Being A Blogger

Today’s guest on BaB is Vinaya. His blog has a unique name, Geo 12.97° N 77.56° E, a great objective and a dedicated readership. Some of them have stuck with him since he started his blog 3 years ago. Apart from his strong reader base from subscriptions, Vinaya says, his blog has 10,000+ page views a month.Hi Vinaya, Welcome to Being A Blogger!

Thanks Poonam. This is my very first web interview.

Tell us about yourself and what this blog means to you? You have a unique name for a blog. How did you arrive at that?

I am one of those typical born-and-brought-up in Bangalore types who still believe that it’s the closest thing to paradise. I used my first computer circa 1992, an event that can be compared with opening of the Pandora’s Box. I graduated from B.M.S College of Engineering, Bangalore with a degree in Computer Science, worked for more than four years, and then obtained an MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. I now work as a Senior Business Consultant.

I’m usually identified with my blog Geo 12.97° N 77.56° E. It’s certainly a unique name and one that I stumbled upon quite by accident. Actually, the first name for my blog was “The World Wide Web Blog,” until someone commented that it sounded pretty lame. Since the original focus of my blog was Bangalore and since I happened to be looking up the geographical coordinates for Bangalore, I thought why not name my blog after that. I’ve stuck with this name since.

There are both Bangalore blog and Mumbai blog posts (related to reviews on places, products, restaurants in Bangalore and Mumbai) in your blog? Which of the cities you are based in?

I am a Bangalorean. But I shifted to Mumbai in order to pursue an MBA at S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research. You’ll therefore find content related to both these awesome cities. One of the themes for my blog has been the documenting of personal experiences, be it a new place I am traveling to, a restaurant I’ve just eaten at, or just a product or service I have used. Personal experiences tell a story and it is stories that keep a reader hooked. Just for the record, I am back in Bangalore now.

How and when did you start blogging?

In January, 2005. I’ve always been good at expressing myself through my writing. A blog seemed to be the perfect medium to let my thoughts out. Short compact posts on my experiences and thoughts. That’s how it all started.

How has your blogging journey been for you?

Terrific. My blog has been my USP, be it at the MBA admissions interview at S.P. Jain or while hunting for a job. My blog has always been my “sustainable competitive advantage!”

Every time I visit your blog, FeedBurner shows at least 70 readers are reading it. How did you manage to garner so much traffic to your blog? What do you think is the USP of your blog?

Through my posts, I try to solve a problem – a problem that you would face in your day-to-day activities. For example, in November alone I have tried to address these situations:

• What are the steps to be followed after closing my personal loan?
• What are the steps to be followed after closing my car/ vehicle loan?
• Where can you buy an inverter/UPS solution for your home in Bangalore

Let’s say you need an inverter for your home. You do a Google search and voila, you see my website addressing this very topic complete with a name, address, and phone number for the dealer, along with my experience and recommendation.

The trick is to solve a problem. I believe this is the USP of my blog. A good number of buyers and sellers for products and services have been connected through my blog.

You have been writing about personal finance, lame advertising or lame products, and also know your rights (as consumer)…they all seem to create a USP. What made you write about these things in your blog?

Last year, a big focus area for my blog was Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – CRM in the sense of real life relationships between the organization and the customer and not in the sense of a software product. I was appalled at the pathetic state of CRM in India. Every organization touts that they have unlocked the secrets of CRM, but I’ve seldom seen that to be true. The customer is king only up to the point that he has signed the check.

This year it’s been about lame products and services (financial or otherwise). India is projected to be the next big thing in Financial Services, but uncover the hype and what you find beneath is not a very rosy picture.

Call it “investigative blogging” if you must. I just want to ensure that people are well informed about the choices they make.

You are BIG on personal finance as in you post your own expenditure stats as well?

Ha ha. I’m not sure that too many people would be adventurous enough to do so. Even in my case, it’s only percentages I project and not the actual figures. But YES. Personal finance is something close to my heart these days. It also gives me an opportunity to work on my charting skills.

You have a self-hosted blog, for the benefit of newbie bloggers and non-techie people like me, how difficult is that?

It all depends on the degree of control that you wish to have over your blog. A self-hosted solution gives me freedom that I wouldn’t get with say Blogger or WordPress. It does require a fair bit of technical knowledge though and you’ve also got recurring charges for the domain name and hosting (bandwidth and storage). It can be a headache at times.

If you’re a newbie, I’d suggest sticking with Blogger till you know the ropes and slowly migrate to a self-hosted solution.

There is Adhyatma Chintane series on your blog? Is spiritualism one of the interests?

