Blogging is not a quick-rich scheme, you have to give enough time to understand, learn, and grow. – Santanu Debnath

Interview with Santanu Debnath

Santanu Debnath

Software Engineer and Blogger
Founder at BloggingJoy and HostingBrowse

Q1. Please share your Blogging journey with us?

Thank you Mitesh for inviting me to your amazing blog.

Hello everyone, I am Santanu Debnath. A software engineer by profession and a blogger by passion. I started blogging back in 2009-2010 while exploring online money making ways. After my everyday work, I used to spend time on the internet to find out some genuine passive income options in my free time. And that’s how I discovered a few top bloggers from India – Harsh Agarwal, Anil Agarwal, and started learning about blogging.

I have created many blogs in the last 10+ years. Some were successful, but many failures. And that’s how I learned a lot in blogging and understood what exactly works here. Right now I am focusing on my 2 websites Bloggingjoy.com (where I share my experiences, tips, and WordPress related topics) and HostingBrowse.com (a web hosting focused website).

Q2. How do you see Blogging as a full time career in 2021?

Well, it depends upon various things. Right now blogging is very popular and there is no doubt about the potential of blogging. One can make a full-time career in blogging or Digital Marketing if he/she has enough knowledge & experience. When you say career, it can either be working for some organization as a job or maybe an individual providing services or selling their products or doing freelancing. You can do whatever you want as the opportunity is huge. But the question remains the same, do you have the expertise to pursue that career? Blogging is not a quick-rich scheme, you have to give enough time to understand, learn, and grow. Exactly the way every Doctor or Engineer in our country builds a career on those streams.

Q3. You are running multiple Blogs and YouTube channels. On which platform do you get more profit in terms of money and traffic?

Well, first of all, I am a blogger and I got success from various blogs. I started creating videos for my YouTube channels just 1 year back and I am still learning a lot. But I got very little return from YouTube videos but that is not scaled up. It’s kind of a good conversation for me, besides my blog income. But there is no doubt that videos are very popular these days and there is very good income potential as well.

Q4. What is the importance of SEO for Blog? Which are the best tools to do SEO for WordPress?

SEO is the heart of blogging. If you don’t know how to do SEO properly then you will not be able to rank articles on top of Google search. And that is where all the money is coming from. As an affiliate marketer, you need to look for buying intent keywords that you can rank for. Otherwise, you can’t make money from your blog. I used almost all popular SEO tools, but I don’t depend much on them. For me, free SEO tools are enough to do research.

Q5. Which is the best hosting provider for Blogging on WordPress?

This is a very popular question as you need a good & reliable hosting company to start a WordPress blog. I have tried many web hosting companies so far and honestly, I found SiteGround as one of the best hostings which come with good servers and value for money. But right now they stopped their services in India. If you ask me, right now I am using Bluehost.com, HostArmada.com, Hostgator.in hosting plans for my various blogs. You can also consider Hostinger and Cloudways hosting. But make sure to understand your blogging needs and then go for the hosting as per your budget.

Q6. How do you see Blogging as a Passive Income? Is Affiliate Income best compared to all other options?

I think I am the best person to answer this question. I am blogging in my free time and am able to create a passive income source. Yes, anyone can do that as we know that we have enough time besides our regular duties of life & family.

Regarding affiliate marketing, I found it is better compared to Google AdSense. That doesn’t mean AdSense has less potential. Both are different and you have to understand both of their working methodologies.

Q7. What is the best strategy to bring our post first in the organic search? Which is the best tool for that process in WordPress?

If you want to rank on top of Google, then you have to follow certain things and let me share the steps.

• First, you need to find out keywords or search terms that are popular with low competition.
• Then you have to create stunning, SEO-friendly high-quality content compared to the existing articles ranking in Google.
• Then you have to create quality backlinks and increase the social share of your article.
• Also, make sure to update the article from time to time.

So, this is a very typical formula that we all bloggers follow. As a beginner, you can do the same and gradually learn various tips & tricks of SEO from your own experience.

Q8. In which language blogging is more profitable between Blogging in English and Blogging in Hindi for Indian Blogger?

There is a huge demand for regional languages and the existing content is not enough. So if you are good at writing in regional language and feeling comfortable then go for that. I am blogging in English and also tried with Hindi content, but didn’t get any success though.

On the other hand, if you write in English then you can target the global audience as well and rank in other countries. So, you can attract more traffic and get better conversion. But that doesn’t mean, regional languages are not profitable. There are various factors and you need to understand how they will work.

Q9. What will be the monthly cost for any new Blogger if he will use all paid versions for Blogging like Domain, Hosting, Theme, and Essential Plugins?

To start a blog in WordPress, you need a High quality hosting + domain which may come under Rs 5,000. You will find even cheaper plans, but this is an average amount. On top of that, if you want to spend money on premium tools & themes, that will depend on where exactly you want to invest. But as a beginner, I would say a hosting + domain with a free theme like GeneratePress is good enough to start. Gradually they can learn and invest further as per their needs.