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The Aha!NOW Chat With Harsh Agrawal [Interview]

Welcome to yet another series of The Aha!NOW Chat. I’ve with me a special guest for today’s interview.…
Aha!NOW chat interview with Harsh Agrawal poster
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Welcome to yet another series of The Aha!NOW Chat. I’ve with me a special guest for today’s interview. He is a well-known blogger who’s one of the top earners, a blogging idol of many, very helpful, and a person known for his humbleness.

He’s none other than Harsh Agrawal and he certainly needs no introduction. All I can say is that he was already dominating the blogging arena much before I started blogging.

He has shown that it really takes courage, determination, passionate labor, and smart blogging skills to be a successful blogger, and that language or nationality is not a hindrance at all to excel in blogging.

I won’t keep you waiting, so let’s start with the interview right away.

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Interview with Harsh Agrawal

Harsh Agrawal giving interview on laptop

Q1: Welcome to Aha!NOW, Harsh. You surely don’t need any introduction to my Indian visitors, but since my blog audience is mostly International, I’d request you to introduce yourself to my blog community.

Harsh: Hey Harleena, Thanks for the warm welcome and it would be my honor to introduce myself in-front of your audience. Hey all, I’m +Harsh Agrawal from New Delhi, and a blogger by profession.

In the year 2008, I graduated from an engineering college (Sharda university) and since then I’m a self-employed professional blogger.

I started my blogging career with ShoutMeLoud, which is an award winning blog, where I teach people about blogging and how they can earn money from home.

Along with ShoutMeLoud, I run a group of blogs (ShoutMeTech, Wpfreesetup, ShoutMyDomain) under the banner ShoutDreams.

Along with blogging, I’m also a speaker and I share my tips and learning via online and offline seminar. You can check out one of my seminar over here. When I’m not blogging, you will usually find me doing adventure sports or learning something new.

Q2: Tell us something about your childhood, growing up, and your family. Did you have any entrepreneurial influences early in your life?

Harsh: My childhood was just like a typical young kid’s childhood, where I used to play more and study less. One of the most influential impacts on my life is of my Grandfather, who is no less than an entrepreneur of the 70’s.

We belong to a small town of Rajasthan, near Pilani (India), my grandfather moved from there in his young age with almost no money, and within 20 years he had set up his own business empire and a big family in a city called Deoghar in Jharkhand (India).

I believe entrepreneurship in that era was all about creating something from nothing. Moreover, it’s not only about money, but to find the balance between money, life, and happiness.

From my grandfather I learned many things and one of them is to value the time, and value the money. I’m still struggling with learning the second part, but he is the one person that is my consistent source of inspiration and motivation.

Q3: How and when did you get the idea to start a blog? How long did it take you to get serious about blogging?

Harsh: I was quite fascinated with the idea of websites back in the days of my college. I used to browse and read many websites/blogs back then like Lifehacker, Lifehack to name a few.

At the same time, I used to play with many new tools, software and used to come up with my own solutions to common Internet and computer related problems.

After finishing college, I started my first blog to share all those non-bookish knowledge, which I acquired while completing my engineering degree, and got decent appreciation from readers.

Later on, I saw great earning potential from blogging via affiliate marketing and advertising, and decided to take that risk of choosing blogging as a career.

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Q4: How did your family react to you becoming a blogger? Did you have supportive parents?

Harsh: My family was quite supportive but at the same time they were little worried.

Parents were quite ok and confident with my decision, but my brother wanted me to work in some multi-national company for a couple of years to gain corporate knowledge.

I didn’t disagree with his point of view, as blogging was not a risk-free and popular career option at that time and was not something very common. Probably, I would have suggested something similar for my younger brother too.

Over all, they didn’t interfere with my final decision and were quite supportive since then.

Q5: What were the initial difficulties you faced in your blogging journey and how did you tackle them?

Harsh: One of the biggest challenges that I faced in the initial days was setting up the theme of my blog.

It was literally a headache and I used to change the blog theme after every 1-2 week to make it more friendly and ended up messing it up more. In fact, I consider this as my biggest time-waster of initial days and should have hired someone to get it done.

Though, with almost no budget, I believe it helped me to learn a lot about WordPress. Later on one of my friend (@honeytech) helped me to set up ShoutmeLoud theme on Thesis theme. Later on, I hired a full-time designer/coder to design all my websites.

Another biggest challenge was driving traffic to my blog and SEO sounded like rocket-science to me.

After lots of silly SEO mistakes and failing to find the right person to do SEO optimization of my blog, I learned it myself and I’m now managing my blog’s SEO.

Harsh Agrawal website screenshot of ShoutMeLoud

Q6: When and how did you earn your first buck from your blog? Do you offer any products or services? What is your main source of earning online presently?

Harsh: My first online earning was from not my blog, but by helping a guy with small issue related to his Webmaster tool, which was only $10 but none less than a golden trophy back in those days. My first blog earning was from Dreamhost affiliate program and it was $47.

I’m working on my first real product as a blogging course, and pre-sign up page is ready at

Along with this, I offer Panda recovery and personal blog coaching service at this time.

Over the time I realize, product is always better than service, as with product I can offer better quality and reach out to more people, whereas services are not only tiring but require a great deal of time and energy which is not worth it; in comparison to product.

Q7: Honestly, do you think your blogging job is better than having a 9 to 5 job? How many hours a day do you work, and what is your daily schedule like?

Harsh: Anytime blogging is better than working for some other company, as with blogging you are your own boss and moreover you can earn way more than a traditional 9-5 job.

When I started blogging, I used to work almost 16 hours a day, and these days I work only 6-8 hours depending upon work. Moreover, I haven’t worked much from the last 2 months but it didn’t impact my revenue or blog growth in any ways.

Usually my schedule is to work for minimum of 6 hours a day and the timings are flexible.

When I’m not working, I usually go out and socialize. Along with that, I spend one hour on Yoga to keep my body and mind fresh.

Q8: What is your long-term vision of blogging? How should a blogger prepare for the changes in the coming times to stay ahead in blogging?

Harsh: Blogging is constantly changing and evolving. A blogger needs to be open-minded when it comes to adopting new variation, technology, and ideas.

Video blogging is what I highly recommend and more importantly, focusing on mobile and tablet audience to ride the mobile wave as early as possible.

Make sure to have your own product, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Q9: How do you find time for your family from your blogging schedule? How do you spend your “me” time and what are your favorite pastime hobbies?

Harsh: Wow, that’s quite a question because finding this balance is always challenging for anyone who works from home.

I have a home-office and when I’m inside my office, that’s my “do not disturb time”. I ensure that I give ample time to my family.

My “me time” is learning something new, which doesn’t have to be related to blogging, it could be as silly as learning how to paint a wall or tie my shoelace properly.

Music, photography, long drives are a few things that usually consist of my favorite hobbies.

Q10: You’re a software engineer by qualification. Did it make a difference and help you in your blogging career?

Harsh: It indeed helped me a bit to understand web hosting and the technical aspect of blogging, but I don’t see  much impact of my engineering qualification in blogging.

And yes, it also helped me to sit in-front of computer for hours without getting agitated or tired, which is certainly a bonus.

Q11: What do you assess are the reasons for your blogging success? What course of action should bloggers take in today’s competitive blogging to be successful?

Harsh: Definition of success varies from person to person, and for me blogging success is earning enough and sharing things that matters.

Create your unique style and be honest. Make your blog worthy rather than becoming “Just another blog”. Bloggers need to be dynamic in their online and personal life to be truly successful.

One can’t really be successful if he or she is truly a hero online, and not worthy in offline life.

Q12: What are the important software and plugins you use on your blog? What do you rely on for the SEO of your blog?

Harsh: Here are some of the tools that I use as of May 2014 (List may change in future, so you can always bookmark this blogging resource page for updated list).

  • WPEngine: Reliable Web-hosting for WordPress. It’s quite costly, but after shifting to them I had almost negligible headache when it comes to managing my server.
  • Integrity: This is a desktop tool to check broken links on a website.
  • Gocodes: For managing affiliate links on my blog.
  • Wangguard: Useful prevent spam registration.
  • OptinMonster: Premium Email subscriber pop-up plugin.
  • Snag-it: For image capturing
  • Camtasia: For Video blogging and recording.
  • Dreamfoot.in: Company I’m currently using for video editing.
  • SEMRUSH: Best tool for finding new keywords for your niche blog. Check this video to learn how to use it for finding keywords.

Q13: How do you manage your social media and how much time should a blogger devote to it? How much of your blogging work do you outsource or delegate?

Harsh: I use couple of tools to manage all my social media needs like Bufferapp, Hootsuite, Fb Pages and G+ iOS app to name a few.

Social media is great marketing and promotion channel, and the more targeted time you will spend on it, you will get better results.

However, too much time on social-media is also not good, as I find it to be very distracting and information overload is a headache.

30 minutes-60 minutes a day is quite a decent time for a good blog, and one can obviously use few automated tools to lower down the time.

I have few hard-working people to help me like @sharatnik and Srikanth at times for certain work.

