Interview with Top Blogger and Author, Leo Babauta

Have you checked out the 25 Lessons you can learn from Leo Babauta?

Who is Leo?

• He is the creator and blogger at Zen Habits, a Top 100 blog with 80,000 subscribers
• He has written 3 ebooks: Zen To Done, Handbook for Life and The Essential Motivation Handbook
• He has written the bestseller, The Power Of Less.

You have been really focused on simplifying your Zen Habits theme. How will this impact on your long term income?

I really have no idea how my income will fare over the long term -- like most of my life, this is an experiment to see how simple I can make things and to see what the results will be.

Simplifying the Zen Habits design has long been a desire of mine, just because I have very minimalist tastes. An uncluttered site with lots of space has always appealed to me -- it's just more pleasing to read. And I hoped that it would provide a better experience for the reader -- more focus on the content, less clutter, less focus on ads. So I've reduced my ads to just one exclusive ad, and I hope that's better for my readers.

Has writing The Power Of Less changed how you approach blogging?

I'm not sure that it has, in terms of my philosophy. I still have basically the same writing style, I still write about simplicity and changing habits and improving your life, and I still try to provide useful content to my readers.

However, because the book has kept me busier -- doing interviews and promoting the book in various ways -- it has limited my time. And as I write about in the book, when you have limits, you are forced to choose. So I think my blogging has actually become better because I've learned to focus my content into even fewer but more powerful posts. At least, that's my hope.

You've started offering consulting. Why do you only take on one client a month, and why do you charge such a reasonable rate?

I offer consulting to make up for the loss in ads, as I only sell one ad per month now (for the reasons I talked about earlier). But I knew that consulting could easily take up all my time, and that's not the life I want -- I'd rather focus on writing. So I decided to keep it simple and just take one client a month. The focus on just one client also allows me to put more of my attention on that one person.

The rate I'm charging is just an introductory rate, to feel out the market. I'll probably raise it, especially now that you've told me the rate is so reasonable. I hate being reasonable!

You have uncopyrighted your content. Do you think that new bloggers should also do this?

Sure! I think there is all upside and no downside for new bloggers to uncopyright their content. First, they're giving back to the blogging community by allowing others to share and repurpose their content -- and if you think your blog is an island, you're mistaken. We're all in this together -- we share, we learn from each other, we link to each other, we help each other, and this is a great thing. A beautiful thing.

Second, it really helps spread your brand -- if the content is good. If the content sucks, people won't want to re-use it, but if it's good, it will be used everywhere, and whenever that happens, it's a marketing dream -- new readers are reading your content and (you hope) seeing your brand with a link back, and they're being exposed to all of this ... without you having to pay someone for advertising! That's a win for everyone.

Last: what's the downside? Seriously -- there isn't one. Sure, someone might make a little money off your writing, and all you get is a link or some credit or possibly nothing (though that rarely happens in my experience) ... but how exactly does that hurt you? Someone else making money from your writing does not mean you make less money. Someone, for example, is selling my Zen To Done ebook on Amazon as a print book, and I'm not making even a tiny bit on those sales. It sells fairly well, actually. But amazingly, that doesn't take away from my ebook sales! In fact, I think it helps me overall because now more people have read my work, see my name, and go to my site looking for more. I think it increases my subscriber numbers and sales of my print book and other ebooks.

Guest posting was a really strong element in building your brand. Is it still just as relevant in the crowded blogosphere?

Yes, just as important now as ever. The blogosphere, btw, was already crowded when I started in 2007 -- there were thousands of other blogs in my niche, and some well-established brands such as Lifehacker, 43 Folders, Lifehack.org, Dumb Little Man, Web Worker Daily and others. However, I didn't try to replicate what they were doing, and I used the power of useful content on my site and in guest posts, and it attracted readers who were looking for what I was giving away.

Today, I am nearly as successful as most of those well-established sites that were around when I started (with the exception of Lifehacker, who I'll never compete with and have never hoped to compete with). The blogosphere is no different today than it was two years ago -- good content still shines through.