Still on the how to build your blog interview series, today we have yet another visit. All the way from OscarMini he has come over to enlighten us on building our blogs, the best host required for your blog and also a lot has been said by him on this interview, I guess you do really wanna know who I’m talking about. It’s Oscar Frank of (OscarMini .Com) this man is refered to as “the man who knows his onion” (lol), he’s a blogger, a good writer, a music lover, (he plays bass guitar, lead guitar and the piano) and he is also a web designer. One thing that suprises me about him is that he particepates in all his career’s including blogging and music productions, I forgot to let you know that he’s also a music producer. I’ve listened to a couple of his songs, and I assure you that they are of same quality as his blog š
This is the time you’ve been waiting for as Oscar Frank steps in FTB, let the interview proceed. Read on and learn how to know your onion š
- Did You Miss The Last Interview In This Interview Series? See : The Geek’s Corner ā An Amble With Doncaprio
1. Hi Oscar Frank, welcome to FTB, I’m pleased to have you on my blog, can you please tell us whom you are?
Oscar Frank is a regular guy, blogger and student who understands that meeting peopleās need definitely solves your needs and decided to achieve this through blogging. Iāve been blogging for roughly half a decade now, and when I look back in time, I donāt have an iota of regret whatsoever. Blogging for real foots my bills.
2. How many blogs do you run as at now?
Blogging isnāt an easy business as many people presume. Though I have over 30 registered domains setup with wordpress, I barely have time to update 5. Iāll be dropping most of them as soon as they expire to concentrate probably on just 3 by next year.
- See Some Reasons: Why I Blog And Why You Should
3. Which is your main blog and when did you start it?
I focus the major part of my blogging time on Oscarmini .com . I actually got the domain name sometime in November 2011, but before then, I had already been blogging under a totally different blogspot subdomain since 2010. Oscarmini was a kind of Rebrand for my blog, and I still retained the same ātech and how toā Niche. Though I had been blogging the wrong way since 2009.
4. I’m so sorry that you’ve been blogging the wrong way since 2009, but I’m still glad you found the right path. Which other business did you do before venturing into blogging?
Business? The internet has been my life. I created and moderated a more-or-less successful tech forum for quite some time, did a lot of web design (which I still do) before venturing into blogging, other things I remember doing which I obviously regret now include wasting my time on Pay-to-read, Pay-to-click programs. I wish I had started blogging earlier.
- Read: Tips For Designing A Successful Ecommerce Site
5. Which blogging platform is best, and why did you choose it?
There are lots of things to consider before picking anything as best. For now, I stick to WordPress as the best blogging platform and I have my reasons. One major reason is that it has a large community base, and those millions of people canāt all be wrong. Flexibility is one thing to look out for, and with tons of plugin out there, you can achieve any task on WordPress. Most of all, the community helps you find solutions easily to any problems you encounter.
6. Which blogging platform did you start your blog from?
As with many other bloggers out there, I started blogging using Googleās free blogspot platform.
7. Are there similarities between the blogger blogging platform which you started from and the one you currently use? Tell us
They are both great blogging platforms and can be easily manipulated to achieve similar results by anyone. The aim of each is simply to blog.
- See: How To File A DMCA Report Against A WordPress Blog
8. What was your reason for starting your blog firstly on blogger?
Free of course. Blogger is a free blogging platform, and as at when I started blogging, I couldnāt squeeze out some bucks to pay for hosting and domain fees, so I was left with no other choice.
9. Do you advice newbies to start their blogging career on blogger blogging platform?
As much as Iām concerned, successful blogging isnāt majorly a function of what blogging platform you make use of. Iāve seen several successful bloggers who rock free platforms and still make huge bucks off them.
10. I agree with you, besides blogger rocks, I’ve used then before. What tools are required to start a blog?
Blogging is actually one of the cheapest businesses to venture into. The required tools here are just you and your blog. If you are determined to blog, then those are the tools you need to shock the cyber space.
- Also See: My Secretes To Drive Traffic To My Blog Without Search Engine
11. Oh! What a stunning one š “The required toolS for blogging are (you and your blog).” š What skills are required to start a blog?
To start blogging, you must learn to write. It used to be easier some years back when there were few bloggers out there, anyone could write in whatever manner that pleased them and published it to the world. But with the rise in everyone wanting to live the internet lifestyle, the competition gets tougher by the minute, and one skill you require to stand out of the āme tooā crowd is churning out enchanting content.
Another skill you definitely require is marketing your content. You must devise strategies to get your content out to the right audience in order to remain relevant in the blogosphere.