Harsh Agrawal presenting a seminar

Q14: How do you balance your work and life? What are your experiences with pros and cons of working from home?

Harsh: For me, blogging is not work but a part of my life; so I don’t really have to do much about it. The only thing, which I take care of, is the time-management, as I need to give quality time to my family too.

Working from home comes with its own taste of sweet and bitter experiences. The biggest benefit is; it saves lot of time and within a minute, I’m in my Home-office.

Keeping consistent focus is a challenge and constantly staying online makes things monotonous at times.

Sometime back, I have talked about some of the biggest challenges of working from home, which I’m sure your work from home readers would find it useful. You can read the complete article here.

Q15: What are your tips to boost blog traffic that could work for any blogger?

Harsh:

  • Consistency: Be consistent and make your readers addicted to your blog. Fix a time for publishing new posts, so that your regular readers would know when to check your blog for updated content.
  • SEO: Best traffic source is from search-engine, and SEO is the key to this.
  • Social-media: Back in days social-media used to be the honey pot for free-traffic, but after social-media explosion and the Facebook reach going to all time low, I don’t see social-media as effective as it used to be. However, a good mixture of automation and manual work is always advisable.
  • Email marketing: Start offering Email subscription from day one and you can use feedburner (Free) or Aweber (Paid) to offer Email subscription. Email subscribers are the real readers of your blog, and with one email you can direct traffic to anywhere.

Q16: You have many blogs. How do you manage them all and what are your tips for multi-blog management?

Harsh: Few tools like managewp, desktop editor, Google Docs, Bufferapp, Hootsuite are very effective when it comes to managing multiple blogs. Post scheduling is the key to keep them updated all the time.

The best tip I would advice for anyone working alone and managing multiple blog is to start a new blog on topic that you are interested in. If you are a blogger by heart, you will find no problem handling it.

Also ensure that you use a reliable hosting and use a proper backup mechanism for your blogs.

Q17: What are the best ways to make money blogging that you would suggest to bloggers who don’t get much traffic on their blogs?

Harsh: Harleena, I believe every blog is different and can be monetized accordingly.

A blog with less but targeted traffic can be monetized using Affiliate marketing, your own product or set of services. It’s really hard to generalize, because monetization depends a lot on the kind of audience a blog has.

Q18: Aha!NOW is basically a life and self development blog. So, I’d like to know your personal views about life and thoughts about self-development. What is your concept of happiness and what do you do to have that in your life?

Harsh: Self-development in short is “constantly evolving yourself”. Self-development in an attitude and people who have it are not only open-minded; they are also visible everywhere.

Happiness is a state of mind and one can’t be happy throughout the life. One has to experience other emotions like sadness, anger, rage to experience happiness.

For me happiness is how you deal with your other emotions, and I try to be as rational as I can when I’m experiencing other happiness. Moreover, for me, happiness is helping others.

Q19: Lastly, I’d like to know your views about Aha!NOW and its blog community. Do you have any suggestions for me and message for my vibrant readers?

Harsh: What I like the most about you and your blog is the feeling of a community. You have setup a tribe of like-minded people who are constantly adding value to your well-written articles via meaningful comments.

Moreover, you are doing great with your social-media skills by creating meaningful connections.

You’re doing great with your articles, and there are few suggestions like don’t use robots.txt to block access to your tag pages or other pages which you don’t want to be indexed in Google.

Aha! NOW can use a design uplift and especially bigger font and prominent placement of Email subscription in the sidebar. (I feel shy to say this as ShoutMeLoud design update is pending for long).

If I would be you, I would have gotten rid of Comment luv plugin, as I don’t see that adding much value when it comes to the quality post you are writing. I’m sure you will get similar quality comments even without that plugin.

For your readers: Keep sharing and spreading the good words. Participate by sharing your own life experience and tips in blog comments, and adding more value for others.

Thank you.

You can connect with Harsh on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Thank you Harsh for taking out time from your busy schedule, especially when you’re amidst preparing for one of the most important events of your life.

As expected, all that you have shared through your interview are words in gold to any newbie blogger. Not only them, even experienced bloggers who can take a leaf or two from your golden experiences of blogging.

I’m so grateful for the critical evaluation of my blog and your helpful suggestions. In fact, I implemented a couple of them without waiting to get this post published!

Over to my lovely community, how did you like the interview? I hope you checked out Harsh’s blog and videos.

Well, talking of the videos, here’s one more message from Harsh.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iCD3LqtkpY&w=620&h=360&rel=0]

Message For Young Entrepreneurs from An Infopreneur ~ YouTube Video

Now, I’ll express my thoughts and answers in the comment below, and I hope you also do the same!

Thanks for reading this interview with Harsh Agrawal and hope you’re able to take away some worthwhile tips from here to help you in your blogging.

Over to You –

What’s the best thing about Harsh that impresses you the most? What is your take away and message that you liked the most from this interview with Harsh Agrawal?

Photo Credit: Harsh Agrawal

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  1. This is inspiring. It is great to hear success stories, well done Harsh Agrawal. I am still trying to figure out how people make their blogs successful within 6 months, it’s a misery for me. Its hard to believe he did the same mistakes initially in his blogging career as other new bloggers are doing everyday.

    hope i get a chance to interview harsh soon 🙂

  2. I came to know about “Harsh” in a blog post about- Top 10 Adsense earner in India, quite a few years back. And, I also believe that a majority of Harsh’s followers following him as he is a member of the top Adsense earner club!

    So, what is the most important to be a successful blogger- Making money that everybody will appreciate you OR Providing value without caring about money?

    Harsh, this question is for you!

  3. A few second ago I was just going through the post in shout me loud and then coming back to aha-now my eye got to this post. It’s been a year for my blogging though I’m not successful but I’m a learner, and there is a lot more can be learned from these giant bloggers, including Harleena Ma’am.

    Well Ma’am must say blogging is an art and you know how to make it best in the canvas of blogosphere to spread the best.

  4. Hi Harleena,

    Harsh is one of my favorite bloggers who maintains a very nice blog ShoutMeLoud.

    And the interview is amazing as well. Thanks for your great efforts.

  5. Hey Harleena,

    That was a great interview with Harsh Agrawal of shoutmeloud.com.The chat is truely inspiring to me.

    I have been able to learn one or two things from reading the interview. I hope more interesting interviews like this would be featured over here in the future.

    Thank you and have a nice day ahead.

  6. He is sucessful because he learn so many thing in his carrier. 7 years of blogging is more then just Imagine. His first two years sure googleing what we means the brand new bloggers do now, who have don’t idea about blogging..

    After a long way go He found his traffic and rolay visitors…

    -Thanks
    Akash

  7. Harsh Agarwal is the name in the blogging,a name of interest,guideline and success. Nice to read that you met this great blogger personally. It will be great inspiration,both for you and other bloggers.
    I used to visit the blog SML on regular basis and got “more enough to say” from there.

  8. Thank you Harleena for sharing interview with Harsh Agrawal. He is one of my inspirations to start a website. Steve pavlina and Chris farrel are my other inspirations. Has anyone inspired you to start a website?

  9. This is very fascinating, You’re an overly
    professional blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking extra of your excellent post.

    Additionally, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks

  10. Such a Great Story I am Big fan Of Harsh and I am Inspired too Great Job Admin

    Thanks For sharing..

  11. Such a motivational story of harsh agarwal. I am inspired too but admin can you tell me how much time is enough to grow a blog..

  12. Hi Harleena,
    I am a bit late here,

    Yet another wonderful personality you interviewed.

    Nice to read this wonderful interview with a wonderful personality called Harsh

    The questions you put forward is very much required and the relevant answers to it is really make note of. Thanks for sharing his valuable experience in the field of blogging. I am sure this will be a great information for the people who are already in the field of blogging as well as the one who are eagerly entering into the arena of blogging. Yes, All can pick up some valuable lessons from the life of Harsh,
    And of course the videos presented along too speaks volume.

    Thank you so much Harleena for taking the pain of producing this wonderful content/interview

    Keep going

    Ann P V

    Hey I found this page at Kingged.com the content curation webpage and I kingged it and posted a comment there.
    Thanks

  13. I think the biggest thing for me is that I need to learn more about SEO. I am currently just using the ALL in One SEO plugin and not doing much more. I also liked the fact that he makes a living from it and is able to work from home. It is inspiring for someone who aims for the same thing along with being a writer. Thanks for the awesome interview.

  14. Great site you have here.. It’s hard to find good quality writing like yours nowadays. I seriously appreciate people like you! Take care!!

  15. Awesome Interview! NO words to say. Excellent.! Harsh you are an real inspiration to all bloggers as well as to me. Thank you Aha!Now for this awesome interview.

  16. [ Smiles ] Wow, Harsh Agrawal really knows his stuff; he is amazing!

    Also, I LOVE the look of your “Aha-Now” logo.

  17. only 6 hours in a day…make you millioner..and only give 2-3 hours ..this is my biggest problem for my blog…now i am also try at least work 4-5 hours spend in my blog work…thanks for share your wonderful time with us..

