About:
Ajith Prasad Edassery is a Software professional from Bangalore. Blogging is one his passions apart from cricket, stock markets, cooking etc. He maintains several blogs off which the leading one is DollarShower.com – a blog about blogging tips, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and various online money making technics. Ajith is a post graduate in Computer Applications and works for one of the top 5 software companies in the world.
Interview
Q1: Welcome to Speakbindas. Tell us since when blogging has been a part of your life? Was there any motive or inspiration as a backbone of it?
A1: First of all I would like to thank SpeakBindas and Devang for giving me an opportunity to express myself here. I am really honored to be here along with those wonderful journalists and other personalities who were introduced here before.
I started some kind of web publishing as early as 1998 but then it was about whole lot of personal stuff and photo posting on those free hosting sites such as tripod.com (I hope some of you still remember that). In 2001 I registered my first domain (http://www.ajithprasad.com/) and registered several others after that with the sole intention of domain flipping. I made some money but lost a lot more in the infamous dot com fall. In 2003 I started publishing something on ajithprasad.com on the PHP Nuke platform (You can check out the archives http://web.archive.org/web/20080110143834/www.ajithprasad.com/)
As for pure blogging, I started my first blogspot blog on cricket (http://pavilionendse.blogspot.com/ ) in 2007 and I still write in that space once in a while. DollarShower (http://www.dollarshower.com) is first my professional blog on WordPress platform and it was started in 2008. Apart from this, I also have a couple of niche blogs that I would not disclose here – they are about keyword driven search traffic to make money.
Well, as for the inspiration, initially it was all about showing off the stuff like photos, your own resume and content. Later it became a passion and also a mechanism to make additional income.
Q2: What is your blog all about? Which topics you cover there? Is that you alone running/maintaining the blog, or have a team?
A2: DollarShower deals with blogging tips, search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, make money online products and related industry news. Initially I had my wife as a co-writer there but for the past one year or so, I have been writing all by myself. As a matter of fact, I did not even have a guest post there.
Q3: What are the present statistics for your blog, i.e. number of daily visitors, visitors geographical status etc.?
A3: The number of daily visitors on DollarShower are in the range of 150 to 200 as per Google Analytics though some other tools say 500+ human visitors per day. Most of my visitors are from India and United States.
Q4: Is blogging for you just a passion or a medium for earning too? Does it help you to earn enough cash to quit a 9 to 5 day job?
A4: It is both. I like to write when I am in a good mood. More than writing I would like to experiment with coding as well. So I customize my themes and try to write my own plugins. As for the income, what I earn from my blog is only 10 or 15% of what I earn from my software job. So it is a long way to go but I feel that I am getting there slowly.
Q5: Who are your favorite bloggers, whom you read frequently?
A5: I like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Neil Patel, Daniel Scocco etc. I however do not read all their posts, but relevant topics of my interest.
Q6: From the secret bucket of your blogging experiences, what tips you would like to share with the fellow bloggers?
A6: There is no secret! If you enjoy writing and you have some extra time to read, research, write, edit and proof read, just go for blogging! However, those who are organized about it and do good time management will excel here. Basically, you have to have a good number of drafts, a couple of scheduled posts (at least) and dedicated time for reading, moderating, marketing etc. If you are unorganized about blogging it may take you forever to become successful and famous.
Q7: Do you believe that blogging completes you? If yes, tell us how?
A7: I do not think so. Blogger is just another role that I am playing in life and definitely that is not the most important role as you have your main career roles and further more critical roles in your private life.
Q8: What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
A8: I would keep both to myself.
Q9: Say, you are sponsored to travel to 3 world destinations, where you need not to worry about costs for food, hotel or anything. Which destinations would you pick up, and why? Would you like to take someone along with you? If yes, whom?
