Recently I got a chance to interview Shalu Sharma, a passionate traveler blogger from Bihar, India. She writes so much useful information about India and holiday destination. Though she likes to be away from the limelight.

Shalu Sharma loves to travel and write about travel tips, Indian culture, ebooks, and holiday plans. Her passion for India and places helped many people to plan travel to India and nearby places.

She is also the author of many well-known travel guides like Essential India Travel Guide, Travel Guide for kids, India Travel health guide etc. You can purchase her book from Amazon:

Her dedication and work inspired many female bloggers. She showed us that along with taking care of our home, a woman can excel in any field. I hope this interview will inspire our female bloggers. I think you have a  passion for writing, no one can stop you.

There is no much to learn from her journey so far. If you really want to write, yo do not need a publishing house. You can create an ebook by yourself, and sell it through a different channel. You got a whole audience on the Internet.

Interview With Travel Blogger – Shalu Sharma | RaviSinghblog https://t.co/VK6c6KAjKE via @ravisinghblog

— ravisinghblog (@ravisinghblog) August 23, 2016

She also wrote books on India culture, how to travel guide etc which is very helpful for foreigners and people from the country.

Shalu Sharma is a must follow blogger for Travel and other niche bloggers.

Let’s go to the interview now:

How you started your blogging journey?

The first website I created was in 2005. I bought a domain name but did not know what to do with it. I started looking at ways to make a website on the internet. I had no idea what to do or where to start. I found someone who was selling websites so I bought one.

The seller set me up with a website on my domain. It was a static site but I was able to add pages and keep it refreshed. I read more about making websites and then realized that blog is the way to go. I then bought another domain name and then created my first blog.

I monetized the blog with Adsense and I started to make money. I bought a bunch of domain names and then created blogs on them. In fact, I must have had about 50 blogs using WordPress and Blogger.com. Today, I just have a handful of blogs.

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Tell me something about your family

I am married and have children. We are from Patna, the capital of Bihar. Most of my family reside in Bihar, some are in Delhi and some work abroad. I have a brother who is in the UK and one in Canada whom I visit on a regular basis.

How you manage your personal and blogging life

It’s quite simple! You have to balance the two. It’s very easy to get carried away and start neglecting one of them. You have to allocate time to do both things otherwise things get muddled up and you end up doing none of them properly. Time management and prioritization is the key.

How you got idea about the first ebook and how was the reader’s response

My first book was about women traveling alone to India. When I was in the UK studying for MBA, some of my British friends wanted to travel to India alone. I started giving travel tips to them. In fact, I had become a kind of travel guide for them.

How to Create and Sell E-books [Infographic]

I already was Blogging on various topics but travel blogging was not on my mind. When I started my travel blog then I got the idea to write a book for “foreign women” traveling to India. Other ebook ideas followed. The reader’s response has been mixed (good and bad).

I had some very good reviews and some very bad. But then you can’t please everyone.

What is the best way to promote a traveling blog

I follow the usual traditional methods of promoting my blog. I make sure that I do keyword research and sprinkle keywords/phrases in the post so that it ranks in the major search engines.

I have joined several travel groups on Facebook and also on Google plus that drives a fair bit of traffic. I make sure that I have images and add ALT tags to them. I create videos and add links to them. When promoting on social media, always use appropriate hashtags making the post more searchable.

There are lots of good bookmarking sites that you can join but make sure you join reputable ones like Newsvine and Diigo. Guest posting is another great way to promote yourself and your blog.

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How you got initial visitors for your blog

I used premium plan of Blogengage which drove traffic to my website. I am not sure if they still have those blog promotion plans.

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The posts were tweeted several times a day along with being posted on various bookmarking sites. I used the premium version of the CommentLuv plugin to drive traffic along with commenting on related blogs.

I wrote some good quality extra-long blog posts that helped to bring visitors to the blog.

Can you tell me step by step process you followed to create your ebook

You need to plan a topic of a book then write it chapter by chapter. Once it is written you need to proofread it yourself and get someone else to do it so that they can pick up the errors you have missed. You then need a cover.

You can either make it yourself or get someone else to make it for you. I have made many of the covers myself. Once you have your cover and your document ready, you can self-publish it or find a traditional publisher.

If you want to self-publish it you can use iBooks, Kindle, Lulu, Blurb, Scribd, Nook Press and other

You then need a cover. You can either make it yourself or get someone else to make it for you. I have made many of the covers myself.