  18. Hi Harleena,

    You gave me another reason why to love your blog. You just managed to get an interview of blogging legend. I just love to see two blogging big-wigs in a chit chat. I haven’t saw any frequent interviews of Harsh, and every interview is a great source of information.

    Every blogger wants to know about his life and tactics, and you did a great deal by shooting questions from the general public view.

    Thanks,
    Sid

  19. Hi Harleena and Harsh,

    It’s my luckiest day in my blogging career. Two blogging big-wigs together! I can’t believe it. Especially, when both are replying to the comments. I didn’t saw Harsh doing frequent interviews, so each and every interview is like a golden opportunity for bloggers. Every blogger can learn from his interview and comments too!

    He is one of the very first professional bloggers, and is inspiring all the bloggers to take up professional blogging.

    And, also hats off to Harleena Ma’m. You poked questions every blogger wants to ask. You scripted the questions from general public view, Thanks!

    Thanks for sharing, Harleena. And, thanks for your tips Harsh.
    Sourav

  20. Hi Harleena,

    A great interview!
    Looks like I’m late coming this time. Glad to be here again 🙂

    Indeed, it seems India is the headquarters of the bloggers. It was totally different from my country though.

    I was most impressed with his consistency. Well, I was having a saturation point at this time, so I think it’s very motivating. Consistency is the thing I need to do now, as is done by Harsh 🙂

    I particularly love the questions you ask on Harsh, Harleena. Those questions are questions that also be a lot of questions by other bloggers, including me. That is a a great question 🙂

    Thanks for sharing this, Harleena. And, nice to meet you Harsh Agrawal. Thanks for the insights as well.

    Nanda

  21. Hi Harleena,

    What a great interview with Harsh. I have seen him all over the place and have checked out his blog although I haven’t followed him much.

    I did enjoy hearing how he got started and his thoughts on the industry as a whole. So many of us really do love blogging but know that it’s the tool we use to build our business. As he did mention, it’s going to constantly change and evolve as time goes by. If we don’t go with the flow so to speak I think that’s really going to hurt a lot of people.

    I appreciate the recommendations he’s made. I have not been focusing on video lately, only the occasional how to tutorial. I know that a good bit of my readers aren’t reading my blog on their mobile device so although I’m all set up for it I really haven’t geared anything toward that. That’s never been a popular topic over at my place.

    I do consulting and I understand what he means about being time consuming. I think maybe to get my feet wet this has been the best thing for me but will eventually go with creating a product that I feel will help others as well. That’s after I release the one I’m working on now.

    I appreciate the interview and I love learning from those who are really doing well.

    ~Adrienne

  22. Hi Harleena,,

    Great Interview with Harsh Agrawal!! I never heard of him although he seems famous and known in the blogosphere. It is a pleasure to get to know him. I didn’t visit his blog yet but I am very much interested to do so and learn from his teachings and experience with blogging.

    It’s amazing and wonderful to see young bloggers so successful and learn from these young generation. I like all his advices to us bloggers in the blogosphere to keep our minds open and adapt to the technological changes which is happening so fast nowadays.

    Thanks for a great and inspiring interview Harleena. There was a lot to learn from a young successful blogger like Harsh Agrawal. And, it is nice to meet you Harsh. Wish you more and more success and always to the top.

    Be Blessed,

    Neamat

  23. No need to say but still I will say that I am one of the follower of Harsh Agrawal and his blog.

    His every interview always add up extra knowledge to my current bucket of knowledge. The style of question and answer I have seen here is completely different and got to learn many things.

    Thanks Harsh for mention the plugin for the blog. And thanks Hareelna Madam for sharing the fabulous interview of harsh with us.

    Thank you so much. 🙂

  24. It is always a pleasure to read harsh and yes Harleena you did a great job by asking very basic yet important questions to harsh. Harsh is one blogger who is always here to help you (Through his blog off course) and I am one of his FAN who decided to start blogging after reading harsh and his stories.
    I am not sure how successful I will be in blogging but some how I will enjoy writing now for sure.

    Thanks again
    vaibhav nadgonde

    1. @Vaibhav
      It’s good to know that ShoutMeLoud articles are helpful for you and I would ensure to keep adding value with time. Regarding being successful, you are already because you are constantly moving forward. Best of luck!

  25. Great interview! I wish we could get more interviews with pro bloggers that not only focus on their niche but personal as well.

    I think it connects us more when you hear someone who is where you want to be goes through or feels the same way as you do.

    Im new to Ah! Now chat but I will defineltey be around for future chats.

    Take care Harleena and Harsh!

  26. Thank you Harleena for this wonderful interview with Harsh.

    As for your call to action, it is difficult to pick just one thing that I like best, but I have to go your question No.8. Blogging is constantly changing and evolving. As a blogger we do need to be adaptable to the ever changing technology and just about everything else.

    Harsh mentioned that he highly recommended video blogging. I so agree with that. Plus we need to consider those mobile users!

    He also stated to make sure we have our own product. Once we have done that, we see blogging and marketing in a whole different light. I do believe that having one’s own product does reflect that you are serious.

    Thanks Harsh for sharing your great advice,

    -Donna

  27. I know I’m late on this one 😉 I read this discussion the very day it was published but lacked the time to enter a comment

    However, I knew Harsh before I even started blogging. His a figure to look up to for great tips in blogging

    Congratulations on the interview bro. You are doing a great job over there on ShoutMeLoud

    BTW Harsh, there is a lot instability now with WPEngine. Do you still recommend it?

    1. @Enstine
      Thanks for dropping by and for your comment. Regarding WpEngine, It’s really hard to recommend them blindly because they come with their own share of pain. Two things which really bothers me about them is overage charges and sometime their technical support team is not as efficient as they claimed it to be. Though for a serious business who don’t want any downtime or any kind of hosting issues, I believe WpEngine is doing pretty decent.

      1. Hey Harsh,
        There are pretty bad things being said about wpengine these days. This review by Matthew Woodward is a typical example. matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/webhost-trusted-wp-engine-hijacked-business-avoid-them/

        Have you had time to check it out?

  28. Hi Harleena,

    Yet another great Interview of an Indian Blogger!

    As you said Harsh Agrawal needs no introduction! Yes, exactly. I am sure as mentioned in one of the Questions, as most of your readers are from international and I am sure they can definitely pick few leafs from this master blaster Indian blogger’s wonderful life book 🙂

    You put forward lot of valuable questions and he attended well to all in an elaborate way, of course the connected links are worth visiting for more information in this regard, I visited few pages but this needs a bit more time to thoroughly look into it.

    Harleena, your posts are indeed a lesson in itself, you need to make an ebook or for that matter you need to make some print copies (Book) from your blogging pages available to the readers outside the web 🙂

    I am sure these thoughts are already there in your mind. 🙂 Anyways I am book marking this for my further reference. Thanks for sharing such a lot of information about Harsh and his blogging and personal life.

    Congrats to Harsh for his great achievements in this field. I am sure his life will be a wonderful guide to many bloggers around the world.
    Thanks for sharing his story this way Harleena 🙂

    Keep up the good work
    Best Regards
    May you have a wonderful and profitable week ahead
    ~ Phil

    PS:
    Hey Harleena, I found this post at Kingged.com the content curation page and I kingged it and posted the above comment.
    Thanks ones again for revealing this wonderful personality’s blogging life 🙂

    1. Hi Phil,

      I’m happy that you like this interview.

      Blogging doesn’t have boundaries, and nationality doesn’t matter much, but you’re right it’s nice to have an Indian blogging star among the other international stars.

      Yes, ebooks are on my mind and I hope to take out time to put my thoughts to action.

      Harsh is a great blogger, and the information presented here is only a fraction of his total knowledge and experience.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your wonderful thoughts. Do have a great week ahead! 🙂

  29. Recently i read a interview of harsh on some other blog and this is the second interview am reading of him..i am also a blogger , but new and wanted to learn from harsh , as expected i have learned new things from this interview.
    I would really like to talk with harsh and want to get his advises for my blog and what all should i do.

    1. Welcome to my blog Simranjit,

      I’m glad you could takeaway something useful from this interview.

      I’m sure you can visit his blog and ask your queries.

      Thank you for stopping by and hope to see you around! 🙂

  30. Thank you so much for your precious concerns madam .. that is so sweet of you. I manage a bit by taking an afternoon nap of abt 1hour.

    Yes the themes dont require but I have heard that certains plugins like yoast and others may req skills. So the first earning I get from my blog will give that to a WP expert coz I hv had enough of my share to install WP . I love the professional look there. thank you for your tips madam 🙂 you are so quick to reply its like talking directly. 🙂

    1. Remember there’s no substitute for a full night’s sleep, however, occasional working at night is okay, or unless one work’s in a night duty shift. Anyways, I shifted to WordPress from Blogger about 2 years back, and I did not know any coding. Yes, I got some help for the migration aspect, but rest is easy. It may depend on the WP theme that you choose.

