Interview With The “World’s Strongest Librarian”.

Today it’s my pleasure to be able to present an interview I did with super-blogger, the “World’s Strongest Librarian”, Josh Hanagarne.

1. Are you an actual librarian? What made you settle on the unique name of “World’s Strongest Librarian”?

I do have a fancy Master’s Degree that says I’m a librarian. The diploma’s sitting at the bottom of some forgotten box in my basement. I don’t place much stock in degrees.

But I do love my job. I get paid to answer questions and do research. I’m always on my toes and that’s fun. You never know what someone might ask you when they walk up, but you do have to find an answer for them.

This is going to sound odd, but I truly believe that librarian is a state of mind. Librarians are the curious, the lovers of stories, and those lucky few who are so terrified of boredom and stagnation that they couldn’t figure out how to stop exploring ideas even if they wanted to.

As far as the name of the blog: Librarian because I’m a librarian, “Strongest” because I’m an aspiring old-time strongman. I can do strange things like tearing decks of cards in half with my hands and bending nails. I’m a passionate student of all things strength-related, and strength can mean a lot of different things.

Beyond that, I think the name is catchy as hell. It also makes people raise their eyebrows. My profession is not really known for its physical might. When you hear the word “librarian,” you probably think of a lady with a bun shushing the taxpayers. It’s fun to be the opposite of a stereotype.

2. What do you think makes us want to read what some strong, nerdy librarian who suffers from Tourette’s writes?

Honestly, I have no idea. I’m nobody special and I don’t write for a particular audience. I can tell you why my readers say they visit:

According to the crazies who come and stay: There’s no ego on World’s Strongest Librarian. There’s little or no negativity. There is always something useful and there is always something surprising. There are things to learn. There is a sense of community. Comments get commented on and readers feel like I’m writing to them. My favorite thing to see is that people are starting to show up and interact with each other. I’m often in the background.

I believe my philosophy of life, which is stamped all over the blog, is very appealing to most people. “Don’t make anyone’s day worse. Better whenever possible, but no worse.”

I hear more positive feedback and gain more loyalty from that simple code than everything else put together. It isn’t BS. I’m not on the hustle. I really do try to live that way.

3. At this stage your blog has been going for only four months. Can you share with us three major things that you’ve learned about blogging so far?

1. Keep it fun or you won’t keep it. I’m not sure where that comes from, but my friend Kat Ricker says it a lot. People who treat blogs like they’re life and death aren’t going to enjoy themselves enough to create content that really resonates with readers. Everyone should be able to tell you enjoyed writing a post, no matter what the post was about.

2. It’s never too early to guest post, assuming you can write something another blogger can use. Any little traffic boost is exciting in the beginning, but when you have a post on a blog like Problogger, you start to get an idea of what serious traffic really means. I’ve had three Problogger posts to date, but I’ve written nearly 30 articles for other blogs, both big and small. The goodwill and contacts that generates are an investment that is way more useful than money.

3. Quit asking “Why me? Why should anyone listen to me?” The right question for bloggers, is: “Why not me? Really, why not?” If you can actually convince that I shouldn’t be reading your blog because you have nothing to say, then you’ve got no business blogging anyway. Go do something else you’ll enjoy more.

4. How will you define if your blog has been successful?

About a month ago, Seth Godin noticed my blog and put me in touch with a literary agent who then became my agent. It still freaks me out. Honestly, it scared me to death, but in a good way. If the book proposal for the memoir The World’s Strongest Librarian sells, that will certainly be a success.

But before all that happened, I would have answered this question like this: if it keeps me entertained, it’s a success. If I enjoy it, it’s not wasted time, even if nobody shows up to read. I don’t get bogged down in semantics. For me, success means that I get to do something creative that I enjoy. I am thrilled that other people—lots of other people—are enjoying it, but you have to do it for yourself first. I write because I enjoy the process.

Of course, I’d be lying if I said that my dream in life is to work 9-5 forever. I’ve already had some offers from sponsors. If I’m ever able to even cut back to part-time librarianship, I’d call that a huge success. Sponsors are how that is most likely to happen.

5. You mentioned on your blog that people aren’t necessarily happy with your quick blogging success? What are some of the things they say? How have you dealt with that feedback?

The whiners are a very, very small minority of sour grape harvesters. Someone’s always going to fussing about something, especially if they’re following all the rules and not getting the results they want. These are people who are taking my blog a lot more seriously than I am.

