inter­view, I know Lian from the Famous Blog­gers Club, she is pretty cool blog­ger!
Hes­ham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..Blog­ging For Money – Begin­ners Guide #2 My ComLuv Profile

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27 Ajinkya January 5, 2010 at 8:34 AM

sweet and mind blow­ing inter­view , kudos to all of you
read­ing such kinda story really inspires me , hope you bright future
happy blog­ging ^_^
Ajinkya´s last blog ..New Year 2010 funny trick My ComLuv Profile

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