  31. Hello maam, u always gift up these stars of the field and their expertise rubs on our mind through your blog.

    Harsh sir is, as you mentioned, “the blogging hero” of India.
    Thousands including me have him placed as an ideal.
    Surely a do not disturb type enviroment makes one more productive. I blog at night and so its a ‘no disturb’ type of environment.

    Harsh sir has again rightly said that we should hv a VA for doing the work we are not good at so that we can give the desired efforts in the work we are good. This has prevented me from going to wordpress blog as I dont knw coding. Anyways hope to earn soon from the blog so that I will that money to a VA … 😀 LOL.

    I now read a comment on gocode plug in can I hv a alternative of it for blogger Harsh sir.

    1. Hi Swadhin,

      I’m glad you like the interview – I agree with you that Harsh is a blogging star.

      Yes, working at night is sometimes productive too, though it depends on the living habits of the person, but I hope you’re not reducing your sleep time, as that’s very important too.

      It makes sense to seek help for tasks that either we’re not good at or that we want to rush with or if we’re overloaded with other tasks. I don’t suppose you need any coding for WordPress themes, and if you find it challenging then there are plenty of people who provide the WordPress set up services.

      Thanks for visiting and have a great week ahead! 🙂

  32. Hello Maam,

    It was an amazing interview with Harsh Agrawal. A year back I knew nothing about blogging. My elder brother was a big bag fan of Harsh’s blog ( ShoutMeLoud ). One day I asked him about it and he told me the whole story of Harsh as given in his “About” page of ShoutMeLoud through which I was very much inspired.

    Slowly and slowly I gained interest in reading articles online and started my own blog and making a decent income. ShoutMeLoud was the best internet blog I found on the web for my enjoyment.

    After all, all credits goes to him.

    Through this ultimate interview I came to know many other facts behind Harsh Agrawal which motivated me to blog more and never give it up.

    Thanks Maam for sharing this ultimate review 🙂

    Going to share it over my network. Sincerely appreciate your efforts 🙂

    1. Hi Nikhil,

      Thanks for sharing your story of how you got started blogging and the influence Harsh had on you. It’s good of you to credit him and be grateful.

      I’m glad you like the interview and found it worthy to takeaway useful tips from it.

      Thanks for visiting, sharing, and commenting. I appreciate it. Do have a great Sunday! 🙂

  33. Hi Harsh and Harleena,

    Both of you made wonderful job. Excellent Interview Harleena.

    After Google and Yahoo Harsh is the only person following principles of web designing. I read more than 2,500 websites in past 5 years of my blogging career. Shoutmeloud is the only site I give you 100 marks.

    Not even single error you can find in his site. This is something remarkable achievement by him. In terms of content no doubt he is simply superb. He know how to inspire young bloggers and also satisfy the needs of senior bloggers he handled both of them very well. He is also helping the newbies this is something quite remarkable one.

    Congratulations to both of you. Both of you doing great job in this interview. Harleena all your questions well planned one and Harsh answers also simply superb one.

    Ya I also face the similar problem in 2008 when I started my blogging career every week I am also changing the theme and finally settled with one theme now. Ya you’re right harsh. My personal wishes to you for selecting a theme with no errors and another important thing “There should be a place for everything, it should be in that place according to principles of web destining” infact you believe it or not. I chalk out a diagram in a piece of paper, like header logo, nav bar, search box, subscription box and ad units. You believe it or not. Once I finished that diagram and visit your site shoutmeloud for the first time say one year before. I got shocked. Wow, nothing to say. 100% perfect. What I’ve learned in the past 5 years you show it as picture. Infact it’s like dream come true.

    This is great job by harsh. I give you standing ovation to you.

    1. Hi Perambur,

      I’m glad you like the interview, and this is a mega comment from you!

      I’m sure Harsh will be happy with your assessment of his blog. I completely agree with you that he is very helping and inspiring too, to young as well as seasoned bloggers.

      Thanks for emphasizing on the design aspect of Harsh’s blog and this will help us also look at his blog from that angle when we next visit it.

      I’m sure Harsh has read your comment and is smiling happily and thanking you. 🙂

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your mega thoughts with us all. I really appreciate it. 🙂

  34. Hi!

    I just wanted to say how nice it is to learn about GoCodes. I’d never heard of that plugin before, and I think it might be useful to me, as I finally have my own website and am starting to get into using affiliate links. Well, link, as I have one from my web host. 🙂

    I always meet new and interesting people over here, Harleena. Thanks for the introduction to Harsh!

    1. Lorraine
      Gocodes is such a treat for anyone who is getting started with Affiliate marketing. Do give it a shot and I’m sure you would like it. It’s good to meet you too and feel free to ask any questions you have related to Gocodes.

    2. Hi Lorraine,

      I use “Simple URLs” for affiliate links but I might as well try and switch over to GoCodes.

      I’m glad you found this post helpful, and Harsh is really a great guy – being top authority and helpful as well, as you can judge from his reply to your comment. 🙂

      Thanks for your visit and have a great weekend! 🙂

  35. Very interesting interview and lots to learn. We all know who he is and am a frequent visitor on his blog. I have learnt many things from him. Just read his last post about micro niche sites and how he is able to make money from it. Very interesting. Some good suggestions for your blog too Harleena.

    1. Hi Shalu,

      I’m glad you like the interview and found it useful.

      I’m sure you know Harsh and visit his blog like us all. I’ll be reading his post and micro niche sites are sure very lucrative and I’m happy that you’ve taken that route!

      I’m going to take in all good suggestions to improve my blog better. Thanks for your concern too.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your views. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

  36. Hi Harleena Singh,
    I can’t express my excitement of reading the interview of Harsh Agarwal. He is an amazing person in blogosphere. Moreover, your article includes many important tools and tricks which is used by him. This article made my day. Thanks a lot Harleena.

    1. Welcome to my blog Sakib,

      I’m glad you like the interview of Harsh and that it has been helpful to you.

      Thanks for visiting and hope to see you around! 🙂

  37. First of all i would really like to thank Harsh for helping so many blogger struggling to be an entrepreneur. Also Harleena, i would really like to be on your blog some day just like you have Harsh.

    Harsh, Thanks for providing some great information here on this interview. I would really like to meet you and Amit sir some day, can you tell me how it could be possible Harsh….?

    Thanks for this Interview.
    Rizwan

    1. Hi Rizwan,

      I agree with you there that Harsh is very helpful. That’s a good goal you’ve – so learn all from the probloggers, be successful and inspiring, and then you’re welcome aboard my blog as an interviewee! Get started now. 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. 🙂

    2. @Rizwan
      If you live in or around delhi, you can definitely catch me up sometime when ShoutMeLoud will be organising bloggers workshop in near-future. If not, I’m sure one day we can definitely catch me on Google plus hangout.

      1. Thanks Harsh,

        Yes its a one night journey for to reach Delhi. I from Allahabad and me and my brother was also their at Google’s G-Day India program held at Apparel House Gurgaon back in 2012, so it’s pretty easy for me to reach there. Just tell me how i could get notified when you will be going to organize your next bloggers workshop in new Delhi? Sure i will come.

        Thanks
        Rizwan

  38. Hi Harleena Mam,

    Thanks for sharing such an exclusive interview with Harsh Agrawal one of my favorite top bloggers. It was highly motivational talk with Harsh. I am also inspired by your work and your time management as you even answer all your comments I am amazed that how do you manage to answer such a large number of comments, Anyhow you are really doing great…

    1. Hi Ayesha,

      I’m glad you liked the interview.

      Well, yes time management is the key, but then honestly, its not an easy deal to manage it all. Sometimes I do fail to answer all my comments, and I think I need to change my commenting strategy for that. 🙂

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts. Have a great weekend! 🙂

  39. Hi there Harleena! I hope you have a great day today!

    Thanks for sharing Harsh Agrawal’s interview with us. He is one of the top earners and a person with humbleness, and that made me feel like, I am going to like this man! Haha! Nowadays, you can’t easily find humbleness in the human heart, most are greedy and egocentric which I really hate the most.

    I also believe Harleena that people like harsh are the once that succeed easily when it comes to communication and relationship that results great sales and earnings. I can see how inspiring he is.

    I found this post shared on Kingged.com, the Internet marketing social bookmarking site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.

    1. Hi Metz,

      I certainly feel great and hope you too are having a great day!

      Harsh is really special, and like Neil, he’s down-to-earth in spite of raking in millions. You’re so right in your observations, the hearts and minds of today are more polluted than pure.

      Another good point, humility and honesty make it possible to have good communication and relationships, and that sure makes a positive impact on your business or sales.

      Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your wonderful views, I appreciate it. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

  40. Hi Harleena,

    It was a very motivating interview and was more of morale booster to me. I had always admired Harsh, but this is the first time I knew about his hard work and aspirations. He is right when he says your blog is more of a community. My respect for you as a blogger grows when you take so much time to answer all the comments. Do you have any post about how to use twitter as it would be very useful for a newcomer like me?

    1. Hi Mathi,

      I’m glad you like the interview and found it to be motivating.

