Blogging Lessons From 6 Bloggers I Interviewed in 2015

In 2015, a few months after I started Blogging House, I started asking bloggers I admired if they'd answer my questions. Six said yes. I published their answers as "The Blogging Interview" series between September 2015 and June 2016.

Those six posts were thin on their own, and Google stopped indexing several of them. But the advice inside them was good, and some of it is better than what you'll find in a 2026 listicle. So I've merged them into this one page, with the lessons that held up, the ones that didn't, and where each blogger is now.

The 6 bloggers

Lesson 1: Consistency beats talent

Every one of the six said some version of this, unprompted.

Ali Raza put it most directly: "the only blogging tip i would like to give everyone is 'Consistency'. If you cant be consistent in that, you can never be successful in your journey."

Mike Allton showed what it looked like at full speed. At his peak in 2013 he published "6 - 14 times per week", and he was honest about the trade-off: publishing less often is fine "as long as one realizes the rate of growth will simply be slower." Pradeep Kumar added the caveat that frequency depends on the niche: a breaking-news blog needs volume, a tips blog doesn't, "as long as you are posting well researched quality articles."

Still true in 2026? Yes, with one change. Volume alone no longer works, because AI tools made average content free and search engines respond by rewarding pages with something original. A steady schedule of pages with real data or first-hand experience is the version that still pays.

Lesson 2: Relationships drive traffic

Devesh Sharma's traffic list from 2015 reads like a modern link-building playbook: the skyscraper technique, writing as a columnist on bigger blogs in your niche, email outreach ("I have been able to get links from sites like QuickSprout, BoostBlogTraffic, SEJ") and expert roundups.

Ryan Biddulph was blunter: "Create super helpful blog posts 1-3 times a week and make friends with influential bloggers. Money flows through your value created and through your blogging buddies, who promote you."

Ali Raza, on how he got featured on other sites: "Networking, Networking and Networking."

Still true? Yes. The platforms they used to do it (Google+, Triberr and blog-commenting circles came up again and again) have faded, and Google+ shut down for consumers in 2019. But the method is the same: be useful to people who already have an audience. Today that's newsletters, podcasts, LinkedIn and being quoted as a source.

Lesson 3: Build an email list from day one

When I asked Devesh and Adam how they'd spend $500 on a new blog, both put list building near the top. Devesh would put the "Rest of the money on list building". Adam would put part of it into "testing FB ads to build my email list". When I asked Adam how readers should connect with him, his first answer was his email list, not social media.

Still true? More than ever. Search clicks are being absorbed by AI answers, and social reach depends on algorithms you don't control. An email list is the one audience you own. It's why this site is adding a newsletter.

Lesson 4: Affiliates first, your own product next

Devesh Sharma's answer on monetisation has aged very well: affiliate marketing to start, "but once you start making some money, the better approach is to sell your own products." He named the two problems with affiliates: you depend on other people's launches, and finding a product worth promoting is hard.

Ryan Biddulph was already living the product route in 2015, with more than 100 ebooks on Amazon. Pradeep Kumar chose not to run AdSense on HellBound Bloggers at the time because "ads are kinda distracting the readers", and leaned on affiliate and sponsored deals instead.

Still true? Yes, and the order matters. Affiliate commissions are the fastest first income, but programmes change their rates and terms without asking you. A product you own, even a small one, is the income nobody can switch off.

Lesson 5: Your blogging skills are a product too

Adam Connell's answer to "what's the best way to make money with a blog?" surprised me in 2016, and it's the advice I'd give a beginner today: "Offer your blogging skills as a service and become a freelance blogger." His reasoning: "If you can run a blog, chances are that someone will pay you to work on their blog," and "You don't need much traffic."

I followed a version of that path myself. While this blog went quiet during my degree, I built WordPress sites for clients on Fiverr and completed more than 300 orders. The skills from running a blog are what made that possible.

Lesson 6: Expect it to take longer than you think

Devesh Sharma, who started his WordPress career at 15: "Starting a blog is the easiest part, but running one, not so much." His own site took "a year and a half to see the full potential". Mike Allton's advice on social media for businesses ends with three words that apply to all of it: "Patience is needed."

Ryan Biddulph is the reminder that a false start isn't the end. He worked "10 to 12 hours a day when my blog really sucked, then I trashed tht blog", and built the one that funded his travel.

What didn't age well

Not everything held up, and it's worth being honest about it:

• Platform-specific tactics. Google+ circles, Triberr tribes and blog-commenting for traffic were real growth channels in 2015. Plan for the platform to change; invest in the relationship, not the platform.
• "Post more." Daily publishing was a growth strategy when search rewarded freshness and volume. Today, a smaller number of genuinely useful pages wins.
• One-size-fits-all money advice. Adam's caveat matters more now: the best way to earn "depends on a few factors. The main one being your niche." Ad networks now have traffic minimums, and some affiliate programmes don't pay out to every country, including mine.

What I'd ask them today

If I ran this series again in 2026, I'd ask each of them three questions: how AI changed the way they write, which traffic source replaced the one they relied on in 2015, and what they'd do with $500 on a new blog now. If you're one of the six and you're reading this, my inbox is open.

Starting out? The full guide to starting a blog covers the setup, and the Make Money guides cover what each income stream needs before it pays.