Not really, although I do read the scriptures time and again. My best friend – let’s call him R – is deep into spiritualism and he wished to spread his knowledge and learning so that others could benefit too. I felt that my blog was the perfect medium to accomplish this purpose. The objective was to spread awareness about our culture and tradition, which is increasingly becoming a distant memory.

Also, Adhyatma Chintane seemes to be guest-blogged? How has guest blogging worked for you?

It’s worked great. R gave me the content; I’d polish it up a bit (mainly formatting) and publish it. For a series such as Adhyatma Chintane, it’s a good idea to build a pipeline of posts and a publishing schedule first. For example, I always had a pipeline of three posts with publishing scheduled for Monday morning.

I’ve received mixed feedback on this venture.

I notice you have not changed the theme of your blog for a long while yet your readership doesn’t seem to dwindle. Are themes not important for a successful blog?

I’ve never stuck to one theme for too long. It gets boring – both for the author and the reader. I like to mix things up and bring the occasional rabbit out of the hat (such as the Adhyatma Chintane series). I once wrote non-stop about management and my readers hated me for that. There’s always a conflict between what you want to write and what your readers want to read.

There are hardly any images on your blog other than those taken from your camera or your own personal images. Was that a conscious decision?

If you dig deeper, you will find that I have sometimes hosted images that were taken by a friend during his/her travels.

Are you part of any blogging groups and communities? How do blog communities help?

Nope. I am not a fan of social networking and hence I consciously avoid blogging groups and communities. You’ll find that I don’t have a profile on Orkut, Facebook, or MySpace. Surprising eh?

But I do contribute strategic industry insights for Techdirt Insight Community – a confidential instant focus group of experts, who give feedback, test ideas, review products, make strategy suggestions, help with purchasing decisions or any number of other services that require a dedicated group of experts. But this is more from professional perspective.

Were there any embarrassing or sad moments during your blogging journey?
Nope. None so far. And I hope there never are any – at least the sad moments.

How do you handle when you have comments that completely dismiss your opinion and oppose your writing?

Except for spam, comments on my blog are never deleted. I love it when someone actually dismisses my opinion. I’ve experienced this recently on my post about the Mahindra Logan, which I thought was a pathetic excuse for a car, but the comments picked me apart.

Spam is automatically handled by a plug-in, which very rarely confuses valid comments for spam. When that does happen, it’s usually beyond my control.

They say with more power, comes bigger responsibility. Your blog has very high power of high readership, how do you keep up your responsibility?

Of late, whenever I recommend a product or service, I disclose whether I have a financial or management interest in the same.

Most bloggers face writer’s block. What keeps you motivated to keep on blogging?

It happens to every writer. What works for me is to create a pipeline of future posts set to auto-publish. This way you can take a break and rejuvenate.

Have you ever faced abusive comments in your blog? How do you handle them?

None so far. But if it does happen, I’ll handle them on a case by case basis.

How do you manage time for blogging? Any time management tip you may want to share with our readers?

I usually write whenever I have the inclination to write. Sometimes it does mean stopping whatever you’re doing at that moment. The best expressions and thoughts come in these creative bursts.

I see you run an advertising program on your blog. Does that making blogging money-making/profitable for you?

I wish!

Do you read other blogs? What interests you in other blogs?

At one point in time, there were too many blogs and too many unread items in my feed reader. It’s a saner view today – one or two blogs for each of my professional interests. My day isn’t over until I have read these blogs:

• Coding Horror
• GalaTime
• The Simple Dollar
• GigaOM
• Techcrunch
• Techdirt

I do read a few personal blogs (including yours) every now and then.

What are the things that may cause you to delete a blog from your reader?

I stop following a blog if it isn’t updated regularly or if the author seems to be headed nowhere. I generally don’t like blogs with posts so long that they resemble a chapter from a book.

What are your top 5 blogging tools?

1. WordPress
2. FeedBurner
3. FileZilla
4. Google Analytics
5. GMail (strange, but true!)

Any blogging tips you have that you want to share with newbie bloggers?

• Use your blog as a personal branding tool.
• Don’t be obsessed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It works, but only up to a certain extent. Focus on the content and the traffic will find its way.

It is said that blogging is a learning experience. What are your 5 takeaways from your blogging journey?

1. It’s cool to have a personal brand.
2. Think BIG; start small
3. Don’t be afraid to try a new approach.
4. SEO helps only so much.
5. Keep your eyes open.

Any favorite blogs?

Yeah. I don’t begin my day without The Simple Dollar.

Links elsewhere:
With a wifi setup in every house, everyone is in wifi range now. The wireless internet service has indeed changed a lot about everything, particularly ecommerce web hosting. That means even more domain names are being booked each second. Due to excessive webhosting, there have dire effects on search engine marketing too. Strategies like cpc and ppi are being used even more.