My opinion, which isn’t worth much, is that everything starts with your voice. You’re legitimate if you sound like you and nobody else. Back to asking, “Why not me?” I think either everyone is special or nobody is. With that in mind, I’m not going to start doing things differently until I have to. So far, I haven’t had to obey much of the conventional wisdom of successful blogging, and I won’t change until traffic stops growing. Probably not even then.

The people who lecture me the most assume that my goal is to monetize the blog. They would be right to criticize my SEO or lack of focus or whatever if that were my goal. But it isn’t. I’m just enjoying myself. I’ve never said “Wheee! Look at me, I do whatever I want and the success just pours in!”

I’ve gotten some good results so far, but this is what I’ve actually been saying: “I’m surprised this has happen and it may all end tomorrow…oh well. Time to write another post. What would be fun to write about today?”

Most of the negative feedback I get is from people who are agonizing over their headlines and SEO tactics and still not getting the results they want, or the results they believe I have. It goes back to taking things too seriously. People who take their blogs very, very seriously don’t want to hear that someone else is doing better with their blog while laughing about the whole thing.

As far as how I deal with negative feedback: I don’t. I don’t care. It’s just letters on a screen somewhere. When people stop subscribing and reading, maybe I’ll worry then. If a loyal reader says, “I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve suddenly started being a huge dick,” then I’ll take notice. So far so good, though.

I’m a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan. This quote gives my perspective better than I can:

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

That’s how I feel about someone who feels the need to show up and act like a diva on someone else’s little blog. Go find something else to do. Put that energy into your own blog or whatever else you enjoy and settle down.

6. Do you plan on making blogging a full-time venture in future? What is your approximate time line for this?

As I said, monetization was not the goal in the beginning. But now that I’m starting to learn more about my traffic, it’s starting to look like I could actually make a living doing this. But making a living is not exactly what I’m after. Jobs are something you do. Making a living is something you do, not necessarily who you are. My blog, good or bad, is an extension of who I am and who I’m trying to become. Your blog should contribute to your identity first, your wallet second. Just my opinion.

My goal is not to be rich and/or idle. I have no interest in not working. But I am in love with the idea of getting to a place where I do exactly the work I want to and no more.

As far as a timeline, it’s looking probable that by the end of 2009 I’ll be able to scale back my hours at my normal job. I’m running a sponsorship experiment right now that has gotten a huge response. The evidence suggests that people will be willing to pay for advertising space on the blog if it keeps growing. I just don’t want anyone paying yet because I want to see how the free sponsorship idea works out.

7. What are the ways you make money from your blog? (From most income to least).

So far I’ve made the most money from affiliate programs. I’m currently running a scandalous dance contest revolving around Todoodlist, a wonderful little organizational tool developed by Nick Chernis.

Other than that, the Amazon affiliate program has treated me decently, but the commissions are very small. When I review a book, a few people usually go buy it.

Before I offered to start dancing for everyone, I think I probably averaged about fifty cents a day on sales. Awesome, huh!

Selling advertising packages soon will be a big improvement.

8. What frequency of posting and length of posts do you prefer and why?

I post something brand new every weekday, usually between 400 and 1100 words. I run about one guest post each week that fall in that range as well.

On Saturdays I do a brief recap of the week with links. On Sundays I revisit an older post and give an update with the context of recent events. That’s been a lot of fun and people like to see how opinions and perspectives change.

Writing is a fun, healthy process for me. That’s why I do it so frequently. So far, nobody has said that amount of posting overwhelms them as readers. Frequent posting definitely helps with search engine traffic as well, but that’s always a peripheral concern for me.

9. Any final message for my readers?

Gordie’s the man, but you already knew that. Treat him right!

Other than that, I’ll just repeat a couple of things:

1. Keep it fun or you won’t keep it. Blogging, life, writing, whatever.
2. Don’t shoot small until you have to.
3. Don’t make anyone’s day worse.
4. Check out Todoodlist!
5. If something is important to you, do it every day.
6. If you find yourself in circumstances you can’t control, introduce something that you can control and get some small wins. That’s peace of mind.

Bio: Josh Hanagarne writes World’s Strongest Librarian, a blog to get you stronger, smarter, and living better. If you’re looking for advice about coping with Tourette’s Syndrome, book recommendations, buying pants when you’re 6’8”, kettlebells, fingerstyle guitar, old-time strongman training, or how to succeed with a truly unfocused blog, he’s your man. Please subscribe to Josh’s RSS updates and the Stronger, Smarter, Better Newsletter to stay in touch.

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