Last week we caught up with Nirmal T V, who runs a popular blog on technology titled Life Rocks 2.0! Thanks Nirmal, for sparing sometime from your busy schedule!

Tell us more about you and your blog ( http://www.nirmaltv.com).
I hail from Kochi the Queen of Arabian sea. I completed my B.tech from Cochin University and after that did my Mtech in Advanced Construction Technology.  My blog is presently 9 months old. Initially I had a personal blog at blogspot domain and I purchased my own domain in March 2007.

Why is your blog named “Life Rocks! 2.0″?
Well when my blog was hosted in blogspot, it was a pure personal blog and at that time I named my blog Life Rocks and when I started tech blogging, I didnt want to change the original name, so named it to Life Rocks! 2.0

Your site design is quite impressive. Was this designed by you?
Yes, the blog design was done by me. Although I’m not much familiar with php, I was good in CSS, so tool some time to design it. This design was appreciated by many.

What are the tools you use for blogging?
Tools for blogging are very few now. I’m planning to get a laptop soon. Other that that I use my desktop. On the software side, I use Wordpress for blogging.

Your blog is updated often! How much time you spend on it?
My blog is updated daily, and I spend around 2-3 hours not only on my blog, but reading some good blogs as well.

If you are given an opportunity to buy out a blog, which one that would be?
Well I don’t believe in purchasing a successful blog, you wont get the correct identity for yourself. Still I would have a get one, I would go for Engadget or any gadget or mobile phone blog.

How blogging has affected your life (good or bad)?
Blogging has really affected my life for good. I have been able to gain more knowledge in many areas, made new friends from all around the world.

You have over 500 regular readers. Do you get a lot of emails from them?
I do get mails from my readers as well as many other people asking for help regarding some tips or tricks etc. Some people have asked me whether my blog design is available for download.

What are your future plans for the site?
Future plans include a new theme for the blog, which I’m working on and most probably a new blog on mobile phones.

Is there anything you want to tell Kerala Blogger Community readers?
Well, Only thing I would say that don’t take up blogging just for the sake of making some money, there should be a passion for blogging, then only you will succeed.

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Mani Karthik is a Search Engine Optimization expert from Cochin. Last week we did an interview with him about his popular daily SEO blog. Check out his blog if you need more information on how to market your blog for the search engines.

Thanks Mani for your precious time. We also wish you a bright career in SEO. 

Tell us more about you and your primary blog( http://www.dailyseoblog.com)
I’m Mani Karthik. I’m basically an Internet Enthusiast from Kochi. I work as SEO Specialist at Alamy Images, a UK based MNC at Technopark, TVM.
I’ve done numerous SEO projects for small and big firms both in India and abroad. I blog on topics like Search Engine Optimization tips, how to make money online on my blog www.dailyseoblog.com . I’ve been blogging since last one year regularly and have been involved in Search Engine Optimization projects and consultation with many Indian online portals and websites.

What prompted you to start a blog?
I took inspiration from popular bloggers like Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration) and Darren Rowse (Problogger). I’ve been webmaster to a couple of sites since my college days(that’s way back in 2000-01) and Internet was a passion or more an obsession to me. So it was not a big deal, but more like switching from one medium to another, since I shifted from designing websites to blogging.

And like many other bloggers in India, the opportunity availble to make money online from blogging also bited me a lot. Today, I make around US $ 200 each month as revenue from my blog.

What are the other blogs you write?
I am focussed on DailySEOblog, so I don’t run any other blog. But I write regular articles on Bloggingtips.com (co-blogging) and Abouttheimage.com . I’ve been blogging at more websites earlier on topics “Making money online” and “How to make it to the top of Search Engines” but not anymore due to time constraints.

Why do you blog? What motivates you?
As I said, am an Internet Enthusiast, so it’s a passion to me. But most of the time, on DailySEOblog, it’s a learning process for me. I keep note of my new learnings and blogging on them helps me and my readers updated on the latest methods to make it to the top results of search engines.

Your tips on Search Engine Optimization is very helpful. From where did
you learn all these?
Experience and self-study. SEO is not available as a course or an exam even now in any part of the world. To me, it’s more experience. Since I’ve been webmastering couple of websites, I’ve found out numerous fool proof ways of making it to the top of search engines. To back up, I keep myself updated on the Internet by reading lot of SEO related articles and ebooks, testing them on my blog, talking to SEO Experts around the world, and discussing with them. There are lot of communities on the internet for SEO’s.

Do you use any blogging tools?
I use Windows Live Writer and BlogDesk for writing and managing articles.
I use many SEO tools to research and to market my blog online.

Which blog post do you consider as your best?
It’s difficult to pick one however, I think all my SEO related posts are my blogs highlight because all of them are original and unique - You can find them here - http://www.dailyseoblog.com/category/seo/

What is your experience from blogging? (good or bad)
Good. Blogging is something that I enjoy doing. I don’t agree with bloggers who blog only for making money online. In their efforst to make money online with minimum work, blogging appears to be a pain. These people spoil the charm of blogging and is a disgrace to the community.
To really enjoy blogging you should take pain in writing original articles and actively participate with the blogosphere. The money automatically falls into place.

What are your favorite blogs that you read daily?
A lot of them. I’ve almost 100 hand picked blog subscriptions that I regularly read. Some of them are Problogger, John Chow’s blog, Digital Inspiration and Daily blog tips.

