It’s an honour to have secured two of Cape Town’s celebrated professional bloggers (making a living out of running a blog, with a community of readers) to agree on a face-off. Chris Mills runs Imod.co.za an internationally recognised South African Blog with a strong focus on technology, industry news and all forms of marketing while 2oceansvibe.com is a local Cape Town based lifestyle website managed by Seth Rotherham. Remember to cast your vote at the end of the face-off to declare your preferred winner.
Seth Rotherham – www.2oceansvibe.com
When was your blog launched?
Late 2001
How many hours per day do you invest on your blog?
It’s happening all the times and switches between online and offline.
What are your monthly page views and unique visitors?
200,000 page views and can do 40,000 uniques a month
How is your blog monetized?
Affiliate marketing, sponsored brands, editorials, banner advertising, video content.
Do you mind declaring your April Income Report?
Yes
Is blogging your full-time or part-time job?
Full time
What is the biggest mistake you’ve made since blogging professionally?
Assuming Randall Abrahams would join me in the ring after he challenged me to a “face to face” meeting. Should have known MNET and Idols would gag him.
What are your top three blogs that you read daily?
Gawker.com; thedailybeast.com; rivercityvibe.com
What ad server do you use to run your campaigns?
I’m currently “between” ad servers, truth be told…
How many email addresses do you have in your mailing list?
A few thousand
Do you think adsense makes a blog look unprofessional?
It depends on what it’s throwing out at the time. The one day it’s offering a dating service and the next it’s showing an ad for the DA. Helen Zille is a prime cougar, so you can get confused between the two.
What is your opinion on eBooks?
I miss the dog-ears to be honest. That, and lending it to people and waiting for friends to finish theirs, before I get to read it. Ps. Reading The Wolf of Wall Street at the moment – get it!
Which blogger do you idolize and why?
Nick Denton who owns Gawker Media. I like what he’s done in terms of changing the American online media landscape. Hot systems, hot writers, hot delivery.
What is your opinion about twitter, is it a waste of time or a good marketing tool?
For me it’s a great marketing tool and I’m sure it’s the same3 for others in their particular field. For the man on the street it must be great to follow something you’re interested. I think it has a long way to go and people are just finding out it’s uses. The other day I needed a contact at Vespa. Instead of going in cold, I sent out a twat asking my “followers.” In ten seconds I had a guy’s name a cell number.
Is your blog on wordpress premium or free theme?
You’re going to have to ask Chris that. Chris, it’s the premium one, right?? My God, I hope so…
Christopher Mills – www.imod.co.za
When was your blog launched?
I started blogging many moons ago, but iMod.co.za started quite a while afterwards and ran on a custom publishing framework, which I built. I moved it onto WordPress and wrote the first post on 2nd Auguest 2007.
How many hours per day do you invest on your blog?
1-2 hours a day
What are your monthly page views and unique visitors?
Page Views – 90,000 | Uniques – 65,000 (April)
How is your blog monetized?
Up until a couple of months ago, I was pushing Adsense, AdGator and some affiliate networks, now I’m focusing only on private advert sales. I use iMod as a lead generation tool, not a revenue maker, if that makes sense.
Do you mind declaring your April Income Report?
Sorry, I can’t do that, but let’s just say it was a lot more than the biggest Adsense Cheque I’ve showed off on my blog.
Is blogging your full-time or part-time job?
It’s not a job, it’s a passion and hobby.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve made since blogging professionally?
Not starting with a big picture in mind.
What are your top three blogs that you read daily?
Friends aside, TechCrunch, LifeHacker and SEOmoz.
What ad server do you use to run your campaigns?
Tricky to answer, as I use different ones for different things, but the primary one is a custom built system.
How many email addresses do you have in your mailing list?
10. I don’t do a mailing list, however, I have roughly 150,000 opt-in users in my database 
Do you think adsense makes a blog look unprofessional?
No, provided the publisher thinks carefully about colour, placement and size.
What is your opinion on eBooks?
Useful, but to really learn, nothing beats hardcopy.
Which blogger do you idolize and why?
Coda.co.za, he inspired me to start blogging.
What is your opinion about twitter, waste of time or a good marketing tool?
I’m starting to think it’s a waste of time.
Is your blog on wordpress premium or free theme?
Adapted free theme
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Appreciate the compliment Joe, yes I’m aiming to include more inspiring bloggers and I welcome suggestions on bloggers to feature.
This is a wonderful idea and inspirational to us other bloggers, well done Muzi.
Its hard for me to choose a winner from these answers as I think they both have valid points at various times.
I personally follow both blogs, and incidentally I follow most of their suggested ones too. Chris, Coda.co.za also was an eye opener for me, a long time ago.
Muzi it would be great to see this idea developed further.
Great article Muzi, featuring two heavyweights if the SA blogging scene!
I think they are both great bloggers that we newbies can learn from.
Great stuff guys.
As a new blogger, I didn’t think established bloggers like yourselves were going to give me a chance and agree to the face-off. Thank you for the opportunity and it has added more weight, it should now be more easy to get the buy in of other bloggers to participate.
This is awesome. I wouldn’t call it a Face Off really, as we’re not competing with the same audience, but it’s still nice to read and see the comparison
Nice one Muzi, I love and follow both these bloggers, they are both great in their own way, I mean they both are Gurus in their game and I hold a lot of respect for both of em…
My public vote goes for both of them, my other vote is my secret, hehehhe, WE DEMAND!