Brief Summary of the Blogger Interviewed (click a name to skip to the good stuff):
Pete Prodoehl
Pete is into technology, music, web dev, and collaboration. He is active in the web community in Milwaukee. Pete has been “blogging” since 1997.
Nikol Hasler
Nikol is passionate about cooking, books, parenting, autism, politics, and more. She enjoys word games, social networking, thrift store treasure hunting, and all sorts of nerdy nonsense. Nikol has a straightforward and sometimes sarcastic approach to nearly everything, especially sex.
Frank Madden
Frank started Brew Hoop along with Alex in 2007. Aside from following the Bucks, Frank is a fan of the Brewers and FC Barcelona. He also enjoy indie rock concerts, Mountain Dew, and being a mediocre hockey player.
Erin Chase
While she is not from Milwaukee, I still had to include her in this post, because, I don’t personally know any other blogger who can go from 0 visitors a day to 4,000 visitors per day in the span of two years. I think on one day in April 2009, she got around 39,000 visitors in one day. If you are interested in saving $ on meals, check her blog out.
Pete Prodoehl
Scott Offord: Where do you see yourself (blogging-wise) in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?
Pete Prodoehl: I’ve actually got a renewed interest in blogging at RasterWeb! as of the past few weeks, and I’m going to try to blog even more. I’ve been doing it since 1997, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. At a very minimum, I need to blog longer than Dave Winer does! 
Scott Offord: What is the ultimate goal for a blogger in your opinion?
Pete Prodoehl: To be heard. To get thoughts an opinions out there for the world to see. At least, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve been involved in publishing (starting with print) for nearly 25 years, and I love doing it. For others, I think it really runs the gamut. Some see it as a way to speak their minds, some see it as a way to keep a (public) journal, and some see it as a way to make money, promote their business, or ideas, and try to gain fame, fortune, or whatever.
Scott Offord: When you don’t feel like blogging, what do you do?
Pete Prodoehl: I don’t blog. I write posts when I’m motivated to. Lately I’ve been more motivated to, and I hope that continues. I think one of the great things about blogging is, it doesn’t have to be forced. If you don’t feel like writing a post today, maybe you will next week, or next month. Of course some people take too much time off and end up never blogging again! Sometimes it’s a shame when that happens.
Scott Offord: What is the best thing about your blog design?
Pete Prodoehl: Hmmm, I haven’t had complaints about the redesign in the last 5 years! (Of course I haven’t redesigned it in the past 5 years!) Seriously though, as far as the design, I don’t know… I think it’s usable, but I am planning to overhaul the theme soon.
Scott Offord: How diverse are your blogging topics?
Pete Prodoehl: I’ve tended to say RasterWeb! is a blog about technology and life, and I think I’ve stuck to that pretty well. Obviously being a web developer over the years has produced a lot of posts about web-related technologies, but most of my interests have had posts written about them in some form or another.
Scott Offord: Do you have an idol in the blogging world, or someone to look up to?
Pete Prodoehl: Well, I have what I consider friends, or colleagues. As far as inspiration, Dave Winer and Cameron Barrett were very inspirational to me in 1997, and are part of the reason I started blogging. I’ve also got a fondness for all the early bloggers from the 1997/1998/1999 era, who worked on creating what is now known as blogging. I consider myself lucky (and just a little proud) to have been a part of it.
Scott Offord: Why did you decide to start a blog? What was your introduction into blogging?
Pete Prodoehl: Dave Winer was a big influence on me. His “24 Hours of Democracy” project, as well as his software and his own publishing and blogging got me excited about the possibilities.
Scott Offord: If you could choose only one blog to read for the rest of your life, and that blog would provide you with all the education and entertainment you’d ever need, what blog would you pick and why?
Pete Prodoehl: Wow, I guess based on some of my previous answers, I’d have to say scripting.com might be it. I’d be tempted to say something like engadget.com except I’m a little hesitant to call that a blog. I mean, I know it is one, but it’s really just this super-face-paced rapid-fire news site that runs on a blogging platform and often has tons and tons of useless comments on each story, er, “post” I mean. (If you asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said Slashdot.)
Nikol Hasler
Scott Offord: How do you interact with your blog readers, other than on your own blog?
