Interview of Mr.Rajesh Namase of Techlila.com

You have been a well known blogger and an inspiration to many other new bloggers. Can you please tell us about yourself?

Hello friends, I'm Rajesh Namase. I'm an IT engineer by education and a blogger, SEO and internet marketer by profession ;) I am also interested in open source software and one of my love is Linux.

How old are you? How many years you have been blogging? How many blogs you have? Does any family member help you in blogging?
I am 23 years old. I'm into blogging field from the last 4 years. I'm active on only one blog i.e. TechLila.com but including niche and affiliate sites, I own more than 35 domains.

Unfortunately, no one from my family is interested in blogging :(

How did you come to know about blogging/how was your beginning in the blogging/Tell about your first blog
When I was in the 3rd year of engineering, our networking engineering teacher showed us his blog, then one of my friends created his blog on blogspot.com. Thereafter, I created mine this is how I started my first blog on BlogSpot (Before this I had created some sites (not blogs) in the 11th grade). After 9-10 days, my uncle suggested me to use WordPress and he registered the domain Namase.com. Later, I moved Namase.com to TechLila.com

What makes your blog interesting to your current readers/What made your blog popular?
From the start, my objective was to provide something unique to our readers; we didn't want to create just another tech blog. When I published the articles based on theme modifications, people showed their love and traffic started increasing. Mystique theme modifications and Genesis theme modifications articles still drive approximately 20% of total traffic.

Later, I wrote 2 articles which were over 9000 words:
1) Complete Guide to Blogging {9058 Words}
2) Complete Guide to SEO for Wordpress Blogs {9363 words}

People love these kinds of comprehensive articles because they don't need to visit many different sites to understand the subject.

What is your background in the niche you are blogging/Are you a technical person/why did you choose this niche?
Yeah, I'm a technical person or rather you can call me a geek ;). As an IT engineer, I'm more interested in internet technology and programming. In the start, I wrote about the experiments I did while playing with code and software but later, I started writing articles to solve other people's problem. That's why I've chosen the tech niche for my blog.

What do you do in order to keep up with latest tools and technologies/Which websites your browse regularly/What is your source of up to date knowledge?
I use Flipboard Android app and Feedly to get latest technology news and updates. There are many websites I browse on a daily basis but I love Labnol.org, WPBeginner.com and Yoast.com.

FeedDemon is also very good desktop software to get updates from various blogs. Also I've subscribed by email to many SEO related blogs, I receive email updates when they update their blogs.

What are the technology websites and blogs you are associated with/How many blogs you have/do you write articles in other sites
As I mentioned earlier, my main focus is TechLila.com; also I work on 4-5 niche blogs and some affiliate sites. I rarely write articles or guest posts for other blogs.

What do you do when you are not building software or contributing in technical web sites and blogs?
In my free time I like to travel and also I like to play computer games like NFS and CS. I enjoy swimming and playing cricket as well.

How is your daily schedule/how many hours you work in your blog
My daily schedule is not fixed. I work on my blogs and affiliate sites on alternative days. I wake up every morning quite late, i.e. at 8.30-9 AM. My working hours start at 11 AM. I work around 10-14 hours daily on my blogs/affiliate sites.

Which webmaster/blogger is your role model? Which sites/blogs you like to follow?
Frankly speaking there is no any blogger or webmaster who is my role model. In the starting I got inspiration from Milenko (Digitalnature.eu) and Joost (Yoast.com). I already mentioned the sites I like to read. I read many SEO related blogs but I don't follow them, I try the things shared by them on my test sites and after checking the results I apply the same things on money sites.

Do you have any bad experience from other bloggers? What was the biggest challenge you ever faced?
Yeah, I faced some bad experience in my blogging life. You need to recognize your true friends and frenemies. I've faced huge loss because of negative SEO done by frenemy.

The biggest challenge that I faced was convincing my parents that I had to quit my full time job (TCS). Somehow I managed it!

