Antti Kokkonen of Zemalf’s Trek in the Blogosphere Joined the Famous Bloggers
Famous Bloggers club is honored to have such great person today in our interviews series, Antti Kokkonen of Zemalf’s Trek in the Blogosphere. Antti dedicated to help people and their businesses to become more effective and more profitable online by focusing on all aspects of online media, including blogging, social media and online marketing, and this is what his blog is about, I recommend that you enjoy the read of our interview with him, and give his blog a visit, I am sure you will gain a new good friend!
Q. Tell the world something about yourself and what you do in life?
Antti: My name is Antti Kokkonen. Online I’m also known as Zemalf, which is my gamertag, “callsign” and all that. I’m a IT Specialist by profession, with Master’s degree on Interactive Technology (Computer Science major and things like usability and psychology as minors). My life has been filled with technology since very young age as I’ve been around computers since age of 6 or so.
With all that, I’ve used Internet since the 1980’s, before we had World Wide Web, in the days of bulletin board systems, golden age of IRC (which was created in Finland) and MUDs (multi-user dungeons). All that had an effect on both my professional and personal life, so I’m working in the industry and still love all kinds of computers, gaming consoles and gadgets.
For some reason, even that I am the geek I am, I never got around building many websites until 2004 or so. I’ve been blogging since 2005, starting by blogging about online games I played, like World of Warcraft and EVE Online. Later, I’ve moved on to write about other things as well, like blogging, social media and Internet business. Blogging has been, and still is, a hobby for me, and I write about things I do on my “non-work” time. I like to share my experiences and expertise on things I do and know a lot about, you know, to help others.
If you’d like to connect with me, follow me on twitter: @Zemalf
Q. What was the story behind your Blog? (How you started Blogging – since when – how did you named your Blog).
Antti: My first blog was Zemalf’s Haven and I still write there every now and then. It’s a blog about gaming and games, mainly about the games I play, like I mentioned above. I’ve also published some World of Warcraft videos on YouTube (TheZemalf on YouTube), which have gathered well over 100k views over time. The blog’s name was given, as my “name” was Zemalf, but that name has been with me for quite some time as I made it up when playing computer roleplaying game called Naklakh. If you’re interested solving the mystery behind the name, the story is here: Where did the name Zemalf come from?.
On April 2009 I started looking for something more, so I got my own domain, zemalf.com, started a WordPress blog there and haven’t looked back since. The blog didn’t really have a name, it was just Zemalf.com, which evolved into “Trek in the Blogosphere”, as it’s been quite a journey during the first 6 months on the blog. I’ve learned a ton of things about social media and blogging over the years, a lot of things I wish I knew several years ago. That experience and information I’m now passing on and I’m learning more and more every day. In a way, I’m on a journey to build something great and want to make sure I can give back to the wonderful blogging community that has helped me a lot.
To summarize, it’s a personal blog of mine where I write about things I do to help others. The topics I cover varied at the beginning, but during the last six months, the blog has evolved into Social Media and Blogging Guide, but the name of the blog is still Zemalf’s Trek in the Blogosphere. Nothing too catchy, and definitely not “keyword smart”, but hey, it has worked very well for me.
Q. Have you earned any money from been a Blogger? (How you did it – add links to useful websites for making money online – If NOT then tell us why you blog)
Antti: I have some some money with my blogs, mostly from Google AdSense, and other advertising networks, and also some commissions from affiliate sales. In addition to this main blog (and that one older one), I have several “niche” blogs about various topics, which I have experimented different strategies on. Making money blogging is great, but it’s not the primary reason why I blog. I want to share what I know to help people, build relationships, have fun, and if at the end of the road I can earn little extra on the side, it’s all icing on the cake.
Q. Would you tell us about ONE of your famous posts? (Why you think it’s famous.. it could be because of “content – traffic – comments – search engines”)
Antti: I have several posts that get nice amount of traffic, some older and also some more recent ones, like How To Connect Your Social Media Profiles, which attracted nice amount of attention and has brought in quite a bit of traffic as well. It’s still too early to say how much traffic it will get from search engines, but the traffic from Twitter and other social networks has been great.
In the post I shared how I’ve connected all my social media profiles and tools together using FriendFeed and how to automate certain social media activities we all do, like tweeting your own blog posts and such. I think the post became popular, because it’s filled with information people have been looking for and even that the information has been out there, it hasn’t been put together into single post or article like I did.
I like to write in-depth guides and really long posts, so a post that goes well past 2000 words feels more valuable than a shorter one (I’ve never paid much attention to the 400-700 words “guideline”), so there the post had loads of bookmark and viral potential in it too.
Q .If I asked you to suggest ONE Blogger friend to send him/her a Famous Blogger Club invitation, who you will suggest?
Antti: I think you should talk to Mike Cliffe-Jones (@MikeCJ) from Mike’s Life. Mike is a professional blogger and published author, so you should definitely have him here.
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Hello! .. My name is Hesham Zebida and I’m a Blogger and used to be a Web Designer, I make living from building websites for my clients, I have created NMB to be a healthy community for Bloggers, so join me if you want to share tips and ideasI am also managing the Famous Bloggers Club, FBC is NOT a secret society, but it is exclusive and membership is only by invitation and limited to 100.
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Great interview, Antti! Didn’t know you were over here too.
Nice to see a fellow Twitter12 member on the Famous Blogger Club.
I really enjoyed getting to know you a little more via your interview. Gamer, eh? Ever play Unreal?? That’s my husband’s game… sigh. lol
Erica Mueller´s last blog ..Holding 2009 Up to the Mirror. Liking the Reflection I See…
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Great read here as usual – Antti’s post about “How To Connect Your Social Media Profiles” is incredibly useful … and thanks too for the intro to Mike’s Life. Looks like another good one to follow ( will check it more in the morning!) Cheers, Will
Will McCulloch´s last blog ..Brianwave – The Alexa Ranking Contest
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Good to see you here Antii – and thanks for the shout out! Interesting stuff – I didn’t know you were into gaming.
Mike CJ´s last blog ..Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
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Antti Kokkonen Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 6:22 am
@Mike CJ, you’re welcome
Gaming is what got me into computers, and eventually into blogging. A bit less gaming, more blogging nowadays, but the love for games remains.
Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..Check What is Above The Fold with Google Browser Size Tool
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Thank you for another nice interview with one nice blogger. I like to hear that Antti Kokkonen is earning money from his blog. Yes its good to make some money from blog.
I have visited his blog and really get very nice, I will keep visiting his blog.
chandan´s last blog ..Today is free shipping day
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Wow! I just blogged about my WWII board earlier this week. What a trip down memory lane. I was also a DIKU-MUDD fan.
Let me just say though, what a noob you are for playing alliance. {insert your own Chuck Norris jokes here} For the Horde!!
Sorry, the recovering WoW addict came out for a minute.
Welcome to the club! Your blog looks very interesting, and I wish you all the best with it.
Brad Harmon´s last blog ..All I Want for Christmas is Your Blog Engage Votes
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Antti Kokkonen Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
@Brad Harmon, I haven’t played MUD in a while, but I dive into Dwarf Fortress and/or Nethack every now and then, to get my @-fix
And for the WoW, I could’ve chosen Horde, but they had no Dwarves, so it was a no-brainer.
Anyway, thanks for the comment!
Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..Enroll to Famous Bloggers Club Contest
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