If you were to pick one blog out there that you want to own, which one
that would be?
Darren’s Problogger.net  I admire the man.

What are your future plans?
I want to do SEO consulting with more Online startups in India. I see a common probelm with Internet startups and entrepreuners in India. Since they are focussed on their business model very much, they give less or no importance to SEO and as a result fail to get the right kind of visibility on the Search Engine results. I hope more people get aware of SEO and its merits, and I want to help them on it.

Is there anything you want to tell Kerala Blogger Community?
Indeed yes. I’d like to tell all bloggers that there is a huge potential in blogging. Be it personal branding for an artist or be it money making from blogging. For either cause, if you will harness the power of Search Engine Optimization, you can make it really big on the arena. All the best.

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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Brijesh Nair writes rarely, but when he does, it is normally an insightful post which attracts a lot of discussion. Most his posts deal with issues in India/Kerala.   

We thank Brijesh for the following interview.

Tell us more about you and your primary blog(http://sonyvellayani.blogspot.com/)
I am from Trivandrum. My house is very near to the beautiful Vellayani Lake. I did my schooling in Christ Nagar High School, Pre Degree (plus two) from Govt. Arts College, Trivandrum and B.Tech in Civil Engineering from NSSCE, Palakkad and passed out in 1997. Worked as a Civil Engineer for 6 months and got attracted to software field and worked as software engineer till early part of 2001. Decided to go back to Civil Engineering and joined for MS in Civil Engineering in Arizona State University (ASU) in August 2001. Immediately after completing MS in December 2002, I joined for my PhD in the same school, completed my PhD in Civil Engineering with specialization in Environmental Engineering two months back. I am right now working as a Design Engineer in Wilson Engineers  in Phoenix, Arizona. My main job as a Design Engineer is to design water and wastewater treatment plants.

I got married in 2005 to Deepa and she is now pursuing her MS in ASU. My hobbies include reading books about current affairs, biographies of successful people, playing, watching and analyzing cricket. Now I am into a new thing – I am working hard to improve my physical fitness for a reason – I have a dream of running and finishing a half marathon by the year 2009.

Why is it named ’sonyvellayani’? What about the title “Uyarangalilekku (Scaling New Heights)”?
“sony” is the name by which every one calls me in the family. I have spend most of my life in this beautiful place called “Vellayani”, so when I thought I should start a blog “sonyvellayani” was the name that came to my mind.

About the title “Uyarangalilekku (Scaling New Heights)” – putting the name “sonyvellayani” was easy but I want to name the blog with something I can closely relate to. I was thinking about it for a long time – what name I should give to my blog. Last 10 years, especially the last 6 years in US have made me understand that “to scale new heights” you need to always work hard. Life has taught me that there is no short cut to success and only hard work can help you “scale new heights”. I took these words “scaling new heights” and coined the word “Uyarangalilekku”. Whenever I see the title of the blog it reminds me of 2 things – one – the hard work I had put till now in my life to “scale new heights “and two – the hard work I need to put today and tomorrow to “scale new heights”

Most of your posts are on current affairs. If you become Kerala Chief Minister for a week, what would you do?
Tough question to answer. It is true that I am interested in politics and dream of becoming a politician in the later part of life. But the truth is that in the present political set up I don’t wish to be the chief minister of Kerala. I could write something like what Arjun did in the movie “Muthalvan” but thinking practically you cannot do much in a week or even in a month.

What prompted you to start a blog?
I used to think a lot even during my school days – mostly about cricket and other games like football matches I saw. By the time I reached college I started having interest in politics as well. I use to scribble my thoughts during that time in paper and latter throw that away. When I read some stuff it remains in my mind for a long time and I start thinking about it from all angles. Once I start thinking about it I get the inspiration to write about what ever I am thinking. So once I started getting familiar with the concept of blog, I started using that to express my thoughts to the outside world.

Do you have any other blogs?
I am a contributor to the Save Kerala Blog.

Why do you blog? What motivates you?
I mentioned that I think about a topic that strikes me a lot and write a blog. Once I started blogging I was able to see how the readers of my blog analyzed the same. Some of the readers criticize my way of thinking but I always consider that healthy. Their view point makes me learn more about the stuff I write and help to understand how various people perceive the same stuff differently. In short the motivation comes from the fact that blog helps to have a creative discussion about a topic I am interested in.

Do you use any blogging tools?
No I don’t. I just use the basic stuff in blogger.com

Which blog post do you consider as your best?
Few of them I feel stands out especially the post Evil Called Desi Consultants and What Next Now Kerala Government?

What is your experience from blogging? (good or bad)
As I mentioned previously, I got a chance to convey my thoughts and initiate a discussion on topics that really interest me. Another good thing about blogging is that I am able to make good friends who share some of my common views.

What are your favorite blogs that you read daily?
I read almost daily www.desipundit.com and www.blogbharti.com so that I don’t miss the best Indian blogs around. I go through the Kerala Blog Roll to keep myself updated with all the Kerala blogs.

Is there anything you want to tell Kerala Blogger Community?
It is nice to see Kerala Blogger community growing. The growth in Kerla blogger community should be in quality and not in quantity of blogs. Few months back I saw a big fight that broke out between some bloggers for some silly reasons. I got a feeling that few people think that blogging is an alternative to online chatting and these people give a bad name to all the bloggers out there. Let us all move forward neglecting these uncouth bloggers. I take this opportunity to reiterate one thing – United we stand, its then we can make our presence felt in our society.

(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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