I resigned from my full-time employment with a leading South African financial media house (Moneyweb ) in March 2009, after having been with the company for almost 9 years. This wasn’t an easy decision, considering my wife was heavily pregnant with our first baby and the recession was starting to bite. Now I’m chatting to Harsh Agrawal who also resigned from his permanent position to follow his dream of blogging full-time. He shares with us the journey into blogging full-time and making it a sustainable occupation…
Briefly introduce yourself, age and where are you based?
I’m Harsh Agrawal , a Pro blogger from Delhi, India. I’m a Software Engineer by education and blogger by profession.
Tell us about your blog and what inspired it?
I started blogging 3 years back with a personal blog, last year in 2008 I started a serious blog on blogspot because of my passion for technology. From my childhood I’m much fascinated by computers and that’s one of the reason I opted for Engineering. Later on after understanding the importance of Blogging I moved to more professional side of blogging by moving to WordPress. I opted for domain name Shoutmeloud.com because instead of going for keyword rich domain, I was keener of branding my blog. Having unique name helps a lot in branding and that’s what is happening with Shoutmeloud . (Shout-Me-Loud)
Before blogging what were you doing?
I finished my Engineering degree in mid 2008. After that I joined a company here in India name Convergys and was working there, Along with my job, I started blogging, This year in march (2009) , I realize I can leave my job for blogging, because I can see a great future for me in the field of Blogging and online business. Finally I took the most risky decision of my life, and left my job for professional blogging. Good thing is that risk was worth taking and I’m happy with the decision which I have taken.
You quit your full-time job in March (similar to myself), where you were spending 12 hours each day (very long hours I must say) and now how many hours do you dedicate to your blog each day?
I guess you will be the best person to understand my situation here. When I was working, finding time was very difficult. I had to spend almost 10 hours in the office and after that I hardly got 2-3 hours for blogging. Though I made most out of those 2-3 hours. After I left my job I used to spend most of the time in front of computer. I remember I even spent 18 hours a day sometime on my blog and blogging related activities. Things has changed after that, I find it hard now to spend 16 hours a day now on my blog. Because of my services and other online business. Though I make sure I spend almost 4 hours for my baby blog shoutmeloud.com.
Between the Google link unit above menu bar and banner below each headline, which generates most clicks?
For me its Adsense below headlines works the best. Though link unit below navbar is supposed to perform better, but because of less optimization, it’s not working as I thought. I recently redesigned my theme header and let’s see what miracles it does for me.
On your services page, you mention that you offer article writers…do you have a team of writers that you outsource per project or it’s all in-house (might require one for my stagnant soccer blog )?
Ahh… I completely forget about that service. One of my close friends runs a small company here on article writing. Who has good number of writers with him. So that’s for a friend.
What is your content generation strategy and do you keep to it?
I work on two fold strategy.
1. Search engine Traffic
2. Traffic from mouth to word marketing and from social media.
I write on two niches here at Shoutmeloud, Technology and Blogging. Technology posts are something which provides me traffic from search engine and blogging topic is something which gives me loyal readers.
I keep a close eye on latest development on the field of technology and web2.0 and that’s because of my interest, I never get into writer’s block situation.
My blogging related article is something which is based on my own experience and whatever problem I face or whatever I learn I write about it. This make those post personal, and one thing which I have realized with blogging is people need personal touch rather than robotic articles.
Since blogging, what is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it?
One of the toughest questions some one ever asked me. I did mistakes which I will say are technical mistakes, like not getting a proper design for my blog, SEO optimization of my blog from day 1. If coming to personal mistake, I left my social life for 3-4 months, when I was trying to build my blog, and that’s something which I consider as biggest mistake.
How do you generate traffic for your blog?
I create 3-4 way points for my blog traffic. No.1 is Search engine (Proper SEO optimization), Followed by Twitter, facebook and backlinks.
Is your blog authored by yourself only or multiple bloggers and why?
Making a blog multiple bloggers’ blog will be more like sharing your baby with 2-3 fathers. Though I give opportunity to other bloggers to do guest post on my blog. Some of them do it out of interest, some of them do it, because I share revenue with them and some of them do it just because of backlinks.
I see your blog is spotting a footer that I first saw on Asnio.com, was Alex Fraiser an influence?
Alex has done a great job by developing this widgetized footer for Thesis, but using a footer is something which is my pre-requisite with any theme. Reason being footer stays at the bottom of the page and give great advantage in terms of SEO. When I bought thesis theme, I realize that footer is something which is missing from the theme, and thanks to George who let me know about this footer.
For a blog only a year old, your Alexa rankings (10,457) are quite impressive, how have you managed to achieve that?
I wish if I know the exact reason, but from my experience I can say it’s because of two three factors.
1. Constant traffic
2. Regular updates
3. Most of people who read my blog are bloggers and most of them use Alexa toolbar (sparky), and Alexa rank is highly influenced by its toolbar.
