Interview- Ajith of DollarShower

Today, I am publishing the third interview in the series. This is one of my favorite bloggers and is the guy who inspired me to some serious blogging in this niche. Enjoy the interview of Ajith of DollarShower

Tell us about yourself, location & background.

I am a Software Professional based in Bangalore though born, raised and studied in Kerala.

When did you start blogging? What was the reason behind it? And what is your current status as a blogger?

Well, I started blogging in 2005 with my own domain name (AjithPrasad.com). However, this was done on the phpnuke platform and I found it very difficult to maintain it. Later I moved on to blogger in 2007 with a cricket blog and then in 2008, I started DollarShower.com where majority of my online efforts go to.  Having said that, I must say that I had websites on free hosting sites as early as 1998. I had various reasons behind creating these websites. Some were started to publish my online resume, upload photos etc, some purely to write about my passions such as cricket and DollarShower (and a couple of other blogs for search visitors) were set up to help earn money online.My current status as a blogger is a reasonably successful story if not a fairy tale.

Blogging is your PASSION, HOBBY or MONEY?

(D) All the above

What is your blog about and the target audience?

If you are talking about DollarShower.com (my main blog), it is all about sharing my thoughts on the blogging experience that I had while setting up that blog. Basically topics that vary from setting up a blog, optimizing it, promoting and monetizing. In a nutshell that means – blogging tips, SEO and Make Money Online related topics.

Current statistics of your blog?

It’s not extra ordinary yet – I get about 4-5 thousand unique visitors a month. It is ranked reasonably well on Google, Technorati and Alexa.

Your blogging objectives for next one year?

In January I wrote a post about it – I plan to continue investigate into topics related to monetization. I also want to conduct an SEO contest like the one I did in 2009 and if possible release a couple of WordPress plugins and a public version of my current theme.

Who inspired you to blogging? Any idols in this field?

I started off DollarShower seeing the monetized content John Chow. However, my previous attempts on blogging were never influenced by any particular blog.

What is your content generating technique? From where do you get new ideas?

I draw many of the SEO topics from various SEO blogs and my own experiments on page optimization. Most of my blogging tips though is based on my personal thoughts.

Who are your favourite bloggers? Anyone you read very regularly?

To be frank, I do not read a single blog regularly since past two months. However, I used to read copyblogger and problogger a lot initially. Right now, my current work situation and blogging life doesn’t go well together and hence there is no regular reading. Due to the same reason, my post frequency has come down as well.

Apart from blogging, your interests are?

I love cooking once in a while. Also, I like to watch cricket and time permitting write about it as well. I am also a fan of equity markets and involve in trading shares as time permits (no significant gains out there, I must add)

Your favourite movies & songs

I must admit that I am a bit outdated person in this generation when it comes to movies and songs. I can’t really digest the new generation digital music and all those sci-fi type movies. Most of my favourite movies are from yesteryears. Silence of the lambs, Dumb and Dumber are some of the movies that I liked from the 90s. Also there are a handful of Malayalam and Tamil movies that I liked a lot. As for Hindi, Tare Zameen Pe is something that I liked and Sholay as a trend setter. As for music I like most songs of Kishore Kumar and Tamil songs of Ilaiyaraja. I am probably one of the few who do not adore A.R. Rahman.

Your favourite cuisines?

Italian, Chinese, Mexican and hot-spicy Indian food. I am a regular sea-food eater but dislikes desserts and sweet dishes.

Life for you in one line? Something likes a quote or that.

Forget past tense and enjoy the present perfect

If only you could change one thing in this world

I would then abolish the concept of religion. I firmly believe that religion is the cause of all evils on the planet at the moment – be it terrorism, fundamentalism or regionalism.

Is there somebody you will die to meet?

Nobody. I would rather save my life for self

Your message to the upcoming bloggers?

Start blogging only if you enjoy writing! Do not start it as a short cut to earn millions and do not ever plan thinking that blogging can be a sustainable long term career. If you want to maintain a good blog, focus on writing some unique content at a reasonable frequency (no need to be a robot by just scheduling it at predictable regular intervals)

Memorable achievement/ feat since you started blogging?

I conducted a unique SEO contest an year ago and this was well sponsored by some of the big names out there. That was a good feat I thought. Also, hitting the four figure income mark for the first time was also something to be proud of.

Your dream destination in this world?

I like beaches – Mauritius and certain Caribbean islands are my dream places. So is far east Asian countries.

What are your future plans apart from blogging?

Focussing on my software career is the current priority for me though I would like to retire from the IT industry probably in another five years from now. I wouldn’t mind learning some technical analysis and become a fulltime day-trader though it is a risky affair. I also have this dream of setting up a small café or restaurant – not sure if I will have the drive for that in the future.

Any suggestions for the BloggersPassion?

Not at the moment as you just got started. But I thought it is a good domain name that you have.