Please introduce yourself and your website. Why did you start it?
My name is Chris Monty and I run www.Blippitt.com. Our blog is all about Celebrity & Entertainment News. I started it because I believe that there is a world of opportunity in the online arena. This is like a new “gold rush” for those who take action now. If you have a passion, start blogging about it now!

Chris, money makes the world go round. Tell us, how do you make money?
We make money by selling ad space on our site to advertisers through the use of advertising networks like Google Adsense and ADSDAQ. We also dabble in affiliate marketing by recommending products related to our blog posts that can be found on Amazon.com. Once a visitor clicks through your Amazon link, they are “cookied” for the next 24 hours, so you get credit for anything they purchase on Amazon within that time frame (usually something like 5% of the purchase price). It’s not much, but it adds up quickly.

Can you tell us some basic data (how many posts, when did you go live, visitors, subscribers )?
Blippitt actually went online in July, 2008 under a different name. We re-branded the site in February of 2009 and gave it a fresh look, new name, and new logo.
We currently get about 300,000 – 500,000 page views per month and have almost 600 subscribers to our blog feed.

How did you manage to get into the Alexa top rankings?
Our Alexa rank is currently right around 49,000 or so. The key to generating traffic is to build quality back links to your website. You should also never be afraid to link out to other blogs and to your sources of news, as these can often be an invaluable source of traffic.

Where do you get the news/content?
I subscribe to the RSS feeds of about 50 or 60 different entertainment news blogs. I monitor them regularly throughout the day for breaking news. I also have a few iPhone apps that notify me when important news breaks.

How do you promote your site, what works and what doesn’t?
Getting the word out works. We network with others who own blogs in the same niche. The online world is a lot like the offline world. It’s not always WHAT you know, but WHO you know.
We have also submitted our website to thousands of online web directories. There are many who say that this method no longer works, but I can tell you that it does, and it works well. It also helps to be quick. If you’re the first to “break” a story, then chances are good that other blogs will link to yours…and those links count! What does NOT work are spammy tactics like using software to generate links, or submitting links to spammy web directories.  There are many “black hatters” who try to sell on you on how you can compete with the big boys by using these tactics. Trust me. I’ve been suckered by one or two of them and it has only hurt us in the long run.

You have a smart way to get people to sign up for your newsletter: After a while browsing on the site, the screen turns grey and you ask the people if they want to subscribe to your newsletter. How did you do that?
I use www.Aweber.com to build our mailing list. Aweber is an invaluable resource. They allow you to very easily create that overlay box and you can even specify how long you want to wait before the overlay appears.
I set it to about 45 seconds, because if a visitor is on our site for that long, then they like what they see and they are more likely to sign up for our daily feed blast via e-mail.
You don’t need to know any coding at all to implement it. As many will tell you, having a list of loyal customers is priceless.

In retro-spec, what would you do differently?
In retrospect, I would have selected a niche much sooner. When we first started out, we were out to break any news story, at any time. That’s a nice dream to have, but unless you’re The Huffington Post, you’re not going to make it. You can’t just throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Once we narrowed our content down to entertainment news, with a touch of tech news, we started to gain a following. People don’t really want to read about the latest episode of American Idol, followed by a story about shooting in L.A. You have to be consistent.

Any tips for people just starting out?
Just take that first step. Go out and buy a domain name. So many people THINK about taking action or DREAM about starting their own blog, but are just afraid to take that first step.

In the online world, there is little to no cost for taking a risk so just do it!

Please tell our readers your favorite blogs.
I have several favorites. I love to read www.inquisitr.com. Duncan Riley, formerly of B5 Media, started that blog and it has really inspired me to make my own blog even better. He’s also a very nice guy and he’s been very helpful whenever I’ve had questions.

I also like reading www.PerezHilton.com and www.TMZ.com as they are often the first ones on a story. Some well-kept secrets can be found at http://news.cnet.com/technically-incorrect/. Those are the sort of wacky, water-cooler tech stories that get people talking.

I’m also a big fan of www.BoingBoing.net and www.Geek.com.

Chris, thanks a lot for the interview! Much success and keep up the buzz.