As a part of our BloggersIdeas interview series, today we have experienced and powerful women blogger Harleena Singh . She pumps out a lot of great content, and I’ve admired that about her. She will be sharing her thoughts on blogging and how to use social media as powerful tool for blogging. Harleena Singh is very experienced with social media and content writing. She is well recognized women in blogging world. So let’s get started with Harleena.
First of all thanks Harleena for accepting interview request for my blog. Please tell me about your amazing blogosphere journey. Who introduce you to blogging?
Thank you Jitendra for having me over. It’s a pleasure to be here, at your blog. 🙂
Most of my friend’s know that I was an English teacher before I started blogging. But since my kids were growing up, I decided to work from home and became a freelance writer. That was a few years back and there’s been no looking back.
With success in freelance writing, it was at the end of 2010 that I decided to create my own blog, mainly to showcase my work, and started Aha!NOW. It was my father who suggested that I start writing, and so a blog was created. I guess everything that happens, happens for a reason! 🙂
Of course now I am starting off with my second blog, HarleenaSingh.com that would be exclusively about blogging and lots more – and would love to have you, and your readers over.
How to increase your conversion rate for an ecommerce website?
I believe that no matter what kind of a website you have, you can increase the rate of conversion if you provide solutions. Even on an ecommerce website, people come looking for a product or service that helps them resolve their problems and remove obstacles in their path to achieve happiness or success.
I guess if you develop trust for example through honest reviews, credibility through authentic and helpful content, resourcefulness by delivering latest information or products, and comfort by providing good user experience, you can expect more conversions.
How to increase engagement on facebook page?
I am no expert where Facebook is concerned, but am glad for the way things have worked out for me. I’ve been able to create good engagement on Facebook, but it could be better if I spend more time on it.
Speaking of my Facebook strategy, I prefer sharing quotes and inspirational words on a daily basis. It suits my blog as it’s based on the self-development niche.
Other than that, I do believe in helping others, by way of sharing their posts on the social networks. Of course, that includes Facebook too.
There are a lot of other ways like asking questions, putting up a poll, and interacting with your followers, which increases engagement. But personally, I haven’t started doing all of this as yet because of time constraints because I know if I start a discussion, I’d have to sit and reply to people, which would be very time consuming for me.
What’s your favorite website. Analyze it for me?
Honestly speaking, I don’t have any favorite blogs or sites. I never had a role model or bloggers to follow when I started my blogging journey, as everything was self-learned mainly, because I came from a writing background.
Since then, my routine is to visit all kinds of blogs and read whatever comes forth. I find that every blog is unique, and I like so many websites that mentioning one of them as my favorite would not do justice to the rest of them.
What blogs do you read. Tell me about an article you recently read that stuck?
I read all kinds of blogs. This is due to the very nature of my job, being a freelance writer and blogger. There are several blogs I visit and read, especially of those bloggers who are regular commenters at my blog, or those who are part of The ABC (Aha!NOW Blog Community).
I visit and comment on nearly 10-15 blogs or more at times on a daily basis, so becomes tough to remember which one struck a chord. I’d say they are all good in their own niches, not any particular one to mention.
You are considered as a commenting queen. How did you develop that art. Please tell us?
It’s no art, Jitendra, though I’m grateful to my blogging friends who’ve given me this tag, which sure makes me feel good. 🙂
I guess because writing comes easy to me, so does commenting, whether it’s on my blog posts or anyone else’s I visit. Initially, my blog never received very many comments (when I started blogging), but once I learnt that if you wish to receive comments, you also need to visit other blogs and comment on their blogs, I knew what had to be done.
Blog commenting is time consuming, but it’s always worked well for me as it’s got me a lot of blogging friend’s from all over the World. I guess if you take time to fully read and understand the post, and spend an extra few minutes in writing a meaningful comment that adds value to the post, anyone can develop this art.
How did you see blogging progress in India.Which bloggers you admire and appreciate most?
Indian bloggers are doing SO well for themselves, and I appreciate each one of them for the hard work and efforts they put into their blogs.
I marvel at the young Indian bloggers, especially the ones who are still studying and have a full time job, because they are handling their tasks and blogs so well.
No particular blogger as such as each one has a different niche, but I do admire so many of them and the great heights they have reached over time.
If I have to take names, I’d include you, Atish, Harsh, Kulwant, Ankit, Jane, and upcoming bloggers like Swadhin, Rohan, Nirmala, and other Indian members of The ABC.
Where do you share your blog posts specially to get good traffic?
There is no special place or platform as such, nor do I use any paid options for promotions. I personally share them on my Facebook profile and both the fan pages, Google Plus profile and page, and of course Twitter (where Triberr helps a lot).