      Harsh is a true example that success comes with hardwork, as well as being smart. That’s right, blogging is about building relationships, and when you do so, your blog becomes a community.

      I’m afraid I don’t have any post specifically on Twitter, but I’ll have that on my to-do list. Meanwhile, you’re always welcome to mail me and ask your queries. 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  41. Thanks Harleena for such nice interview of Harsh

    Keep posting these kind of inteviews..actually i have my blog but i am not able to give so much with job..
    So how can i spare time

    1. Welcome to my blog, Sachin!

      Glad you liked the interview.

      It’s understood that you can’t give much time to your blog with your job. You may make blogging your passionate hobby – try to devote an hour to it daily or use your weekends and holidays.

      Thanks for stopping by, and see you around. 🙂

  42. Harleena,

    Top notch interview with Harsh. Among those male Indian bloggers, he’s one of those who REALLY work hard and proven successful.

    Oh yes, love his video on SEMrush. Smart a$s!

    A huge fan of him and glad to see him featured on your site.

    Keep sharing more of these 🙂

    1. Hi Reginald,

      Glad you like the interview. I totally agree with you that Harsh is really a hardworking problogger, and perhaps that’s the reason for his success.

      Since a discussion is ensuing on this post about the problems created by broken CommentLuv links, I’d like to know your views on the issue since I remember that you’d once taken down CommentLuv on your blog to see the difference. What were your findings and what’s your opinion about Kumar’s comments and discussion with Harsh a little up the thread in the comments of this post.

      Thanks for your visit and for sharing your views. 🙂

  43. Hi Harleena!

    Another great interview filled with ideas that can help ALL your blogger friends out here in cyberland. I was unfamiliar with Harsh before this interview but he sounds like a very wise man. I very much appreciate that he says, “Anytime blogging is better than working for some other company, as with blogging you are your own boss and moreover you can earn way more than a traditional 9-5 job.” There are far too many people (at least in the U.S.) that work at jobs they hate just to make money. Life is so much more than that!

    I also like that he says to be unique and true to ourselves AND that keeping our online and offline presence is very important. He probably stays so balanced because he does an hour of yoga every day.

    Thank you for introducing me to him. I will definitely have to check out his blogs. The only thing I am still on the fence about is his views on Comment Luv. I’m not sure I would have found you in the first place if didn’t offer it–AND I have definitely connected with some readers from India–and I think they found me through your site. As long as I don’t see any verified issues with it–I’m going to continue to offer it on my site. And thank you for offering it on yours! ~Kathy

    1. Hi Kathy,

      You’re right, Harsh is a wise and smart blogger and his tips are very practical and useful too for any blogger.

      Absolutely, it’s better to do your own thing than to slog unwillingly doing things you don’t like at other places. Though blogging does not guaranty money, one can surely give it a try part time first and then resort to full time if it works out, isn’t it?

      That’s it, a perfect balance is so essential to bring happiness into your life – regulating your blogging is like creating a work-life balance.

      You should check out his blog and I’m sure you’d find many useful resources. Regarding CommentLuv, just view his comments and suggestions from a webmaster’s point of view. Though, from a readers point of view, I agree with you that CommentLuv links do a great favor by introducing new posts and friends.

      I did lately have some serious issues on my blog regarding broken CommentLuv links and had to spend lot of time and effort getting it sorted. So while this remains an issue, I do see the upside and am yet to make any decision.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your wonderful thoughts on this post. I really appreciate it. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

  44. Hi Harleena
    Great to see Two legends of blogging world at one place.
    some thing to learn from here.Good tips .
    thanks for interview.
    keep it up.

    1. Hi Mason,

      To my knowledge, there’s only one legend on this post, and that’s the interviewee!

      Glad you like the interview and the tips by Harsh.

      Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  45. Hi Harleena Mam

    Its a long time i have not visited your blog due to my Exams now i will be regular here, and Interview with Harsh is Fantastic, i have read his interview on many other diffrent blog but it was diffrent from them all. Harsh is Inspiration of many blogger and interview with him will make your fans crazy for him.

    Good Day ahead mam

    1. Hi Suprabhat,

      Nice to see you back after a long time. Hope you exams went all well.

      Glad you like the interview and find it interesting and different.

      I agree that Harsh is truly an inspiration and I can see that my blog audience too feels like that!

      Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend! 🙂

  46. Beneficial interview Harleena 🙂

    I’m regular on Shoutmeloud to expand my blogging skills. I’ve already read many interviews of Harsh and know his career related stories. It is truly inspiring that he had chosen blogging as main job instead of working in MNC Company. I’ve learnt a lot from him which are greatly helping me to do an enhanced blogging.

    I’ve read all the discussions about Commentluv plugin and thinking to remove it as am getting so many broken links.

    Keep doing the great job Harleena 🙂

    1. Hi Nirmala, nice to have you back!

      Good to know that you too are a regular to Harsh’s blog. I’m glad his inspiration and teaching have helped you enhance your blogging.

      Nice to know your views about CommentLuv and its become a point of discussion on this post.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your important views. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  47. Hey Harleena,

    Your interviews are simply amazing and when I saw that this time Harsh Agrawal is coming to your blog, I frantically run into this post, he is my blogging hero. As when a newbie enters into the blogging (especially in India), the first name he is gonna hear will be of him (same was the mine case), shoutmeloud had always been a great source of learning for me and Harsh always will teach you one thing or the another every time you read about him. Even in this post also, I’ve learnt many new things form him.

    Harleena you’re doing an awesome job, thank for interviewing him and you must implement the things he had told you.
    Thanx.

    1. Hi Vishnu,

      Good to know that Harsh is your blogging hero. Yes, you’re right that almost every new Indian blogger makes a visit to his blog, and I did that too when I started blogging about 3 years back and still do, though as and when time permits.

      I agree that Harsh and his blog are both full of resources to learn about blogging, and that’s why its so apt for him to start a University on the lines of Neil Patel.

      I’m glad you like the interview, and yes, I did implement most of the things as he had suggested.

      Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  48. I disagree with Harsh about the Commentluv plugin, but I’m no pro. As a consumer/reader, I love the fact that I get a kickback for commenting with a mini-plug of my own blog.

    I actually don’t use Commentluv on my own posts, but I reply to all of my comments with a short plug of my reader’s blogs. It’s more effort that other bloggers would do but I think it makes me unique and helps with rapport with my readers.

    I think the main idea is that the reader needs some reward for engaging with a post… either through Commentluv or a personal plug.

    1. Hi Meredith,

      I guess each one is entitled to own and express views, and I respect yours. Harsh has his own logic, which he has explained in detail to the reply to comment of Kumar on this post.

      I certainly agree with you that as a reader, you do benefit by the CommentLuv links, and that’s how you get to know of the new posts on other blogs.

      CommentLuv is indeed a great incentive to comment elsewhere and have it on your blog too for others. However I guess Harsh wanted to convey the “webmaster’s” point of view, when you get a lot of comments.

      I also stopped using the CommentLuv links on my own posts long time back, and its good that you too do that. You really have a unique way of helping and developing rapport with your readers, something which I hadn’t heard of before!

      Good that you think and care so much about your blog readers or commentors.

      Thanks for visiting and hope to see you around! 🙂

  49. Hmm! Harsh indeed needs no introduction. He has carved a niche of himself in the blogosphere. He now remains an inspiration to many especially aspiring bloggers.

    His takes in this interview are delivered with the tact of someone who is truly a professional. The following responses from him are my takeaway from this interview:

    – Blogging is constantly changing and evolving. A blogger needs to be open-minded when it comes to adopting new variation, technology, and ideas.

    – Self-development in short is “constantly evolving yourself”. Self-development in an attitude and people who have it are not only open-minded; they are also visible everywhere.

    Its really inspiring to have Harsh Agrawal in this edition of The Aha!NOW Chat!

    This comment was left in kingged.com – the content syndication and social bookmarking website for Internet Marketers where this post was shared.

    Sunday – kingged.com contributor

    1. Hi Sunday,

      You’re right, Harsh is already a blogging star, and in fact, has his own place in the blogging walk of fame, just like the Hollywood walk of fame!

      He’s definitely a source of inspiration and a great friend of all the bloggers.

      I’m glad you could takeaway great positive aspects from this post and I’m happy that you like it.

      Thanks for visiting, sharing, and commenting on this post. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  50. Hi Harleena Singh and Harsh Agarwal

    I already know Harsh very well and have the honor to be published twice at his blog ShoutMeLoud as guest blogger.:-)

    But the way you extracted best and valuable information from his mind is pretty awesome Harleena that is why you deserve to be called blog communication genius.

    Harsh: This is part of your nature to tell without second thought which you got to know with your enviable blogging struggle. I earlier observed you never skipped any idea of monetizing a blog and you did the same here and very open-heartedly told how to best monetize a blog.
    An interview of a pro blogger touches the height of sky if interviewer is equally have a long blogging struggle and has more or less same level of prowess. That is why first I got this share at my FB timeline I simply glossed over it and bookmarked it to read it in my free time to enjoy its each and every word.

