The Interview series is kick-starting with Pooja G of Lifesfinewhine in the Blogging category. As a new blogger myself, finding where to learn all the necessary information can be tiring, talk less of knowing the right people to ask. Hopefully this interview will provide more insight on how to improve your blogging journey.
Pooja is a multi-niche blogger who started blogging as a teenager in 2015. She blogs about lifestyle, travel, mental health, beauty, blogging advice, and so much more!. Now she has over 27 thousand followers
Check out her blog especially for more blogging tips.
Tell us how you started your blogging journey
I started blogging in 2015 as a teenager still in high school. I always knew I wanted to write but felt like I wasn’t finding the right platform. I talked to someone and she suggested I join WordPress which I did. I really enjoyed the platform, community and features so I stayed. As I grew up my blog evolved with me. I added more categories, gained more followers some of which became friends. When I finished university knew I wanted to blog full-time. Luckily, I was able to pursue that and my dream of working online full-time has come true. Blogging is now more than just a hobby for me and I am very grateful for that very grateful
What was it like, having no idea about the tools you were supposed to create a blog with
My experience with WordPress was pretty confusing, but it used to be different than it is now and much easier to use/navigate. When I did find myself confused or stuck I talked to my friend that had encouraged me to start blogging as she knew more about blogging/Wordpress than I did. It was still a pretty anxiety inducing experience but obviously I got used to it over time and now I find WordPress pretty simply to use/navigate.
After how many years did you hit 100 followers
I think I hit 100 followers after about a little over half a year of blogging. I wrote a post about it when it happened: https://lifesfinewhine.ca/2016/02/17/100-followers-and-some-inspiration/
When did your blog start appearing in search engines
I’ve had views from Search Engines from the start of my blogging journey but it wasn’t much since I knew almost nothing about SEO.
Between social media and search engines which do you think has helped improve the traffic on your blog
I think it’s a mix of both. I get about the same amount of traffic from social media and search engines. But to anyone looking to increase their traffic, I would recommend putting more time into SEO than social media because it’s much easier to get views from Search Engines than social media.
Do you think it’s better to focus on a particular niche or diversify
I think both comes with their pros and cons. If I’m being fully honest, there are more perks of only focusing on a particular niche. And it’s easier to monetise your blog if it’s a single niche blog. But on the other hand, it can get repetitive or boring writing about only one topic.
How did you learn SEO? Did you take an online course or learnt it on your own
The majority of what I know about SEO is from my own experience with it. I have been researching SEO, SEO trends and more for the last few years and that’s how I learnt about it.
What important things aside from SEO, do you think every blogger should know
Personally, I think what every blogger should know, is how to properly use the features WordPress offers. Because this makes a huge difference. It helps increase traffic, following, comments and so much more. Another thing I think is vital for bloggers to know is how to interact with other blogs. WordPress is a very social platform that thrives on interaction. To get the most out of your time on it, interacting with other blogs is a must.
What do you hate about blogging
One thing I hate most is how unreliable WordPress is, as a platform. When something goes wrong, the Happiness Engineers are often really unhelpful. Even when the issue is very simple. It makes blogging a lot more complicated than it has to be, especially for those on free plans because I’ve noticed that Happiness Engineers often just ignore their queries.
Any major challenges you’ve faced?
I guess the biggest challenge I’ve faced, is balancing blogging with everything going on in real life. It was particularly difficult when I was a student in university full-time because it was hard to find time to blog regularly.
Now that you’re done with University, is blogging the only thing you do full time
I work as a freelancer now so blogging is something I do part-time along with other work.
How do you make money from your blog
As a freelancer, my biggest stream of income is from the services I offer on my blog. Other than that, I make money from sponsored posts and ads.
What advice would you give someone who’s blog is not appearing on Google at all
I think the only advice I can give them is to work on their on-page and off-page SEO because that is literally the only way to get more Search Engine traffic.
Advice for other teenagers who are looking towards your career path
The main tip I would give is be patient. It takes a while to grow your site and to find the right audience. The majority of people don’t achieve success overnight. So stick with blogging and don’t give up on it. Thank you for interviewing me.
Alright people we’ve come to the end of the interview. A big thank you to Pooja for accepting to do this. Y’all have no idea how hard it is getting these people to reply my messages for an interview yet she answered all my questions nicely.
I hope you found this interview useful.
Anjola Writes 