Can one man build a blog empire? After my interview with Rickey, I’m tempted to think yes. If there’s one thing Rickey’s good at, it’s that he knows what his readers want and he delivers.

Rickey is the blogger behind Rickey.org. His blog has that reality talent show vibe to it and on any given day, you can see over 500 blog comments, and that’s just for 1 post. Pair that traffic with a deft marketing mind (think Cafepress, Amazon Associates and Google AdSense) and you’ve got the recipe for a very successful blog.

I asked Rickey to share his insights on the Internet, niche marketing and blogging in general.

Marc: Who is Rickey?

Rickey is that guy whose picture appears on Rickey.org

Marc: What was the idea behind Rickey.org? What made you decide to start the website? What was your inspiration or motivation? Can you describe the early Rickey.org days?

Sometime in 1998, when I finally had enough money to buy a domain name, I purchased my nickname, Rickey, and my surname. Only .org was available for Rickey, but I still felt lucky that I got it. It was not until July 2003 however, that I finally used rickey.org for anything.

I had been writing personal stories online in various forms since 1996 using GeoCities and Tripod, and officially “blogged” using Blogger in 2001. My first blog Blue Red Orange was easy to remember, but it had a complicated URL. It quickly became cumbersome as I tried to network with bloggers in New York. When I moved from Blogger to Typepad, I decided to use rickey.org for simplicity. I could now say, “Hi my name is Rickey. My blog is rickey.org.”

During the “early days”, I used the web as a sounding board for personal crap that was going on in my life. This was great, until there was nothing much left to angst about. I wouldn’t say that my life is boring, I just didn’t want to write about it anymore. It was during this time of “personal blogging fatigue” that I decided to write about other things aside from myself.

Marc: Why the talent/reality show niche?

This pretty much occurred by accident. While having nothing much to say about my life, I became a big fan of Fantasia Barrino of American Idol 3. I used my blog to write praises about her and post videos and mp3’s because apparently, Rickey was now becoming a super fanboy. In three months, rickey.org became the unofficial fan site for Fantasia.

Two very significant things happened during this time:

1. The owner of Typepad wrote me to put down the videos on my blog because I was now responsible for 25% of all bandwidth on their servers.
2. The day after Fantasia won, I received the most number of unique visitors ever in my Internet existence, which translated to $8 in Google Ad revenue.

This got me thinking: What if… ?

So this year, I decided to blog about the entire show, American Idol, to test my theories and abilities. I gave myself modest goals, and I was thankfully successful. I operated on the assumption that I was going to blog about American Idol anyway, so might as well, get some Google revenue with it. I learned a lot of things about blogging, forums, Quicktime, MP3s, Mac computers, Google, social patterns and business practices - hahaha.

I’m into the reality/talent show niche because I guess it’s what I’m good at, or it’s part of my disease: possessive-compulsive-obsessive. But really, I think it’s by accident. I wouldn’t hesitate to write about myself again exclusively if I felt like it. The blog has a life of its own which is awesome, but its still my blog and I have absolute control over it.

Marc: Any other players in your niche that you look up to?

Everybody else in my “niche” is competition! Hahaha. A friend once told me about my blog: “But you are just one man!” All these other reality tv players, realitytvmagazine.com, idolforums.com, etc. are staffed by many people, so in a way, I did pretty well to become a significant American Idol destination this year.

Marc: What sets Rickey.org apart?

Rickey.org is unique because Rickey proudly displays his picture on every page.

Marc: Talk about your readers. Rickey.org would appeal to–? How did you build up your viewer base? What keeps them coming back?

The Internet has changed quite a lot since it started. It has become a significant means of communication for a lot of people. We also trust it more. A lot of people use the Internet to connect to real people, and have what they consider real relationships. I have friends now who I only know by their screen name and voice on Xbox Live. Because I present just enough of my real self into my, yes, personal blog, I think the blog would appeal to those who would find me interesting as a person in real life — which may involve my writing style and as I said, my proudly displayed picture, things which are hard to quantify. I don’t know why they come back. All I know is that I’m just being myself, so that’s probably why.

I built my viewer base by using amazingly effective Google SEO practices involving obscure niche market keywords. Hahaha. (GULP-Marc) They come back because they like me.

Marc: What is your favorite part of running the blog? Your least favorite part?

I have many favorites. I like getting gifts. Hahaha. I was surprised a couple of times with DVDs from my Amazon wishlist which was very touching. I also love it when people buy t-shirts.

Designing (Photoshop, CSS, HTML) and other time consuming stuff like mpeg rendering are my least favorites because I want instant gratification.

Marc: Let’s talk about Con Con Girls. I’m not much of an AI fan so I don’t “get” what hundreds of commenters on your blog “get”. What’s it about?

A couple of weeks before Constantine Maroulis got a surprise elimination, a group of his fans used my blog to talk about their obsession in the comments sections of various posts. The discussions pretty much exploded when he got booted. As they consoled themsleves they started to get to know one another in the comments and e-mail, and adopted the name “Con Con Girls”. I tried looking for solutions to get them out of the comments (it’s a bit unorthodox), but none really worked, so I just give them space every other day. They consider my blog “home” which I really appreciate. I find myself very lucky to be around these good people. They have been flamed many times by some assholes but they’ve always reacted very calmly, and are always friendly to any of the “lurkers” wanting to join in the conversation. I think the Con Con Girls have redefined what it is to be a regular reader.

Marc: Could you describe some of your blog’s important features (the stuff most people visit)? Any new stuff in the pipeline?

For the Con Con Girls, certainly the comments. There are currently more than 500 posts in rickey.org so the search box is important, although seldom used I think. Again, looking at my blog now, I think my picture is important. Hahaha. I just realized that my blog requires a redesign — nyek — so expect one soon. I’ll be removing some elements and move things around a bit. I like a simple look, since for all intents and purposes that is the extent of my design abilities.

I’ve also started Pinoy Rickey, which is a version of my blog “histrionics” for Philippine showbiz/issues. I just got GMA Pinoy TV and TFC so I’m very excited. At live.usa.ph, I’ve been dabbling in podcasting with a friend from U.P. We do our show from New York and Manila, which is really cool. I also have other websites waiting in the wings as I try to grow my blog empire… bwahahahaha. I’d love to get them all out there, but then again, I am just one man.

Marc: How do you monetize your site’s traffic?

Google Adsense, Amazon and Cafepress. I experimented with selling ad space during the American Idol season but it didn’t fly. I should probably move into SEO blogging (GULP-Marc) because it looks like I’m in the wrong “niche” for selling ad space. If you want to make money however, my best advice is to sell something. Or blog about cooking. Hahaha. Pinoycook, watch your back.

Marc: Have you always envisioned yourself doing what you are doing now?

Yes. But everything I’ve experienced was unexpected.