In today’s interview, we have a lady who according to me is one of the most popular female bloggers in India. And it’s Jane Sheeba. Soon I will be publishing the interviews of popular bloggers and affiliate marketers like Harsh Agarwal and Zac Johnson here.
Coming back to today’s interview of Jane Sheeba, She is a scientist, married to a smart guy and have a two year old son. Its due to her PH. D. degree, she got into blogging. She started her blogging career in 2007 and she owns the popular blog JaneSheeba.com. And apart from this, she owns 10’s of other niche specific blogs.
She is well known for her blogging and content marketing skills and has already been features in several magazines and popular blogs. Recently, Harsh Agarwal has mentioned her in the list of most popular professional bloggers (infographics) from India on his ShoutMeLoud.com blog here.
I hope you guys will like this interview and learn something from her experience. And I would like to thank Jane for spending time in answering the questions specially when we was not keeping well.
First of all, please tell us about you and websites that you are running?
Hi I’m Jane. I’ve been blogging since 2007ish, although I started a serious online business since 2011. I manage multiple blogs on multiple niches:
Jane Sheeba – Self Improvement, Productivity, Motivation, Time Management
Tech Buzz Online – Tech tips, news and reviews
Best Hosting And Design – Web hosting blog.
How you get into the world of blogging and content marketing?
That was an accident, to be honest. I started a couple of blogs on blogger where I shared movies and music. Plus I was actively participating on movie and entertainment related forums while I was doing my Ph. D in the UK. It was my first time away from home and I was basically trying to cope with my loneliness.
But I started noticing many online blogs that were sharing nice information as well as were making money. And then I got the idea of starting my own blog. Find All Answers was my first blog.
How you get to the idea of starting probloggingsuccess website?
As I said Find All Answers was my first blog and it was multi niche. After a while, I wasn’t able to cope with the multi-niche audience. So I decided to split up Find All Answers into 4 different blogs and that’s how Problogging Success was born.
Which monetization methods you are using on your websites and blogs? And which one you found to be most effective?
Affiliate marketing, Direct advertising (as banners, or sponsored posts), my own services and products.
Of these I find Affiliate Marketing and Product sales to be the passive ones and effective – you do the work once and get paid multiple times for that. And these also serve as a constant income stream for me, which is good.
Please share any three of your favourite blogs?
That makes 4, lol.
How you are able to manage (more than 10) too many blogs successfully? Any success story or special tip in this regard. Are you operating individually or have a team that helps you with different blogging things?
This is one of the most common questions I get asked. I’ve practiced writing for quite some time. I maintain master sheets for keywords and blog post ideas (separately for all my blogs). I use Semrush and Long Tail Pro to get ideas.
I have a habit of writing every day, no matter what. I use FocusWriter and I’ve set it up to open up when my computer starts. I’ve also set a goal of 1000 words per day.
I don’t necessarily write blog posts always. I also write book chapters, newsletters and other materials. But I make it a point to write daily. This makes writing more enjoyable and more fluent.
I do have an in-house assistant who helps me with getting images, formatting and publishing the post. I just put up the posts in queue and leave it to him. I review the final version once before it gets scheduled.
What is your approach towards guest blogging? Which factors you take into consideration while making decision about a blog for guest blogging and which kind of guest posts you used to accept on your blogs?
Guest blogging is a golden way to get your voice out. It has multiple benefits and I’ve benefitted a lot from it. In fact, I’ve gained this level of popularity solely from guest blogging.
When I choose blogs to guest post, I don’t look at the SEO benefits, like DR of the site or Ahrefs rank or other metrics. I rather check the quality of the content that is posted on the site, the authority of the host blogger, the level of engagement (in terms of social shares, comments etc.).
When I get guest post submissions, I don’t compromise on quality for anything – even if it is a sponsored post.
If you have just $100 to start a blog, how will you go about it?
I’d definitely use it to build my self-hosted blog. I’d spend that money on getting a domain, hosting and getting a professional theme – no compromises on these three.
According to you, which is the best web host and any specific reason for choosing it.
This one is a tricky question – I wouldn’t endorse any hosting company as “best”. Coz what’s best today can become worst tomorrow. Having said that, I’ve been using Hostgator for a long time now and I wouldn’t say I’m 100% happy coz I’ve cancelled their hosting a couple of times when they got me frustrated. I’m eyeing on WPEngine now as I’m hearing nice things about it. I’m particularly interested in their promise about “speed”.
Are you using any free or paid SEO tool for getting better results with your websites?
Semrush is my top SEO tool. I have the pro (recurring) membership. I also use Market Samurai and Long Tail Pro – all paid versions.
According to you, which are the best 3 practices for link building?
Creating top quality, useful content so that people will link to it naturally, guest blogging and blog commenting. But it is very important that you do the first to be really useful to people and the last two to build relationships rather than merely having “link building” in mind.
Have you made some silly mistakes in the initial stage of your blogging career? If yes, please share them.
Yes of course. I’ve gone really overboard with ads and have plastered adsense banners all over my site. I’ve treated subscribers very badly, as if they were just on the list to buy from me! And even with content – I‘ve published really awful content in the early days.
According to you what is the best traffic building strategy and do you find traffic coming from social media networks converting?
Connecting with people is my #1 traffic strategy. I use various methods to do that like blog commenting, hanging out on social media, guest blogging etc. But my main goal is to connect with real people.
For newbies, please share some tips that they can use to build good relationship with the popular bloggers in their niche.
Newbies are usually more concentrated on promoting their own stuff. It is one of the most common mistakes. I did that too. It is very important that newbies should hold the urge to start promoting their own stuff. What should they do instead?
1. Create top notch, highly useful content and have a great foundation on their site before they start to promote it in any way; think about what you want the visitors to see on your site when they come to your site by clicking on a social media update or a link in your guest post. This will greatly determine the quality of relationship you can build with your visitors.
2. Promote other’s stuff and create genuine relationships. Truly appreciate other people’s cotent and be friendly with others rather than pushing your own content out all the time.
Hope this helps.
How can Readers of BloggersPassion get in touch with you? And message for our readers?
As I said, I’m open to connecting with people. I’m active on Facebook. I use Twitter sparingly, but I do respond to mentions/tweet. My Twitter handles are @janesheeba and @problogsuccess.
BloggersPassion is a wonderful informational blog. I suggest all readers of BP to observe and learn! There are lots of tips on the site. But instead of focusing on money, if you put providing quality first, and if you blog strategically, money will follow. I don’t say that you shouldn’t focus on monetization. But if you put money first, things won’t work as you expect!
Disclosure: Few Links used above are my affiliate links and I will make a small commission if you make a purchase through them.
