Awesome Interview with Ravi Dixit Founder of StayMeOnline

As you know I have started a interview series, where I take interview of professional bloggers. 

This is the sixth interview and I have invited a full time blogger Ravi Dixit for todays interview.

He is the man behind StayMeOnline blog and help peoples in their blogging journey.

So lets start this awesome interview with Ravi Dixit.

1. Please tell our readers about yourself and your blog?

Hello, Lovely readers!

I am Ravi Dixit, founder of StayMeOnline, and a few other blogs on different niches. I am a full-time blogger and affiliate marketer from New Delhi, India.

I have started my Blogging journey in May 2016 along with my full-time office job but in July 2019, I quit my job and took blogging full-time.

2. How did you first get into blogging?

I am not a 9 to 5 job kind of person, I knew it from my school days. So, it was clear to me that I want to start something my own, want to be my own boss.

Along with this, I want the freedom to work from anywhere and at any time. 

So, one day I made a search on Google “methods to make money online” and came to know about blogging which was written as the no.1 method to make money online. 

I got attracted to it and started learning more about blogging and all other related topics.

Also read – Start your Profitable Blog in 2021

3. What are the challenges you have faced in your blogging journey so far?

When I came to know about Blogging and planned to jump into it… I was not having any laptop or computer, only a 2G mobile phone that I was using to read posts from various blogs to learn more about blogging. At that time I was in 12th standard…

So, first I need to arrange a laptop or computer to start my own blog. So, after finishing my 12th I joined a call center aimed to earn some money to purchase a laptop. 

But the salary wasn’t good and I failed to save money to purchase a laptop after working for 10 months, so ended up buying a Windows tablet. 

The tablet was not that good but anyhow I started my blogging journey by purchasing my domain StayMeOnline.com along with a shared web hosting from GoDaddy. 

After that, I quit the job at the Call Centre and joined another job. This time the company was a web service company and salary was also good than the previous job.

After working for one year, I finally saved money to purchase the Laptop.

This was the biggest challenge I faced and in between this time, my blog(StayMeOnline) went down for 6 to 7 months because I didn’t have the money to renew my hosting plan. I moved it offline and written a few posts and then when I got the money to renew, moved it online back.

4. How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently?

When I was managing my blog along with a full-time job, it was really tough for me to work on my blog. I was working on my blog hardly for 3 to 4 hours daily and a few hours more on Sundays.

In July 2019, I thought to quit my office job because I was making good money from my blog. So, that was the perfect time for me to took blogging full-time.

Now I am a full-time blogger and can give more time to manage my blogs. 

I have set a goal to work at least 8 hours(like in the job I used to work) on my blogs and other related things. Sometimes, it increases as per the work requirements but it should be at least 8 hours every day.

For managing my time effectively, I use RescueTime that helps in tracking where my time goes online and also helps in increasing productivity. 

More than this what helps me in managing my blogging time effectively is the to-do list I prepare every night for the next day. Before leaving my computer, I add all the tasks that I need to do the next day and when I get back to the computer(next day), I start doing them as per the priority.

This is how I manage my time for blogging…

5. Share some effective tips to get more affiliate sales?

Hmm, this is one of the most asked questions. 

I’ve seen newbies promoting products blindly just to get a high commission from the merchants. They promote expensive web hosting when someone needs web hosting to start his/her blog or website, without even understanding their needs and budget.

And trust me, this is a big mistake. You must understand the needs and budget first then choose the right product to promote. Do not run for high commission products…

For example, If someone wants to start a blog and you are promoting WPX Hosting or WP Engine then there is no chance that you will get a sale. 

On the same hand, if you are promoting hosting after understanding that he/she might have low-budget and you are promoting affordable hosting like A2 Hosting, NameCheap, etc then there are high chances that you will surely get a sale. 

And the second most important thing is Trust in affiliate marketing. Establish yourself as an expert and build a community to provide them value without aiming to get anything back from them.

Once you gained your audience’s trust, it will be easy for you to get more affiliate sales.

6. What are the ways to increase website traffic?

There are tons of ways which you can use to increase traffic on your blog. Here are some of them:

1. Answer related questions on Quora.
2. Share your content on your social media handles.
3. Conduct roundup posts and invite other experts from the same niche and ask them to share your post when it goes live. 
4. As with the roundup post, conduct interviews of experts from your industry. These kinds of collaboration help in driving a new audience. 
5. Focus on writing long-tail keywords that have low competition so they are easy to rank.
6. Write guest posts on other blogs within your niche, it will not only help in building backlinks rather you will also get some traffic.
7. Start capturing the email addresses of your visitors from day one and send them emails about your new published posts.

7. How to get quality backlinks even if you are new in the field?

That’s an interesting question, Ayush!

I have seen beginners usually struggle in building backlinks when they start a new blog.

So, for building backlinks when you are a new name in the industry, you should focus on collaborating with the others who are in the same industry from a good time and already built a good audience.

By collaborating with them, you can create opportunities for guest posts, interviews with them, roundup posts, and these techniques will ultimately bring some quality backlinks. 

Apart from this, here are a few other methods that you can take into use to build backlinks as a beginner: 

1. Guest posts on other blogs around the same niche, here you can get 300+ Blogs that accept guest post.
2. Create link-worthy content that earns backlinks automatically.
3. Use the Guestographics method to build backlinks. 
4. Invite others from the same niche in round-up posts to get featured on their mentioned page.
5. Comment on other high-authority blogs to get nofollow backlinks and some referral traffic.
6. Use Broken-link building method…

8. Tips to get more email leads as a beginner?

To get more email leads as a beginner, one should focus on providing freebies that can help others.

Freebies like:

1. Free course
2. Free ebooks
3. Free consultation 
4. Free PDF Guides
5. Free Templates
6. And many more…

Your readers can get the premium and useful things for free and you’re just asking their email address… 

Who doesn’t like freebies?

Everyone does, right? 

Along with this, Use Exit-Popups to show your best offer/freebie when your visitors are about to leave your website. This works like a charm and helps in getting their email into your email list.

9. What are some best blogging plugins and tools that every blogger should use?

Here are some best Blogging plugins and tools that every blogger should be using:

1. WP Rocket: This is the best WordPress cache plugin that helps in improving website loading speed. It is a premium plugin so if you can’t afford it as a beginner then use WP Super Cache. 
2. Semrush: I am using Semrush for keyword research and all other SEO tasks. It can make it easy for you to outrank your competitors on SERPs.
3. Elementor: Elementor is a freemium WordPress page builder that makes it easy for non-designers to design attractive homepage and landing pages.
4. OptinMonster: OptinMonster can help you to convert your one-time visitors to customers or subscribers by capturing their email address. It can help you to grow your email list. It is a premium tool but here are some OptinMonster alternatives that you can try if you want free or cheaper alternatives. 
5. Akismet: It will help you to avoid spam comments on your blog.
6. ThirstyAffiliates: If you monetize your blog with affiliate products then this plugin is for you. It helps in converting long affiliate links into short & brandable affiliate links.
7. WPForms: WPForms is a free WordPress forms builder that can make it easy for you to build any kind of form without coding. 

10. Feedback or any message for BloggersDesire?

You’re publishing useful content, Ayush on your blog. They are really useful and in-depth… I also liked the way you manage your blog, your blog’s design, and structure. Everything is perfect…

Keep doing the amazing work buddy 🙂