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Me my Coke and I – Blog Case Study

Posted By Darren Rowse 4th of April 2006 Case Studies 0 Comments

Picture 6-3The following post was submitted by ProBlogger regular, Allen Heat, as part of the ProBlogger Case Study Series

6th of May, 2005 – I decided I should find a place to showcase my graphic designs, by that time I didn’t know what PHP meant, all i knew is that i needed a website. I purchased a subdomain at http://heatmax.illusionfxnet.com, and asked my friend to set up wordpress for me; I didn’t know it’s a blogging CMS by then, I just found it cool and easy to use. Infinity Graphic Designs blog came to life.

30th of March, 2006 – I held my first adsense cheque at the age of 16, it wasn’t a $100 cheque, i decided I’m going to make my first cheque reach a lot more than 100 bucks, and let’s say i did reach a lot more =).

Many many things happened between those months that I’d love to share, but since I’m limited in words and you’re limited in time, I’d like to talk about one big change that really affected my blogging: Me, My Coke & I, this blog started as my personal blog, and since I wasn’t expecting anything from it, and wasn’t obligated to write about a specific topic, I just went with the flow.

At some stage I looked at my archive and said: “it’s not even personal”, I didn’t share any juicy secrets from my life, I was just writing about things I’m interested in, so I wrote 10 common mistakes in newly created forums, a post that gave my blog a huge traffic boost. Skipping some parts of the story, I then discovered I’m very interested in tech,gadgets and web, but I never really knew what all those technical terms mean, add to that the fact English is my 3rd spoken language (after Hebrew & Arabic), then why would someone want to read my posts about tech and gadgets???

Cause there are a lot of guys and gals like me, they don’t really care if the MP3 player has a DCME feature (that I just made up), it looks good, it doesn’t cost that much, good sound quality, and it’s 2GB, now i think that’s enough for the average brain to know about an MP3 player.

The fact that I write tidbits (less text, more images) makes it easy for me to write multiple posts a day, update multiple blogs a day, and talk to the audience that aren’t necessarily technical gurus; This is what brought me to the level of traffic I’m have today; There is a lot to improve in terms of traffic, but I know this blog has got the potential, content is king, and persistence is the apprentice.

I’ve managed to turn Me, My Coke & I from an average personal blog, to an online magazine that was mentioned in respected blogs not once, it raised my earnings, it helped me improve my English, and most importantly: it satisfied my passion and my need to blog about anything that interests me, that’s why I chose the motto: Daily tidbits of tech, gadgets and pretty much anything to interest the average mind.

As a 16 years old I’ve managed to see things others wouldn’t, I’m sure there are two implications for sharing my young age in this case: 1. People will start taking my blogs less seriously because I’m a teenager 2. People would look at my achievements as a blogger despite and maybe because I’m a youngster and start taking me more seriously. What you will choose to do is your own business, but I’ve got some deeds to share. As for my future plans, two more blogs are coming in 2006, I just need to find a partner as passionate as me, perhaps a network could be launched before the end of the year.

I learned that content is king, and persistence is the apprentice, I learned that in some cases blogging superficially is probably the right thing, after all the everyday gadget is superficial, we don’t need to respect it that much. I learned that with minimum money and maximum will you can do more than $10 in AdSense. I learned that passion is the key and patience is the door it opens to the road of success. Blogging has brought me too many things to count.

Lastly I’d like to thank the man and the blog – Darren Rowse for guiding me personally and through out his inspiring posts, I’d also like to thank my ego that always talked to me and said “you’re a loser if you give up”, and of course I’d like to thank you bloggers for being a role model at times, for showing me how I shouldn’t act to others, and for reading this long post.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Nice to see you here Allen. What a surprise, I have a deep impression of My-Coke.net ever since I saw pingbacks to HipTechBlog from it (thanks for linking!), probably because I like Coke (but I love coffee more!) hehe.

    Nice to see someone your age already getting into serious blogging. :)

  2. […] Let me take a little break and welcome the (many) visitors coming here from Darren’s Problogger.net, Darren did a case study about this blog and it’s success. […]

  3. Must Love Goblins says: 04/04/2006 at 4:59 am

    Congratulations on your success. I was broke at 16. ;) It’s all the more impressive that you’re managing to make money blogging for an English-speaking audience, when it’s your third language!

  4. The fact that you are out there blogging is great. What you are doing right now is the best way to go about starting to blog. I feel that it is always better to write about something that you have a huge passion for because many times you end up sticking with it longer. The other thing that really stood out for me from your post is that you started out writing for yourself which is also a good way to go about blogging. In the end, blogging is about getting your thoughts out and making money is a byproduct of that. Keep up the good work!

  5. Thanks for all the kind words, i really appreciate and enjoy this exposure =)

    A.H

  6. Great stuff, Allen.

    Being 16 you’ll have the last laugh over any naysayers – you’ve got so many years in front of you – I only wish I was 16 again.

    Your English is actually quite good – better than some whose English is their only language :-)

    Glad to see another coke (coca-cola, I mean) addict here…

  7. Goes to show there are no barriers to blogging making money on the internet.

  8. […] If so, then it would be better to purchase a subdomain for sale. Another potential advantage to buying a subdomain would be to be a part of a great keyword domain. I googled “subdomain for sale” and didn’t find much, so I’m not sure about this… but Darren Rowse bought a subdomain, which has me asking why? 04.03.2006 […]

  9. Hey I used to visit your blog and never thought that you are 16.
    but what i read is the content, not your age, you ve been doing much better than most of the older blogger…

    keep it on!!

  10. Congratulations on your success. Very, very impressive and inspiring to other teens.

  11. Ya, keep up the good work.

    Evan
    MoneyMakingTeens.com

  12. Hi Allen,
    thank you very much for your inspiring article. I’m from Germany and I have already launched a few blogs here, but never thought about starting an English blog. Now, after reading your report, I’m feeling quite encouraged to try it as an experiment and maybe an experience. For me, it could be a challenging way to improve my rather poor English and to reach a much bigger circle of readers.
    Thank you again and all the best!
    Stefan

  13. Hi Allen,
    I’ve visited your site and very impressed with what you did there. I just started blogging last couple of months or so. Language is always been a problem to me since. Just like you, English is not my native language – not even my third language.I’m a Punan – a very small tribe (less than 5000 peoples) from Sarawak on the Island of Borneo. In fact i’m the only one from my tribe that has a blog and a website.

    Feel free to check my blog at http://punan.net/blog [Darren, pls don’t delete the link :) ]. It is actually a community blog – whereby I post information about Punan culture, history, opinions and struggles.
    Almost 70% of my visitors are from Australia & US. They complaint a lot about my poor English. I feel almost giving up blogging in English before I read your success stories at Problogger.Thank, you’ve given me hope – I’ll try to survive and double the effort to master English language.

  14. I’m really happy i managed to inspire some of you aswell, when i look at my older posts in the blog i notice a huge improvement between now and then.

    @Stefan: Update me with the development with your upcoming English blog if you decide to go for it!

    @Calvin: Never give up =), i suggest you buy a babylon translator for $15/year (helped me a lot), download Google Toolbar and use the spell checker, or just install the checkspeller plugin in WordPress. Use one of these and always check your spelling.

    Another option, and that’s for the grammar part: join forums, there are millions of them with many many topic that some of them will surely interest you. don’t be shy to post and read what others have to say, you will learn through trial and mistake.

    All the best luck, and feel free to contact me, my address is at Me, My Coke & I

    Thanks again,
    A.H

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