A Blogger’s Take on Blogging

February 12th, 2008 by admin ! 161 views

I chanced upon http://www.techtracer.com while researching for the last post about searching for movie timings through Google. I was impressed by the clean and intuitive design of the blog. By the time I had finished reading 3-4 posts on the blog, I was hooked. I started reading the about me page and liked what I read there. So I sent an email to Nitin, asking him for his contact number. He agreed. We had a chat today and here is his story. I am putting it here because I am sure many of you will like his story.

Tell us something about yourself and your blog.

I am Nitin Pai, author and creator of TechTracer. I work full time as a software engineer in Larsen and Toubro Infotech. I am a certified Java EE developer. That is why you would primarily find many Java EE articles as you continue to browse this site for a while. TechTracer speaks about web technology. As far as the name is concerned it traces technology. It follows the complexities of technological artifacts and leaves behind a simplified trace of knowledge. This trace is very much useful to those who sometimes come across the same complexities and do not have the time to resolve them. TechTracer comes to the rescue of such people and helps them by the traces it already has encompassed.

How did you start Blogging?

It was in my mind to have a personal web site. I started with a simple web site in geocities which provided free HTML uploads to have a static site. I was happy but only for a short while. The static nature of the site did not appeal to me. I had seen some blogs round this time and thought about having one as one can atleast update a blog and have it hosted for free with a URL having the blog company’s name in it. I did blog for a while with personal adventures and emotional overturns. But one thought was always ringing a bell in my head. What is the purpose of my rants to anyone? They are no more good than just plain text for someone else.

This was something which made me think about a different avenue in the field of blogging. When I got employed I got inclined quite deeply in Web Technology and its vast arenas. I thought maybe if I wrote on technology at least it would be of use to someone somewhere. The thought that someone would thank me for something I had done for them gave me a kind of deep satisfaction. With this in mind I entered the field of serious blogging. I wanted to have a professional administration for my blog and so I tried out with Wordpress. With Wordpress I got addicted to professional blogging.

Wordpress helped me to get fame and recognition. My technology blog was in the meantime listed among the top most blogs and I was becoming happier by the day. It was only during this period that I got knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Internet Marketing. With the power of this knowledge I strategised my blogging activites. This bore its fruits and my Google ranking improved day by day. And today, after having launched Techtracer about a year ago, I am really glad to say that Techtracer gets on an average 30K visitors per month, 68100 rank on Technorati and has a subscriber base of 500.

Is time a constraint and how do you manage that?

Yes, time indeed is a big constraint. Since I have my full time job as a software developer on one hand and the ambition of becoming established as a blogger, time goes unnoticed. Sometimes I get into a big low when I am not able to push up my spirits even to care about writing. And other times when some of my articles become popular it makes a large impact on my level of confidence and boosts up my self esteem. That is why I make it a point not to try to pump too much into blogging. After writing one quality article I try to learn altogether some new concept which refreshes my mind and then when it gets rejuvenated I concentrate on my next article. That is probably why you won’t notice follow up on the same article as most other bloggers do. My articles come alternatively on different topics and I occasionally follow up on an article when I feel that people are craving for more. Of course feedback acts as a major foundation for writing quality articles. I dont have a routine as such and it is the sudden accumulation of new ideas which strikes me that I produce it to others through my blog.

What is your motivation behind blogging?

My readers and the blog statistics. I constantly monitor what people tend to read more on my blog by keeping a hawk’s eye on the page views and the keyword analysis that brought readers to my blog. The more I come to know what are peoples expectations the more I become determined about the direction to give to my ideas. I also take a lot of care for my subscribers. Its because they don’t come easily. There was a time when my subscriber list was not moving ahead of 50. It was only a few months ago. But now I feel really happy to have a 500 subscriber base. I always maintain the quality of my articles by keeping them in mind so that they don’t feel like having done anything odd by subscribing to my blog.

How do you monetize your blog? How much do you earn?

My blog is completely and solely monetized on adsense. It acts as a savior for a small time blogger like me who does not have the adequate amount of time or resource to hunt for sponsers. I frequently face this question “How much do you make from your blog”. I would like to make one thing clear over here is that my blog is a collection of my ideas and ideas cannot be commercialized and I do not intend to either. When I think of money making I don’t get new ideas and which in turns ruins the spirit of blogging. But I don’t blog for charity too. I make a decent amount from my blog though, but I treat it as a side effect to my efforts and not my mainstream goal. My aim to blog is to make a repository of my knowledge as I traverse into different worlds and to make a way of others so that they could easily tread the same path as mine without having to reinvent the wheel. I would like to impart a small piece of advice to the readers of this site, please do not make money your main goal. Let it come naturally as a cause to your initiatives.

Advice to fellow bloggers?

Do not blog for money. Have a particular direction set for your blog if you want to get established quickly. This is something I learnt over these months after I started to blog. Write quality content which is upto date and also relevant to the site. The most important thing is that whatever you write must help people in some way. This is the principal which I follow. That is why I am really satisfied when my article strikes a chord with someone and they write me some feedback in return. I do not intend to sound like a preacher, but whatever I have I said till now is a way of my working. One last thing, have faith in yourself. To all the upcoming bloggers and reader of this site I extend my good wishes and luck.

Do you have any question for Nitin? Leave a comment below and I will try to get it answered by him.