Other than these main platforms, there is LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, other bookmarking sites, and of course Pinterest, which works wonders for my blog as it brings me daily traffic.
Tell me about your bonding with foreign bloggers. How did you communicate with them. What all things you learn from them?
My association with foreign bloggers started from the very first few days when I started my blog, as they were the first visitors who read, liked, commented, and shared my posts.
Perhaps they liked what I wrote, thus became return visitors. Also, I always made sure to make my return visit to their blogs to comment and share their posts too. So, once this kind of a relationship develops, it keeps getting stronger by the day. Thus, now I have so many bloggers from different countries who are my good friends.
We communicate mainly through our blog visits, emails, and of course the various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.
Learning is mutual I’d say, as we all learn different things from each other. Though one thing commendable about them is their blogging consistency, and taking the weekend off – something we need to learn from them. 🙂
Who handles your blog database, are you aware of coding. When you want to make changes to your blog, what do you do? How did you test it?
My husband, Vinay, handles all technical aspects for both my blogs. No, I am a total novice where coding is concerned. But I never really bothered to even learn it because I know he’s always there! Vinay’s recently started his blog services too, so that is another change.
It’s always good to keep making changes to your blog, especially when you want to grow as a blogger. When we have to make big changes, we do use a maintenance plugin at times, when our site traffic is the least. But where there are small chances, we do it on the fly.
Since we are hosted on SiteGround, we also have option of Staging, which is very helpful in testing the changes you want to make on your blog.
Has your blog ever been penalized by Google?
No, never, and I am grateful for that! I guess if you are honest with your content and your ways of developing back links, there is no reason to be penalized.
Suppose your blog get penalized by Google update, what will be your first step and what strategies you will use to recover from it?
Now, I’m not an expert on this subject, but I do know that low-quality links are bad for your blog and they can get it penalized by Google. So, the first step should be to analyze and clean the backlinks to your blogs. The other thing would be to get rid of spam comments and duplicate content.
You need to keep a good backlink profile and be careful in your link building activities, though I personally do nothing else except comment on authentic blogs and get backlinks through interviews like this. 🙂
Overall, make sure that you follow the Google guidelines in all aspects.
How do you manage time between blogging and your family?
That’s not easy! I guess any woman blogger would say that, especially if she is juggling between her professional and personal life. 🙂
However, it’s now been many years and I’ve got used to dividing my working hours into different slots, and taking up work on a priority basis.
For example, if there is a blog post that needs to be written, I’d do the research work, including looking for the images, quotes, and the rest, the night before. The next day, I just write during my productive hours, which is when my kid’s are away.
Similarly, if I need to do the chores at home or cook, I make sure to close all work, and just concentrate during my unproductive hours, doing all of it. Evenings are family time, so I usually do my social media work that time.
To sum it up, I think we all have different lives, and have to try, test, and then decide what works best for us. Based on that, you can easily manage your blogging time and your family in such a way that neither of them suffers.
Handling a blog is big stress, how you manage stress while blogging?
Yes, blogging is not easy, and it takes a lot of time and effort before you start seeing the results.
I wouldn’t really call it stress because as bloggers, a lot lies in our hands where managing our time is concerned. But yes, blogging can result in stress and cause serious health issues if we don’t take care of the time we spend blogging.
Speaking about myself, I take frequent breaks while I work. During these breaks I usually do my household chores and cook, or else listen to music and podcasts. In fact, you can do anything that you like, as long as it takes you away from the Internet and makes you move around, after every 2 hours of sitting. Also, I don’t skip my morning walks and meditation, which are huge stress relievers and they give me a boost to start my day.
Include link to your websites and social media profile
Website- Freelancewriter.co
Blog – Aha-now.com
Blog – Harleenasingh.com
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/harleenasingh.freelancewriter
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/harleenas
Google+- http://plus.google.com/+HarleenaSingh
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/harleenasingh
Thanks so much for this wonderful opportunity, Jitendra 🙂
I hope you enjoy this interview with aspiring women blogger Harleena Singh. If you have any questions about this interview, please do ask in the comments below !
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Hello Jitendra and Harleena,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this interview. I often tell Harleena, I’m in awe of how she is able to manage her family life, blogging especially the AhaNow community which is a blessing in disguise for me and still find time to respond to every single comment or shares on social media. Hats off.
Jitendra I thank you for asking relevant questions I personally would be willing to know the answers to.
I did not know Harleena was an English teacher which explains her command over the language. I enjoy reading every comment and post of hers. Always filled with so many take aways.
