What Does It Take To Become A Successful Blogger?

Countless number of blogs, websites, forums etc have answered this question in all possible manner. My answer is not ground breaking by any means but I have my own perspective about it.

Talk to experienced writers and avid readers they will tell you that command on the language, representation of a thought, crafting of the tone, pacing the flow of content, building momentum on the idea, representation of the character etc are essential.

Talk to marketers who are trying to make money from bogging. They would guide you in directions such as CMS platform selection, frequency of the post, auto generated content, PLR, Front end offers, Affiliate Feeds, Brokered Adspace, Review posts, Exit popup etc & etc. The list is endless..

Most recently I read the book “Blogging Heroes” by Michael A. Banks. When I scanned through the index of this book I was surprised as I could only recognize about five bloggers by name in the list of Thirty. That’s alarming, go to network more..:)-

Talk to other bloggers in your own niche, they have their own small little stories to share. I too have my very own unconventional methods that have created the little success for me.

Just follow the link to find out my “Four Productivity Secrets For Successful Blogging”

When Your Seconday Site Over Takes Your Primary Site

This is interesting..

Right after starting this blog, I approached ace blogger John Chow to write a review of my blog, which he did graciously. In his review he pointed out that my ideas are better shared through a domain that resonates well with the market I’m focused on. A domain name that can be remembered, branded and traded easily if required. Srinisaripalli.com is little hard for people to remember.

I appreciated John’s suggestion but had no I idea on how to scale myself by creating multiple blogs. As you see my range of posts on this blog spread across topics such as real estate investing, small business marketing, entrepreneurship, online marketing. leadership, personal development and many more. So creating one unique blog for each subject are is next to impossible.

To test John’s suggestion, I started GoRichOnline.com a well focused & targeted blog for aspiring internet & information marketers teaching them how to make money online.. The intent was not to get internet marketing prominence with the blog, but to start something in parallel, brand it hard & exit easily if need be.

Internet Marketing is an extremely crowded area. Its hard to get top rankings in that space. While its true that there are some highly targeted niches that could be monetized, over all its a hard game.

So over all the last 14 months have been hard. Keeping up both the blogs with original content has been a challenge, but the ride had been wonderful with both blogs steadily increasing in RSS subscriber count, google page rank and Alexa ranking.

GoRichonline.com now has a page rank 4 with alexa ranking of about 200k. Where as SriniSaripalli.com has a page rank 3 with alexa rank about 250K.

These numbers are not that important in the web 2.0 world, what is important is an idea that seems to be working and generating required traction.

Gorichonline.com is no more an extension to this blog. It has its own reader base, products, services, content focus etc.

Its time to build more blogs in those other areas I guess. I bet by the time you finished reading this post.. I have built another niche blog in one of those remaining areas.. :)-

In Search Of A Good Hearing Aid..

The other day my father called me up to tell me about his hearing loss(50% in both of his ears) and that he has to get on hearing aids quickly. He also mentioned that the doctor gave him several manufacturers and models to select from.

I spent some time on the internet researching the makers of these devices, and at one point I typed “Who Invented Hearing Aid” on google.

Interestingly the results were all over the place : Wikianswers.com showed it was “Robert Bascetta”. About.com said “It is uncertain who invented the first electric hearing aid, it may have been the Akoulathon, invented in 1898 by Miller Reese Hutchinson and made and sold (1901) by the Akouphone Company of Alabama for $400.”

So I started digging little bit more in my home library and found this amazing entrepreneurial story about hearing aids that I am sure you will like.

Apparently Edward A Myer, an automobile distributor from Pittsburgh, discovered the first ever hearing aid in 1920 for his own personal use. Soon after he started EA Myers & Sons. The company started creating hearing aids with a personal touch for years and competed in a highly volatile industry.

In an industry where major manufactures positioned the hearing aids as portable electronics devices, Myers & Sons approached the market differently and maintained a medical character in their Marketing and Sales process.

Myers insisted that psychological conditioning is required for artificial listening and that his company can provide this service along with the device.

In all his ad copies and collateral he insisted that “Personalized services are a must along with the hearing aid”.

Thus he conditioned his market to focus on the value of his service than the device itself, which he also custom made with superior workmanship.

The cost of manufacturing a custom hearing device was high and the services were expensive too as a consequence EA Myers & Sons operated their business on less margins for a long time. Yet they competed with their inexpensive competitors head on with a good product, good service and a loyal customers base which was willing to pay twice the price.