This week’s featured blog, Exploring the World of Trees by Dan Anderson, is a blog dedicated to raising the awareness of trees and their importance to our everyday lives. It strives to expose readers to interesting images, facts, and observations on a wide range of tree species from all over the world. Dan also blogs at Evergreen Tree Species.
Dan, why do you blog?
I blog as an outlet for several of my hobbies/interests which are trees and photography. Ever since I was a kid I have been interested in being able to identify trees by their species. Over the years I have learned how to identify a good number of common tree species in each of the places where I have lived. When I was about 17 I got my first camera and became interested in photography. I had been collecting National Geographic magazines for many years and I loved nature photography so I soon focused my camera on nature. Learning to blog gave me a creative outlet for both of these interests.
What do you like best about blogging?
I enjoy being able to share my own images and observations about trees. I believe that trees have always been a very important element in mankind´s environment. I enjoy showing people how amazing and interesting trees can be.
What’s unique or different about your blog?
I blog about as many different tree species as I can. There are other good tree blogs and sites out there but when I post I try to focus on a specific tree species or sometimes even a specific special tree or stand of trees. I try to take pictures that are as useful as possible for the proper identification of tree species while at the same time being good and interesting images.
What are some of your favorite posts?
Spanish Juniper - Juniperus thurifera
Mediterranean Cypress - Cupressus sempervirens
The Greatest Trees in the World
Port Orford Cedar - Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
How do you promote your blog and attract readers?
I´ve joined several blog networks and have tried to be an active commenter on other blogs. This has enabled be to build up a fairly good site rank and pull in a good deal of traffic. At the moment most of my traffic comes through Google image search.
Any comments on being part of the nature blogger community?
The Nature Blog Network has exposed me to a lot of nature blogs that I otherwise would probably not have found. It is a great way to get ideas and to read up on other people´s posts.
Any words of wisdom for new nature bloggers?
Focus your blog on something specific that really interests you. Share you own personal thoughts and observations. Don´t just copy and paste other peoples stuff. What you have to share about things that really interest you will be valuable to the readers who have your same interests.
Thanks, Dan!