Managing family life and blogging is challenging and reading how Harleena does it, certainly inspires me to try what works best for me. I’m certainly working my way around it all slowly and steadily.
Thank you for such an inspiring interview Jitendra and thank you Harleena for giving us all an insight into your blogging life and personal life as well.
Wishing you both a great week:)
Hi Hema,
Good to see you here, and so glad you enjoyed this interview as well. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. But let me tell you, it’s certainly not easy. I guess it’s taken me a while to get the hang of things and learning how to manage it all, though I always wish I had more hours in the day to do more.
Yes indeed, I started off as a teacher and perhaps a little of it still remains with me! While the language and writing skills run in my genes as my parents and sister, all of them write! However, practice is what makes us perfect, and let me add here, you write very well too Hema.
That’s true. Managing blogging and work alongside a family is tough. For most women, priority would be family, so juggling between work and a career can take the better of you if you don’t learn the fine art of time-management, isn’t it? I think we all learn how to go about it over time.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hey Cararta/Harleena,
Great interview. I was not aware that Harleena was previously a teacher. I did wonder where you got your writing skills from. Because your posts and comments are always informative and valued.
I have always followed the rule of commenting and as you say, you do meet so many wonderful people. I am like you Harleena, I read a number of different niches and this has really worked when growing my skill set, but also overwhelming me. When you read so many informative posts and you are just starting out, the work load seems like it could pile up like stacked newspapers and fall on you. However then you read about time management and you breathe a little.
I would say Harleena, you have got the juggling act of family, responsibilities and blogging down to a fine art. And I so agree with you about getting up and away from the desk. I have spent hours doing work with no breaks and they are no where near as productive as stepping away from the computer for a while and doing something else.
Love the post.
Rachel.
Hi Rachel,
Good to see you here, and perhaps you meant to address Jitendra instead of Cararta. 🙂
So glad you liked the interview and could relate to it. Yes, I was a teacher initially, though I feel I still have a few qualities left, which show up in my posts or way I deal with people. The writing skills were perhaps passed down from my parents, and my sister too, so kind of runs in the family, as I’ve mentioned in a few other interviews earlier.
Yes indeed, commenting has always helped me build relationships, and I can see how well it’s working for you too. I guess being bloggers, we need to think much beyond and blog commenting certainly widens our reach and helps us gain so much knowledge. Of course, provided we don’t limit ourselves only to our niches, which some bloggers believe in, but to each their own. I’ve always gone beyond my niche and have always seen good results, and I think it’s working well for you too, isn’t it?
I agree it can get very overwhelming, especially as your circle of friend’s increase, and so do the number of comments on your own blog posts! Ask me! But as they say, if you divide and manage your time, everything’s possible. You just need to will to carry on, and I know you have a lot of that my friend. 🙂
However, as you are new, and the learning phase never really ends, whether you are old or new, so take it one step at a time. Gradually does it, so that you don’t tire yourself with all the knowledge you gain.
That’s true – I wear many hats, and it IS all a juggling act for most bloggers, especially if you are a woman with kids and a family to manage as well. But then who said blogging was easy! Just take your breaks to cook and do other chores around, and rest of the time to blog, write, and comment, and your non-productive hours to be on the social media. That’s most of how I manage my time around.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it 🙂
Hi Jitendra and Harleena,
Wow, learned a few things I didn’t know. Especially about your taking a break every two hours… I know sometimes I get carried away and forget my breaks and end up with swollen feet and no supper cooked!
So many good questions and great answers. It is so nice Harleena that you have someone to do
all the coding and technical stuff…a big headache when you work alone like I do.
Really liked this one quote
“I guess if you develop trust for example through honest reviews, credibility through authentic and helpful content, resourcefulness by delivering latest information or products, and comfort by providing a good user experience, you can expect more conversions. ”
Harleena spreads the love every day.
C.
Hi Cararta,
Good to see you here, and so glad you could take away something from this interview. 🙂
As bloggers, we all need to take breaks to avoid health issues, and believe me, there are LOTS of them, just as I’ve mentioned in a few of my posts on my blog. I know we get carried away, but we need to set reminders and get up and move around!
I’d be totally lost if Vinay wasn’t there to handle the technical things, and perhaps I don’t even try to learn them as I know he’s around. 🙂
Glad you liked the quote, and thanks so much for sharing it as well. We appreciate your visit. 🙂
First of all a big thanks to you for publishing this interview. It was so informative and teach lots of good things. I am a newbie in SEO and starting learning about it from past few months. And after reading this interview I have learn about different things like how we get traffic from using very simple way, for not penalize by Google what are the things that we always remember and many other.
Again thank you very much for sharing such helpful stuff in one post.
