Hello Readers I know you would be upset as I am Posting few articles these days .. Actually My exams were going on and I was too busy with that. But Now I am Back and With a great series of Interviews with ProBloggers Of World. Interviews are a good way to learn from the probloggers how they started and How they succeeded. Success Stories always Inspire and that's what any preblogger needs. At PreToProBlogger My motto is to make a preblogger (newbie blogger) a Problogger (Professional Blogger) and that's exactly why I Started these Interview series. Within a few weeks I would be posting Interviews of probloggers time to time. As for a beginning I am starting with a problogger - Ravi Kumar. He runs a blog geteverything.org . I chose him for the first Interview as he is from the place where I belong- Jharkand and there are very few Probloggers in Jharkhand. So here's the Interview. I hope You will learn from his experiences...
1.) Your blog has a good reputation in the blogosphere, so your blog and you need no introduction but please tell our visitors something about yourself.
Hi Guys. My name is Ravi Kumar and I am the founder of geteverything.org blog. I am from Jhumri Telaiya(Koderma) which is a small city in Jharkhand. It is best known for the production of Mica. For many People, Jhumri Telaiya is an Imaginary Place but for me, it's a reality because it is my Home Town. Currenly I am living in New Delhi. I have been into blogging domain for the last 2-3 years. As far as my education is concerned, I had done B.Tech(Computer Science and Engineering). Apart from being a blogger, I am an SEO expert, a web designer and also a software developer.
2.)How you came into blogging realm? What was your source of inspiration?
My story is quite interesting. After passing Intermediate Exam with Good Marks, I failed to crack IIT-JEE and AIEEE which was a big disappointment for me. As a result, i got admission in an Engineering college which was not giving Placements. Right from the first year, I was worried about the placements so started thinking about an Alternative. One day, I came to know about earning money through Websites and Blogs. I was pretty excited to know that, one can also earn money online so decided to enter into blogging field. In beginning, my motto was to earn money online only but it changed with time. If you are asking about my source of Inspiration, it was "Money" in beginning but later on, I reallized that one can learn a lot as well which inspired me to continue blogging even after initial failures. There is a long list of Personalities like Amit Aggarwal of labnol.org, Mustafa of MBT, Harsh of shoutMeLoud etc who inspired me a lot.
3.) There are plenty of good blogs in the blogosphere, so new bloggers face a lot of problems to establish there blog. What problems you had to face while building a reputation in the blogosphere?
As a new blogger, it was really difficult for me to bring lots of traffic to my blog. On few occassions, I was forced to ask myself- whether I am wasting my Time?. However, I continued my blogging journey and worked on SEO and SMO. It really helped me a lot. If you are a new blogger and want to build a repuation in blogosphere, focus on posting quality contents. Apart from that, work on SEO and SMO. If you are really a Good writer, try Guest Posting on established blogs. It's the best way to bring quality traffic to your blog. You can't get popularity after copying the articles of other blogs.
4.) What changes you see in your life before and after starting blogging?
Blogging has changed my Life. Life before blogging was a bit tough for me as I was completely dependent on my Family. Now, I am a self dependent person. Blogging has enhanced my Knowledge and skills to a great extent as well.
5.) You started with wordpress platform. Why you chose wordpress? What do you like about it?
It would be wrong to say that, I started blogging with WordPress Platform. Before starting geteverything.org, I created many blogs on Blogger and wordPress.com platform as well but I wasn't satisfied. Blogger is a good Platform for new bloggers but it has certain limitations. For example- You can't sell it Legally, Google can remove your blog anytime. Very similar thing happened few years ago with my blogspot blog, when Google removed it after saying that it has virus. After that day, I decided to use self Hosted WordPress Blog and started geteverything.org. I liked the self hosted nature. However, Best feature of wordPress are its plugins which makes the task of blogger lot more easier. Using plugins, even a non-tech guy can customize his WordPress Blog.
6.) Please tell our readers about your blog's(geteverything.org ) journey.
I started geteverything.org with the motto of publishing all kind of articles in this blog. To accomplish this task, I added lots of categories as well. Later on, I realized that, it's not a good idea because everyone like an specialist not an all rounder. As a result, I removed useless categories and decided to focus on topics related to Blogging, Tech, SEO and Web Designing only. It worked like a charm.
7.) Usually anyone likes to have a .com domain. Why you chose a .org domain for your blog?
Ha Ha. That's a nice question. You are right buddy. I also suggest everyone to go with .com domain because users normally put .com while searching. I don't know, whether you are familiar with Amit Aggarwal of labnol.org or not. He is known as the "Father of Blogging in India". His character and blog inspired me a lot. He was using .org so i also decided to go with .org extension for my blog.
8.) A Pro-blogger can tell best about what it takes/requires to become a problogger. Please tell us what you think are the requirements for becoming a pro-blogger?
No one can become a Pro-Blogger in few days. It needs a hard labour with consistency. Before entering in Blogging, try to find answers of few questions like- Do you have anything interesting to share with this world?, Are you desciplined enough to post articles on regular basis?, Are you patient enough? What is your real motto etc. Have a look on the blogs of Probloggers. You will find uniqueness in their writing styles and contents. Blogging is not only about writing articles but it represents your skill of making it interesting for your readers. SMO and SEO are important as well.
