Author Interview with Rhyswynne

Rhys from The Gospel According to Rhys has been chosen for the next Blog about your Blog author interview. I have asked Rhys a series of questions about some personal things, blogging and blog about your blog. I hope you enjoy the interview.

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I am a 23 year old Welshman from Colwyn Bay, and after graduating in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science and a brief spell in a call centre, I am back working in my home town as a website designer.

Are you married? Girlfriend? Boyfriend?

Alas no. I have been single for about a month now, though I have a jack russel and a wii, they keep me entertained.

What do you do when you are not blogging?

I am a big fan of my local football/soccer club Colwyn Bay, and I do help out occasionally through fund raising things (though not as much as I’d like). Away from football I enjoy video games (with Entropia Universe, Retro Gaming and my brand new Wii being my favourite things), drinking real ale, pub quizzes, and generally anything technology/internet related.

What is your favorite blog to read besides your own?

I’m afraid I actually don’t read as many blogs as I used to! My favourites are eruanna.net and mcgechan.co.uk, largely because both Han and Guy are both very good friends of mine (Han I met through our respective blogs). I am also a big fan of Simply Me, Fanboy Creative, and Meatpaddy

Let me ask you a few questions about your blog.

When was your blog created?

Originally, I started blogging on 30th May 2002, however I have been at my current blog since October 9th 2004, switching to WordPress on New Years Day this year. So, take your pick! I like to say I’ve been blogging for nearly 5 years. It sounds more impressive.

Why did you choose your blog topic?

Largely because I needed to talk about myself. The whole reason I started blogging was largely due to my competitive streak. About a month before I started I read an article in a Web User magazine that explicitly stated “With the exception of this blog (it was a link to a personal depression blog) and bloggers who happen to be in the right place at the right time, the majority of them were boring.” At that point, I thought “I’ll show you!”. Unfortunately, Blogger – who at the time were a young startup – was undergoing “major server upgrading” and would “not be accepting any new signups for two weeks”, so my dreams of literary world domination were put on hold.

Since then though, the blog has become a vehicle for what I want to say to people. My friends and family read it, and just last night my mum thanked me for my mothers day post. So I guess my audience dictate what I write about, though they don’t admit it.

What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I love the buzz you get when a post just hits. The best one was when one of my posts was on About.com, and the traffic, the adsense clickthroughs and the comments take weeks to go down. The best one I’ve had recently was the community that has developed around my post for people who have British Gas Boilers. Just the fact that people are actually listening and taking note to what you’ve said.

I’d personally love for one of my posts to get on digg front page, that’d really be special for me. Then I know a lot of people will be reading it and obviously enjoying.

Do you have any new upcoming projects or ideas you want to announce?

Ermm…there’s one which is in my head that I’d like to keep secret at the moment. One thing which I’d like to run on a weekly/monthly basis is The Website Visualization Gallery, which could be interesting. I’ll see how many submissions I get in the next week or so.

What is the best feature on your blog?

The community, without a doubt. My blog isn’t for everybody, I must admit, but there are a good few people who like it, and like it a lot. For my birthday this year we had a impromptu blogmeet in London, which was amazing. I know people who read my blog better than some of my real life friends. It has given me so much blogging, and long may it continue.

What do you rely most on to get traffic to your blog or website?

Google and feed clickthroughs. Google in raw numbers (though this has improved a lot since I optimized my site for search engines), feed clickthroughs for quality traffic.

And the final series of questions, a little bit about Blog About Your Blog

How did you find us?

I was asked by you to come and join! I think I was one of the first (some may say in terms of frequency “the worst”) writers on here. It was through the toplist that I got to know the people behind this blog though.

Yeah, the toplist used to be really good for us traffic wise, now the big boys are on the front page.

What do you like most about BAYB?

The sheer anarchy about it! Seriously, it’s so nice just seeing pretty much a free reign on posts. Of course, should hate filled propaganda be published then that’d be removed, but by and large you’ve got a good set of writers here, and the sheer diversity of them makes this blog a must read.

What new feature would you like to see?

I don’t know actually! Already you’ve ticked off a lot of the boxes that took me near on 5 years! I dunno, I suppose the one thing that you haven’t done yet is set up a myspace! Of course, it’s not for all blogs, but it could build up more of a community around here.

I don’t know about a myspace page, but we could possibly make a myspace community.

What do you like the least?

Well, it’s greatest strength is also the weakness. The best thing about it is that anybody can write anything. The bad thing about it is that anybody can write anything.

Who have you chosen to be the next one interviewed?

Well, seeing as he’s achieved a book published, which is one of my dreams, I’ll have to go with Chad Gramling. I’ve read his blog a few times, and it entertains me, so lets see what he has to say.

Thank you for the interview, I’d definitely love seeing more posts from you at BAYB. You can see Rhys last post about his adsense cheque here. If there is something you want to ask Chad in the next interview, please submit it by commenting on this post or emailing me at ff_n_stuff@yahoo.com

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