Vaibhav is a well known technology blogger from Bangalore, silicon valley of India. He aims to help laymen become technology enthusiasts at his blog Technofriends. Thank you Vaibhav for your time with us. Wish you all the best for your future blogs
Blogrtools: Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi Everyone!!
Let me begin by thanking Blogrtools for this privilege to get featured.My name is Vaibhav and I am a Technology Blogger.Professionally I work with a Software major in Bangalore and in my free time write about Technology in my blog. My interests include Reading, Driving and Entrepreneurship. One day i wish to become an Entrepreneur :).
Blogrtools: When did you started blogging and why did you want to do so ? any inspirations?
I started with my blog in April 2007. There were a few inspirations like Amit of Digital Inspiration and the idea with which i started off was to help people who are Laymen become Technology Enthusiast. I still go with that mission statement :)
Blogrtools: Tell us about your blog. What do you write about?
My blog Technofriends is a blog focused around technology. In this blog i write about the latest Technology happenings, stuff about programming languages, various tips, tricks etc. Being a Java guy,often the programming posts are little biased towards Java. All in all Technofriends is about Technology; Be it Google, Firefox, How-To tutorials, Tech News, Hacking, Java its all there.
Blogrtools: what blogging tools do you use?
I happen to be on a hosted service called Wordpress.com and therefore i don't use much tools. Whatever Wordpress.com offers is all I use.
Blogrtools: How do you think people can benefit from blogging?
Certainly blogging is the next big wave in the Internet world. Again there are a lot of reasons why people blog. Some people blog about their personal stuff, the clothes they wear, the food they eat and some are more focused like Amit Agarwal, Himanshu Sheth etc.My experience that in this vast world, readers are there to read about any and everything, provided its written well.In the end, i feel blogging is not only about working on a vision/sharing your thoughts, its also about the brand called YOU.
Blogrtools: Has blogging changed your life? What do you get out of it?
Definitely blogging has changed my life a lot. My blog is like a baby to me. After starting this blog, I have kind of started being more research oriented. The vital questions which I ask myself have made me become more focused in my approach. It clearly helps. Apart from all this, its also about a brand image called YOU. I have also got more focus/attention from open communities / individuals because of my blog.
Blogrtools: By blogging, do you make money or intend to do so? Do you think blogging is meant for making money?
No. I don't make any money from my blog. As of today, I don't have any such plans as well. I am more concerned about the brand building exercise. Possibly, I will try to capitalize this brand later. In my views, blogging is not about money alone. Its more about the brand/value. The day you start losing on that part, money will stop flowing in.
Blogrtools: Has your blog helped anyone personally. Can you quote us an instance of how he/she got benefited?
Yes definitely. I do get lots of mails/comments from my readers appreciating about the posts. Recently, i wrote about the windows process called SVCHOST.exe and for that got many mails from readers sharing their belief before they had read my post. Also, the post which I wrote about the Orkut bug drew lots of attention, Google Orkut team themselves sent me a Thank You mail and also invited me for the lunch with them. These are some of the instances I can share.
Blogrtools: What is your frequency of blogging? full time / part time. what makes you do full time / part time?
I am a part time blogger. If i drill these details further, i try to post around 2 posts daily on an average.
Blogrtools: Do you know how many people visit your blog? Do you know what kind of people are they?
On an average around 400-500 people visit my blog daily. Out of this, around 28% are unique visitors. Around 40% of my readers are from US, 25% from India and rest from other parts of the world. Most of the people who visit my blog are either people looking for Technology Solutions, other blogger's, Tech community members or students.
Blogrtools: Do you think that a blog can make a difference in the world?
Yes, I am a member of the camp which feels that blog can make a difference to this world. Blogs are an important uncontrollable tool in this controlled world. They give you the power to express your opinions about a topic of interest. I believe blog sites like Mutiny.in are great examples. However, blogger's will definitely need to go a little more further, thinking less about the traffic and the real concerns to make a big difference.
Blogrtools: How to do foresee the future of blogging?
If I go by the statistics , as per Technorati, a new blog is getting created every 7.4 sec's. Its not a furore, its evolution of uncontrolled content, expression of ideas. Although, i do see a great future for blogging, I still feel that its too early to talk about the future of blogging. However, what is clear to me is that the opportunities around blogging are huge.Companies can use blogger's to put a more human face on interactions between its employees and customers; people in the marketing division can create a buzz through blogs; and definitely blogger's can play a role by acting as fact auditors for the mainstream media. Two things are certain to remain with regards to blogging : It will continue to remain disruptive to the traditional media, and new uses will surface. We might see blogging move towards video and instant messaging.It's just the beginning.
Blogrtools: what's your suggestions for the new blogger's?
My suggestion to new blogger's would be that they should consider more about value . Don't try to get into blogging just because somebody is making money out of it and you are not. Create a value and then money shall follow. Create a goal and work towards it. Have a focus and write about your area of interest. I think these are some of the learning which have come to me over all these months and this is all i can share with the readers.
Blogrtools: Do you have anything else to tell our readers?
Blogrtools is definitely playing a good role by bringing up contents related to blogging. This is a niche area and i wish you all the best.