9.) Your blog serves ads from top ad networks like adsense, yahoo ads.We would love to know how much you earn from them?
I don't want to disclose my earnings. However as a Hint, I can say that it's enough to live in a Metropolitan city with all kind of Luxuries. However, I don't earn that much money from Adsense or Yahoo. The best source of my earning is My Services. I am using Adsense and Yahoo Ads because I haven't got any interesting proposal of any Advertiser yet. If your visitors are webmasters, You can't make lots of money from Ad network because they already know about Ads. However, If your blog is related to Education or Job Notification etc, You can really make huge amount of money through Adsense. It's because most of the visitors of such blogs are normal users, who normally don't know much about Ads so they click on interesting Ads.
10.) A lot of bloggers want to serve ads from the networks you serve. Tell us what it requires to get into some best ad network programs?
If you are talking about Google Adsense then they require quality contents first. In addition to this, your blog should be user friendly. In other words, It should not confuse users. Don't use any kind of Ads, when applying for Adsense. In last few years, A large number of blogs has emerged in this blogosphere which has made Google Adsense a bit tough. For Asian Websites, Adsense checks the trustworthiness by measuring its Age. The age of your blog must have at least 6 months. As far as getting the Approval of Yahoo Ads are concerned, they need Good amount of traffic from USA, UK, Canada and Russia. If your blog is not able to get traffic from these location, don't apply for Yahoo Ads.
11.) Many think that making money from blogs is easy, some think its too hard. What you think about it?
Nothing is Easy in this world Dude. Money making from blog is only easy when your blog has a large number of visitors. For getting that much amount of visitors, You will have to really work hard. However, You can say that initial 1 year is really tough but if you have passion and you continued blogging, You can really achieve big.
People who says that, Earning money from blog is too easy are the one, who are either not earning money or earning very little. Always think bigger and work hard for that because nothing is easy in this world.
12.) Traffic plays a vital role for any blog. A blog can never succeed without traffic. What do you do to get huge traffic daily?
Quality Content is the real king for me. A part from that, it's my SEO and SMO knowledge which has really helped me a lot. Most of my visitors come either through search engines or through Social Networking sites. Till now, I haven't used my money in posting Ads in Facebook or Google Adword but will try it very soon because content marketing is really important for getting success. Experienced Entrepreneur suggest you to give only 20% of your time on content creation and rest 80% in content marketing. If your blog has quality content, People should know about it.
13.) A blogs reputation is from its Web ranks(Alexa, Google page rank etc). Do you think they are important?
I don't give much importance to Alexa Rank of any website for checking its Reputation because it uses a different algorithm for ranking any website or blog. I have already written a post on it. Check it -http://www.geteverything.org/does-alexa-ranking-of-a-website-tell-anything-about-its-traffic/. As far as Google PageRank is concerned, it is really important but Google hasn't updated it from last 8 months and will not update it this year so it's losing its importance as well.
To check the repuation of any blog or website, Have a look on its Domain Authority. It is a combination of Alexa and Google PR. If you don't know about it, read this- http://www.geteverything.org/domain-authority-important-seo/
14.) What your point of view about SEO? Is it really important? How To boost one's Blog SEO score?
If content is King, SEO is definitely Queen. You can't expect to get better results without Proper SEO. However, Never opt Black Hat SEO techniques because it is extremely harmful. We devide SEO in two parts- On Page SEO and Off- Page SEO. To learn all methods of On-Page SEO, refer http://www.geteverything.org/collection-of-best-on-page-seo-optimization-techniques-of-2013-for-new-bloggers/. Off-Page SEO includes all SEO activities which are performed outside Page which means setting a Robot.txt file, Content marketing, submitting your blog to various directories, spreading your contents in Social Networks etc. To boost your SEO score, work on both On-Page and Off-Page SEO. If you don't know much about SEO, It would be better for your to hire an SEO expert.
15.) After building a good blog, what are your future plans?
Right now, I am not thinking about any future plans because I want to take this blog to its Peak Level. If i managed to do that soon, I will open a Firm which will work in the field of blogging, Web Designing+ Development, Software Development.
16.) A lot of bloggers enter the blogging realm in a dream of becoming a problogger and earning huge profit from it. Please tell our readers how to make your blog tackle this tough competition among blog?
If you have started your blog only for making money from it, you won't be able to earn that much. You must have passion to Learn new things and sharing the same with this world. In beginning, Blogging was tough for me because I was concentrating on making money only but later on felt that it's not the right Path. Internet is full of knowledge so try to learn new things every day. Thinks about quality contents instead of making money. If you managed to impress your visitors, You will definitely make money.
A NOTE FOR BUDDING BLOGGERS:
Always focus on the creation of unique and Quality content. Never copy the style of content of others. "Be yourself because everyone else is already taken". Always follow the quote "Never change your originality for the sake of others. Because no one can play your role better than you. So be yourself. You are the best"
I hope You learnt something from the Interview of Ravi Kumar. What do you have to say about his thoughts.. Please Comment...