Interview of Mr.Ravi Kumar- A famous full time blogger from Jharkhand
Read this inspiring interview of Mr.Ravi Kumar, A full time blogger from Jharkhand who blogs at GetEverything.org. Read the interview to know more about him, his insights and opinion on several things related to blogging and internet marketing.
You have been a well known blogger and an inspiration to many other new bloggers. Can you please tell us about yourself?
Shravan, First of all thanks for having me on this site, and it's a pleasure to be here.
Hello Friends, I'm Ravi Kumar from a small city named "Jhumri Telaiya". I am a computer engineer by education and a blogger, SEO expert and Internet Marketer by Profession. I run various blogs including GetEverything.org where I write about Blogging tips, SEO, WordPress, Blogger, Web Designing, Technology, Business marketing, Search engine marketing, Make Money online, Affiliate marketing and many other topic which can be helpful for any blogger, Webmaster and an Entrepreneur etc.
Few months ago, I left my regular job of ".Net developer" to become a Full Time Blogger.
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 22 years old. I have been blogging for 5 years. However, I was not much serious in first 2 years so it would be better to say that I am blogging from last 3 years seriously.
Right now, I am running more than 6 blogs on different niche but majority of people only know geteverything.org only because I never revealed the name of my other blogs.
As I said earlier, I am from small city "Jhumri Telaiya" which is part of Jharkhand state. In that area, very few people know about Blogging and Entrepreneurship. My family members are also not different so they give more value to regular job(Specially to Govt. Job) rather than Blogging. However, they don't compel me to leave blogging because I am making money.
How did you come to know about blogging/how was your beginning in the blogging/Tell about your first blog
Six years ago, I was reading a Hindi newspaper "Hindustan". There I found a small piece of article about Blogging and Online Money Making. It was that article through which I came to know that people can also make money online. It inspired me so I Googled on that topic and created my first blog on Blogger Platform. I was a complete newbie so content creation was extremely difficult. I was also unaware of SEO and plagiarism so copied articles from other sites. This process continued for 6 months or so. Later on, I realized I am committing a mistake so started reading articles of top bloggers. The process of reading articles and experimenting things continued for 1-1.5 years.
After getting enough knowledge, I started sharing the same on geteverything.org and ultimately got some success.
What makes your blog interesting to your current readers/What made your blog popular?
At my blog, I write articles after doing lot of research and experiments which helps new bloggers. Frankly speaking, I am not a great writer so I try to keep everything simple so that new bloggers can understand everything easily.
A part from writing articles, I love helping other bloggers. Till now, I have already helped more than 1000 bloggers from all parts of this world.
What is your background in the niche you are blogging/Are you a technical person/why did you choose this niche?
I have done B.tech in Computer Science and Engineering. Due to that, I was familiar with Programming, web designing and IT terms which helped me a lot. However, I strongly believe that blogging doesn't need that much technical knowledge.
Frankly speaking, I have selected Blogging Niche to help New bloggers. Due to this reason, most of my articles are best suited for new bloggers.
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
Active Participation in various internet marketing forums, Social Networks, blogs and websites are undoubtedly the best way to keep yourself updated with latest tools and technologies.
I am a regular visitor of below given blogs:
Labnol.org, ShoutmeLoud, Problogger.net, Wpbeginner.com, Enstine Muki, Niche Pursuits, Bloggingcage
What are the technology websites and blogs you are associated with/How many blogs you have/do you write articles in other sites
Unfortunately, I am not associated with other technology websites or blogs. I only write for my own blogs. At present, I am running more than 6 blogs including geteverything.org but I won't reveal the name of my other blogs.
I was associated with EALP Forums(as Forum Moderator) but Google Hummingbird algorithm destroyed it completely. Now, I am not associated with any forum,blog or website.
What do you do when you are not building software or contributing in technical web sites and blogs?
Promotion of blog posts are extremely important. When I don't write on my blogs, I promote my articles on different social networking sites, blogging communities, blogs and forums. In free time, I love watching TV, reading Books, playing indoor and outdoor games.
How is your daily schedule/how many hours you work in your blog
One of the best part about professional blogging is, there is no fixed time for work. The flexibility comes with my own preference, but I require minimum of 6-7 hours everyday to work on my blogs. On an average I work at least 8 hours every-day, and sometime it goes to working 10-12 hours non-stop.
Which webmaster/blogger is your role model? Which sites/blogs you like to follow?
The blogger who inspired me first was Amit Agarwal of labnol.org. He is the father of blogging in India. I follow below listed blogs:
Labnol.org, ShoutmeLoud, Problogger.net, Wpbeginner.com, Enstine Muki, Niche Pursuits, Bloggingcage etc.
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?
Some great technical experts/bloggers are there in my friend list(on Facebook). They are:
1. Kulwant Nagi – He is a pro-blogger who is making decent amount of money from his blogs. His most famous blog is bloggingcage.com.
2. Tony John – There is no need to introduce Tony John(I guess). He is the founder of Techulator.com.
3. Enstine Muki – Enstine is a great blogger and a php developer.
4. Md. Mustafa Ahmedzai – He is a well known Pakistani blogger and the CEO of STC Network. His most popular blog is mybloggertricks.com.
5. Ankit Singla- He is also a well known blogger. His most popular blog is Bloggertipstricks.com.
What do you think about the future of blogging? Do you think it will continue to be a profitable business in the long run?
Blogging has bright future but it's changing its form. The trend of creating Video tutorials, Info graphics has increased. To succeed, you need to move with trend so smart bloggers are showing more interest in video tutorials and infographics. People as well as search engines always love high quality contents so try to provide complete information.
