Being A Blogger

As V-day is approaching so we decided to interview Cory Huff from A Good Husband. He also blogs at The Abundant Artist . In this brief interview Cory talks about his blogs and the goals associated with them.

Hey Cory, would you like to introduce yourself to readers of BaB?

A. I am a 27 year old actor, director, and internet marketer. I live in Portland, Oregon in the USA. I hold a degree in acting but I do a lot of different things to make ends meet. I’m married (five years) to a wonderful woman I’ve known since junior high.

What do you blog about and how you did you get into blogging ?
I run two blogs. The Abundant Artist is about artist housing, creativity, and arts marketing. The blog started out as a journal of my journeys through the theater world. It talks about the more important issues surrounding the lifestyles that artists choose for themselves so that they can be engaged in their art.

My other blog, A Good Husband, is an advice blog for husbands. I started it because I noticed that there is a definite anti-man internet bias when it comes to looking for advice online. There are a lot of men giving advice on how to be good fathers, or at least sharing their experiences, but none just talking about how to be a good man and husband.

What are your goals for your blogs?
My goals for blogging include building a community of people around myself that I can plug into and talk to. To build a group that can and will help social and individual change come about in both artistic spheres and in the homes of individual families. Of course, I also plan on getting myself to the point where I can make a living for myself without any outside jobs. I really love writing because I can do it anywhere in the world (as I love traveling too).

What are your basic sources for visitors and contacts in blogosphere?

My biggest source of visitors on both blogs is Google. I get a pretty limited amount of traffic to The Abundant Artist, but those who do stop by are looking for specific information. Funnily enough, on A Good Husband most of my traffic comes from women looking for ways to help their husbands with Xbox Addictions. I wrote a blog about it a while ago and I still get a lot of traffic from it.

Even though Google gives me the majority of my traffic, the best contacts have come from me reaching out to other bloggers and online communities. I’ve had some great conversations with people, even some heated debates, but always informative.

Which blogs do you like the most and why ?
As a beginning blogger, I love ProBlogger (for obvious reasons). I am wild about Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek blog and I also like Dad Balance over at E-moms at Home. I like 4HWW because I find his advice insanely useful and practical for organizing my life. and I like Derek’s Dad Balance blog because he’s mentioned me a couple of times and who doesn’t love Link Love! He’s also a great writer and has a very grounded perspective.

What are the blogging tools that you use?

I use Google Analytics and MyBlogLog. I use Blogger as my platform. I know a lot of the professional bloggers out there don’t like it. But it’s free and I’ve never had a problem customizing it the way that I need it to be done. There are lots of online tutorials and hacks that people have done.

Any shoutouts or something you would like to share some success secrets with other bloggers?

I already gave a shoutout to Dad Balance. Other than that I would have to give a shoutout to JohnAugust.com. He’s a well known screenwriter who has some great insights about the Writers Guild Strike in Hollywood.

I don’t know that I’ve been all that successful as a blogger, but I do know this: blogging is a time consuming. Make sure you love it, because if you don’t, you’re wasting your time. It’s too hard to get noticed if you don’t love it.