Interview with blogger Ankit Sharma, a young and dynamic engineering student

We recently talked with Ankit Sharma who is an engineering student and started blogging two years back. He is very passionate about blogging and gave us a chance to talk with him. Find more about him in the following conversation.


Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself?

I am Ankit Sharma. I am Indian by birth, blogger by choice, a webmaster by passion, and turning to be an e-entrepreneur by profession. I am a simple person and love to help everyone as far as it is possible for me. Presently I am an engineering student pursuing B tech(3rd year) from ITS Engineering College, Greater Noida.

How old are you? What is the role of your parents in your blogs?

I was born 20 years ago in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand. I have been blogging for almost 4 years. But I have taken blogging seriously just two years ago. First the two years it was just experiments for me to enter into this online world of beautiful things. I learned almost all the basics of blogging in those two years. Currently, I run my network of Blogs, called Khabar Villa Network (KVN) which has many blogs under it. Some are already well-developed and some are under construction. Overall, KVN has 20 + blogs in it.

Yes, my family members help me a lot in blogging. My parents support me morally. As I am an Engineering student as well as a blogger, I was not willing to take risks with my studies. Unlike parents of other students, my parents do not scold me to take studies as a priority. They just recommend I judge aptly. I have a brother (Ayush) also, who helps me a lot in blogging. I would say, I am currently managing a very big team of bloggers, but this would have not been possible without his support. He is looking after all the tech blogs in my network.

How did you start your first blog?

This is a very interesting thing to tell. Let me share my story. I was in class 12 and as a studies-oriented guy, I was doing a Google search for "Previous year question papers for CBSE class 12". During my search, I came across a site called India Study Channel (ISC). ISC amused me a lot. And I wanted to be a part of it. Consequently, I registered there. I think that was a good decision that I made at that point. That decision is the reason that made me a blogger.

Later on, I spent much of my time on ISC. Unlike other members, I was not able to contribute much to the community, but yes, I spent more time reading other's stuff and gaining knowledge from those. I joined ISC in January 2010 and remained active there for about two years. In those 2 years, I learned everything from experts, their forum answers, their blogging tips, posting knowledge, SEO basics, and a lot more. I earned my first online income from there (Rs 300) which made me believe that yes online earning is possible. I also got my Google AdSense approved through ISC. I also got much support from the owner of ISC (Mr. Tony John). He helped me every time I had any doubts. I just want to say I still remember those days and feel that those days were splendid.

Gradually with time, I came to know about blogging (via ISC), and started my first blog in the year 2011 (maybe July). That blog is MTU Khabar. This was my first ever blog that I created to give a try to blogging. Of course, as a newcomer to blogging, I did not have much funds, so I started my blog with Blogger.com. But slowly, I was getting a good response for that blog. I was getting good traffic and visitors for MTU Khabar. This was the time, I started earning actually from AdSense. My AdSense income was my motivation for me to continue with blogging. Then, I decided to make my career in blogging seeing success in my first ever blog. Though income was not so good for the first few months, at least there was a hope that yes, it could be easily taken to the next / higher level.

Also see: Tips to increase traffic to your newly launched blog or website

What makes your blog interesting to your current readers?

There are a few basic reasons why my blogs become famous and get high traffic. One of the basic reasons is that I blog about niches that are not already covered. For example, I have one of my ongoing blogs called UPTU Khabar. I always write on topics that are not covered by my competitors. I try to make it very professional in the look and the approach of the blog post. I also take care of target="_blank">SEO on my page which can make my articles rank higher in search engines. I don't need to give much proof. I launched the UPTU Khabar blog about three months ago, and today It is competing with blogs of much older age and authority. Within three months, this blog has attained a good online name, fame, and authority. Today this blog gets an average of 6000 visitors a day. During some special occasions like result declarations, or some important notice, blog traffic grows up to even 40K + a day.

Not only this. I follow some good strategies to make my blog famous. I use social networking through Facebook to make my brand popular in the online world whereas, I use colleges attached to UPTU to make my brand famous in the offline world like becoming Media Partner in the fest, conducting interviews of high college authorities, and similar other tasks. These things certainly matter a lot. It makes your branding stronger.

Since blogging is an online thing, You have to pay more to make it famous in the online world. On Facebook, I have around 8K+ followers for UPTU Khabar within 3 months. And hope they will increase with time.

One more thing that I would like to mention is a single person cannot manage everything. So it will be better if you can arrange a team for you that will support your cause. And this is what I did. I collected a few members through the Facebook pages of my blogs and a team of editors is working on the blog. I gave them initial training and they started doing well very soon. The credit for the success of my blog (UPTU Khabar) goes to my team who did their work sincerely.

What are the topics you blog about?

I blog on educational and technology niches. But my main focus is on my academic niche. The reason is that it is still unexplored and has much strength to make out living for someone very easily just by showing some intelligent work. I maintain tech blogs also. However, I do not pay much attention to those blogs and do not blog regularly on them. But still, they are doing well.

How do you keep up-to-date knowledge on blogging techniques?

I don't have time to update my knowledge base manually. It automatically updates via many options. I have some of my blogger friends on my Facebook friend list. They share their knowledge through blog posts and I always try to read them. Secondly what I do is, whenever I visit any good site, I subscribe to its emails/newsletters. So whenever there is something good published on the site, I get notifications in my mail. The third thing is, I use Google every time I find myself in a problem and it is the ultimate source of knowledge.

What are the technology websites and blogs you are associated with?

Currently, I have one technology site/blog: Webtech Villa, where I write articles on various tech-related topics along with my brother. I use this blog in a multipurpose way. Whenever any of my team members have any questions/doubts, I try to solve them by posting a tutorial related to it on my tech blog. This has two advantages. Firstly your team members will be satisfied as they will get an accurate answer and secondly, you have made a post finally. This means that there are chances that your blog can rank for the questions you just covered on your site.

How is your normal working day?

I spend most of my time online, maintaining my blogs and websites. On a regular day, I used to give 5+ hours to my online activities after getting back from college. On a holiday, I spend 10 + hours online.

Which webmaster/blogger is your role model?

I have been truly inspired by two people in the online world :