July 28, 2007

Interview #1 - Trent Hamm - TheSimpleDollar.com

First up, we have Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar speaking on blogging to build a personal brand. I was immediately drawn to Trent’s personal finance blog with his very real and down-to-earth financial advice.

Without further ado….

1. For those of us who are unfamiliar with you, could you briefly describe who you are and what you do?

My name is Trent Hamm. I am the author of The Simple Dollar, a blog on personal finance and personal development topics, and I’m a regular contributor to MSN Money.

2. How and why did you get started in launching a personal finance blog?

In late 2005, I became a father for the first time and I knew I had to start getting my finances in order. In mid-2006, I had a serious financial crisis and I threw myself into learning more about my finances (you can read about the meltdown here). Since I had a passion for writing and had never really delved seriously into blogging, I decided to blog about my experiences and the things that I learned, and it began to take off from there.

3. What have you learned so far that you wish you knew when you first started out?

Content matters more than anything else. I spent too much time early on worrying about page layout, etc. If your stuff is good and the pages are readable (and you don’t intrude on their reading experience, so no ads or anything in the middle), readers will find you.

4. How important do you consider your blog to be for creating your personal brand? Did you consider other channels?

My blog is paramount for my personal brand. This blog and MSN are the primary places where you’ll find my name online, yet I’m starting to see people doing Google searches for me. I hope to continue to leverage these things into a name people will recognize.

5. What techniques have you found to be most effective in promoting your blog?

Conversing with my regular readers. I send emails to my regular readers all the time (people who leave comments or email me). This gets them involved and excited and often leads to them telling others about the site. From there, it’s viral, especially if there’s content there that others enjoy reading about.

6. Number one tip for someone starting a blog to build up their personal brand?

Be yourself, even if that has some small flaws to it. If you spend too much time developing a false image, eventually people will see through it.

7. So as the resident financial expert on Blogathon or Bust 2007, what advice can you pass on to all of us entrepreneurs in funding our own startups and ventures?

Start small and see if it works before diving in. I started The Simple Dollar with a shared computer and a few hours of spare time and it’s now bringing in a million hits a month. On the other hand, I’ve invested a ton of resources into other projects just to watch them flounder.

Thanks very much Trent; we all look forward to keeping tabs on your blog(and possible book)!