Meet Alohagems

ABOUT YOURSELF

Name: Shirley Mandel

Url Address: alohagems.com

Philosophy in life: 

Do the foot work and leave the results up to God.

Tell us something random about yourself 
I have a good sense of humor according to my friends. Bread winner, ex-Mathematician, ex-teacher, ex-monbukagakusho scholar, ex-single, still learning how to drive, ex-CNA, special education assistant. I love sewing, crafting, creating instructional materials in mathematics, author of the origami of the soccer ball and soccer ball pillow. I play chess and scrabble. I love swimming.

ABOUT YOUR BLOG

1. How, When and Why did you get into blogging industry? 

Back in 2008 was my formal year of blogging. I was a new immigrant in the United States and it took time for me to complete my papers for an authorization to work and so I spent my time in the forum and found out that most of the women there were blogging. I joined and learned from them.

2. How you came up with the name for it? 
I want to be known as alohagems. Aloha is a Hawaiian word, it means many things: love, goodbye, hello, like saying God Bless you, etc. Gems are gems or treasure/money. It is one way of saying, there are treasures in Hawaii. Aloha is a widely known word and it is good.

3. How long have you been here and what made you want to start? 

Same as item number 1, since 2008. I just wanted to explore this kind of Internet activity and hoping I can gain something from it.

4. Do you blog for a job full time? What else do you do aside from blogging? 
Before I got a job in the US, I blogged fulltime: paid blogging and personal blogging. I also joined some contests and won big prizes ($5,000 from godaddy smartspace contest in 2009 and $500 in viddiction for making an instructional video about learning). I earned money online before my first salary came in. I was an eHow writers for 3 years and earn $120 a month residual. Lately, I joined Zazzle and design products online and gives me good residual monthly. I worked fulltime since 2009 and blogging is just a sideline.

5. Did you choose to start blogging directly about your chosen niche or because you just saw a good way to make money from blogging? 
When I started blogging, I was still exploring and did not have some hints of the effectiveness of niche blogging.

6. How much time do you spend on work related to your blog(s) each week? 
At least five hours a day if I am working and if not, as long as I am awake!

7. What do you find to be your biggest struggle as a blogger? 
English is my second language and Mathematics was my major in college and graduate school, so being an ESL blogger was hard at first especially if I had some blog tasks or offers. But I felt better when I learned that native English speakers also have troubles with typos, spelling and grammar and we learned from each other in creating quality contents.

8. How did you get to where you are now with your blog(s)? To what do you attribute your success? And what is the next goal you hope to achieve? 
It goes with experience. The more you explore and try all possible ways, the more expert you will get. Do not be afraid to try even if you failed, just keep on doing what you are doing and learn from your mistakes.

9. Where do you see your blog(s) and yourself in 5 years? 
Honestly, I am now using my blogs to back link my articles in other writing sites. In 5 years, I can see myself relaxing and earning at least $1000 residual income per month.

10. One of the hardest things for beginner bloggers is getting traffic. What tips can you give bloggers to drive traffic to a new blog? 
Traffic…I am not worried about it yet. Beginners should target quality content because content is KING, with basic SEO knowledge only, traffic will follow. Networking with other bloggers, commenting, guest posting, etc. Lots of tutorials now about this.

11. What advice would you give to new bloggers wanting to start blogging and help them start out on a path to success? 
Make fresh and quality content. Read tutorials. Same as in item number 10.

12. Describe your blog in 10 words. 
Residual income ideas, back link my other articles and designs.