Harsh blogs at Shoutmeloud.com. He is one of the most well-known bloggers and top internet marketers in India. He has been interviewed multiple times, both by magazines and by other bloggers around the world.
The Shoutmeloud Facebook fan page has over 60k likes and the blog has over 95,000 newsletter subscribers.
Shoutmeloud first went live in December 2008 and now it has been nearly a decade of blogging.
Suffice to say that Harsh is the poster boy of the Indian blogosphere.
He mostly shares what he learns about WordPress, hosting, plugins, blogging etc. It’s intensely personal and that’s what makes him so inspiring.
How this internet marketer got started
Harsh started blogging as a hobby but it soon turned out be his profession. He launched his first blog on the Blogpost platform and within three months of doing so, he began getting a warm response from the community.
Bolstered by his success he moved to WordPress and bought a premium domain name. At that time he didn’t even have a credit card to buy the hosting package and used that of his friend’s father’s.
His blog began as a means to kill his boredom. After failing in four campus selection interviews he was finally accepted into Accenture. He was placed but then he could join only a year later.
Within a few months of blogging, he began to earn $700 per month with his blog. The year passed quickly and it was now time for him to decide whether to continue blogging or join the job at Accenture. He went for the job but quit after 6 months.
Dare to be the dreamer
In India, it’s a lot more difficult to pursue a career in blogging. Most people don’t understand what blogging is. It’s even harder for them to understand if making money with a blog is possible.
If you’re a blogger most people would assume that you waste your time the entire day in front of the computer.
And that was 2008. A person in India going the non-traditional route would face stiff opposition from relatives, family, and friends as we have a more closely knit family structure here.
Paulo Coehlo’s book “ The Alchemist” describes it well. When somebody starts pursuing his/her dream then loved ones try stopping him. This is because our loved ones don’t want to see us fail.
But when we finally realize that love is not an inhibitory force, we can make it an impetus to move forward.
It took him some time to convince his parents but he finally made it and there has been no looking back ever since.
If he had been an engineer, he’d been making 5k per year, but as a blogger, he makes more than 50k and lives the life of his choice.
But not everything has been smooth
I also read his personal blog Denharsh( See Problems with Working From Home Full time) where he describes the challenges of being a full-time blogger. The greatest problem is the loneliness that you face. Bloggers exchange hundreds of emails. But when it comes to meeting people, they hardly meet anyone new.
Other than that, there is the constant pressure of performance and staying updated. Bloggers don’t have weekends and you work every day.
I do agree with the post but I feel that a lot of these problems can be solved easily. Getting a team or staying as a paying guest can introduce some company in the life of the lonely blogger.
It’s not necessary to make everyone understand everything. For the most inquisitive relatives, my answer has always been that I make more working from home than at an office.
Hold on to it and you will surely get there!