This feature is our chance to find out a bit more about the bloggers behind the scenes. Thank you Rotus for giving us a bit of insight on your blogging experience, you are a goldmine of info . If you would like to feature on “We are Fuelmyblog” simply email sylvie(at)fuelmyblog.com

What’s your name?

Clark Bjorke

What’s the name of your blog?

Hah! Which one? I have four of them going now.  I’ll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book, ROTUS, Clark’s Picks and my newest project, Book Review Blog Carnival. I’m obsessive.

How old is your blog?

I started  my first blog, I’ll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book in August of 2007, so a year and a half.

If you’re willing to share, how many visitors per day do you have to your blog?

About three hundred people a day, split, very unevenly, four ways.  I’ll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book, Clark’s Picks get the bulk of it.

How much time do you spend blogging every week?

Actually writing? Maybe four hours a week, and I’ve stopped obsessing about my stats 24 hours a day.

Is it the creative process or the editing process which take you longest when writing a post?

Research! I spend far more time listening to YouTube music videos, reading books and searching for information through Google than I do writing or editing my posts. It makes a great excuse though: Sorry, I can’t take out the garbage now, I doing research.

What inspired you to first start writing a blog?

Back in the dark ages I had kept a journal about the books that I read. I decided to revive it online using Blogger as a notebook. Then people started reading my notebook and I found out that I liked the attention.

What do you do to get inspired to write?

Procrastinate.

How do you market your blog?

I’m doing this interview for one thing. I’ve left witty comments on other blogs, done a bit of guest blogging, joined a bunch of social networking sites, participated in memes and submitted posts to a couple of blog carnivals. Book Review Blog Carnival is a project I started for people who write book reviews on their blogs, to market them together.

What are the blogging tools you cannot do without?

Besides Fuelmyblog? I use both Wordpress and Blogger. Lately I discovered a site called Blogbackupr which will make and save a backup copy of your posts on their site and this morning I discovered one called Mister Linkey’s Magical Widgets, that has some scripts for making blogs interactive. I’mgoing to try some of them. Maybe I’ll regret it, I don’t know.

Is there anything that you simply refuse to blog about?

If there is, Lord Likely ,Daddy P, Fracaswill rush in to fill the need.

If you went for a job interview and were told that you’d have to close your blog in order to get the job, how would you react/feel about it?

I guess if I was starving I’d do it. I am very careful not to blog about anything at my day job and I expect my day job to keep out of my, terribly private, online business.

Do you talk about your blog with your relatives and friends or do you avoid mentioning it?

My father reads all of them. He likes the book reviews and the music posts. We don’t talk about politics, so he doesn’t comment about ROTUS. He did make a Nancy Pelosi joke at Thanksgiving dinner. I laughed politely.

What is the biggest mistake you made when starting your blog?

I used the nom de plume ROTUS, which was derived from a MySpace page I used to have called Resident of the United States. I’ have no need for anonymity.

Any tips for aspiring bloggers?

Only the usual: Write what you know. Don’t post pictures your brother took of himself on the loo.Reverend you listening?

Who are the bloggers that  you look up to the most?

Jon Swift, Windows to Russia, Inside Government, Notes from the
TEFL Graveyard, Idiot’s Guide to Blogging (even though I resemble the title) Each of them has a
different reason for blogging and a different style, but consistently produces a high quality product.

Do you still see yourself blogging in 5 years time?

Of course! I’m still trying to surpass John Chow. I figure I’ll just outlast him.

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