TAL Question and Answer Session with Elvis Shrestha
Today, I have someone who is not just a blogger, but a ProBlogger! He’s a young blogger who believes that getting good result from blogging doesn’t have to be when you use all the black hat SEO techniques before the result can come. He believes that if he could work extraordinarily, getting to the top won’t become hard for him.
I’m talking about Elvis Shrestha of Blogager .
Join me as I welcome Elvis Shrestha to the Techatlast Hot Seat for this exclusive interview section aimed at helping other young bloggers out there to tap from ideas that are about to be disseminated by Elvis Shrestha – an upcoming but yet successful blogger.
The 35 Uncommon SEO Answers from Elvis Shrestha to help you get Good Results from Blogging Online
1. How long have you been blogging, Elvis?
First of all let me introduce myself here, I am a 14 year old blogger from Kathmandu, Nepal living in Dubai, UAE. I study in 10th grade in “Our Own English High School, Sharjah”. I have reached my current state after a long hard work of 2 years. I started my first blog in January 03, 2010. My first blog was hosted in altervista and was a subdomain. Most of my popular sites have started 3rd of any month. My most successful blog “Blogager” was started in December 03, 2011.
2. How many blogs do you own and contribute for on daily basis?
Currently I own 15 websites and 3 blogs. My most successful blog is “Blogager” which deals about Tech, Social Media, Web Tips, Blogging, SEO and money making tips. My first blog “Techcirclez” is about Technology and Smartphone related. Blogager is a Pagerank 5 blog and I write 5-8 articles weekly. However, guest bloggers help me maintain most of them with 2 post per day frequency. Amongst my 15 websites is Geekoxide, another popular yet new.
3. What are the main purposes or objectives of your blog, Blogager?
Blogager’s mission is to empower and inspire people by spreading knowledge on how to make money online, social media, technology and helping bloggers succeed online. I started this blog on 3rd December, 2011. My passion for sharing how to make money online, web tools and how social networks were transforming human interactions and reshaping cultures drove me to create what would become Blogager.
4. I have noticed exponential improvement in Blogager’s performance on search engine pages and others, how do you do it?
Blogager is a Pagerank 5 blog and I maintain the SEO (On Page and Off Page) to get it ranking on top of search engine pages. I do keyword research every time before I decide the main keywords and title. I focus on the main keywords and try using <H1> and <strong> tags on them.
SEO plays a great role in ranking higher on Google but content is always the king. I have always been blessed by Google Panda and my ranking increase after every Panda Update that Google makes.
5. I could easily understand that you are a White Hat SEO frenzy guy, what are your techniques for ranking blog higher on search engines apart from Guest Posting?
As I said earlier, I maintained on page SEO besides Guest Posts. I also make comments on worth posts made by some of my friends and great blogger and get backlinks. I always search for SEO tips and best of all I follow and read top bloggers like John Chow and follow their suggestions to get higher rankings on search engines.
6. How did you market your blog during your initial days to get the readers that you currently have?
Firstly, I started with a giveaway of mashable like theme which I created myself then promoted it on my fan page which already had 5,500 likes then I did offline promotion by sharing my blog to people who I feel are interested in reading about the topics I post.
Then, I used Google Adwords to get targeted traffic to my blog. I didn’t have to do much on promotion because my hard work had already paid off and I achieved Pagerank 5 on Feb 2012, just 2 months after I started Blogager.
7. Any mistakes to learn from and avoid from your experience
My biggest mistake has been to become impatient and keeping works for the next day. I used to keep things pending thinking I would do it someday. But, I have now understood that if I want to achieve my goal I should start from now instead of keeping it for some other day.
“Someday never comes”.
8. How many posts do you write on an average per week for Blogager to make it where it is now?
I write about 5-8 articles weekly, as I am in 10th grade now, I also need to pay much attention in my academics so i don’t blog much but get freelancers and guest writers to write articles for my blog in exchange of backlinks.
9. How much time do you devote for your successful blog on a daily basis, Blogager.com in this case?
I don’t give much time on a daily basis for Blogager. I spend around 2 hours for blogager daily depending on the amount of work I have to do. But I spend almost 6 hours in weekends; I do blog comments, do some keyword research, find guest bloggers and decide topics to be posted for the next week.