    I can’t tell how the time spent while reading this interview and after reading each paragraph I was just expect to get the next one as stereotyped paragraph and I would have a damned reason to finish reading it then and there to just drop my comments. Alas! it did not happen because each word kept binding me and never released me before the last word of the interview.

    When interviewer and interviewee both speak each word from the depth of their hearts then readers don’t have any choice but to remain stick around and get full benefit of such stuff. Once again thanks a lot you awesome guys for sparing your time just for us – the readers, the blog community and help us move in right direction for our own blogging success. 🙂

    I pray for your more success, happiness and well-being. God bless both of you and all who read this page.

    1. Hi Mi Muba,

      Thanks so much for your kind words and the compliments.

      It’s good to know that you’ve already been a guest blogger at Harsh’s blog, so definitely you know him better.

      I did try to seek information from him that will be helpful to any blogger to manage blogging as a whole, but the onus goes to Harsh for his brilliant answers – in fact, for going out of the way to be more helpful and making this post a success.

      I’m so glad that you liked this interview so much, I’m really honored. I’m glad you found it interesting and positively engaging.

      I too wish and pray for your blogging success and happiness in your life. Thank you so much for visiting and sharing your heart out here to make this a blessed post.

      Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  51. Wow, thank you Harleena for introducing me to this guy! He’s so smart.

    I love that he emphasizes ‘balance’. I agree with him too, that if you love your topic you will not see your blog as work. I will be checking out all of those plug ins he listed. SEO and Google have changed and I noticed a drop in my traffic this month and wondered if it had something to do with that. Keywords always need to be looked at and I will look at his recommendation for that. Monetizing, I’m still struggling with. Great questions and answers. Thank you Harsh!

    Harsh’s social media perspective is bang on too. At least I think it’s value may be over calculated as to the time it takes. Actually you are amazing Harleena, in your consistency and presence. Do you use a plug in to schedule tweets and status updates? What’s your secret 🙂

    1. My pleasure Lisa, and I’m glad this interview helped you know Harsh and seek answers to some of your questions.

      Definitely, he’s smart and that’s why he’s so successful! I feel that a blogger by default needs to be passionate, which means loving what you’re doing. If you’re not, then you should not blog, as simple as that.

      I think there could be many reasons for drop in site traffic, and I don’t think the plugins will have any role in that. However, Google did roll out Panda 4.0 recently on May 20-21, I hope you’re aware of that, so you can check if your drop in traffic corelates to those dates.

      I’m sure you’ll find more and all answers to your questions at Harsh’s blog.

      Social media works for me and thank you for your compliment! There is no secret at all, and while I might go ahead and write a detailed post about it, I don’t use any automated software, except schedule my tweets through Hootsuite and Buffer, so they work while I sleep. 😉

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your wonderful thoughts. Do enjoy your weekend ahead! 🙂

    2. I schedule my tweets through tweetdeck and it has made all of the difference. I am about to venture on Instagram and get in on the ground floor. Not sure if I will see any results or not. My numbers are depressing, but the written feedback I am getting is so good. Well, in general, bloggers are so nice that I am not sure I am as good as they say, but. Harleena, thanks for introducing me to Harsh. i love his vibrant and energetic photo. I am going to practice some of these!

      1. Hi Jodi,

        I’m sure many of your blog visitor’s write the truth about you, so don’t be so critical of the feedback. I’m glad you liked meeting with Harsh, he’s certainly a vibrant and great young blogger – problogger to be correct. 🙂 I’m sure you’ll benefit a lot from his tips. Enjoy your weekend!

  52. Hi Harleena,

    You always do a phenomenal job with these interviews! Very interesting questions and Harsh did great with his answers which are very insightful.

    Regarding CommentLuv, Harsh comes up with a compelling argument. However, I have some reasonings against it for reasons I want to share, and may be Harsh can clarify:

    1. Even if CommentLuv is removed, don’t you think domains sold/parked can still be a problem since website URL is an option even with the default commenting?

    2. CommentLuv’s REPLY ME feature may not be very obvious but it is very powerful. It’s not just about links (which are mostly nofollow) but the ability to send emails when a comment got a reply, is a fabulous way to build community. I like the fact that I get an email when my comment gets a reply. Who wouldn’t like that?

    3. Today’s world is about building community and for bloggers, as Harsh said, especially new bloggers, need to be part of the community to build their own eventually. CommentLuv plays an important role.

    So, I would like to a see how Harsh will advise to tackle those issues. I will also look forward to your post with reasoning behind keeping/removing CommentLuv as well 🙂

    Great post as usual with a very vibrant discussion to follow up with!

    Regards,
    Kumar

    1. Hey Gauraw
      Good to see you here and let me give you my opinion on all of 3 questions:

      1. Even if CommentLuv is removed, don’t you think domains sold/parked can still be a problem since website URL is an option even with the default commenting?

      A) That’s true but the number of links pointing out would be very less and could easily be fixed using any broken link checker tool like Broken link plugin or integrity. This works pretty well when you have links on your URL field of comment for, where as when you unlink the broken links created by parked domain with comment luv plugin, you are still left with the words of the broken links. For example, if my site goes down and Harleena decide to remove the link using above said plugin, my comment will still show “How I built a Micro-niche site and earning…”
      This is something bad for On page SEO, as there will be so many irrelevant words in the article.

      2. CommentLuv’s REPLY ME feature may not be very obvious but it is very powerful. It’s not just about links (which are mostly nofollow) but the ability to send emails when a comment got a reply, is a fabulous way to build community. I like the fact that I get an email when my comment gets a reply. Who wouldn’t like that?

      Regarding comment luv reply Me feature, you can use subscribe to comment reloaded plugin. There is an interesting post done by Shouter Deepak, where he shared how one can get all the features of comment luv plugin for free. This way, you can get individual plugin for the feature you need: shoutmeloud.com/download-free-commentluv-premium-plugin.html

      3. Today’s world is about building community and for bloggers, as Harsh said, especially new bloggers, need to be part of the community to build their own eventually. CommentLuv plays an important role:

      I believe community building can done by many more ways which are more fruitful and helpful. Comment luv plugin is definitely an incentive for bloggers to comment more, but from a webmaster point of view, I see it is doing more harm than any good. If your target is to build the community, you can have stuff like commentator of the month, and you can reward them by giving ad slot or mention in monthly digest post. You can also consider adding Top commentator widget which helps a lot to get more comment. I have done commentator of the month in the initial days of blogging, and result was great.

      I hope this helps you to see things from my point of view. Any discussion is good discussion and I would love to hear more opinion on Pros and cons of Comment luv plugin.

      1. Hi Harsh,

        Thanks for your quick and detailed response. However, with regard to what you said about link removal:

        “when you unlink the broken links created by parked domain with comment luv plugin, you are still left with the words of the broken links. For example, if my site goes down and Harleena decide to remove the link using above said plugin, my comment will still show “How I built a Micro-niche site and earning”,

        I think you have been mistaken there. When I identify a broken link, CommentLuv has a functionality where you just click on the button “Remove Luv” and the link along with the text is completely removed from the comment in question. So, it doesn’t mess up with SEO if you use that functionality.

        But I see what you are saying. Something to think about because even if I have the ability to remove links the way I do, it is still a work. So, do I really want to keep doing it….. I need to sleep over it for a while 🙂

        Have a great weekend Harsh. A great discussion here!

        Regards,
        Kumar

    2. Hi Kumar,

      I’d say that you always come up with great and intriguing comments! 🙂

      However, I accept your compliments and am happy that you liked the interview.

      While I agree with the reasons Harsh gave out for not using CommentLuv, I like the reasons you give out to keep using CommentLuv!

      I think I’ll take your suggestion and come up with a post about what I think about CommentLuv and whether I should use or not use it.

      What I know is that Broken Link Checker or any other link checking service don’t check all the broken CommentLuv links. In fact, when I used Xenu, I found them in plenty, and it really took a great deal and time to remove all of them.

      I agree that Reply Me is a great addon on CommentLuv and its GASP is good too. I read somewhere that Ana Hoffman uses CommentLuv only for its GASP and disables its all other features. She too disabled CommentLuv because of the issue of broken links.

      You’re right and I totally agree with that CommentLuv is a great feature to have for the newbie bloggers.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your vibrant thoughts which make this post so lively! Do have a great weekend ahead. 🙂

      P.S. Believe me or not, as I was going to paste my reply, I saw harsh already made a reply to your comment – he’s so quick! 🙂

  53. Harsh is a star Harleena!

    Great interview, and a really fun tutorial into how to succeed. I’ve written a few guest posts on ShoutMeLoud and was beyond honored to do so. Thanks for sharing guys!

    1. Hi Ryan,

      I don’t think anybody will disagree with your statement!

      Good to know that you’ve been a guest blogger at Harsh’s blog, that’s quite an honor. 🙂

      I’m glad you like this interview.

      Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend ahead! 🙂

  54. Great Interview! 🙂

    Harsh Agrawal is a great person and It seems that, he is a very unique blogger. He has shared everything with Aha-Now. And i learned lots of things from the interview.