Hi Laxmi,
Good to meet you at Jitendra’s blog 🙂
Glad you liked the interview and could take away something from it. Yes indeed, keeping things simple is the best way I feel, as nothing can be better and it’s easy for us as well.
If there’s anything I can help you with, do let me know, as you mentioned you’re new.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Harleena Singh is one of the best writers. We all bloggers need to learn a lot from her. The way she comments regularly at good blog posts has made her get more popularity. Her upcoming personal blog is definitely going to be a very successful one.
Hi Mohit,
Kind of you to say that, though there’s a lot of scope for improvement, whether you are a blogger or writer. 🙂
Yes indeed, blog commenting has always helped me build relationships with fellow bloggers more than anything else. I’m still working on the new blog and if you’ve subscribed, you’d soon know of it’s launch.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hello Harleena maam an Hi Jitendra bro,
So good to see you at BloggersIdeas, a hub for most bloggers. I have read more than 5 to six interviews of yours but each time I find something that inspires. I loved your line to Jitendra’s question on Google penalties.
True, nothing happens if we are honest with our content.
Siteground is what I am hearing a lot of good things about. Hope I check it out soon. 🙂
Jitendra bro, very well conducted interview.!
-Swadhin
Hi Swadhin,
Good to see you here, and yes, it surely is wonderful to be at Jitendra’s blog this time 🙂
So glad you liked this one as well. Yes, I wish no blogger has to go through Google penalty, which can be tough to tackle. However, if you tread the right path and are honest with your ways, you really don’t have to fear.
We also switched to Siteground last year, and so far it’s working well, though small issues happen with every hosting.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Jitendra,
Nice interview.
Harleena Mam, Again you nailed it. It is always wonderful to read your interview and know how you manage the things so nicely. Thank you so much.
-Ashutosh
Hi Ashutosh,
Thank you for you words of appreciation. 🙂
So glad you liked the interview, and yes, blogging is also about how we manage our time to be able to wear many hats.
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Jitendra SIr,
What a great interview and I must say that harleena Ma,am deserves such honor. I have learned a lot of new things about harleena ma’am and also New blogging strategy.
Your journey from a teacher to a popular blogger is very inspiring. You are a motivation to all the new bloggers. I learn lot of things from you. And I’m eagerly waiting for your new blog 🙂
Have a great week ahead.
Hi Saurabh,
Thank you for your kind words 🙂
So glad you could learn something from the interview and that brings me immense joy.
Yes indeed, life has different plans laid down for us and it’s the process, the journey that we need to enjoy. Making the shift wasn’t easy, as it was a complete learning experience. But I’m enjoying all that I’m doing now and that matters most, isn’t it?
The new blog would take a while, though there are other surprises we are working on, so stay tuned!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a nice week ahead as well. 🙂
Hi Jitendra and harleena ma’am,
This is such a great interview having so much value. Jitendra, glad that you asked really interesting questions as these days we don’t get to read any creative questions in the interview posts.
Harleena ma’am, you’re always an inspiration. I’ve learned so much from you. I am always so amazed how you keep up with everything.
As I always say, the Aha!NOW ABC community has been a blessing to all the bloggers regardless of their experience and expertise. If I had not joined ABC I would not have been able to do what I’m already doing today.
I extend my deepest gratitude to you and Vinay sir for keeping the community as it should be. And I am so excited from the time I heard that there are going to be some changes over at the community.
Thank you for the mention. *blush*
BTW, Jitendra, I found one YouTube video where you spoke at an event. Your blogging story is inspiring. Keep up with the momentum.
I wish both of you success today and always. 🙂
Rohan.
Hi Rohan,
Good to see you here, and so glad you liked all that I shared in this interview. 🙂
Yes, Jitendra’s interesting questions made me come up with the apt answers, so he needs to be thanked for it.
I appreciate your kind words my friend, and you know the feeling is mutual. Being bloggers, we learn a lot from one another, and as I always say, there is never any age to start learning.
That’s true, and we are SO glad you are part of the ABC. What stands out in our little ABC family is the bonding that develops gradually and naturally over time, and in a way this helps bloggers learn from each other as well.
Yes indeed, we are working round the clock to make things better at the ABC, and you’d soon know of the changes. And of course you had to be mentioned for all that you do – and just being you.
I agree about Jitendra – he’s creating waves all around. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, we appreciate it. 🙂
Hi Jitendra,
Good to be interviewed by you, and it’s a pleasure to be over at your blog as well.
Thanks so much for this wonderful honor – a real pleasure indeed. I’m glad to be able to share a little more about myself with your readers, with the hope to help someone, somewhere. 🙂