10. Do you ever track your RSS feeds and Why?
I don’t actually work on getting subscribers and track RSS feeds because most of the readers because these days most of the people do not check their emails on a daily basis. However, I have subscribers on Facebook instead of RSS feeds. I promote new posts and videos from my blog on my Facebook and Google plus pages and share them wth twitter followers whenever I have something new. I interact with my readers as friends instead of treating them as customers.
11. What is your favorite social bookmarking site and Why?
My favorite social bookmarking site is Facebook because I have around 5,500 fans on facebook which helps me promote my new blog posts to more number of people who are interested in reading my daily blog posts. Now, I have started loving Google+ for its new design and better functions. In future Google Plus may be my favorite social bookmarking site.
12. What social bookmarking website’s behind your blog’s success the most and what are the techniques you used to submit for traffic there?
As I mentioned earlier, Facebook is behind my blog’s success due to the more amount of fans and subscribers.
I post every new blog post to my Facebook page and in free time I also post humorous and inspirational quotes, pictures and videos to keep my fans interested.
13. What is your blog’s monthly income roundup as a young niche blogger?
As my blog “Blogager” is just 4 months old, I have not yet applied for Google Adsense but I manage to monetize with sponsored reviews and affiliate marketing thorough clickbank. My monthly income would depend on the number of sales I make in CB or the number of paid reviews I write, but currently my average income is $2500 (without Google Adsense). I hope my PR 5 blog can bring $5000+ adsense income once I get approved for Adsense.
14. How many page views does your blog generate daily as at present with Google Analytics tracking screenshots (if available)?
My blog makes around 5,000-8,000 pageviews daily but it is sometime above 10,000 when I post new things. I get much traffic from Google Search. I also get traffic from Facebook and stumble upon.
15. What is your source of new post ideas for Blogager? How do you come up with new post ideas, which tools you’re using to know what’s hot in your niche, to know what to write on for your blog?
I usually post new things about smartphones, I do google keyword research before deciding what I must post and choose as my main keywords. I blog about latest trending topics which are not only popular online but are popular offline too, like “Angry Birds Space” I also browse popular sites like Mashable, TechCrunch and JohnChow to get ideas of Trending Topics.
When I don’t find what to blog, I check comments of people who want me to blog something or I check the clickbank marketplace if I could post about some best-selling tools with much gravity and avg/sale rate.
16. Apart from posting new articles on your blog, what are the other things you do to make it rank better on Google search pages?
Apart from posting new articles on my blog, I also post trending and useful videos about know-hows and get better rankings on Google search pages.
17. Name five blogs (apart from yours successful blog!) that you read every day without fail.
Mashable, TechCrunch, LifeHacker, JohnChow dot com and EnGadget
18. I could see you don’t have Adsense on the blog for now, what is your blog’s main revenue generator as at present?
At present I generate revenue through affiliate marketing and sponsored reviews with the help of Clickbank and ReviewMe.
19. Do you believe in Alexa rankings for measuring your website traffic?
Yes, I measure my website traffic with my Alexa rank as when the pageviews increase, the Alexa rank decreases.
20. Do you accept Guest Articles on your blogs? I mean, Techcirclez since you are accepting on Blogager already.
Yes, I accept guest blogs on Techcirclez too; I only choose good bloggers and articles that are worth reading for guest posts. I get around 20-30 pending guest posts in a month.
21. Do you believe in spending money on promoting your blog such as paying people to do one or two things for you?
Yes, I feel that it is good when you promote your blog by paying people to do some ads. I believe that blog promotion brings a good reputation to the blog’s name which will bring more advertisers and visitors. When traffic increases, the income increases too. I also pay people in Fiverr to promote my blog.
22. SEO Services like BuildMyRank and others, do you use any of them to promote your blog to the first page of Google?
No, I don’t use these services for getting higher rank because I feel that they just make the SERP lower instead of getting on top. However, I pay SEO Experts to manage my SEO monthly.
23. Mention at least 5 paid and free services that you are using to promote your blog for traffic and social benefits apart from the one mention in the previous line? How often do you use those services? If you don’t get me right, what I mean is, what are the other services that you are using which makes your blog grow better.
