My interview in a book about blogging by Deepak Raj

Deepak Raj who runs the extremely popular blog: BikeAdvice approached me a few months ago as he was writing a book on blogging and wanted to do an interview with me.

He interviewed 4 other popular bloggers from India, and created a mini book called BLOG ROCKSTARS – 5 Bloggers Reveal Their Secrets to Successful Blogging.

The other 4 bloggers he interviewed were:

  1. Shabbir Bhimani – IMTips
  2. Faisal Ali Khan – Motor Beam
  3. Manish Chauhan – JagoInvestor
  4. Raag Vamdatt – RaagVamdatt.com

He had sent all of us a questionnaire which we filled up and sent back to him, and then based on that he asked some follow up questions as well.

Here are a few sample questions that he asked:

  • How do you define the success of a blog?
  • What has been your most effective marketing method so far for bringing new readers?
  • In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes new bloggers make?
  • What is the biggest opportunity that has come your way through blogging?

It was interesting to see that people had a lot of varied answers to the questions and if you are familiar with any of these other blogs then you would know that each of the bloggers have very distinct styles.

Deepak runs a million pageviews per month blog which is huge, and I thought he asked some good very good questions.

If you are interested in blogging, and want to get a glimpse of how bloggers from India have approached this then I believe this book will be useful for you.

This is a digital book that you can buy on Amazon for $2.99 and then read on your Kindle or the Kindle app on your PC, Mac, iPhone or Android phone as well as tablet.

And I’m sure some of you are wondering if I get anything financially from the sale of this book, and the answer is no, I don’t get anything from the book sales.

17 thoughts on “My interview in a book about blogging by Deepak Raj”

    1. Thanks Shiv! I have a feeling I should have interviewed Deepak instead because he runs a much bigger blog and I’m sure there are a lot of things I can learn from him.

  1. Congrats for the recognition. Fully deserved.

    3 out of 5 bloggers write on personal finance! Does that say something about readers?
    2 out of those 3 offer services and both are not CFPs (at least Manish, not yet.)

    Degrees are no guarantee for success. Success stems from a singular quality: entrepreneurship
    Raag and Manish have oodles of that. Great role models for young CFPs.

    1. Thanks Pattu.

      I wouldn’t read too much into 3 out of 5 bloggers being in the personal finance space. In fact if bloggers are ranked on the basis of size alone, I think PF bloggers as a category will trail others who write about technology, cars, sports, gadgets and even start-ups.

      I think you pointed out to me a few months ago, that I’m the only blogger in Indian PF who is not engaged in finance professionally, and I thought that was an interesting observation and perhaps shows that it is not worthwhile to be just a blogger in Indian PF. While the market is large enough as far as tech, gadgets etc. go that it can sustain full time bloggers in those areas, it seems to me that there just aren’t as many people interested in PF in India.

      Ultimately, this is hard work, usually thankless, as perhaps best evidenced by your own comments which if I’m not mistaken, this is the only one which is positive among the tens that are critical, and after some time (4 years in my case) you start getting a feeling what the next step is as the size is big enough to demand more attention than just a hobby, but still not big enough to justify the time spent on it.

      1. In the light of recent events … ahem .. I would like to amend my observation as ‘you are the only competent blogger in Indian PF not offering services’. 😉

        I apologize for contributing to your disillusionment. While I stand by my critical comments I should have said ‘thank you’ more often.

        While how you feel is understandable, I completely disagree with
        “perhaps shows that it is not worthwhile to be just a blogger in Indian PF”

        When I made my observation (1.5 years ago!) I also said ‘financial literacy is best practiced by non-professionals.
        Warren buffet said ‘don’t ask a barber if you need a haircut’. CPFs and professionals writing blogs often sounds like:
        you can cut your hair in so many ways … but its tough to do so let me do it for you.
        ‘Financial literacy’ is only the second most abused phrase in the industry. The first is
        ‘financial planning’. Some people get all worked up about this but to me it is conflict of interest.
        Many recommend CFPs to start a blog along with independent advisory. Very few people can write original articles so there is excess of trite on the web.

        Last year I accused you not proving enough perspective (who should invest and who should not) on tax-free bonds. You said ‘I have written as far as my thinking takes me’. Which is absolutely fine for an non-pro.

        Do you know in how many CFP blogs this information is missing! The CFP profession is plagued by people who offer fee-based services (in addition to drawing plans they receive commission on MFs, bonds etc. Some remain LIC agents) as opposed to hand-full of fee-only pros. So either they can’t offer crucial perspective or don’t want to. So much for their mission to provide financial literacy!

        Either way this is where a blog such as yours makes a difference. So please do keep writing.

        1. I want to make it clear that I truly appreciate and value your criticism and want more of it, not less of it. That’s why I have answered everything you said so far as frankly as I could, and in the comments section so it is there for everyone to read and appreciate the limitations of posts that you have highlighted.

          That’s what makes OneMint better.

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