    So thanks dear Harleena to share the awesome interview. 🙂 Keep It Up!

    1. Hi Vishal,

      Glad you liked the interview.

      Harsh is certainly a great and unique blogger. His greatness shows in the way he has spilled and spelled it all out here in this interview.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your views. 🙂

  55. I am following Harsh agarwal , since last 2 year, and i have learn too many technique, well i couldn’t make too much money from blogging, But still i have like his blog,

    1. Welcome to my blog, Rajkumar!

      Glad to know that you already know Harsh and have been visiting his blog. Keep doing that and keep learning, you’d eventually make more money with time if you implement everything correctly.

      Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  56. Thanks Harleena

    Again what a great interview from one of the finest blogger the world has ever seen; like you said, he needs no introduction at all even to we non- indian blogger.

    Except you’re new here, I don’t think there is any serious blogger in the blogoshpere who haven’t for one time or the other visit Shoutmelound.

    I love the part where he talked about working 16 hours a day in those early days, but has now reduce to 6 hour due to the level he is now in blogging.

    sometimes I thought I’m over doing it working on my blog for such long hours but when you heard from successful bloggers like Harsh saying they still do work on their blog for 6 hours now despite their level of success, then you know you haven’t really done much on your part to see your blog moving up the ladder.

    Thanks for getting him speak to us, it’s a blessing listen to Harsh. Thanks Harleena.

    And I forgot to say this; I submitted this post on reddit. It worth it.

    1. Hi Shamsudeen,

      I’m sure Harsh would love this great compliment, and it’s great to hear it from a non-Indian. This shows blogging doesn’t have any boundaries, right?

      I bet you’re right, ShoutMeLoud is the ultimate place for all the blogging resources a blogger needs, irrespective of the bloggers location.

      I agree that Harsh has really worked hard to come to the level at where he is now, and he still does so to maintain that. Definitely, if blogging is your career or business, you need to devote time to it, just like you’d do to any other.

      I’m glad you like the interview and enjoyed it too! Thanks for visiting, sharing this post, and commenting here. Hope you have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  57. Liked this content. Was good to see a blogger’s live interview. Never saw something like this 🙂
    @Harsh has done a great job all these years. I hope I can grab something from his suggestions and implement for myself

    1. Welcome to my blog Kaustav,

      Glad you liked the interview. However, this wasn’t a live interview, or probably I don’t quite understand your usage of this term here.

      Why not, you can certainly takeaway what suits you and implement it in your blogging. But do certainly get a gravatar so I can put a face to whom I’m replying to. 🙂

      Thanks for dropping by. 🙂

      1. Actually, I was speaking of the youtube video that’s at the end of the post.
        I do have a gravatar account linked to my primary email. I guess it didn’t show up coz I typed my email wrong in my first comment. It’ll show up in this I hope. 🙂

  58. Hi Harleena,

    Very inspiring interview. We need such positive doses for motivation and improve our blogging prospects.Harsh has rightly pointed out the future of blogging belongs to video blogging. Blogging is very dynamic in nature and we need to catch up with the ever changing world of blogging.

    1. Hi Tanveer,

      Glad you like the interview and that it’s proved to be a highly effective dose for you!

      Yes, I too believe that blogging is going to see great changes with the audio and video becoming one of the commonly used mediums, even for the comments! We all need to modify our blogging strategies with the changing blogging environment.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  59. Ohhh, your are fast with reply. Nice!!! and thank you! Indeed startup blogs need commentluv plugin to nurture relationship, build the community and as soon as people realize what kind of information is being shared they will come, read and comment… buy from you.

    I was reading your post called “problems with working from home”, did you moved to that office or you still work from home as of May 30. 2014 😀 ?

    1. I have moved to a bigger house now and I have a dedicated office space in the house itself. As I mentioned above, when I’m working in office, I ensure that no body disturbs me and I ensure that I get in and get out of the office in time. More over, I declutter my online life after regular interval to save myself from information overload. Since you bumped into my personal space, I would love your opinion on this piece of mine: denharsh.com/fixing-internet-addiction/

      More over a lot has changed in the last few months in term of discipline and maintaining the balance. One of the thing which helping me a lot to manage my sanity when working from home is, Yoga. A perfect combo of exercise + Meditation is giving me much needed physical and mental simulation. 🙂

  60. Will be interesting to firstly create an article and let your readers know you may have to stop using CommentLUV plugin because as Harsh said may affect you, I’ll be very interested to read comments section and see if there’ other options.

    This is by far the best interview I’ve read, would be great to know what seo tactics Harsh is been using. Kind regards!

    1. Hey Daniel
      Regarding comment luv plugin, here are my thoughts:
      When one is writing great posts, he doesn’t have to add extra incentive to get comments, and specially not for an established blog. Commentluv plugin is useful for brand new blogs which is struggling to get first few comments, but I believe one can get same number of comments by commenting on others blogs (Reciprocity).

      The biggest problems with comment luv are:
      Unrelated links added in comment sections.
      Lots of broken links in future.
      Many links pointing to spam/parked domains in future.
      Even if you use broken link checker plugin in the future to get rid of comment links, your comment section is left with many unrelated words, which affects overall on page SEO.

      Overall, I see more cons than the pros of using commentluv. Hope this helps!

      Thanks for your comment and regarding SEO techniques, I would definitely come up with something exclusive for AhaNow Audience.

    2. Hi Daniel,

      Harsh got to you before I did and I hope you found your answers in his comment.

      I’ll take my time to come to a decision and inform my community members. I too would like to know what others think of the suggestion given by Harsh, as it is really supported by good logic.

      I’m glad you like the interview and I too would look forward to the SEO techniques that Harsh would tell us all!

      Thanks for your visit and your comment. Enjoy your weekend ahead! 🙂

  61. Hey Harleena,

    Awesome interview with Harsh. I read his blog on a weekly basis to get some idea and tips about blogging.
    His blog is full of tips and tricks of blogging You have covered all the important matter in this interview.
    It rocks….. 🙂
    Thank you for this awesome info

    1. Hi Nikhil,

      I’m glad you like the interview. Good to know that you’re a regular to his blog.

      I too flock to his blog frequently and its really a great resource for all bloggers.

      Thank you for visiting and sharing your views. Have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  62. He is my ideal for blogging, anyways thanks for sharing the interview. And I am sure every blogger can learn a lot from Harsh Agarwal.

    1. Hi Karan, welcome to my blog!

      Glad to know that Harsh is your ideal for blogging. I agree that bloggers can learn a lot from him.

      Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  63. Hi Harleena,

    This was a very informative interview. I have been over to ShoutMeLoud a few times. I am always so floored to learn the humble beginnings that so many bloggers come from. Sometimes I see how successful some bloggers are and I forget that they started at the bottom like all of us. It is inspiring to see they have built their businesses in such an effective way. It definitely inspires me. Thank you for sharing.

    1. Hi Nathaniel,

      Glad that you like the interview and good to know that you already know Harsh through his site.

      You’re right – most of the successful bloggers have had humble beginnings, and the great thing is that they continue to remain humble and simple.

      Blogging is purely based on relationships, and incorporates humanity and friendliness into its core, which makes it different – a different business.

      Thank you for visiting and sharing your wonderful thoughts. 🙂

  64. Thanks for this superb interview Harleena. I’m sure every blogger can learn a lot from Harsh.

    What I personally like most about Harsh is, his simplicity in the way he writes and how he conducts himself in the internet arena. I’m sure he is a simple dude in person as well.

    1. Hi Dhiraj – good to see you after a long time!

      I’m glad you like the interview and yes, Harsh is a great inspiration.

      You’re right, Harsh is really honest and simple, some qualities that have helped him to be successful!

      Thanks for stopping by and expressing your views. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  65. First of all it is a perfect interview.Its always been a pleasure to read about Harsh and he is one of the famous and successful blogger who earn more from affiliate marketing ..Other bloggers usually depend on the adsense or other ad network.

    Thanks for sharing Harleena Mam and keep up the good work.

    1. Hi Shahnawaz,

      Glad you like the interview.

      Harsh is an all-rounder, as he’s proved his expertise in making money using all different ways and means.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views. Enjoy your weekend ahead! 🙂

  66. Hi Harleena,

    This was an awesome interview. I’ve been following Harsh and ShoutMeLoud for a long time, and no wonder why he’s successful. His blog is really great. It was very interested to learn more information about him as a person and about his challenges, and even the plugins he is using.

    Thanks for sharing this Harleena, and happy Friday (from sunny Norway).

    -Jens

    1. Hi Jens, good to see you!

      It’s nice to know that you too are a follower of Harsh.

      Harsh has shared some really great information. He has really worked hard to be successful.

      Glad you liked the interview, and its summer at its peak in India!

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your views. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  67. Really one of the most interesting interview of Harsh. Thanks Harleena mam for such a wonderful article. For Harsh i can just say keep working bro. You rock the blogoshpere.

