Blogger Interview # 62: Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli

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Can you tell us a little about yourself and your blog?

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I am a science postgraduate, a copywriter by profession, a photographer by hobby and an active blogger. I am naturally interested in various subjects. I always had too much to talk, so when I discovered blogging I realized I can have way too many listeners… oops readers!

So I started with a personal blog As I Look At Life. It is all about my views, experiences and PJs. But since I used to travel by Mumbai Local Trains every single day, I had too much to share about the little sweet and sour incidents during my commute. This gave birth to the train blog which has now become more of a passion. I also have a photo blog, a recipe blog, a hotels/restaurants blog, a movie blog and a few more blogs you can discover here. 

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Are you a full time blogger? How did you get into blogging and why?

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I am a 25%-time blogger J. I got into blogging out of my sheer interest in writing and talking. But then, as I continued my professional journey as an online content manager, I realized that blogging can also help in reaching out to many people and be of some help when required. That’s when I started taking blogging really seriously.

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If someone was interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?

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Write from your heart. Before hitting the Post button, read the post, check for grammatical errors and see if it will interest your readers. Make the title interesting and relevant to the post. If you are using / referring to someone else’s article or photograph, remember to give credit to the person.

Post regularly.

After writing on a particular topic, look for other blogs on similar topic. Interact with those bloggers on what they have to say and share your views in their comments section. However, never comment for the sake of it. Comments like “nice post”, “good one”, “please visit my blog too”, etc. will not get you genuine followers.

If you are active on Facebook  / Twitter, share your post links on your wall. 

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How do you build a community around a blog and social media?

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Remember Newton’s third law of motion? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. You want people to read your blogs, read others’ blogs. You want to read interesting stuff, post interesting stuff. You want people to genuinely comment on your blogs, do the same for their posts. Follow good blogs on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and  build FB and Twitter pages of your blogs, if you post regularly.

Interact with readers. Ask for opinions, revert on their comments, join blogging communities like IndiBlogger and Blogadda, and participate in blogger meets whenever possible!

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What are your three favorite blogs to read? What makes those blogs special?

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My favorite blogs are:

Deepak Amembal’s Mumbai daily: His photo blog inspires me to click photos on a regular basis. Also, I discovered a lot many memes because of his blog!

Suranga Date’s Strewn Ashes: Her take on life and beautiful poems add life to the work of many photographers!

Siddhesh Kabe’s Sidoscope: A wonderful blog to read that also leads us to Holy Cow, his comic blog that is simply hilarious!

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Which one plugin would you suggest all bloggers to have?

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A single plug-in / widget cannot be ideal for all kinds of blogs. One must identify what would really add value to their blog, what their readers would be interested in and choose the plug-in accordingly.

For instance, the audience of my Mumbai Local Trains blog is quite active on Facebook and they prefer to get updates and stories on their News Feed. Hence a Facebook Like button leading to the FB page of the blog really works. It also leads to greater and faster interaction via the FB page. But the same is no true for the As I Look At Life Blog!

Recent Posts widget however is essential, so that if the first-time visitor likes your latest post, he/she can view the list of earlier ones at one place and read on. Followers / Google Friend Connect gadget helps you expand your reader base and also discover other blogs. I would advise bloggers to try out one plug-in / widget at a time and see how it works for them.

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