Once you have your cover and your document ready, you can self-publish it or find a traditional publisher. If you want to self-publish it you can use iBooks, Kindle, Lulu, Blurb, Scribd, Nook Press and other self-publishing companies.

Alternately you can use Gumroad and E-Junkie to deliver your digital products (your ebooks) to readers directly. There are plenty to choose from. Once it is published you can market it on your blog and on social media.

Alternately you can use Gumroad and E-Junkie to deliver your digital products (your ebooks) to readers directly. There are plenty to choose from. Once it is published you can market it on your blog and on social media.

How your family supported your blogging

In the beginning, they thought I was going through some kind of phase but then I showed them my blogs and the things I had done and explained to them about my blogging plans and ideas – then they got really excited. When I showed them my

When I showed them my Twitter account they realized that I had thousands of followers then they started to take me seriously. It was hard in the beginning but now they do support me. However, one thing I have However one thing I have learned is to separate the family life from the blogging otherwise, things can get out of hand.

What is the quality you think a blogger must have

I think they need to get traffic and monetization out of their mind! In the beginning, they need to concentrate on writing good authentic content that readers want to read. However, this does not mean that a blogger needs to blog aimlessly.

They need to have a strategy on how they want to blog, how many posts to write, how to capture emails and have long term plans. It’s a time-consuming thing so bloggers need to be patient.

A blogger needs to be good at computing and be able to learn things quickly. They also need to be knowledgeable on social media. They need to understand various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and so on as they are great sources of traffic.

Bloggers need to be friendly to others. If not then no one will like to share their blog posts or comment on it. A blogger needs to be a good writer. Even if they are not but if they keep things simple and edit and proofread before publishing then it will be fine.

You don’t need an English Hon’s but need to be passionate about the topic they are blogging about otherwise few months down the line they will not have the urge to blog.

What are the things you like about blogging

The good thing about blogging is that it is a great way to express oneself. You can do what you like and how you like on your blog. I have started to think differently and become more articulate. I have learned new skills.

Blogging has made me more organized. Blogging has taught me good time management skills. I have met great people on the net particularly some very good decent bloggers from all over the world from Africa to the American continent. You get to inspire others.

Recently someone emailed me that they read my book on Hinduism and learn a lot from it. These are the things that make me happy and it’s all because of blogging. Blogging clears my head.

The great thing about blogging is that one can start a blog for free on WordPress or Blogger and upgrade to own domain name easily.

What are other ways except ebooks for a traveler blogger to generate revenue?

I have written a blog post about this here. Initially, I had Adsense but removed it after a while and started affiliate marketing in which I was more successfully. Amazon affiliate program is an excellent way of generating revenue from your travel blog.

There are certain WordPress plugins that can help build affiliate links. You can offer writing and SEO services. The internet is a very hungry place and the travel industry is gobbling up content at a very fast rate. Why not offer travel writing services! You can sell blog posts (paid posts) or direct advertising but need to be careful on this.

There are plenty of hotel booking sites with affiliate programs. You can join Commission Junction and choose appropriate travel affiliate programs. You can do reviews of travel products or travel companies.

You can get free products in exchange for reviews or mentions on your blog. Companies are now turning towards bloggers as a way to promote their products. You can approach companies and let them know about yourself and ask them if you can review their products. Many would love to be featured. Sell adverting space on your blog.

Make sure you have a banner saying “advertise here” so that potential advertisers know that you mean business. The sidebar of your blog is an asset and can be used for advertising anything you like.

If you don’t have products of your own then choose someone else’s product. You can start an online shop if you can identify a product (travel alarms, bags, mosquito bands, water purifiers etc) to sell.

You can buy them cheap in the market and sell it at a higher price right from your blog. You can create a landing page for the product and promote it. You can find plenty of travel related products on Clickbank.

There are no shortages of ways of generating revenues from your travel blog. Once you have got into the rhythm of blogging then start thinking of making money from it.

Anything you would like to share with the readers

Anyone who wants to start a blog should seriously think about starting one right away. Everyone is passionate about something or the other be it food, travel, sports, education, technology, politics so why not start a blog today and who knows, you might be making a living for yourself in the next few months. if I can start a blog anyone can.  Good luck and best wishes.

You can follow Shalu Sharma on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook.