Our flexible MH Magazine WordPress theme has become one of the most popular magazine themes over the years. We're still very excited seeing new awesome websites based on MH Magazine popping up every day. We've now decided to start a new section in our blog where we want to feature the great people behind those websites. This is the first part of our blogger interview series.
In this first blogger interview Dustin Taylor from Moskvaer.com will tell us how he got involved with blogging and he'll share some tips and insights about his workflow. Moskvaer.com is an alternative online magazine about Moscow life in all its diversity, for citizens, expats and tourists. We'd featured the site already a while ago in our showcase and now we're pleased to do an interview with Dustin.
What is your background and how did you get involved with WordPress and blogging?
My background is in business, but building websites has always been a passion of mine since I was very young. I used to code HTML pages manually in notepad when I first started. As for blogging, that just came along after the power of WordPress. I don't enjoy writing that much, but rather all of the coding, design, and functionality of the website. That's where my passion lies.
What should readers know about your blog / website? What are your goals?
Our website is a place to find cool/interesting news about and events in the city of Moscow. Most, if not all, articles are written in both English and Russian. Our goals are to produce many more articles and find wonderful advertisers to work with.
Can you share some insights about your workflow? How often do you publish new posts?
Source: StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay.com
Unfortunately, our article publishing has slowed down tremendously due to us being too busy to maintain it. I'd say we probably only post once a month at the moment. We research ideas based on cool things that we encounter, know about from friends, are curious about from the expat community in Russia, etc. We focus on all the aspects of living and touring Moscow. After articles are written in one language, a member of our team translates it to the other and then we edit it.
What challenges did you face when starting your blog / website?
We still face the challenge of producing content on a consistent basis. It is our passion project, but unfortunately there isn't always time for that.
How do you monetize your site? Do you have some tips for other bloggers about monetization?
We monetize with Google AdSense and other affiliates like Booking.com and some sponsored articles. We do a lot of review trades for events, services, and some products. However, our opinions are always genuine. As far as advice goes, I'd say don't put all your eggs in one basket and try to make money in different ways with your blog.
What do you look for when choosing a WordPress theme?
Functionality, usability, speed, and style.
Editor's note: As Dustin is mentioning speed. The performance of a website is highly important for usability and rankings in search engines. If you would like to optimize your WordPress site for speed, we highly recommend these articles on performance optimization:
Why did you choose the MH Magazine theme? What do you like most?
The sleek modern look of it and the fact that it was fast. It seemed to fit our project perfectly.
What are your future plans with your blog / website?
As I mentioned before, we'd like it to grow into an awesome community of everyone who loves Moscow.
Do you have any advice for other bloggers who want to start a blog?
Source: stux / Pixabay.com
Do it! If you don't have the money to pay someone to create a blog for you, learn how to do it yourself. Watch YouTube videos, reverse engineer code and use the internet to your advantage.
We would like to thank Dustin for answering our questions. Moskvaer.com certainly is a great online magazine and the site looks very attractive with MH Magazine. We encourage you all to check it out! If you have any questions for Dustin, please leave a comment below with your question.
Note: In case you're using the MH Magazine theme and would like to be interviewed as well, please feel free to reach out to us. We've planned to publish these kind of blogger interviews on a regular basis to help new bloggers learn from other bloggers. Become a part of our growing MH Themes community!
image sources
- Working with notebook: StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay.com
- Creative Ideas: stux / Pixabay.com