Some other services I use to promote my blog are Fiverr, Rafflecopter (To manage Giveways), Aweber, Wufoo and Twitter.
24. We do know that .edu backlinks help blogs rank better on search engine pages, do you believe in this? And can you give us your TOP 10 FAVORITE .EDU AND .GOV SITES where our readers can benefit from?
https://blog.tsa.gov/
https://cactus.nci.nih.gov/blog/
(Sorry, I could only share 5 of them. You can google them there are lots of them)
25. Do you answer to all the comments on your blog?
Yes, I believe that to maintain a good blog, you must have a good community. I reply to all the comments I get unless they are general comments like “Thanks for the post”.
26. Is having a “niche” important to bloggers? In Blogager’s case
I believe that having a niche is important because your niches are the people you help to and not your products. They need to be strong but narrow group of people who are interested in reading you targeted topic.
27. Concerning writing articles for your blog, were you the one who does the work by yourself or you have a hired writers just as many other people are doing out there?
I write few articles for my blog, I get many guest blogger and Professional SEO Copywriters but I also hire some freelancers to write articles for my blog when I am busy especially the months before my exams.
28. How do you research for new niche to blog about?
I subscribe to few useful Youtube channels and learn more on trending topics, I also use google alert and google trends, I check forums for most discussed topics and often read magazines related to popular topics on the web.
29. What are the basic things you do when you first created a new blog? Tell us the basic things you do to your new blog apart from writing.
After I start a new blog I always start with the theme, either I search for free themes or purchase some good SEO optimized theme, sometimes I even code and design my own theme. In Blogager’s case I have coded my own theme. After choosing the theme I search for useful plugins that help in SEO and make the admin CPanel smoother and easier to use. Then I manage the security of my blog’s files and decide the right permalink structure. After all this, I start making the about page and fill up with useful bio about me and the blog.
30. Any advice to all start-up bloggers to help them?
Not much to say about SEO because they are hard to keep up with, because it’s always changing. Those days when people had to deal with keyword meta tags and keyword stuffing are gone, today search engines are looking for good content, natural language and keyword density. Don’t link to another site that is not related to yours or consider using nofollow tags. Consider using and tag on most relative words. These things may not have much impact on SEO; at last Content is the KING.
Start-up bloggers must never feel like giving up and must be interested in the topic they choose.
31. I just noticed that you’ve posted a message on the facebook page of Blogager, announcing your move to sell the blog, what are you going to do after selling it?
Actually, I was not planning to sell the blog but was checking for the value of my blog. I would never sell a blog which gives me good income. It is like killing the duck which gives you golden eggs. I have other blogs for support even if I sell Blogager.
32. These days, many bloggers are hiring writers to help them keep their websites going without the need to write a single word? But, on your Blogs, who is responsible for them? Is it you or you have a paid writing team?
My blog mostly consists of articles by me and guest bloggers. But, as I said earlier, I also hire professional writers or group of good writers to keep my blog updated especially the busy days of me exam.
33. If yes, how much are you paying them to write for your site on daily basis?
It depends on the number of words they write and the quality of the content. Usually I pay them $5-10 for a 300 words post and $20 for 500+ word article.
34. On the internet now, there are countless numbers of SEO companies started by bloggers like you? Do you also have an SEO company?
Not actually, I don’t do much on SEO online. Besides, blogs I manage online community sites for webmasters and the students in my school. It’s like a social network for webmasters and startup bloggers.
35. Who are the people who really influenced you in becoming a great blogger? People who makes you what you are today and why?
There are really amazing people who I admire and whose success has motivated me to become what I am now. Great people like Pete Cashmore of Mashable.com, John Chow of JohnChow.com and some other great bloggers have made me a great blogger.
How can people follow you online?
You can find me online to know me better: Facebook: https://facebook.com/elvitosh and Twitter: https://twitter.com/elvisshrestha
Editor’s Take:
These are the questions which we’ve asked Elvis and he did answer them one after the other basically for helping you (the readers and aspiring bloggers among you). I believe it worth thanking Elvis for this session because he’d helped you with most of the questions that are left unanswered for you since.
Next Interviews Update:
Next session of this interview will be about a popular, yet young blogger and millionaire, Onibalusi Bamidele WritersInCharge or another young and great blogger. Stay tuned.
