Dec 18
This interview is part of a series on the Fuelmyblog community – we find out how you blog and get to know the blogger behind the blog a bit better. If you wish to feature too, email sylvie (at) fuelmyblog.com
What’s your name?
Michelle
What’s the name of your blog?
Ananyah
What’s the URL of your blog?
How old is your blog?
5 years young!
If you’re willing to share, how many visitors per day do you have to your blog?
Average 1500 a day
How much time do you spend blogging every week?
A few hours, racking my brain!
Is it the creative process or the editing process which take you longest when writing a post?
The editing process doesn’t take as long as the whole thinking about what to write! Once I get a topic in my head, I can pretty much write it without editing afterwards
What inspired you to first start writing a blog?
Blogging was just starting to take off when I started and I wanted a place where I could vent my thoughts, get opinions from others and of course meet other likeminded people, which I have done and became the best of friends.
What do you do to get inspired to write?
Inspiration comes from all aspects of daily life. It could be a topic that comes up personally, something I’ve watched on TV, or something that bothers me.
How do you market your blog?
In the beginning I rarely marketed my blog and instead word of mouth made it popular, nowadays I’m trying to attract new visitors and use sites like Fuel my Blog to do that.
What are the blogging tools you cannot do without?
Wordpress, Photoshop & my brain!
Is there anything that you simply refuse to blog about?
Probably Religion, it’s a topic that not everyone agrees with and can lead to heated debates which I wouldn’t normally put myself in.
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?
I would probably wonder why a harmless blog would need to be closed down, but saying that, there have been bloggers who have now become famous after getting fired because of their blogs. I really don’t know how I’d react but I would feel sad as 5 years of my life has gone into it and probably wonder if that company is where I really want to be and if they didn’t like it, go home and blog about it LOL!
Do you talk about your blog with your relatives and friends or do you avoid mentioning it?
I “tried” to avoid mentioning it and try to keep my online/offline life seperate. That all changed when my brother found out about my blog, told my mom who looked and it, then showed my dad. So I’m less scared about my friends knowing about it after my family have now uncovered it!
What is the biggest mistake you made when starting your blog?
Maybe being a bit too personal that what I should. That is why my blog became popular in the first place, I wrote from the heart and never censored anything. It got me in trouble a few times and have tried to stop spilling the beans about every aspect of my life
Any tips for aspiring bloggers?
Be yourself, write from the heart and about topics that mean something to you
Who are the bloggers that you look up to the most?
Do you still see yourself blogging in 5 years time?
I hope so! It’s been 5 years already and time has flown by!
From The FMB Blog We Are Fuelmyblog: Ananyah:
This interview is part of a series on the Fue.. http://tinyurl.com/3kx4hj
From The FMB Blog We Are Fuelmyblog: Ananyah http://tinyurl.com/3kx4hj
Odd, your page doesn’t have an RSS feed that Firefox is picking up for it to latch on to. Scanned the page and didn’t see an icon for it.
Do you have RSS disabled, Michelle?
The RSS feed link is in her sidebar below THE GIRL, John.
1500 visitors a day is very impressive. I also try to keep my online and offline ‘life’ separate. At least with my family anyway. I don’t worry so much about most of my friends, but keeping my family separate is important. I can be freer this way and don’t have to sensor myself.
John- I have RSS enabled, couldn’t do without it but you’re right in the sense that Firefox is no longer picking it up and showing the orange button in the address bar, something I’ll need to fix!
Rotus- Thanks for showing him the alternative
Davey Boy- I tried to keep them seperate but sometimes it feels like you’re leading 2 seperate lives and everytime I used my laptop I had to make sure I erased all my browser history to remove trace of my blog incase any family member used my laptop. That all changed when my brother “stole” my ipod touch and found my blog under the wordpress app and then blurted my secret out to my family. There reaction was great, they wondered why I kept it a secret and they liked my blog. However, the main downside is now I have to sensor myself and make sure it’s parent proof before blogging which is something I never had to think about before.
Your site seems to be down currently. I get about 200 hits a day on mine. Care to share any traffic secrets of your past 5 years? 1500 a day is staggering 2 me.
Damien- It’s loading extremely slow & I’m trying to figure out why. Never had this problem before, but my host recently moved to a new server to I’m linking the two! Hopefully it’s back up and running soon! I’ll start having withdrawl symptoms LOL
On average I get 1500 based on past stats, but it really depends from month to month and how much I’ve blogged (and over course the content).
As I said in the interview, my website got pretty popular based on word by mouth and growing up in the the Middle East, well it spread like wild fire. Friends tell Friends, who tell cousins etc etc. Most of my traffic comes from the Middle East & the States. I only started advertising and joining sites like this in early 2008 because I wanted to seek a new audience. No huge secret into gaining the following I have, just luck I guess…. plus the odd free download helps!
The free download is always great. Thanks for sharing your blog!
commented: The free download is always gr… http://tinyurl.com/3kx4hj
I am not sure what to say about the part where you look up to me, but I’m proud to be one of your closest friends that you met through blogging.
This blog is truly an inspiration to me and my blogging as well. I would highly recommend people to visit this blog because it’s one of the funnest you can visit.