Meet Bharadwaj Giridhar, a young passionate blogger and an inspiration for many new bloggers. In this interview, he shares the ideas, suggestions and other tips to become a successful blogger.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
Sure! I consider
it an awesome oppurtunity to let people actually know about me, and I'd like to
thank TechDracula for giving me this
oppurtunity. I am Bharadwaj Giridhar, I am a teen Blogger / Designer / Content
writer who has a lot of pride in mentioning his own company Twecco Solutions (twecco.com) started a
year ago. I've been a blogger since I was 12, and it has helped me stand out
everywhere I go as it gives me a different perspective of viewing things.
How old are you?
I am 15 years
old now.
How many years you have been blogging?
I've been
blogging since I was 12, so yeah it has been 3 years now since I started my
first blog which was Baratworld.
How many blogs you have?
I have 3 blogs
as of now, in which I don't concentrate a lot because of my work at Twecco, but apart from these 3 blogs I
also own a lot of Micro-niche blogs.
Do any of your family members help you in
blogging?
Nope, No family
member has helped me in blogging. In fact I've been rocking solo in blogging
since my first blog.
How did you come to know about blogging/How
was your beginning in the blogging/Tell about your first blog.
I came to know
about blogging from few of my close buddies who are Ganesh Babu, Amaan Rizwan
(From Techanger.com) and Anirudh Karthick (From Exceptnothing.com). My
begininning in the blog-o-sphere was really spammy to be honest. I've literally
tortured many of my friends to go visit my blog, and if you are one of those
friends I take this oppurtunity to let you know I am sorry. If you are a new
blogger in this blog-o-sphere please stop spamming your friends to visit your
blog, you'll regret it later.
My first blog was
a blog based on Weebly.com, it was baratworld.weebly.com, which was actually
the one I love till this moment. It didn't have any good content or even a good
design, but it gave me the confidence and excitement to be in this position I
am right now.
What makes your blog interesting to your
current readers ?
I've mentioned
that I am a content writer in this interview before, and I would say that's the
real reason because I believe I am a humorous guy and I write my posts in the
same manner.
What made your blog popular?
I believe the
uniqueness of my blog's niche about bikes made it popular, I mean every guy
joining the blogging community starts with the niche - Tech, I made one with a
niche of motorbikes so I believe that's what made it popular at least amongst
my friend list.
Are you a technical person ?
Yes, I believe I
am a technical person. Blogging at first made me to fall in love with
computers, Hard disks, Blogging and mostly cell phones. I love iOS and Android
and write about them every single day!
What is your source of up to date knowledge
about Technology ?
I see a lot of
youtube videos about Technology and read a lot of magazines regarding Tech at
night. I started it at first when I couldn't get any sleep, but now it has become
a habit.
Do you write articles in other sites ?
Yes, I did guest
post at a lot of websites before. But now, I just do a lot of content writing.
What do you do when you are not designing
or blogging ?
Usually I never
have any free time because it is hard for a student to both blog and manage
school activities at the same time. But now my holidays are on, and I just see
a lot of Tech reviews at Youtube and other websites when I am not designing or
blogging.
How
is your daily schedule, is it too busy?
I wouldn't
actually mention it as too busy but I'd definitely say its perfect and doesn't
make me bored at anytime. This includes around 8 hours with school and school
activities, 8 hours of sleep, 2 hours for activities like eating, and the
remaining hours working :)
What are the sources of your income.
My adsense got
disabled a year ago, I am planning to re-appeal soon / recover my account soon,
but I do use Affiliate marketing a lot to earn right now from my blogs. Apart
from that, I earn money from my services.
What is your advice to others on affiliate
marketing?
You're doing
fine until you are actually spamming all over Facebook or any social networking
website. I recommend you use a URL shortening service like bit.ly to get the
attention of people.
Which source of revenue you suggest as an
alternative to Google AdSense?
As said already,
my adsense got disabled. Let's be practical, there is no good alternative to
Adsense but still you can try Tribal fusion which requires a lot of traffic on
your blog. You can also try Affiliate marketing.
Which are the online social communities you
are most active on ?
I am mostly
active on Facebook and Google plus, and not that much on Twitter.
How do you socialize?
To be honest, I
never socialize a lot. But still I use Facebook to actually connect with clients
and people all over the world. Facebook is actually really good when you use it
in the right way. I use Facebook groups to socialize with bloggers and
designers all over the world.
What does your family think about your
blogs?
Initially they
said and I quote "was stressing on something which isn't needed for my
age" but after sometime seeing my awards and payments they stopped
complaining. I must mention they have never degraded me on this thing.
What do you think about the Panda and
Penguin updates from Google? Did your
blogs get affected by it?
I think they are
like bacteria ( funny right? ) its a paradox for sure. I mean sometimes you get
penalized for doing nothing wrong. I recently heard that Postjoint was
penalized by a Google algorithm update, it was just shocking for me.
What advice you give to other bloggers to
avoid Panda/Penguin penalties?
Just don't do
Black Hat SEO, you think you might outsmart Google, but the truth is you never
can. So always follow White hat SEO practices, and you're doing good. Also
comment in other blogs of your niche because I believe everything is based on
Karma.
What do you think about the future of SEO?
I think it might
change a lot! Because most of the people who claim to do SEO - Search Engine
Optimization , actually do GO which is Google Optimization (I coined the term
;) ) they never ever consider traffic from other search engines. Mark my words,
Duckduckgo will surely be famous than Google in a couple of years if Google
continues to be partial to clients using Adwords.
What you advice - focus on a single site or
create several sites in various niche?
It surely
depends on our team. If you're blogging solo like me, Multi-niche is never an
option but if you have a team of 2 or more people you can do multi-niche
blogging because more topics = More reach!
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?
I hate those
communities, I've been insulted in a couple of groups too. But I never care for
them because I love Eminem and he has quoted - " You've got enemies ?
That's good. That means you actually stood up for something ".
Which technology company you like the most
- Microsoft/Google/Apple? And why?
Its really hard
choosing between Google and Apple. I don't like Microsoft that much. I love
Google's Android, it has been my drug for years! Apple has awesome UI that you
just can't hate. So I would call it a tie between Google and Apple.
Which company you think will be doing best
after 5 years from now?
I believe that
Google will be doing best after 5 years from now because Google has the guts to
actually do a venture. There are many Google projects you might have not even
heard of. So I believe Google will stand
out after 5 years. Apple on the other hand might just come up with the iPhone 9
with iOS 9.
Thank you Bharadwaj for spending your valuable time with us. We hope that you and your website will grow to the next level in the upcoming years.