My observation is blogs related to blogging niche have good Alexa rank, because most of bloggers use Alexa toolbar.
Within the next 12 months, what are your goals for the blog?
I’m working on lots of project, one of theme is themepremium.com which is a niche blog in WordPress . I’m working on creating a complete web solution company. I hired few designers who will be working with me on theme development and working on my own startup. This may take another 6-8 months, but will happen eventually.
What have been the highlight(s) in your blogging career?
There are many of them, I will point out few
1. Getting my first page rank
2. Receiving my first adsense check.
3. Nominated as runner up of blog in best blog competition.
4. Nominated as one of the Top Sci-tech blog in Indibloggies contest .
5. Reaching my first online income of 2000$+ in a month
6. Receiving your Email for Interview… 
Tell us about your workstation, is it within your bedroom/dedicated home-office/office park?
Right now I’m working from a room. I have a dedicated computer and one Dell laptop for Blogging. Wait and watch for my exclusive office picture soon.
What does the tattoo at the back of your neck represents?
That tattoo is a symbol of my sun sign (cancer). Off the record but I’m fascinated with tattoos. Planning to get 2 more soon.
Blogging is a lonely profession, how do you keep yourself motivated?
Some time it’s tough to keep up with blogging, reason being you have to work alone. More over all your friends are online, physical interaction is very less. I make a very strict schedule for me and that is I work from mon-fri and on weekends, I dedicate myself for socializing. This way I always start Monday on a fresh note.
I’m always on the lookout for inspirational bloggers to profile, can you recommend a blogger that I can feature on this blog?
There are many whom I can suggest and recommend, Pradeep is one of them but he is already been featured. You should talk to Himanshu of Blogtechnika. I like his attitude towards Blogging, he left his job 2 months back for professional blogging and I’m sure you will thank me later, after his interview for referring him.
Good interview, He is a great Blogger. I would say, he is one of the best bloggers from India. Shoutmeloud has everything for bloggers and we need not think about whats nest, coz he have interlinked all the related posts and follow-ups. Its is a great source to learn more about Internet, technology, Make money online and much more. I think It should’ve come on TV.
TechGyo´s last blog ..Add flowcharts and basic drawings, floorplans, UML, ERD, UI mockups, to your WordPress Blog
Like many, even I started blogging, for a passion. Yeah I too quite my job
And I took that decision after being a regular reader of Shoutmeloud
TechGyo´s last blog ..Add flowcharts and basic drawings, floorplans, UML, ERD, UI mockups, to your WordPress Blog
Good to read his achievement. I hope soon i will touch the sky.
Another achivement of Harsh Aggarwal…
I must say that this guy is growing by leaps and bounds
that’s really inspiring … shoutmeloud has really been inspiring for many bloggers in India and Harsh is really working hard on it
Jaspal´s last blog ..5 Tips to make a successful Brand
Wow, that’s a compliment to know that Harsh is a positive influence to people’s lives…@Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats:
Let me tell you this guy will soon become the Guru of SEO. (not that he isn’t an expert already)
Good interview Muzi,
Aditya Kane´s last blog ..Use Bookmarklet and Firefox addon for Goo.gl URL shortener
I see Pradeep, the Indian blogging community is about if not, to take the world by storm…@S.Pradeep Kumar:
Happy to see my buddy’s interview here…
Thanks Muzi..
S.Pradeep Kumar´s last blog ..3 Tips To Write Effective Web Content
I was really inspired by Harsh Agrawal, and following his blog from about a month. I enjoyed reading the interview, thanks a lot.
Namit Gupta´s last blog ..Get your Twitter Rank
frankly Harsh is one of the inspiration for me to start blogging.. Like all his interviews in the past I have learn few more points from this interview.
Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats´s last blog ..How To Solve Missed Schedule Error In WordPress 2.9
I am a blogger and & a fan of u too… Ur a gr8 helping friend ever i met
Athul Jayaram´s last blog ..Dell Adamo XPS vs Sony Vaio X : Which laptop will you prefer?
an inspiring interview. Thanks for featuring Harsh.
a_usman´s last blog ..Google Chrome Extension to Make goo.gl shortened links
As always, its great to read about Harsh. He has become a role model for many bloggers here in India and he always dreams big, which is the main reason of his success according to me. Great interview!
Raju´s last blog ..How the Domain Names are Hijacked?
Great man, just discovered your ReTweet Club and have applied…@Harsh Agrawal:
Thanks Muzi .. I really enjoyed answering all these questions as they were asked personally and more over you have done awesome ground work before sending me these questions
Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..4 Crucial Phases In The Life Of A Blogger
I’m glad Walter that you find value in the interview, blogging is a labour of love indeed…@Walter:
This interview is inspiring. I have started my blog 5 months ago and I’m struggling to make it work. Thanks for sharing this, it will help me to keep going.