Brett McKay, the brains and man behind The Art Of Manliness was gracious enough to do a very informative interview about the success of his blog for Building Camelot readers. If you haven’t checked out The Art Of Manliness (or AoM) you’re missing out on some great manly articles that all men can relate.
I found AoM through Digg a few months ago and have been a reader ever since. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to host the Manival and learn some great ways to apply Brett’s articles to my everyday life.
If you’re a fan of AoM, then I think you’ll enjoy this interview. If you’re new to AoM, then read on and learn more about this great site. Make sure and subscribe to his feed in your reader so you won’t miss any of his great articles. Once you’re a subscriber, you’ll be able to download a free e-book about being a gentleman in today’s society.
1.) Tell us a few things about yourself. What do you want readers to know about you?
I’m 25 and live in Tulsa, OK with my wonderful and beautiful wife Kate. I’m about to start my third year of law school at the University of Tulsa College of Law. I lived in Tijuana, Mexico for two years and can speak Spanish fluently. I’m a voracious reader and can devour huge books in one day.
2.) Now, tell us about The Art Of Manliness? Where did the idea of AoM come from? And where do you draw inspiration from for such manly articles?
I had the idea last year. I’ve subscribed to Men’s Health for the past few years, but I’ve noticed that overtime it has turned into Cosmo for men. In fact, most men’s publications are like that. It’s all about sex, naked or almost naked women, and six pack abs. I felt like the stuff out there for men didn’t align with my values and wasn’t particularly useful. I also felt that many men today in our post-feminist world are confused about what it means to be a man. Men today are struggling. All you have to do is look at the statistics and you’ll see fewer men are going to college, graduating college, or even moving out of their parent’s house. So I decided to start the site.
Moreover, both my dad and my grandpa taught me the importance of hard work, supporting a family, and doing the right thing.
My inspiration from articles come from all over the place, but I draw most of my inspiration primarily from the great men in my life and the great men I’ve read about in history. When I think of manliness, I think of men like my dad or my grandpa. My dad is a retired federal game warden and my grandpa is a retired forester. They traipsed around the woods protecting our nation’s natural resources. How much more manly of a job can you get? They carry pocket knives, hunted, fished, camped, and knew how to work with tools.
My grandpa had a small farm when he retired that had horses. He worked that farm well into his eighties. I’m still impressed with his grip even though he’s 90+ years old. Moreover, both my dad and my grandpa taught me the importance of hard work, supporting a family, and doing the right thing.
There have been other men in my life that have also been examples to me of honorable manliness. Teachers, coaches, and scout leaders all make the list of men who inspire posts for the site.
Additionally, I get ideas from great men in history. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a voracious reader. I particularly enjoy biographies. I’ll read something and make note of it for a potential post.
3.) The Art Of Manliness has, at last look, >13,000 RSS subscribers…a goal that many bloggers out there only dream about and you’ve managed to do in just over 6 months. What do you think are some of the driving factors behind your success? What have you learned that you can share with bloggers looking to increase their readership?
The AoM Subscribers Rate [14,063 as of 08.02.08!]
There are few factors that contributed to the rapid success of the Art of Manliness. First, I had been blogging for over a year and a half before I started the Art of Manliness. My first blogs were The Frugal Law Student and Best Facebook Applications. During those 18 months, I developed the skill sets needed to produce a successful blog. I learned how to write for a blog audience; I improved my writing; I learned how to write catch headlines; I learned how to do web and graphic design; and I learned how to leverage social media. I was able to take all that and apply to AoM from the get go and not have to learn along the way like many bloggers do.
Second, because of my prior experience blogging, I was able to develop relationships with other influential bloggers and social media users who have helped me immensely with AoM. I wouldn’t have been able to have the success I’ve had with out the help of these individuals. They’ve mentored me and helped me promote my content.
Third, it was something unique and filled a need. Let’s face it. Most new blogs are just regurgitating the same information in the same way that some other blog has posted on before. How many more Life/Zen/Happy/Simplicity/Hack blogs do we really need? When I started AoM back in January, there were no blogs that focused on helping men be better men. Most men’s sites were dedicated to posting the babe of the day and sex secrets. I felt many men were looking for a site to help them be better men without being preachy, and it looks like my hunch was right. Plus, I think people like the brand. It’s vintage and nostalgic and I think a lot of people respond to that.
The Art Of Manliness featured on Channel Flip [Website Link]
Fourth, we’ve focused on comprehensive posts. For the first 6 months of the site, we only posted three times a week, but those posts were very comprehensive. While we have a post everyday now, we still post our comprehensive posts on MWF.
Our MWF posts will often take a week or two to write. We research them thoroughly and not just on the internet. We go to the library and hit the books.
We treat it almost like writing small research projects for school. Then we sit down and write. After the writing come several revisions, and finally formatting with images. People are looking for more than a short list of bullet points. Give them something to chew on.
Fifth, I got lucky on Digg.com. I had been writing on the blog for about a month when my first post, How To Shave Like Your Grandpa, hit the front page of Digg. It took me totally by surprise. As soon as AoM was on the Digg radar, getting stuff on the front page became an almost weekly occurrence. With each front page hit, AoM would receive thousands of visitors and an increase in subscribers. People ask me what the secret of getting on Digg front page is. There really isn’t a secret. Write good original content, have a solid network of people who can help you on Digg, and just get lucky.
4.) When you started AOM, did you have any specific plans and/or goals in mind? Has the popularity of AoM taken you for surprise?
I thought the blog could be a success when I started it, however, I wasn’t expecting the site to be this successful so quickly.
5.) You’ve recently run into some “issues” with Digg.com. I found AOM through Digg, but they now consider your content SPAM. What have you learned about “social media” marketing and blog traffic that niche bloggers can learn from? Do you focus your attention on marketing to one particular social site and how has your traffic changed since the Digg problem?
My advice to other bloggers is don’t put all your marketing attention in social media. I’ll admit, I miss the Digg traffic. It was nice hitting the front page every week and getting 100K visitors in a day. But I think it made me lazy in marketing the blog in other ways, things like participating actively in other blogs or forums or even marketing offline by talking about the site with friends and strangers. As far as where I’m focusing marketing, I’ve been focusing on Stumble Upon. You get the most traffic for the effort you put in.
I want to thank Brett for taking the time to offer this great interview to my readers. I know I learned a great deal about what makes The Art Of Manliness tick and hopefully you all can take something away from this interview.