A9: Last question first. It has to be my wife and kids. When it comes to holiday destinations, I should mention here that, I was raised in a village in Kerala where all those great greenery, hill stations, back waters, rivers and seaside were all available in such a small strip of land in India. I would take beaches any day and I have this strange recurring dream of relaxing on Mauritian beaches with my favorite cocktails and seafood. I also dream about the far-east countries like Thailand where I would like to go once.
Q10: Are you into watching movies? If yes, which fills your list of favorite ones?
A10: I do not watch movies much. However, as far as Indian movies are concerned, it is mainly Malayalam and Tamil movies that I watch mostly and I like quite a few of them. In Hindi, I liked Rudaali, Mirch Masala, Sholay, Tare Zamin Par etc. In English, I liked Silence of the lambs, Terminator II, As good as it gets, Dumb and Dumber etc. I do not like those Sci-fi movies and series like Harry Potter, James Bond etc. I, however, liked Indiana Jones series for its witty dialogs at times.
Q11: How has blogging helped you other than money?
A11: Blogging helped me to connect with a lot of people. I am yet to attend a blogging event to meet people face to face but it is just amazing how fast you can travel places when you cruise in the blogosphere.
Q12: What would be the one thing you’d change about yourself?
A12: My impatience. I am very short tempered and never complete my tasks to perfection. Most of the time I have 100s of post ideas but when I post, I always post at something like 75% completion state – sometimes without proof reading as well.
Q13: What is your deepest fear?
A13: I have this strange anxiety about how much money will I need to save to lead similar (or better) quality life till I die. Basically, the feat is about not having enough investments although I am doing okay.
Q14: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
A14: Marilyn Monroe – To verify whether she was really that beautiful as hyped 🙂
Q15: Which is your favorite television show? Favorite songs?
A15: Tonight at 10 – Karan Thappar show on CNBC TV18. Favorite songs…hmm… Hindi: Fanaa songs, Pop: Billie Jean, Like a Virgin, Rock: Dire Straits, Santana and a lot of Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi songs.
Q16: How much money do you have in your purse/wallet right now (including change)?
A16: Just checked Rs. 2730/- (and about Rs. 4 lakhs in credit card limits LOL)
Q17: What is your favorite food? Any particular dislikes?
A17: Seafood cooked in Indian coastal style. In fact, I have a wide range when it comes to food. Any meat, any seafood, any grain, any vegetable cooked in most of the styles – Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian what have you. I dislike sweetish food and those items cooked in mustard oil etc.
Q18: What’s your take on the technological advancement these days? Does it make people’s life simple or complicated?
A18: Life is getting complicated I would say. For example, 20 years ago, I could drive a car if I know the basics of driving but now I should know hell lot of things. Similarly, the entertainment – music systems, mobile phones and other gadgets etc. However, one thing I made very clear in life is that I would not spend too much on gadgets and electronics unless their prices come down to something reasonable and affordable. Buying an LCD TV at 50 thousand is ridiculous where as the actual production cost for the same may be less than 5000 bucks. I change my mobile phones only once in 4-5 years. I am still on a CRT television and no home theatre at my home. I do not use a blackberry though I could avail that benefit from my employer. Probably, I am too outdated but life is peaceful that way.
Q19: List out the 10 bloggers you believe should be interviewed by Speakbindas.com.
A19: That is hard. Amit Agarwal for sure. Then may be Content Sutra, Desi Pundit etc. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s ghost writer should add some fun factor. I do not read many big Indian blogs for that matter. By the way, I am nowhere near the above mentioned blogs/bloggers in terms of popularity 🙂
Q20: Any special message you would like to share with your blog readers as well with everyone else?
A20: Nothing is impossible! If you have some basic writing skills, have some topic ideas to blog about, you could actually make a lot of money blogging. It can be an alternate career path!
Good luck to all and happy blogging!
Have you ever considered writing an e-book or guest
authoring on other sites? I have a blog based on the same subjects you discuss and would really like
to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would
appreciate your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an
e-mail.