12. Can a person without redimentary knowledge of programming manage a blog?
Of course, blogging isnāt programming. I actually made a post some time ago on the basic HTML tags every blogger needs to know, but in this dispensation, I donāt think it really does matter anymore. With the integration of Visual Editors on various blogging platform editing windows, coding seems to be a thing of the past.
- Must See: Benefits Of Using A Custom Domain Name
13. What are the basic programming languages every newbie needs to learn?
Several people will have several opinions here. But the first thing you should have at the back of your mind if you want to try programming is to learn to think like a coder. All programming languages have same working basics, and these basics are what you need to know to learn any other programming language after you must have learnt your first.
Java basically is very much popular to beginners because itās an object-oriented programming language that’s designed to be portable and workable on as many platforms as possible. You might want to start up with it.
14. How many programming languages are you good at?
Lol. Very much interesting. Iāve actually studied and dumped lots of programming languages but decided to stick to Java and C for now. Talking about coding for specifics such as webdesign, I tend to always rely on my knowledge of PHP and Javascript to add interactivity to my HTML CSS web designs.
15. Please list the five best free blogging platform you recommend and why.
Top on my list is always Blogger.com. You might want to read this post to get through with others.
For those who don’t want to start on the free blogging platforms, which hosting company do you think is best, as per your experience?
All webhosts suck, trust me. So far so good, Iāve tried out a good number of hosting companies (over a dozen) and havenāt experienced any downtime from Bluehost and the current SSD Cloud server I use for Oscarmini.
- Check Out: How To Make A Simple Logo For Your Website
16. I think I’m safe, as I use bluehost as at now, and I’ve never experienced downtime. What are the first five plugins you recommend wordpress users to install?
Itās quite difficult to pick my top 5 wordpress plugins as there are lots of WP plugins I actually canāt do without ranging from Backup down to SEO plugins. Anyway, I would pick
Akismet (helps me a lot in curtailing spam)
Google XML Sitemaps (letās search engines know their way around your blog)
W3 Total Cache (has all you need to optimize the speed and user experience of your site)
BulletProof Security (A must have buddy)
Contact Form 7 (helps to easily integrate contact forms on wordpress)
17. What is your advice to newbies who wants to create a blog?
As I would always say, āHard work paysā. Start out blogging on a small niche and get known as an authority in your niche if you ever want to make it big blogging. Multi topic blogs most often tend to fail more than niche specific blogs.
18. Lol.. I’ve always known you for that š “Hard Work Pays”. Thanks for your time here on my blog.
My pleasure and Thanks for having me Larry.
Oscar Frank has said a lot about your blog hosting which is very vital when it comes to blogging, you should have tapped a thing from this interview. Remember we are still in the “How To Build Your Blog Interview Series” I hope you’ll gain a lot before this interview series is over.
Less I forget remember newbies, “Hard Work Pays” patience, perseverance, and hard work is equal to success.
Look up at the header section of my blog, I hope you’ve seen changes over there, in the last interview here, Don Caprio pointed at my header section not having a logo and a favicon. Thanks to Mr. Johnnie Ode of ReadersLodge, he made me a logo, and that’s what up there. Hope it’s beautiful? š
Connect With Oscar Frank
I think itās gonna be nice you connect with him, visit his blog and learn more about how to know your blogging onion. š
24 Comments
What a superb interview with “Oscar Frank” is nice knowing much about him, i only thought he was only a blogger but never knew he is also good at musical intrument and singing too.
I must say i have really learnt alot regarding his reply to this interview, i think i can boldy back him up on this “All webhosts suck, trust me” oh yes all hosting platforms suck except for bluehost, i’ll advice any blogger reading this page to port to bluehost because i have never witness Oscar suffer down-time i guess.
Yes blogging platform does’nt really matter, as i have known alot of famous and authority bloggers using free blogging platform.
Yes ofcourse hardwork pays, as far as you are committed to doing your work without complain, just wait and see how rubbies roll in subsequently.
That logo up there is very nice, hehehehe i almost kissed it, nice job johnie keep this up.
As for you “Larry” your blog is becoming much interesting this days, please dont back-down, keep the fire burning.
Regards: Pelij Elijah
Hi Elijah,
Welcome once again to my blog, sure I can testify of his work in the music production industry as I’ve heard and listened to some of his works, I’ve also plays on a show with him, that was about 2 – 3 years ago, and he’s very good at the lead and bass guitar.
I’m just glad i didn’t fall to the wrong hand, as I currently use bluehost for my blog as at now. The blogging platform where your blog is being hosted doesn’t determine your success, your sucess in the blogsphere is determined by you.
