Tommy Walker is an Online Marketing Strategist and been doing various forms of Online marketing since 2005. His final calling came from being fired over a pair of pants. He spends an obscene amount of time online; if when away from the computer you’ll most likely find him singing karaoke or networking at a local Tweet-up.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
Hi! I’m Tommy. Like my intro says, I’m an online marketing strategist. I love working in online marketing because I think it affords businesses the ability to “get real” and have an actual conversation with their supporters.
A lot of companies still don’t know how to loosen up their tie and relax. They think that just because they’re online they have to be extra stuffy. Really the opposite is true, but it can be really hard to loosen up if you don’t know who the people you’re trying to converse with. This is where I come in. I help businesses learn about their exact customer profile, and develop a communication strategy that will stand out amongst all of the noise that takes place in the online world.
Can you tell something about your personal life?
Sure! My girlfriend and I have a baby on the way and I’m super excited!
Having this baby has been a real motivating factor in getting my business really up and running. Just six months ago, we were scraping change together to buy a star crunch from the gas station down the street, and now we’re on track to be buying our first house next year! It’s amazing how motivated a baby can make you 
How did you end up blogging? Please mention the name(s) of your blog/website(s).
I started blogging because I wanted to get my thoughts about different aspects of online marketing out. I started because I was frustrated. I saw too many inconsistencies with the different approaches and I wanted to publish information that you could take action on shortly after reading the article.
The problem with my first blog was that it was too angry. It made the information unapproachable. And if what I was writing was not approachable, than I wasn’t really helping anybody. I was just an angry marketer.
So I began to listen to the questions people were asking, and I started a new blog:
tommy.ismy.name/and-these-are-my-thoughts This time, I realized that not everyone saw things the same way I did, and that was ok. That was what made my approach to online marketing as a whole unique. I’ve made myself more approachable, and so far have found a much more welcome response, and I’ve learned a whole lot more, because I’m open to hearing the bugs in my methods, whereas before I would not listen.
What is your specialty and what made you choose this niche?
I’m not sure I specialize in any one thing. I tend to move my focus towards whatever the goal at hand is. Right now, I’ve been focused on Facebook Marketing because I’ve seen a definitive split in the marketing community about understanding how the platform can be used to promote your business. But my background was in SEO. I’ve also spent a lot of time with online video marketing, Ppc, user experience design app marketing and more.
This is why I call myself a strategist, because my “niche” is about seeing how different platforms and different technologies interact with each other. I’m not horribly concerned with locking myself into any one subject matter, because there’s so much to cover in online marketing.
How and when did you decide on your domain and hosting solution for your blog?
The decision to register Tommy.ismy.name wasn’t really a huge thing.I was working at a gas station at the time. I received an unsolicited email a few years back that .name was available for purchase and I thought being the owner of tommy.ismy.name would be ironic.
I’ve actually owned the domain for several years, even though the blog has been active for less than 6 months. I blogged under a different domain for a while, but decided that url was better suited for a different project.
As far as hosting is concerned. I don’t manage my hosting, my friend does, and I trust what she says.
What kind of training and/or membership programs you have attended so far?
I am an active member of Third Tribe marketing and Jon Morrow’s Guest blogging apprenticeship program. I attend as many free webinars about as many different aspects of online marketing as possible to see what others are saying.
I love Third Tribe, some of the brightest people I’ve met are in there, and the connections I’ve made have made are well worth it. Same goes for Guestblogging, I’ve managed to get some really great guest post opportunities from what I’ve learned in these two places.
What do you think is the hardest thing about blogging?
Actually getting the time to sit down and write! One of the common misconceptions about running a blog is that all you do is write, when the reality is, writing probably only takes up about 10% of your blogging time.
What is the easiest thing about blogging?
I’m going to have to say writing. If you’ve spend enough time listening to what other people are saying, and you have enough background, or even spend enough time researching, you’ve got a pretty good chance of having the information to write an article that is worth reading.
How do you promote your blog articles?
I don’t really like to think of it as promoting my blog articles. Sure, I post links on the usual suspects (Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin) but I spend more time answering other’s peoples questions, or just straight up interacting than I do “promoting”
Something I’ve learned the hard way is that the best way to promote is by not promoting. Interacting with other people, leaving genuine well thought out comments on their blog, answering questions in forums, guest posting, joining chats on twitter… these things are all way more important because you get people interested in who you are before you punch them in the face with your content. If you try to force feed your stuff to people, they’re very likely to not be interested.
What is the major source of traffic to your blog? (Search engines, Twitter etc.)
I get a little bit from a lot of places. Some Facebook, some twitter, some Linkedin, some search, other blogs.
What I’ve found is that you’re going to get the most traffic from the places you’re most active. For example, I use flickr to find my photos. I contact the photographer and ask if I can use their photo. If they say yes, I contact them again to let them know that the post is live, and if they like the content to please share with their friends. Having this built into my process, there’s already a traffic source, and it’s a really simple gesture.
I’ll only comment on blogs where I have something intelligent to say, that way when someone reads my comment, they’ll think “Hey this guy is smart, maybe I should check out his blog”
I optimize the heck out of my blog posts, and some days that works well, some days it doesn’t.
To me, it’s really important to have multiple streams of traffic than just one, the more you spread out, the more chances you have to be in front of new eyes.
How important is writing an ebook to a blogger?
If anything, do it for the practice. Writing this ebook has at times been a long process. But it forces you to think outside of the granular blog post format that we get so used to writing. Even if my launch doesn’t go the way I plan it, I know at the end of the day I wrote a 120+ book on a topic that I know a lot about.
Funny part about writing it all out too is that it forces you to think about aspects you may have forgotten about. I’ve found myself referencing my ebook when I couldn’t think of an exact spec right off the top of my head.
As a blogger, how do you manage your time? How do you plan your blog articles?
HAHA! Not well! And I don’t!
While I agree it’s important to have a content calender, I find myself having a hard time planning anything. I tried segmenting my week for a while, where I would always go back to one task after doing the million other things that need to happen in a day, but it just didn’t work for me.
I just started keeping a notebook for article ideas, and I’m hoping that works out a little better than the other things I’ve tried. But this whole category is where I do really really horribly in.
How important is guest posting?
I think it’s huge, and it’s totally understated just how important guest posting is.
Guest posting is just like when a musician “features” another artist. You get exposed to people who would have otherwise had no idea who you were. It’s also their choice if they decided to follow you after they’ve read your post, and that makes them a much more valuable person to have in your network, because you didn’t have to do a ton of work to convince them you are good, your guest post did that for you.
What is your piece of “something” that you would like to convey to fellow and newbie bloggers?
Relationships matter. Try not to get wrapped up in how many people you’re exposed to, but how much you can contribute to each relationship. Numbers will come. but it’s better if they come as a by product of the relationships you build.
Article by JaneSheeba
+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.
Jane has written 294 awesome posts for Problogging Success.
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