Who are the top 5 technical experts/bloggers in your network? Can you mention the name of the big bloggers in your friends list/network?
There are many friends in my list who are expert in their fields. Here are the names of technical expert/bloggers that I know very well:
1) Shaunak Guharay– He is technically awesome and a recognized XDA developer. He has also written some articles for our blog specifically based on Android.
2) Tushar Thakur - Professional Blogger, CPA expert and Internet Marketer. We work together for some affiliate sites; he's my SEO partner.
3) Bharath Mandava - Web developer and Blogger (WPSquare.com). He has also designed a custom theme based on Genesis framework for our blog.
4) Sujoy Dhar - Professional Blogger (WideInfo.org)
5) Karan Labra - Internet Marketer

Sorry, but I don't think that I am good enough to judge other bloggers/big bloggers so it's not possible for me to list them. Also if I try to do that, list will be very huge ;)

What do you think about the future of blogging? Do you think it will continue to be a profitable business in the long run?
I don't think anything will change drastically in near future. Coming to next question: Yeah, I think so. But you should always prepare up with a backup plan. Don't depend on only one income source; try to create multiple income sources so that you don't need to worry about the future.

What are your future plans/Are you planning to be a fulltime blogger/Any other online business you plan to start
Right now, I am a full time blogger. I am thinking about some plans to create stable income sources will share those once I done with it.

Do you like to share your earnings/how much you make from your blogs/which are your highest earning blogs/what are the sources of income. (list the monthly income in each site from each source, if ready to disclose)
Sorry, I don't like to share my earnings. Does it really matter if I share how much I earn? Some people will say that it'll inspire them. But I found that rather than inspiring, 90% people will be jealous. What really matters for me is a reputation and what are you giving back to the community, helping them to earn money.

Do you use affiliate marketing to earn revenue? What is your advice to others on affiliate marketing?
Yeah, I earn decent amount of money from affiliate marketing, thanks to Vedant Kumar.

If you're thinking to start an affiliate marketing, do proper keyword research and competitor analysis before starting. Sometimes it takes 4-5 months to rank for competitive keywords; you need to have that much patience. Don't follow any internet marketer blindly, test yourself and then decide what is best for you!

Which source of revenue you suggest as an alternative to Google AdSense?
Affiliate Marketing or email marketing.

Most big bloggers have reported that their revenue has been coming down in last few years due to high competition. How is your earnings in last few years? Are they growing? How is your traffic growing?
My earning graph is growing day by day; it's directly proportional to efforts on my blogs and affiliate sites. I love to rank sites for very competitive and profitable keywords and while creating sites; my aim is to be within the 3 top spots :)

Traffic is also growing slowly; it's directly proportional to number of articles. The more articles I write the more traffic my sites will receive, as simple as that.

How did blogging help you personally other than making money?
All because of blogging I'm connected to thousands of people around the globe and got many good friends because of blogging. Last but not the least, blogging helps a lot to build a reputation and live a dream life.

What does your family think about your blogs?
Except my elder brother, no one from my family knows what it is exactly that I do. But they know that I'm not doing anything illegal or immoral and that's why they are happy. Working from home is still a new concept in Indian societies but now after one year, they are really happy with what I'm doing.

What do you think about the Panda and Penguin updates from Google? Did your blogs get affected by it? What advice you give to other bloggers to avoid Panda/Penguin penalties?
I appreciate what Google is doing; they are trying to improve search results. So Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, etc algorithms are good to maintain the quality of search results.

Yeah, my blog was affected by Panda last year. Quality and unique content is still important and one should always think from their readers' perspective. Never find the shortcuts and don't try any black hat methods on your blog. "Rome was not built in a day" so have some patience; and it will take some time to get huge amount of traffic.

What do you think about the future of SEO?
Basics of SEO will be the same, as always backlinks will play important role in future, also social media votes will also help to rank the articles.

What you advice - focus on a single site or create several sites in various niche?
Focus on one main site but side by side create niche websites to increase the revenue.

I have seen in many online blogger communities, many bloggers sharing insulting information about other prominent bloggers. What is your take on such unhealthy practices?
I don't prefer and recommend that, and if you can't praise others, at least don't insult them.

Which technology company you like the most - Microsoft/Google/Apple? And why? Which company you think will be doing best after 5 years from now?
Google because of their innovations, from their start with a search engine and now they are trying multiple things. Also, many of their products are free which is a great bonus.

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