Nikol Hasler: I write an advice column, so that’s direct interaction right there. However, I also update my FB fan page just as often as my regular page and talk to people who post things there. Really, I have three main pages and use about every social network, and the only line I draw is on my personal FB page, where I don’t accept friend requests from strangers. It got to a point where people were pestering my friends and family and things were getting weird, so for their sake I did a mass de-friending.
Scott Offord: When you don’t feel like blogging, what do you do?
Nikol Hasler: I can’t say I ever get an overwhelming feeling to do any blogging. I’m fortunate because I write, and people pay me to do it. I get to write about things that interest me, and that helps. But sometimes I get serious writer’s block. A few hours treasure hunting at thrift stores or working out usually clears my head.
Scott Offord: In regards to blogging, what’s one thing you don’t really like doing? When will you finally do it?
Nikol Hasler: I don’t like begging people to leave comments. I know that the editors at the sites that pay me would appreciate it if people left comments, so I encourage it, but I’d like people to comment because they have something to say, not because I begged them to.
Scott Offord: What is the best thing about your blog design?
Nikol Hasler: I think NikolHasler.com has a really sweet, clean look. A close friend of mine designed the theme for me and drew the cute cartoon me overlooking the site. I wish WordPress supported each offshoot page being blog style. (Are you listening, WordPress?)
Scott Offord: How diverse are your blogging topics?
Nikol Hasler: Meh. Mostly it’s sex. Sex, Honestly, which is on crushable, is a straight up sex column for girls. Love, Sex, Etc, which is on MilwaukeeMagazine, is an advice column. Now that I’ve got NikolHasler.com up and running, I have a feeling I won’t be using it to write about sex very often. Those blog posts will just be my rambling. But on other sites, like Beatweek.com I get to write about technology and music. That makes me pretty happy.
Frank Madden
Scott Offord: Where do you see yourself (blogging-wise) in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?
Frank Madden: I’ve never viewed blogging as a stepping stone to bigger things–just a way to channel my passion for the Bucks and hopefully add a useful perspective that other fans find interesting and worth reading. We’ve grown our readership steadily over the past three years and hopefully that continues going forward, but I also realize that the market for a Milwaukee Bucks blog is by definition fairly narrow. It’s definitely a small niche, but I think it’s good to be focused as a blogger–I’m not a good enough writer to be a generalist!
But will I always be able to blog as much as I do now? Probably not. I’m 29 and have always had a day job that’s far removed from sports and journalism, which I think is probably the best balance for me. Working for a team or writing about sports full time would probably take too much of the enjoyment out of it for me, but blogging as a hobby feels just right. That said, I imagine that there will be a day in the future when my family or career will demand more of my time, and hopefully when that time comes I can scale back my writing without giving it up entirely. Fortunately, Brew Hoop has always been about more than just my opinions, so I think we’ll manage to adapt and grow regardless of how my role evolves.
Scott Offord: What is the ultimate goal for a blogger in your opinion?
Frank Madden: I started writing because I was a) passionate about something and b) didn’t feel like my view was really being captured by what was already out there. I assume most bloggers share some of that feeling, regardless of what it is they’re writing about–whether it’s politics, food, or an under-appreciated Milwaukee sports team. You see a niche and go for it, and hopefully your voice finds an audience.
Scott Offord: How do you interact with your blog readers, other than on your own blog?
Frank Madden: My Brew Hoop relationships are virtual in almost every respect. We’ve been fortunate to develop an active base of community members that comment on our posts, send us emails, and write their own blogs on our site, but almost everything is through the website. I’ve never met any of them and many are on different continents (notably Australia), but I suppose that’s just the beauty of the medium. Heck, I didn’t even meet my co-writer Alex Boeder until about six months after we started Brew Hoop together.
That relationship with our community has been perhaps the most rewarding aspect of blogging. When I first started writing it was very much a one-way street–I would post something and often have just a couple comments at best. But I always tried to respond to comments and make myself available to our readers, and now we’ve reached the point where we regularly have hundreds of comments per post. I’m continuously amazed at the depth of analysis and ideas we get from our readers, to the point that at this point I often feel more like a forum moderator than a blogger: I throw out a topic and then we just start out conversation from there.
Scott Offord: In regards to blogging, what’s one thing you don’t really like doing? When will you finally do it?
