In today’s interview series, We have Sr Pradeep Kumar, a ProBlogger from SlashQuare Blog Network. I am sure you will love this interview with Pradeep Kumar.
For few of you, who did not get the chance to know about Pradeep Kumar{ I dont think so}, let me share a brief intro about Him. He is the guy behind popular blog HellBoundBloggers.com. Apart from HBB{HellBoundBloggers}, Pradeep owns some niche blogs like DeviceBar, MovieDrop, etc.
If you are in blogging industry then must heared a facebook group HellBoundBloggers. Here Pradeep is helping many newbie blogger to grow their blog.
Let’s now dive into the details of interview with Sr Pradeep Kumar and find out what he has to say. Are you ready?
An Interview with Pradeep Kumar
An Interview with Pradeep Kumar From HellBoundBloggers
Sr. Pradeep Kumar, First of all, thanks for accepting my interview request.
Prabhat: Please give us a short introduction about you and your blogs?
Pradeep: Hi Prabhat Jani, first and foremost, I’m really sorry for delaying this interview. I just wanted to complete some things before I can peacefully share my views in this post. My name is Pradeep Kumar, as mentioned, and I’m running a blog network called Slashsquare, we have portals like HellBound Bloggers (HBB), MoviesDrop and DeviceBAR at the moment. I’ll be slowly expanding them this year.
Prabhat: How you entered into blogging? What was the biggest challenge you ever faced?
Pradeep: I would say, it’s more like, I just wanted to try. I didn’t really have any special intention when I heard the term ‘Blogging’ or even when I started to blog, but later, as I shared my blog posts with others, their feedback and their criticism helped me to realized that it’s not a time pass thing like Orkut or Yahoo! Messenger, it’s more like a powerful tool in my hand.
Prabhat: Is there anything, which you like more than blogging?
Pradeep: At the moment… well, I love to travel, I dunno whether it’s equivalent to blogging in any way or can be compared in the first place, but if I’m not blogging, I would love to stay away from all the online notifications, peacefully travel and meet new people with new interests, not the ones matching mine.
Prabhat: How is your daily schedule? How many hours, you works on blogging related things?
Pradeep: I don’t really have a proper schedule at the moment, but I joined a Gym recently, so I need to focus on my sleep, without rest there is no point in working out in a Gym. So I sleep properly these days, and whenever I get time (that is, most of the time), I’ll be blogging and focus on my online strategies to expand our brand.
HellBound Bloggers (HBB) Related Questions:
Prabhat: Which web hosting and theme you are using on HBB? Any specific reason?
Pradeep: Earlier we were using InMotion Hosting, but we had some unfortunate issues with them, now we migrated to BaseZap, it’s pretty cool, and I get quick support from the founders. We are using a custom theme on our blog, designed & developed exclusively by 7Span theme.
Prabhat: What is the main revenue source of HBB?
Pradeep: To be honest, it’s majorly sponsored/paid content, but we don’t publish biased ones, we just advertise the product/service in text rather than keeping a banner ad, or like Google AdSense maybe. We experiment a lot with Affiliate Marketing as well, so that counts as well.
Prabhat: You own a Facebook Group “HellBound Bloggers (HBB)“. How you manage this group with blogging?
Pradeep: This is one of the best decisions in my blogging journey. This gave me the opportunity to connect with 1000s+ of bloggers from India and other respected countries. This is bliss for me to share and learn along with them. We also kickstarted our HBB Forum recently, and it’s going pretty good so far.
Prabhat: How did you find guest post writers easily for HBB?
Pradeep: During 2012-2015 we used to get at least 20+ guest blogging requests every day, like literally, each and every day… but it’s not actually a good move to accept so much of guest articles on a single blog, so I decided to pause it for a while now. It’s not a big deal to get guest articles mate, just establish you (or your blog) as a brand and if you have good DA/PA, then it’s pretty easy.
Prabhat: How important is keyword research? Please tell us some good tools for keyword research?
Pradeep: Honestly, let’s forget SEO for a while. If you have a blog about ‘Mobiles’, then either you can post about trending content (like Jio maybe), or you can post about evergreen content (like iPhone battery tips maybe). Just focus on these two alone, and I’m sure you can easily analyze keyword research during your journey. If you still need some tools, then try the basic Google AdWords Keyword Planner, it gives a basic overall view about the keywords you target.
SEO Related Questions
Prabhat: What are some blogging myths that you don’t believe are true?
Pradeep: I don’t exactly have any issues with the Blogging Myths, but I hate when people say content is the king without bothering about all the other important aspects. You can write good content, even better than WSJ, TechCrunch, or anyone, but without a proper strategy to build backlinks, do social media promotion, etc., your content will fade away eventually, nobody will care about it after a few days. It’ll just be a very small part of your blog, and nobody will talk about it later in the future.
Prabhat: What are your favorite tools for blogging? [SEO Tools and Social Media Tools]
Pradeep:Buffer, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Trends, etc., are good enough for basic research & social media automation.
Prabhat: Nowadays event bloggers {LIKE ME} and newbies doing spam link building for ranking? What do you think about black hat methods?
Pradeep: We are motivated by so many things bro, money, fame, respect, etc… there are plenty of bloggers (new & old) these days, and it’s pretty crowded. I won’t really blame the new bloggers entering this field; we often share our AdSense/Affiliate screenshots, Tech event photos and much more to showcase the different side of Blogging, this is majorly one of the reasons why they opt for Black Hat Methods to get instant success, which is a bad thing.
Experience Related
Prabhat: Please name some SEO blogs that you frequently read?
Pradeep: I don’t really have any specific blogs mate, just follow random ones and read all the updates from Moz & Google.
Prabhat: Which blogs and bloggers are your role model?
I got inspired from MillionClues and ShoutMeLoud… but right now, I have been learning a lot from each & every blog I encounter.. they inspire me in some ways, let it be their content, promotion strategy or even if like the blog owner personally.
Prabhat: Last but not least, If someone is interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?
Pradeep: Before giving any specific tips, I would first love to know his/her interest in blogging, whether they love to write, or whether they are just curious for blogging. If they can decide their intention clearly, then it’s just a trial and error experiment for them.
Thanks to Pradeep sir.
If you have any question, feel free to ask in comment section.
Great Interview, of Pradeep Sir, I am blessed to be a part of HBB Facebook Group and HBB forum.
Great bro. Loves to read your blog Prabhat
awesome interview. and motivated also
really motivating and inspiring.
great interview. Keep doing!!
Nice interview by pradeep bro 🙂
Amazing Interview ?
Always blessed to be a part of HBB Group ❤
#HBB
Inspirational Interview, such an humble character..!
I too agree with that point with Pradeep, it’s been quite often people says “Content is King.” But we see Authority sites always been on the first page despite of not having such challenging content compared to the new sites.
A Great Interview Prabhat, was definitely good read for me..
Great interview with pradeep and nice questions. Keep posting!!
Thank you all guys. Means a lot to get connected with each & every one of you, thanks to Social Media & awesome friendship. ❤️
nice to know about you,i just reached here via your group HBB
Great move to start hbb it’s really helping. I refer this blog to my students at sketchcareer . It is providing very good content.