We are Fuelmyblog – Scratch For the Soul. The latest in the series of interviews highlighting Fuelmyblog bloggers and their blogs..

This post is part of a series of interviews highlighting Fuelmyblog bloggers and their blogs, a great way to find out who are the bloggers part of the Fuelmyblog community. If you would like to feature in this series add your name in the comment box or email sylvie(at)fuelmyblog.com
Thanks Scratch Bags it is nice to get to know you a bit more and sharing your blogging tips with us all

What’s your name?

My username for personal blog is Scratch Bags but my blogging friends address me as Scratchy or Itchy.

I don’t use any specific username on my professional blog.

What’s the name of your blog?

Currently I am working on two blogs. One is my personal blog: Scratch For The Soul
And another one is a professional blog Donkey GMAT

What’s the URL of your blog?

http://www.scratchbags.wordpress.com
http://www.totalgadha.com/gmat/

How old is your blog?

My personal blog is four months old.
My professional blog is some 20 days old.

If you’re willing to share, how many visitors per day do you have to your blog?

Around 60-70 on my personal, and around 200-250 on my professional blog.

How much time do you spend blogging every week?

As far as’ Scratch For the Soul’ goes I spend around 18-20 hours a week. I spend atleast 7 hours a week in leaving comments on other blogs and another 12-13 hours writing posts and replying to comments on my blog.
Donkey GMAT takes around 28-30 hours a week because of the heavy research work that I have to do before posting anything there.

Is it the creative process or the editing process which take you longest when writing a post?

I think I take ample time in both. Also, when I am reviewing any news article, it’s research that takes most of my time.

What inspired you to first start writing a blog?

I wanted to write. Writing is something that doesn’t come to me naturally except writing a few post cards or letters in childhood, I had never written anything specific. I wanted to overcome that hurdle and blogging was a great platform. Although there isn’t a single day when I don’t write posts or comments on my main website (www.totalgadha.com) but writing a personal blog has its own charm.

What do you do to get inspired to write?

Nothing specific. I wander here and there on the interweave and I always find something that inspires me.

How do you market your blog?

I have never bothered much to market my personal blog enough, I just added my blog on FMB, Technorati and MyBlogLog. My professional blog gets traffic from my main website so I don’t have to worry about its marketing at all.

What are the blogging tools you cannot do without?

Wordpress and Google.I think I am obsessed with both.

Is there anything that you simply refuse to blog about?

I have never written about politics for the very simple reason that I don’t understand a word about it. So I guess I will never be able to write anything related to politics.

If you went for a job interview and were told that you’d have to close your blog in order to get the job, how would you react/feel about it?

This is a hypothetical question for me because I am self employed and I myself encourage people in my company to write blogs. Nevertheless, had this been the case, I would have not taken up the job. If someone is putting a restriction on something as safe as blogging, I doubt how many restrictions I would have to face once I officially take up the job. Until and unless work is not suffering, blogging is harmless.

Do you talk about your blog with your relatives and friends or do you avoid mentioning it?

Friends yes, a few of them and my parents know that I blog but they are not internet savvy so, they never bother to check my blogs.

What is the biggest mistake you made when starting your blog?

This is a good question. Initially when I started blogging, I was trying to copy others, their styles etc. There came a point came when I started feeling claustrophobic after writing my own posts and then I wrote a post called ‘Be Yourself’; this post was more of a self realization and from that day onwards I have always written about what I like, without looking at what others are doing. But I am happy that I went through that phase because otherwise I would have never been able to discover myself.

Any tips for aspiring bloggers?

You have to fall in love with the whole process of blogging. Be it writing a post, replying to comments or adding comments on someone else’s blog, you should enjoy all of it. Blogging should be stress buster and not a burden. Personally, I enjoy interaction process the most.

Who are the bloggers that you look up to the most?

None actually. I think I am over with the phase of ‘looking up to someone’.

Do you still see yourself blogging in 5 years time?

As of now I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t be. I love blogging.:)

Well, thank you Sylvie for this interview. Even after four months of blogging I have not been able to write anything in ‘about me’ section so I guess this interview would let my readers know a little more about me.

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