Interview with Animesh K Mishra (animeshkmishra dot com)

Today I had the pleasure of Interviewing a very famous Blogger Animesh , He is a true inspiration for new bloggers as well as a source of huge information about blogging and a true artist , he has the amazing talent of writing fiction and non fictional articles. Lets know more of him now.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? your blog , and your aspirations and your hobbies !!

As I often say, I’m a project manager by profession and everything else by passion J. I work in IT field, but that’s only my profession. Apart from writing, I have training in Indian Classical Music and I play Hawaiian Guitar. I love reading, driving and travelling and am crazy about cars. As far as my aspirations go, I don’t want to die just like any other man. I want to be an established author some day.

2. How you first got involved in with blogging, are you an imaginative person?

I don’t even remember how it started. My younger brother hasbeen blogging for last 7-8 years, but I never knew anything about blogging though I have been writing since my schooldays. I was going through some emotional turmoil and how that turmoil changed to a Blog Post, that is a mystery for me also. On a scale of 1-10, you can rate me at 8 or 9 as an imaginative person.

3. What do you find most challenging about blogging about your topic?

Getting time; Professional and personal commitments leave me with no time to write.

4. Tell me about some of the people you have met while working on your blog?

Sriram, Stephen, Keyoor, Ketan, Karve sir, Vinita, Hemant, Trupti, Hari, Janaki, Diwakar and many others. I’m writing a book with Sriram. Stephen, Keyoor, Ketan, Karve sir, Diwakar, Hari and Trupti are all bloggers from Pune and we have together created a group called Pune Blog-In.

5. How would (someone) describe your blogging style?

Straight forward and Conversation based

6. What do you do when you are not working on your blog?

Working at office or playing with my son J. And when I get some time from all this, I read a lot. Sometime, I just go for a long drive or treat myself with some music.

7 .Where do you see yourself blogging wise in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?

I don’t see anything much significant in next 6 months given my professional and personal commitments. But after 5 years down the line, I will surely be a known author with at least one of my books being a best-seller J

8. What networking do you do that you feel helps your blogging business?

Blogging forums like Indiblogger, Social media like Facebook and Twitter and then personal network like friends, family etc.

9. How do you keep coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people struggle with coming up with different articles/posts and they only have one blog.

Thanks to my Maa, I have a natural ability to analyze things. And as I said, I am imaginative as well. So, coming up with ideas is not a big problem. Although I also go through writers block some times.

10. Whats your strategy with your blog in general?

No strategy at all.

11. Any specific tips you have for newbee bloggers who want to make it in the blogosphere?

Most important thing is good content. Focus on that, everything else is secondary.

12. What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?

Content, Readers, SEO, Traffic

13. Whats the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?

Amazing and unique posts to read J

14. A lot of people are interested in blogging for the money earning potential. What are some tips for people interesting in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?

I have no experience in that field and hence, I am skipping this question.

15. What motivates you most in life?

The urge to learn.

16. What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?

No specific strategy as such. I write when I feel to, connect to fellow bloggers and use social media and other tools for visibility.

17 What was the most challenging moment in your blog content development process and why?

Can’t remember any such moment J

18. Everyone has a favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?

Irritate your boss the innovative way;  Even my boss laughed when he read it.

An evening at The Hell Nation; I don’t know why but I love this story.

19. Name some of the bloggers whom you look up to and why?

There are many. To name a few Vikram Karve sir, you should see how much he can write. I think he writes more than anyone else in the Indian blogosphere. The Fool, Stephen and C Suresh, they have got excellent command over story writing. Sriram, I just wonder how this guy can analyze things so amazingly and look beyond obvious. Rickie Khosla, I’m a fan of his sense of humour. Umashankar Pandey, just read his story to know how amazing he is and last but not the least, Vinita aka Blogwati G, My God! Where does she bring all that energy from?

20. What is the story behind the name of the blog.

There is no story behind animeshkmishra dot com. Story in pieces is based on the concept of episodic story and I was talking to one of my friends about taking a domain when this name just cropped up in my mind.

21. your connection with Indiblogger and the experience ?

I am on Indiblogger for last 3-4 years and it has been amazing journey. I learnt a lot there and met a lot of amazing people, attended few Bloggers meet which also inspired me to organize a blogger’s meet at Pune. Currently I’m a moderator of Indiblogger which is also known as IndiPolice.

22.Which genre do you feel gets the raw deal?

Fiction writing

23.Which one plugin would you suggest all bloggers to have?

If you are on self-hosted wordpress, ensure that you have Better WP security installed on your blog.

24.Five adjectives that describe you.

Introvert, Passionate, Leader, Self-starter, Capricorn J

25.What book would you say has made the biggest impact  good or bad on you?

Many lives many masters. This is just an amazing book I have ever read. Another one was Brida by Paulo. It got a lot of answers from this book.

26.Do you get easily provoked by positive/negative comments ??

Sadly yes.

27.Do you plan to write a book , as every bloggers dream it is ?

Yes, book is already in progress. Sriram is the co-author of this book.

28.Are you a judgmental person , Do you prefer to take sides instead of standing neutral ?

Normally No. But I must admit that sometimes I take sides.

29. Your collaboration with other bloggers , are you much into social networking , tell us everything about it ?

What does everything mean :D? I have lots of friends from blogosphere and some of them are closer than my other friends. On social networking part, I am on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I have created pages from my blogs and it helps me getting traffic and readers.

30.What genre attracts you the most and which genre you avoid ?

Fiction is my favorite genre and I avoid technical reviews.

31.Your Views on Contests and increasing plagiarism ?

Contests are good. Many people talk about how brands take advantage of bloggers via these contest, but I think one has a choice of not to participate.

Can you stop plagiarism? Even if word to word copying is stopped, what about idea copying? It’s like any other crime which cannot be eliminated.

32.Words for me and my blog .?

You are a good friendJ I have read your stories in the past and they are good. Of course they need some improvement. And that reminds me, I need to review your blog as I had promised (are you still a game for it?).

Its been a pleasure interviewing the most famous blogger I know ;), and Yes if you don’t review my blog now I will kill you.