I’ve always stickes to his quote “hard work pays” and I’ve tried implementing it too, and it really has paid.
lols.. Bro trust me, I’ll keep it going.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day to spend ahead.
always good to learn from the pro, their mistakes to avoid treading the same path, and the things they did to finally get to the top. Wow 30 registered domains? guess he puts alot of time into blogging. This post served it’s purpose, enlighten newbies who are eager to learn. Still wonder how he copes with music and blogging, when blogging is challenging as it is.
Hi Gracia,
I’m glad you like to learn from pro bloggers so as To learn from their experience and be able to overcome certain issues when they come arround.
I’m still in wonder, how he’s been able to manage he’s music life added to his blogging career.
I was also shocked when I heard that he had over 30 domain names that are active at the momment, anyway since he is able to manage himself with them, then there’s no problems with that, like he said, he’ll be living all of them for just three alon by next year.
I’m glad to see you on my blog ones again.
Thanks for stopping by, and do have a wonderful day ahead.
WOW! This is my first time reading an interview on this blog. I think its a good thing for the very lazy ones like me. Reading through interview and confirming some things that the pros had to go through before becoming pro, hmmm. is not an easy TASK. but still, I need not to relent. I need to pursue my goal about blogging.
Hi Shico,
Blogging has never been easy, and I’m glad that you believe that you can tap a thing from this interview.
You never need to relent bro, it there’s nothing you gained from this interview, just remember that “hard work pays”, and that would build your momentune to fire on.
Thanks for stopping by, and do have a wonderful day ahead.
a nice interview….
Oscar has been a friend since almst wen i began…
Nice having him here
Hi Anyinature,
Thanks for stopping by on my blog, sure oscar is a friendly fellow, and it’s good that you already have connection with him.
Do have a wonderful day ahead. š
Anyinature, Your blog’s been down with a 509 error, guess you have to start implementing oscar’s advices… Get a better host.
Hi Frank,
Wow! , This is Always Great Learn , Superb Blogging ideas , Very Long Article ,
I love Blogging you Know, š Anyways Good Job keep it up , Wonderful Information Thank You For Sharing me ,
Leena
Hi Leena,
it’s good that you love blogging, and aswell this interview, I hope you’ve learnt a thing here.
Just keep visiting us as there are a lot more comming.
Thanks for stopping by, I enjoyed your time here.
Hi Larry,
Good to see Oscar interviewed this time on your blog š
My goodness! 30 domains – I didn’t know that, but yes, it’s tough to manage all of them if you want to concentrate or build just one. Nor did I know his love for music and that’s something interesting, though I know Larry and have visited his blog earlier. He surely seems to be a person who loves the Blogger platform, even though nowadays people would vouch for WordPress. Reminds me of my time when I started on the free Blogger platform too and that had it’s own charm.
I guess he is another techie who loves all those CSS, Java and all such languages, just like Rohan, at our ABC! So, trying out various codes and stuff must be his forte too. Yes, hard work always pays, and there is NO substitute to working hard, something I truly believe in too.
Your blog logo looks nice, though I am sure you’d keep trying and testing new ones with time, just as most bloggers do, till they are satisfied with it! We changed ours recently too, if you noticed.
Thanks for sharing this with us, and it’s good to see you interview your own brother Larry – that’s wonderful indeed, and I am sure many would learn from this too. Have a nice week ahead, both of you. š
Hello Ma’am Herleena,
It’s good to see you on my blog once again. It was a (Shocker!) to me when I found that he has over 30 blogs, though a lot of them are inactive. Music runs in his vains I must confess, he plays a lot of musical instruments, and he’s good at all of them, I mean an expert.
When I wanted to start my blog I left my forum for blogging, I seeked advice from him on what free blogging platform I should use, he’s answer was definitely blogger, as at then I thought wordpress .com free hosting was the best, but due to the fact that he was experiences already, I had to stick to his advice. And I tell you, blogger is such a nice blogging platform, and I’ll still say that till tomorrow.
Oscar is one of those progammers who loves scripting always, and I also agree with him that hard work pays, and I also agree with you that there’s no substitude for hard work.
Conplete credit goes to Johnnie Ode for the logo, he’s always been there when ever a need for graphics arises and I’m glad to have such a friend, you need to see the banner he made for me.
Your blog logo was change, but I’ll say it was edited rather, because you just gave it a little touch of white which isn’t that visible.
I really appreciate you stopping by at my blog.
Thanks and do enjoy the rest days in the week.
