Interview – Rahul Bansal admin of Devilsworkshop.org

Devils Workshop started as a technology blog in June 2006 by Rahul Bansal, focusing on posts covering latest trends, news and analysis from the fields of internet, technology, social networking, computers and mobile. With his continued commitment, strong web analytic skill and business acumen of the internet and blogosphere economy, Rahul raised Devils workshop to be amongst the most visited blogs of India today.

Starting as a single author blog, Devils Workshop is now a community with 2 dedicated full time authors and 20+ guest authors. Devils Workshop has been noticed by A-list bloggers many times in the past.

Speakbindas had a very interesting interview with Rahul, Read on.

Rahul Bansal

Speakbindas: Welcome to Speakbindas.com, Rahul. Tell us what is devilsworkshop.org all about? And a few words on its history.

Rahul Bansal: Thanks for invitation Devang and SpeakBindas. Devilsworkshop today is a community blog focusing on daily technology updates, social networking and blogging.
About history… I started a personal blog back in Feb-March 2006 at domain rb286.blogspot.com. With time I kept experimenting and exploring. Devils Workshop has changed a lot with times. First it was a blog dedicated mostly to Orkut. Then it became technology blog with many contributors. Now its fountainhead of rtBlogs – our blog network.

Speakbindas: Apart from devilsworkshop.org, you run few other sites / blogs as well. Which are those? Shed some light on them.

Rahul Bansal: As I said, Devils Workshop was initially a blog mostly about Orkut. With time it became so generic that we started another blog for Orkut users, which is – Orkut Diary(http://www.orkutdiary.com/). Then we started recently a blog on cricket – CricTalks(http://www.crictalks.com/). Our main site is our company’s site – rtCamp – http://rtcamp.com/. Then we have rtBlogs(http://rtblogs.com/) – our blog network and OrkutFeeds(http://www.orkutfeeds.com/) – our popular service for Orkut users.

Speakbindas: Why Devils Workshop? Looks like a negative energy carrying name. Or you have a positive outcome with it?

Rahul Bansal: Yes, the name itself is inclined towards negativity but shockingly we are too good and honest that sometime I wonder why I still love this name. It was chosen because when I started blogging and wanted to name my blog then, I was completely empty minded. And as we all know, “Empty mind is Devils Workshop…”

Speakbindas: What are the current statistics of devilsworkshop.org at present, i.e. number of daily visitors, pageviews etc.?

Rahul Bansal: We get around 4500 unique daily visitors and approx 8000 pageviews. Apart from this we have 5000 subscribers.

Rahul Bansal

Speakbindas: Alexa rank as on June 4, 2009 for devilsworkshop.org is 21,629 with 237 inbound links. What are the driving forces that help you achieve such landmarks?

Rahul Bansal: The biggest driving force for us and hopefully any blogger is appreciation one receives from community and reader in the form of encouraging comments.

Speakbindas: Are you a full time blogger? How much hard work it takes keeping your blog/s updated with useful information?

Rahul Bansal: Yes. I am full time blogger but lately I am more into managerial things. Running a blog network is taking much more time than I had imagined. We are planning to launch 2 more blogs in coming days where I will dedicatory spend 3-4 hours in writing and answering comments daily.

Speakbindas: You are popularly known for your Orkut based Scripts, tips and tricks. Why orkut has fascinated you so much?

Rahul Bansal: Orkut is first social network I used. When I joined Orkut, it was too unsecure then and creating scripts to programmatically do things beyond Orkut’s standard limit used to fascinate me. As an example, I used to impress girls by wishing their birthday thousand times using scrapbook flooder!

Speakbindas: It’s quite fine with us, if you don’t give us the exact revenue figure that you generate through Devilsworkshop. But still, is it sufficient enough to deny a 10 to 6 routine job?

Rahul Bansal: I’am a kind of person who is driven by passion rather than survival needs and thankfully my passion takes care of my basic needs along with my requisite luxuries.
I make decent money and its hard to calculate how much I make from blogging as Devils Workshop is now part of rtBlogs which is run by rtCamp and rtCamp is into many services.

Still, I can make more money by going for full-time job. On any day, I have man big job offers from top IT companies. Just for the facts, I’m rank #1 M.Tech guy from one of top-20 engineering colleges in India – COEP, Pune(http://www.coep.org.in/).

But if I have to consider money only, then I find my family business(http://laxmicotspin.com/) is the best option.

Speakbindas: What’s your take on people’s mentality towards a full time blogger? Do they accept blogging as a profession?

Rahul Bansal: For a common man in India, blogging is still relatively new concept so seeing “Professional Blogger” on one’s resume is somewhat cryptic to them. But if you are a blogger and your inner voice is asking you to take blogging as full time profession, then you should give it a shot.
In the end, you will either end up being a successful pro-blogger or will be left with satisfaction of taking a shot!

Rahul Bansal

Speakbindas: From the secret bucket of your blogging experiences, what tips you would like to share with the new and struggling bloggers?

Rahul Bansal: You do not need to be part of crowd. Don’t write about Bing because everyone else is doing. Write about things you really know well. Originality matters more than frequency of posts.

Speakbindas: Apart from blogging, what else makes your life complete?

Rahul Bansal:I like to meet new people and understand the process of life and various phenomenon associated with it. By the way blogging is part of my life. I spend more time on rtCamp.

Speakbindas: Now a days, you have some give away prizes too at Devilsworkshop for bloggers. What is that all about? What a blogger requires to win the same?

Rahul Bansal: Its $100 reward we are planning to giveaway each month to encourage good bloggers to stay into blogging. A blogger need to join Devils Workshop and write good contents to win. Quality is more important than quantity.

Speakbindas: What image you hold in your personal circle, i.e. your friends and relatives?

Rahul Bansal: That is something I believe you have to get from my friends and relatives.

Speakbindas: Are you a movie buff? Which fills your list of ‘favorite movies’?

Rahul Bansal: I am not a movie buff. Actually, I don’t get time to watch movies. I work around the clock but yes, I have list of my favorite movies. They are Casablanca, Schindler’s List, The Butterfly Effect, Forest Gump and recent Dev D & Gulaal.

Speakbindas: Which city you live in? Tell us more about the place.

Rahul Bansal:Pune, simply put rich in culture still retaining freedom for life style I desire.

Speakbindas: At the end, any special message you would like to share with your blog’s fans and visitors?

Rahul Bansal: I want to thank you all for being my motivational force and staying with Devils Workshop!

Related Article: http://www.darkorkut.com/orkut-power-user-rahul-bansal/