Remember sitting in English class and learning about all the ‘exceptions to the rule’? Sorry to burst your bubble, I’m here to teach you at least one more…

In the blogging world, there are “exceptions to the rule” too.

Carl Ocab, author of carlocab.com

Searching the web I came across a young, professional blogger named Carl Ocab, a blogger based in the Philippines.

What’s so special about Carl Ocab? Well, Carl started his blogging career at the early age of thirteen, an age when most kids are considering paper rounds and not professional blogging.

After only a couple of months of blogging, Carl was able to turn professional. His progress has been so positive that he is now rumored to earn at least a 5-figure annual salary through blogging alone, a salary which most bloggers can only dream of.

Carl’s blog has proved so successful that he was at one stage first in Google’s search engine for the term “Make Money Online”. His popularity has slightly dissipated; although, he is still holding strong.

Before continuing, you might want to learn more about Carl.

Moral of the Story

Many bloggers will profess that, “Content is King!” For the most part, I would be inclined to agree. Eric Enge of SEOmoz.com published an excellent article describing how good content can increase your blog’s popularity.

Unfortunately, this article and many alike fail to consider one important point: there are thousands and thousands of great authors amongst us.

Content alone will NOT drive visitors to your site.  In fact, I read numerous blogs driven by fantastic authors which fail to attract even 100 visitors on any given day, blogs that have been on the ‘net for over two years.

Where are these bloggers falling short?  Unfortunately, they’re all missing that special something or X-Factor.  That X-factor quality is that something that you can’t quite describe or determine, yet you know it when you see it (or in this case, read it).

What is the key to Carl’s success?

I assure you of one thing, his success does not lie in his content. In fact, if you closely inspect Ocab’s content, you soon realize that the quality is severely lacking. It is riddled with grammatical errors in the form of comma splices, incoherent sentences, and poor sentence transitions.

With that said, there are a number of quality/factors which play into his favor:

1. Age: Make no doubt about it, his physical immaturity plays into his favor.  Ocab’s age has been the main foothold to his success.  Just think about how many 13-year-old professional bloggers you can think of?  Let me make it easier.  How many 13-year-olds are you aware of that are pulling in a 5-figure salary?  I’m sure the majority of you couldn’t answer “yes” to either of those questions.  His accomplishment inspire his readers - he is somebody they can look up to.
2. Mental Immaturity: Ocab’s mental immaturity comes across in his posts. His content, unlike the same-old dribble seen on the Internet, is an easy read.  It’s refreshing but unique in its style.
3. Confidence: Ocab portrays himself as an authority over his niche. His writing style emits confidence as is evident in his posts.  Although the subject matter of his content is nothing new, his readers continue to return.
4. Making the most of your hand: Lastly, Carl plays his hand to its full potential - I mean his blog title is, “Make Money At Home With a 13-Year Old”.  He makes no mistake about the fact that he is only 13 years old; he’s well-aware that his age makes him something special.

Separate yourself from the pack

The leaves to me to push the point that you should not rely solely on publishing good content - Carl is a testament to this fact.  However, that does not suggest that content is not important.  Quite contrary.

I’m of the firm belief that bloggers should be themselves.  Carl’s blog is a manifestation that it is important to publicize and demonstrate those points/qualities that are unique.  Remember, blogging is all about being different, at least if you plan on being a highly successful professional blogger.

As most of you are aware, Google has begun its much anticipated PageRank (PR) update, an update that occurs quarterly.

Considering that I have only been promoting the site actively for around 3 weeks, I haven’t exactly been too anxious over the PR update commencing.

It appears that the press release that I published a couple of weeks ago has worked absolute wonders.  On the other hand, my monthly payment to that Google insider could be demonstrating some success.

In a relatively short time, BlogaPro’s PR has increased from 0 to a value of 2.  As stated, I attribute the majority of this success to the recent press releases, but I reckon that my recent push of the RSS feed also deserves some recognition.

I’m not the type of person who is highly fixated about increasing my PR.  Instead, I use it merely as a guage to judge if my progress is positive in the eyes of the search engine.  With that said, I’ll be pushing myself to achieve a PR of at least 4 come the next round of PR updates.

How did your blog feature with the latest round of updates?  Too check your PR, I suggest that you visit Google PageRank Checker.

Share your results…

After a recent post on “setting your blog’s goals“, I received numerous emails from readers asking all the same question: “What are your blog’s goals?”

Since you all appear to be more concerned with my own goals instead of your own, I figured that I would share them with you.

If you have never run your own blog, assessing the potential outcome of your blog will prove difficult.  In all likelihood, its performance will grossly miss your predictions.  There is a lot to learn in the first six months of your blogging career - lessons you will not properly comprehend until you have blogged yourself.

Having previously undertaken the blogging experience with PlayerBites (see ‘About‘ page), I’m in a slightly better position to evaluate the probable outcome.

With that said, there are a number of things that I would like to do differently the second time around.  Even if I say so myself, my past blogging career consisted of some horrible mistakes.  As a result, gauging the site’s outcome has proved a little harder than some of you may realize.

Short-term Goals (6 months):

1. Acquire 200 RSS Subscribers
2. Receive 300 unique visitors on average per day
3. Attain a PageRank of at least 3/10

Long-term Goals (1 year):

1. Acquire 700+ RSS Subscribers
2. Receive around 900 unique visitors on average per day
3. Attain a PageRank of at least 5/10
4. Monetize the site will maintaining visitor growth.

Remember I talked about ’sticking to your guns’?  Well, I have taken the strategy to heart.  Although I have earned 50 active RSS subscribers (after a mere two weeks of the site’s promotion), I am not about to move the goal posts.

Since there is increased probability that the first of my three short-term goals will be met, I am provided with the opportunity to ensure that the other two requirements are met.

Yup, it might only be a mere two weeks since I properly started promoting BlogaPro; nonetheless, I am proud to announce that we have been able to attract 50 RSS subscribers to the feed.  Please, please, no need to laugh.  In fact, I’m quite proud of my success.

I failed to initially consider my achievement, but after reading a recent article at natewhitehill.com it dawned on me just how fast the site is growing. Nate writes,

“It took me 3 months to grow my RSS subscribers to 100, but only 1 month to hit 200, 2 weeks to hit 300, 3 weeks to hit 400, and 4 weeks to hit 500.”

If we base BlogaPro’s growth on the growth experienced by Nate, BlogaPro should have roughly 100 subscribers in another 4 days.  Yup, rather unlikely, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe about the RSS feed.

I was slightly surprised when I arrived back from work this evening.  Waiting for me was a parcel that had arrived earlier in the morning.  It was not supposed to arrive for another couple of days.

Enough of the suspense already. The parcel contained an order of Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s co-authored book titled “Problogger”.

As you would expect, I haven’t managed to properly bury my head in the book just yet, but that is what the weekend is for.  However, I did take the time to read the “Introduction” section of the book which introduces both authors including how they entered the world of blogging.  If you’re needing some inspiration, I suggest you give the Intro section a good read. It’s simply awe-inspiring.

I’ll give the book a bit more of a review once I have completed reading all 211 pages.  The book is available through select retailers including Amazon.com.