What are your future plans/Are you planning to be a full time blogger/Any other online business you plan to start
As you all know, I have left my regular job of ".Net Developer" to become a full time blogger. I am planning to start an online business like STC Network. I will hire a team of Content Writers, SEO Professionals, Web Designers and marketers. However, I have planned to start that
company next year.
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)
I have never revealed my online income anywhere yet. However, I am just giving you a hint. I am making more than $1000 per month from 6 blogs. The highest earning blog in terms of Direct Ads, Affiliate marketing, Sponsored Post/reviews is geteverything.org. With AdSense, I am making most from a health blog. If you use keyword properly, health blog can do magic for you with AdSense ads.
Do you use affiliate marketing to earn revenue? What is your advice to others on affiliate marketing?
Yes, I use affiliate marketing as well. For bloggers who are running a blog on niche like Blogging, web designing, SEO etc, affiliate marketing is the best way of making money online. It works much better than AdSense. However, you should not promote any product blindly. Always keep in your mind that your visitors are most important. So only promote products which are relevant and helpful to your visitors.
So many bloggers are not able to make money through affiliate marketing. It's only because, their visitors don't trust them.
Which source of revenue you suggest as an alternative to Google AdSense?
Honestly speaking, it's the traffic which decides your earnings. If you are able to drive traffic from countries like US,UK,Canada etc, alternatives like media.net, Viglinks also works best. However, if your traffic is from Asian countries, you will earn less through all Adsense alternatives. That's the harsh reality.
If you are a good writer, I will highly recommend you to try "Affiliate Marketing". It's the best alternative to Google Adsense. If you know your visitors, you can make huge amount of money through it.
Which are the online social communities you are most active on.
I am active on almost all social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and several blogging communities like Blogengage, kingged.com, do Splash etc.
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?
I am not dependent on any one earning method which is a plus point for me. On my Tech Blogs, I use affiliate marketing, direct ads, sponsored articles/reviews for making money online. On my other blogs, I use AdSense ads.
Actually, it's "Keywords" which creates a big difference. If you are using a keyword which is often searched and has high CPC, you will definitely earn more. New bloggers don't know this fact so they earn less. If you are not getting that much traffic from search engines, you should check my Latest Post. It explains various problems and solution related to search engine traffic.
How did blogging help you personally other than making money?
Blogging is extremely helpful not only for making money online but for many other reasons as well. It gives you the opportunity to interact with other genius people around you. A part from that, it improves your personality and specially your writing skills.
What does your family think about your blogs?
Basically I am from "Jhumri Telaiya" which is a small city so mindset of people including my family is not like what you find in metropolitan cities. They give more importance to regular Jobs rather than something like blogging. When I started blogging, I was spending lots of time on my computer. They always thought that I was playing games on my computer. They always suggested me to focus on my studies rather than spending time on computers. However, when I started making money from my blogs, their attitude changed a little but still they give more value to regular job.
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?
Google algorithm updates can always construct or destruct any blog. Some bloggers has written a lot about the working of these algorithms on the basis of their knowledge and experience but that's not 100% correct. Fortunately, I my blogs has never been penalized by any Google algorithm updates.
According to me, it only affect blogs which uses wrong link building practices either intentionally or unintentionally. The best way to avoid penalties is to use proper link building tactics. People often use black hat SEO techniques to get higher PR and high ranks in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages)which is undoubtedly a poor practice. If you are doing that, you will definitely be penalized by Google algorithms.
What do you think about the future of SEO?
SEO will exist as long as search engines are available. However, I strongly believe that it will change its form because Search engines like Google are giving more preference to User's engagement these days. It's new algorithm i.e Hummingbird also shows the same. Articles which are shared more on social networks are getting good rank in SERPs. It show that user's engagement is playing a major role these days. In future, it would be extremely difficult to rank a site which has poor or useless contents.
What you advice - focus on a single site or create several sites in various niche?
It depends upon you and your knowledge in various niche. Another thing which is quite important is the availability of Time. Starting various blogs is not a difficult task but updating them regularly obviously is. If you have a team of content writers, you can run several sites in various niche without any issue.
However, I never recommend Multi-Niche blog. This era appreciate professionals not all rounders so focus on only one niche at a time. It will benefit you and your readers. Let me explain this with a small example- You are a visitor who read an awesome article on a blog about "SEO". You became its subscriber. On very next day, you got a notification about a health article on the same blog. What would you do? I think, you will unsubscribe.
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?
That's certainly not good. If you found something wrong in an article of any blogger, just send him/her a Private Message and inform him/her about the mistake. They will not only correct their mistakes but will become a fan of you. When you try to abuse others, you attract similar approach. They will definitely give similar response to you as well which is obviously not good. Not everyone in this world is genius so they can commit mistakes. Just try to guide them. If they are not interested to hear you, leave them. They will be penalized by Google.
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?
Ahhh..it's a difficult question for me because all are giant companies. I was a ".Net developer" so I always preferred Microsoft over all other companies. Now, my opinion is little different. Google has grabbed first position in my list because it's most popular. In last few years, we have seen a decent increase in the usage of internet which makes its changes even better. It's search engine is best in the world. As far as Microsoft and Apple is concerned, their popularity has decreased a little.
Read Interview of popular blogger Amar Ilindra of GeekDashboard
Kudos to the author for being able to present the views and achievements of blogger Ravi Kumar on TEC. It is really inspiring to know about a successful blogger as young as Ravi Kumar. The good thing about his blogging history is that he has tried different niches for blogging and never mixed them in one blog. Also, he has tried different blog earning opportunities like direct ads, affiliate marketing, adsense ads, sponsored reviews, etc. which depicts that he is a quick learner. I have been mighty impressed by his thoughts and ideas about blogging.