Frank Madden: It’s difficult to find time for original analysis and commentary posts during the regular season because Alex and I preview and recap every game. The previews can be especially annoying because they’re more formulaic than writing game recaps, commenting on news, or writing an analysis piece. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, so I often let myself get bogged down in details when I’d best off keeping it simpler.
Scott Offord: What is the best thing about your blog design?
Frank Madden: I can’t claim credit for any of it–Sports Blog Nation does all our site design and handles all of our back-end. All I do is write and interact with our community, which is great from a writer’s perspective. That said, my favorite aspect of our design is how easily it lets readers interact with us. Our commenters can use their accounts on any of SB Nation’s 250+ sports blogs and post their own blogs and links right on our front page, which I think makes the whole site more dynamic and interactive.
Scott Offord: How diverse are your blogging topics?
Frank Madden: We’re very narrow–while I have many interests beyond the Bucks, I don’t think readers visit our site for my thoughts on music, other sports, or even other basketball teams. Plenty of people are better at that than I am, so I keep it simple and just stick with the Bucks.
Scott Offord: Do you have an idol in the blogging world, or someone to look up to?
Frank Madden: Not really, though that is probably in large part because I don’t have a journalism background. That said, there are definitely basketball writers/bloggers I really respect and enjoy reading–Yahoo’s Kelly Dwyer and ESPN’s Henry Abbott certainly come to mind–so I probably subconsciously incorporate some of their styles into the way I write. Mainly I love how those guys bring an analytic mindset and objectivity without losing their personal voice and passion.
Scott Offord: Why did you decide to start a blog? What was your introduction into blogging?
Frank Madden: I moved to Wisconsin in 1989, latched onto the Bucks shortly thereafter, and even after I moved to Boston for college, I kept following the Bucks with NBA League Pass and Christmas breaks planned around the Bucks’ home schedule. Starting in 2005, I started reading and commenting on the RealGM.com Bucks message board, and like many people there I was always underwhelmed by coverage of the Bucks at the time. So on a whim I started blogging in June 2007–just me and my Blogspot address–not knowing whether anyone would read or how long I might have the stomach to do it. To be honest, I was almost embarrassed about blogging on some level (why should anyone really care what I thought?) and I didn’t tell most of my friends and family for about three months.
In that span I was linked a few times on ESPN’s TrueHoop, which led to SBN recruiting me to be their Bucks blogger and the birth of BrewHoop.com in its current form. At the same time I also knew that it would be difficult to make the site work on my own, so I asked Alex Boeder to co-write the site with me and make it easier to manage from a time perspective. Alex and I had never met at that point, but he had also been blogging on his own about the Bucks and I thought he was a great writer. Our backgrounds were also fairly complementary. Alex has a journalism background and is credentialed at every home game, while I studied economics in college and just finished my MBA.
Erin Chase
Scott Offord: Where do you see yourself (blogging-wise) in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?
Erin Chase: I imagine that I will be blogging away in 6 months, as well as promoting my second cookbook. Will blogs be around in 5 years?!? Will we have moved on to some other platform?! If they are around, I’ll still be blogging.
Scott Offord: What is the ultimate goal for a blogger in your opinion?
Erin Chase: My ultimate goal as a blogger is to encourage and inspire others with what I am learning each day about cooking, recipes, saving money and finding great deals at the grocery store. I hope that others will learn from me and be able spend less on their groceries, while still making healthy wholesome meals.
How do you interact with your blog readers, other than on your own blog?
Erin Chase: I interact with readers on the site, as well as on Twitter and Facebook. I feel like social media is just an extension of the website and the community that has formed as a result of the site.
Scott Offord: When you don’t feel like blogging, what do you do?
Erin Chase: Blog anyways!
Really, I keep ideas for posts in the drafts portion of my dashboard, so if I don’t feel like writing or if I come up against writer’s block… then at least I have some content and ideas to work with.
Scott Offord: What’s your biggest distraction, and what do you do to get rid of it?
Erin Chase: While social media is an integral part of the $5 Dinners community, it can also be a distraction. I find it best to shut down all social media outlets while writing and working on photographs.
Scott Offord: If you could choose only one blog to read for the rest of your life, and that blog would provide you with all the education and entertainment you’d ever need, what blog would you pick and why?
Erin Chase: Big Mama… written by an IRL friend from TX… and she is just hysterical!
