An optimist is the human personification of spring.

Susan J. Bissonette

There are people in the blogsphere who aren’t in books, linked to from every blog, or interviewed on every corner. Some of these people are earning a living, help people, or both. They reach out and connect, and they encourage us on our journey.

Over the next few weeks I would like to introduce you to some of the people who have encouraged me and played a big part in getting me to where I am now. I would like to thank Robert for agreeing to tell us more about himself!

Introducing, Robert Bravery – The Brave Programmer

Robert Bravery
The Brave Programmer
Twitter ID: @robertbravery

Tell us when you started for first blog, and what it was about.
Well my first blog was way back when blogging was not blogging. But I soon gave that up as I was not a good writer, so I thought, nor a prolific reader. I suffer from a form of dyslexia, which discouraged me from writing. At the time I never knew I had dyslexia, so that made it worse. My first thoughts where that blogs, or articles, or columns were for the recognized authors or journalists.
Then back in 2007 I got more involved with website marketing and development. Saw the need for blogs as a way to brand myself, promote my website. So I started blogging again. Putting some serious hours into it.
My first blog was a Christian blog, which I only update now and again. I actually should put some more effort into that. Then I started a blog about dBASE, a database programming language. Finally, I started the Brave Programmer, a technical blog about programming, web development and blogging. Over the years it has taken on a life of its own.

How many blogs have you started, and of those, how many do you still update?
I have started many, but probably about six main ones. But it became too much for me to keep up. SO now I have three left, of which I put 90% effort into one, The Brave Programmer.

At what time in your blogging journey did you realize you could turn this cool journaling into a business?
When I started to link my Technical blog, The Brave Programmer to my business website. After reading many blogs like Problogger, David Risley, etc, I realized that I could make money out of this. Have not made the millions yet. But in time will get there.

What has been the hardest part of your blogging journey?
Well there have been two. Building up readership is extremely difficult. I have a very different approach to some of the other bloggers out there. I want to build loyal readers, not just passersby, so it has been a hard and difficult journey.
The second, is actually writing content. Well writing the content is easy, research and the like is very time consuming, but educational at the same time.

If you sell a product of your own on your blog, what is it, and why do you feel it’s important for bloggers to have a product of their own?
I don’t sell a product as yet. I have many reason why I have not done so. Perhaps for another discussion. But I do believe that it is important to have a product to sell. But one needs the right product at the right time. I am in the process of writing a few eBooks, of which some will be free and some will be paid for.

Who designed your blog and how important is having a good design?
Well I designed my own. It has gone through a few changes. I love getting constructive criticism from readers who are able to help make the design better. People like you, Erica, have helped in that department.
It is very important to have a good design. Your theme design is what greets people first. When they come to your blog does the design cause a fright and flight type of syndrome or a grab and attract effect. You might have great content, but if it is presented with in the wrapping of a dogs breakfast, no one is going to bother reading it.

If you were just starting and you had $100 to spend on your blog, where would you spend it?
Good hosting and Good design/theme

What is your passion?
My passion is blogging, programming and helping others learn more. Teaching and seeing other bloggers and programmers grow and improve is reward for me.

About Robert

I’m a Husband and father first. Family comes first, right after God. I am passionate about technology, programming web development, and of course blogging. Even though I have a reading and writing problem I enjoy blogging.
I was born and bred in South Africa. Home of the 2010 FiFa world cup. Rugby World Champions, and obviously the country of Nelson Mandela. I married a British lass from Liverpool, fortunate for me seeing that I support Liverpool football club in the English premiership. We have Two children, a 3 year old daughter, and a 13 year old son.

A few of my favorites from Robert’s recent archives…

Is blogging a calling or a career?
20 Crazy Ways to Promote Your Blog
Web Safe Fonts

If you have additional questions for Robert please leave them in the comments. I’m sure he’d be happy to continue the interview!

If you’ve been around here anytime at all you’ve seen the banners, and maybe even a post or two about Beyond Blogging, the hot new book by Mike Cliffe Jones and Nathan Hangen. Call it my current promotion if you will. I’ve believed in this project, and looked forward to the release of the book since the guys first started talking about it on their individual blogs. I even broke my own rule of becoming an affiliate and marketing the book before I had a chance to read the whole thing!

I knew Beyond Blogging would be a good read… good enough to wait for the hard copy. And, I was right! I’ve just finished reading it and I’m already trying to decide… do I read it again, put it on the shelf to read again later, or pass it on to someone who would really benefit from it? Putting it on a shelf seems like a waste. I’d rather see it passed around and enjoyed over and over…

The Best Blogging Book I’ve Read…

Beyond Blogging sheds light on the sheer amount of work, passion, and focus it’s featurees (is that a word?) put into their blogging businesses. None of them were overnight successes. Sure, maybe their 14th blog, the one that’s popular now, gained speed quickly, but what were they doing before? How many blogs did they start and scrap before they got to where they are now? Does their blog support their business and has grown from there, or is the blog alone their business?

I also really enjoyed the last chapter of the book, The Six Figure Blogging Blueprint, which summarized the things successful bloggers do, and why it’s important to start out doing these things instead of ‘waiting till we’re popular.’ Having a good design, branding, building a community, and engaging on social media are all things one should be doing from the very beginning.

In reference to design/branding the guys say this:

…your blog is the pulpit from which you preach. If it looks like garbage , then you’ll have a hard time building an audience, no matter how great the content might be.

Beyond Blogging is for you if…

• You’ve ever wondered how the A-listers like Darren Rowse, Copyblogger, Pete Cashmore, Penelope Trunk, and others made their way to the top.
• You are ready to turn your hobby blog into a business.
• You’re just getting started and you need some direction, a coach if you will, to show you where to start.

Are you ready to go Beyond Blogging?

Some friends came to me this week and asked if I’d help with the launch of their site’s new look. I didn’t need to actually code or build anything, they’d already hired developers, but they wanted someone to be there through the actual switchover. So, last night I joined a Skype conference to get updated on all that would be going down, and tonight I’m refreshing the page every few minutes to make sure things are running smoothly. I’ve jumped in to help once or twice, but for the most part, I’m a silent watcher without any real authority or responsibility. My mother would call me a snoopervisor. Read the rest of this entry…

It’s the end of week one of a proposed three week project. The client is ready to roll. I am anxious to start…

Yea. Haven’t even started yet. The client’s previous web developer is too busy telling me how to do things to hand over a blasted FTP login.

Three emails back and forth with this guy (note, I’m a subcontractor on this, so I am not dealing with him directly, but the go-between is copy/pasting my emails to him) and I have yet to obtain the information I asked for. Read the rest of this entry…