Interview (with myself) for a successful blogging

I was thinking about starting interviews where  some successful bloggers  can  share  experience with my readers, So to start with; I  managed to get few minutes from myself for this interview. So enjoy the interview with myself.

What triggered you to start blogging.

I was quite busy for last 4-5 years, I couldn’t even think about anything other than my official duties. For last 6 months , just after switching my job it become little free and start thinking about what can be done on my spare time. So obviously I thought about doing something related to my all time favorite which was Internet, SEO, and Web administration (Linux).So It was easy to choose my niche and decided to start my blog which would help me in refreshing the knowledge with I accrued in the past , keep them updated all the time , add more friends to my network.

How long have you been in this blogging business.

I would like to correct it here , Its not a business for me, but it is a passion and to answer your question ,  I just started http://www.dotgiri.com in Jan, 2009.

What are the advantages with this blogging , in your personal life.

As I mentioned earlier It helped me to keep myself updated , make new friends, sharpen by  SEO skills and I got a test bed for my SEO experiments.

How will you  explain  your growth of your blog.

That is quite interesting and motivating me to do more on this. In my first month I got 1000 visitors and average 30-50 Unique visitors per day. But now I am getting 450 unique visitors per day which is very exciting. If I slip up ,

• 20-30 % from Google and other search engines ,
• 25 % from Direct Hits and
• 50%  from referring sites like Digg , Reddit , Twitter and other social media sites.

How do you write articles , what is your source of input.

As of now I have a lot of topics in my mind and as I told earlier it was very clear for me about my niche , I just choose a topic from that and start writing.
But definitely below mentioned methods helps me a lot

• Stumble upon
• Twitter
• Google news
• Other blogging sites

How often do you blog.

Now I do blog daily , take the spark to home and write the topic and publish it from home , that is how It works for me.

What is your technical background.

Currently I am working with an MNC in Bangalore , India and blogging is just a hobby for me. I am an Computer Graduate (MCA),I have 10 year relevant experience on computers and  Passionate on Linux and web server administration and Software Configuration Management.

How do you manage to get your current traffic , would you share your secret with the readers.

This is what I do to attract readers,
After publishing , I do

• Ping Google /Yahoo and tell hey I have a post and please index it.
• Submit this post in Digg
• Submit this in Reddit (This drives a lot of traffic for me nowadays)
• Twit it in Twitter
• Stumble it

To be very clear , I don’t think there is any shortcut for driving traffic , we have to blog regularly and do all SEO and wait for the traffic.

Other than blogging , what are your other interests ?

I love to Drive , Browse , Chat and Sleep.

What is your plan with your first income from blog.

Right now I am not thinking much about revenue out of this , but for sure , I would like to spend it for some charity purpose.

Which all are the topics you are planning to blog.

• Search Engine Optimization
• Internet Tips
• Howtos
• Blogging Tips
• Gadget Reviews
• General Reviews
• and a Bit on Travel experience.

So the last question, Who inspired you to start blogging.

Here I should mention few names ,
Bobit Thomas helped me in setting this blogging platform, server space, and provided  lot of Ideas
Inspiration may be from Amit and Amit and Darren Rowse and JohnChow and Mani Karthik and and and and ….

This is my tips to new bloggers

Tags: faq, howto, internet, Interviews, Linux, make money online, open source, quick guide, search engine optimization, seo, seo tools, tips