Hi Larry,
It was great hearing Oscar’s views on blogging. The Classic Blogger vs WordPress debate. Blogger definitely is a great and completely free platform. Much easier to use and aptly functional. However, wordpress on the other hand has incredible amount of flexibility with plugins. It is a full blown CMS. WordPress can offer anything blogger can and more so wordpress for me even though I started out on blogger. Usually people love blogger because they have learned a lot of valuable lessons about blogging while on that platform. Besides,the purposes of the two are very different.
As, Oscar suggested, programming is not really required for blogging but it can prove to be a great advantage.
Absolutely no doubt about the hard work pays.
It was great reading this one š
Oscar definitely is a talented guy and inspirational.
Hi Navneet,
Welcome here to my blog. When we talk of wordpress vs blogger issue, I don’t like to argue as wordpress is the best. Though a lot of us started out from blogger, but as you rightly said, wordpres has more functionalities compared to blogger, but all thesame, blogger rocks š .
Yes programming is importante if you want to go into designing you blogs design to be customised, but on the other hand, there are cool themes with you just install to your blog, and they give you what you want.
I’ve always agreed with Oscar that hard work pays, he told me this sometime in 2 years back and I still work and believe in that.
I’m glad you like this interview and Oscar too.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Larry
I observed you have mastered the art of interviewing. While reading the whole post it never looked to me that questions were crafted and not extempore. Each question is connected with the prior answer. Maybe I am wrong but this is what I observed and so impressed of this.
It is good to learn more about Oscar which I didn’t know before reading this post. It is quite amazing he registered so many domains and managing five blogs at a time.
It is also quite impressive that he is well verse in many programming languages and also expert in web development.
Bravo to you also you developed each question in a way to make him share every detail about him and his expertise to offer maximum benefit to your readers.
Thanks for the share.
Hello Mi Muba,
Thanks for the compliment, I never knew that I was good at crafting interview questions. š Thanks for letting me know that through your observation.
I’m glad I could make you to come in contact with Oscar, he’s a nice person to be with, as most of his friends confirms that.
He’s designed many beautiful websites and I can attest to that, by the way, you puff my head whenever you talk of crafting cool interview question š
Thanks for stoping by, enjoy the week.
Great interview. Looks like you are mastering it Larry š
Oscar made great points throughout, especially about handling multiple blogs. I used to run over 400 blogs…imagine how hard it was LOL
Keep up the great work Larry! Enjoy the rest of the week!
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for your kind words, trust me, I never observed that I was matering the interview stuff.
It’s really difficuls managing a lot of blogs, I tried it sometime ago, and guess what? All my blog lost value, so I had to face just one. š Did you just say that you used to manage over 400 blofs? :O oh! That’s all stress, but I’m glad that you’ve stopped them only but to face a few.
Thanks for stopping by, do have a wonderful day to spend ahead.
Wow interesting interview, Larry you rock, I like the way your crafted your question, and oscar is quite an exeptional guy, his aswers just fit in perfectly.
Thanks for sharing, and do have a wonderful day ahead.
Hi Victor,
Thanks for the kind words, I hope you did learn a thing from this interview.
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the week š
Oscar has said it all. No matter whatever platform you use to blog either blogger or wordpress, what matter is how best you take your blogging Business. Being a Web Developer and Designer for some time now, I have come to understand that your blog will only make a difference base on your effort and how well you take your blog. I equally advice newbies not to create a multiple purpose niche blog except they have a good resources at hand to manage it. Larry, I really need to be part of this blog series as I have a lot to tell up coming Nigerian blogger here @ FTB. I really need ur contact either through Mobile or email. Thanks.
Sure, Onyema,
I agree with Oscars’ view, you can use any blogging platform and still make it in the blogsphere. It takes hard work and smart work.
Thanks for adding your advice for newbies, I’m sure they’ll learn from it.
Concerning featuring you, I’ll send you a mail so that we can talk.
Thanks for stopping by bro, have a wonderful day ahead, and a Merry Xmas to you š
I used to think you belonged to a family of The Franks, Oscar has been a borrowed and functioning role model for a very long time although I have not been chanced to meet him personally but He’s a great source of Inspiration to me.
Infact most of the people you’ve interviewed are familiar except for Nisha Pandey, cos I’ve developed a great interest to read & learn more from the geeks in my own land first.
Geeks like Don caprio, Oscar, Jide Ogunsanya, Nosa, Samuel Adeniyi, Larry and more really Inspire me and I strongly believe that technolgy in nigeria will be in a better phase soon enough!
Nice interview, relearning was great, remembered that which had been forgotten but that “Hard work Pays” sticks to my head always. Hoping to meet more geeks in your series.