  68. Wow, What’s a mind-blowing interview!

    I have read so many interview of Harsh but this is something different and more detailed. you covered all the useful possible question that can be helpful for all the Bloggers. I think Que#12 is very useful because lots of awesome plugins and software are mentioned that Harsh use.

    Thank you so much Harleena madam for sharing this awesome interview with us. keep updating 🙂

    1. Hi Amit,

      Glad you like the interview.

      Yes indeed, it’s so helpful to know what plugins and applications the probloggers use.

      Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts. Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

  69. My blogging mentor. I have learned a lot from his blog. My time is also consuming editing themes. I also gonna hire someone.

    1. @Manish
      You can either hire someone or pick a good premium theme which comes with great support. You can look into swift/Theme-junkie themes which are good and comes with reliable support. If you are not a coder/programmer, I believe it’s not worth to spend a lot of time on theme editing, rather you can focus that time in doing something you are best at.

  70. Firstly, Perfect interview 🙂 I loved the way to framed those interesting questions 🙂

    Harsh is the gem of the country and a glittering Diamond in the Blogging Sphere.He choose Blogging as a career neglecting the risk behind it. This shows that he is a truly passionate blogger.Moreover, ShoutMeLoud is the name which always pops up in my Google search whenever I search any terms regarding Blogging, SEO etc.

    And I agree with Harsh about Social Media. Social media is quite destructive at times.It’s counter intuitive to think that something so necessary can actually be harmful. But, I don’t find all Social Media platforms networks. Actually, it’s Facebook who kills my productive time.

    Harsh, Thanks for sparing your valuable time to share your experience and tips here at Aha-Now.

    Cheers 🙂

    1. Hi Sourav,

      Glad you like the interview.

      I totally agree with what you say about Harsh. I’d say he took a well-calculated risk as he’s smart enough, but yes, making blogging as your career and full-time job does have an element of risk.

      Well, it depends on how you use it – social media can be constructive too, as in my case, as it helps be bring loads of traffic to my blog. Particularly, you need to be very careful about your engagement on Facebook and that’s where self-discipline helps.

      Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. Have a great weekend! 🙂

      1. Of course, I find it helpful many a times. If you use it in the right way, it’s always brings happiness in your face. But, a wrong step can dump you.
        When it comes to me, Facebook is a time killer. It’s very important to have a schedule and a plan while doing anytime. Perfect planning is the key to productivity.

        Thanks 🙂

  71. Hi Harleena,

    This is one of the best interviews, which has the flow of a face to face chat and it is interesting too! Most of the times, when I start reading an interview, I lose interest half way but this one I could finish reading till the end. It also depends on the kind of person you are chatting with and the honest answers…I could pick up the positive vibes from Harsh and was wondering why a qualified engineer chose blogging as a career!

    One more aspect which I kept marvelling at is that this youngster doesn’t seem to feel bored working from home…with no change in the environment, no new faces to interact with and handling all the projects single-handedly!! He is indeed an inspiration for many unemployed youth, who keep on whining about lack of jobs. I think he can take this up as one of his challenges – starting a special course for such incumbents.

    Thanks for introducing such a dedicated blogger. The maturity he has shown in summing up self-development is really creditable. I must congratulate Harsh for accepting such a challenging job and be so successful. Have a nice weekend.

    1. Hi Balroop,

      I’m glad that you like the interview so much, and that you found it interesting as well as engaging.

      Harsh has been a great interviewee and pretty straight forward and honest in his answers too. I believe he’s doing himself and others more good than taking up a job as an engineer!

      That’s right, blogging from home is a challenge but I guess Harsh is so focused and passionate about blogging that nothing else matters to him – and that’s what you need for success in blogging, or in fact, in any aspect of life.

      Indeed, he’s an inspiration and probably he’s also coming up with some courses as he’s launching the Shout University.

      I totally agree that Harsh clearly shows that he’s a matured and dedicated blogger and I too am impressed with his take on life and the aspect of happiness and work-life balance.

      Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your wonderful thoughts. Do have a great weekend! 🙂

  72. Wow.

    It’s really happy to see Harsh Agarwal interview in your blog mam. He is an awesome blogger. There are lot of fans and followers for him regarding his writing and blogging. Am also a fan of him among them. Almost you asked all the question to him. Last December 1, 2013 harsh agarwal posted an article in his blog shoutmeloud.Daily i used to check his blog for updates, but till date he didn’t updated anything, now i found the reason for not updating his blog, because of his new launch shoutuniversity.

    All the best for your training university “Harsh”. I also thank Harleena Mam for this awesome post. Have a nice day mam.

    Commentluv is not properly working.

    1. Hi Nirmal,

      I’m glad you like the interview. There’s no doubt that Harsh is an awesome and Avon blogger. The best thing is that he’s so open and honest.

      Regarding the post that you’re referring to, I think that was a sticky post. He has changed now and he has been posting regularly. You should go to his blog now and check them out.

      Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Have a great weekend! 🙂

  73. Hi Harleena,

    You have mentioned it right as every Indian blogger is well aware about Harsh and his blog. He doesn’t need any introduction. He is a successful blogger of the present era.
    The problems told by Harsh for beginners are really hardcore. Setting up a theme for any blog is the toughest work and now a days I am facing the same problem. I was trying to set my blog on thesis but having lot of problems.

    Harsh has given mentioned some points to get success as knowing about SEO is really important. Writing post regularly helps a lot.
    For beginners driving traffic to their is a really big issue. To know about blogosphere and be the part of it not enough. To become a inspiration for others is the main motive of every blogger.

    Thanks for such a motivational post. I hope someday I will achieve my goal. 🙂
    Have a great weekend.

    ~Ravi

    1. Hi Ravi,

      Absolutely, Harsh is an Indian blogging star because he has proved his worth in every aspect of blogging. Apart from that, he’s really also a great person and very helpful.

      That is why listening and interacting with probloggers is important because they’ve great experiences and whatever they say are like pearls of blogging wisdom.

      I agree that setting up a theme is a difficult task, and I too keep making changes and improvements. SEO is important, and your site structure too is a part of it.

      I think as you seriously and sincerely tread your path in the blogging journey, you enrich yourself with great experiences and when you share that with others, your become a source of inspiration and motivation. You too can become such a blogger.

      I’m glad you like this post and that it helps you in someway.

      Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend! 🙂

  74. Hey Harleena,

    It’s an honour to be here at your blog, and I’m glad that I could add some value to your esteemed blog. As you mentioned, broken links are a big issue with comment luv plugin which I have already faced in the past. In fact, one major issue which you might face in the coming days is; if some commentator domain is sold and is used for domain parking/creating spam site, your website will be linking out to non relevant spam pages which may hurt you a lot (Penguin).. I have experienced this as I was using comment luv plugin 4 years back. So I leave it up to you to decide.

    1. Hi Harsh,

      Thanks for sharing your experience with CommentLuv. I agree with you that in the coming times, which is the era of Penguin and other strict regulations of Google, it’s so important to be careful of your blog linking, at least about what you can control yourself – the links which you give out.

      It’s quite common in the blogosphere that not all bloggers blog forever, and many decide to quit midway and some even surrender their domains. And I agree this may give rise to the problems like what you’ve mentioned.

      Unless the blogger frequently scans the site and cleans up the links, but that’s not a foolproof methodology and does take much of your time and effort. I’ll take your advice and soon come to a decision.

      Thanks for your concern and comment. Thanks again for giving such a great interview. 🙂

  75. Hi Harsh,

    I’m so happy and honored to have you as an interviewee on my blog. You’re the blogging hero and idol for many bloggers in India and everybody wants to learn how to make money from you.

    It’s good to know about your inspiration and humble beginning. Thanks for sharing your work schedule as that will give the newbie bloggers a better idea of how much commitment does blogging require.

    I too have noticed that the mobile and tablet traffic has increased manifold, and as you suggest, bloggers need to focus on catering for and converting this traffic to regular blog visitors.

    I like how your office time becomes the “Do Not Disturb” time while being at home. Certainly, working from home is not easy deal, but it sure has some advantages too. As you say, self-discipline and measures to maintain a work-life balance become very important.

    Thanks for sharing your plugins and tools, as that will help us all. Restricting time on social media is a great challenge, but I still get lot of traffic from my social promotion.

    Nice to know about your views on self development and happiness.

    Thanks for your suggestions for my blog but I do not block the tag pages in my site’s robot.txt. But I did act on your other suggestions and increased the font size as well as changed the position of the subscriber opt-in form.

    As for the CommentLuv plugin, I’ve had mixed thoughts and did think of removing it. Actually, I recently had to manually remove a lot of broken CommentLuv links and that’s one of the greatest disadvantages of CommentLuv. A few months back, I did a readership survey where most of my readers did convey that they would comment even if CommentLuv was not there. But I’m still undecided on this aspect.

    Thanks for being candid and sharing your rich knowledge and experience about blogging and I appreciate that very much. I’m sure my blog community members too are impressed by what you’ve achieved in so less time.

    Have a great weekend ahead and all the best for everything in your life. 🙂

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