After 2191 Days of Blogging, All I Can Say is: “Blogging Is Incredible!”

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One strong decision can change the course of your life & this is the story of one such decision which shaped the life of an engineer for good!

Six years ago on this very day (December 1, 2008) I moved a free blog hosted on BlogSpot to a self-hosted WordPress blog, and that’s how ShoutMeLoud was born.

Harsh Agrawal Blogging Journey
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The only thing I was sure of when I was making this transition was that I was moving to a better platform for my blog.

Many of you who have read my blogging journey already know about the inception of ShoutMeLoud. If you missed reading about my journey, today I will be sharing how ShoutMeLoud came into existence, and how a variety of things happened that I never imagined would happen, even in my wildest dreams.

Today, on ShoutMeLoud’s 6th Anniversary, I am happier than words can express.  I could never have imagined how this one blog could make the magic happen for me and so many others.

The inception of ShoutMeLoud: 6TH Anniversary Special

If you check out the who.is details of ShoutMeLoud, you will see that the ShoutMeLoud domain was purchased on November 30, 2008,  and on the very next day, December 1, 2008, ShoutMeLoud went live on the Internet!

When I started blogging six years ago, I had no idea how to make money from a blog, and I was blogging only because I enjoyed writing and sharing what I knew. With time, I got a great response from my readers, and blogging went from being a hobby to my profession.

Shouters Be the change
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Gratitude to everyone who made things happen:

On this pivotal day, I want to thank the many people who made ShoutMeLoud what it is today.

To begin, I thank Mohit Nanda, my college senior and a friend from college and the guy who taught me everything he knew about the Internet in the first place.

I would like to thank Ankit for giving me his credit card to buy Web-hosting, as that is how the ShoutMeLoud blog became a reality.

My heartiest gratitude also goes out to Mani Karthik. His work helped me to learn about SEO in the initial days. I would also like to thank @HoneySingh for his consistent support and motivation and for designing the ShoutMeLoud logo.

Thanks to all the current and past members of the ShoutDreams network, and to all those who helped create and grow ShoutMeLoud.

And, how could I not thank Sharat Nikhil, who is the proud owner of the first ShoutMeLoud permanent tattoo, and an integral part of ShoutMeLoud’s growth?

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Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to the 578 Shouters who guest posted here and became a part of the ShoutMeLoud family. Thank you for being part of the Shouters community.

The Journey of ShoutMeLoud: From an Idea to a Reality

In 2008 after graduating from Sharda university, all I had in my mind was to kill one year of time until I could join Accenture (the company where I got my campus placement).  Since I had time before I had to report to Accenture, I joined Convergys call center and worked there for six months. While working for Convergys, I started my first blog and began sharing things I knew and understood.

I had been fascinated with computers since childhood, but it was only in 2005 that I got my first computer. I spent the first few days downloading movies from torrents and using Orkut & Hi5 (In those days, they used to be the most popular social-networking site).

My first few years hands-on with a computer were spent learning about the cool stuff we can do online, creating Linux servers, and playing Counter-Strike.

On the verge of my 3rd year of college, when I had not yet been placed in a company, I was cursing myself for spending countless hours on the Internet and not focusing on academics. I thought social engineering and hacking were a complete waste of time, and I felt that I should have focused more on academics.

After four failed campus placement interviews, I finally got a chance to appear at the Accenture campus drive, and fortunately, the interviewer asked me about social engineering and hacking!

I wish I could describe how happy I felt after being selected by Accenture.

interview happiness
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From Accenture to Call Centre:

After completing my engineering degree, I moved back to New Delhi (Capital City of India), and rented a small room for myself. At that time I joined Convergys, and I started getting my first salary. I was working the graveyard shift, and like every other engineer, I wasted the most crucial years of my life.

The good thing was, that I was independent at the age of 22, and I knew one thing: am the master of my life, and I could shape it any way I wanted.

That’s when I started blogging on a BlogSpot blog to learn & share something new. My blog was just another blog until one day, I got more than 18,000 visits.  One of my blog posts made Digg’s social bookmarking site homepage.  In those days, the Digg homepage meant viral traffic to your blog.

Probably that was a wake-up call for me, as I started spending more time on my blog after that. I spent the first two months learning about blogging, changing themes every day (I hated that part, as it was time-consuming), and learning about blogging & internet marketing. The best thing was, I had no one around me who knew to blog, or back in 2008 there were hardly any tutorials online. Those days I had no clue about AdSense or any other ways that bloggers can make money.

Later on, I learned about affiliate marketing and quickly realized that this is the market I needed to be in.

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Quitted my job for an unknown experience:

In April of 2009, I left my full-time job at Convergys to try my luck as a professional blogger, and at some point in June, I got the call from Accenture to join them on July 6th. That was when I began to feel somewhat confused about my future.

In those days and terms like “entrepreneurship” and “infopreneurship” were not as popular as they are today.  I was conflicted as to whether I should join Accenture or continue with my personal/professional venture.

The good news was that I was comfortably making 40,000 INR ($700) at that time from my blog. Thanks to Keshav Gupta (my school friend) for his wise words:  “We work at a company so that we can create something of our own in the future. You are already doing something of your own, so keep calm and don’t stop.”  And with his words, I was reassured that blogging was going to be my profession.

On the same month, 5 days after my 23rd birthday, I met with a horrible accident.

Harsh Agrawal accident
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5 months after the accident

The accident was quite severe, and I had multiple fractures on my left foot (Lisfranc injury). I was hospitalized and on bed rest for six months. Initially I was frustrated & was lost for the first few weeks, as I couldn’t go out of my room.

Imagine you at the age of 23 & can’t get out of a room? It’s like being stuck at one place!

After the first few weeks, I decided to focus my energy on things that I could do, rather than things I couldn’t do. Next few months after the accident, played a major role in making me what I am today.  I spent most of my time learning about blogging and practicing it.

It was December 2009 when I was allowed to move, and by that time, ShoutMeLoud started becoming popular, and people were already talking about it with their friends. It was at this time that I met Rahul Bansal, and we decided to work together to fulfill our dreams.

From January 2009 to June 2009, we worked together, and I learned a great deal from the fantastic people at @rtCamp. Around August 2010, I moved back to New Delhi and decided to take ShoutMeLoud to the next level.

I opened ShoutDreams as a parent company for all the blogs in my network. I am grateful to @Siddie and Akshay Khurana for being a part of this piece of ShoutMeLoud’s inception.

Siddarth was a college dropout, and he was one of the first employees whom I hired. Siddie moved from Mangalore to Delhi to work here at ShoutDreams.  Later on, he moved back to his hometown.

During this time, ShoutMeLoud and I were featured in various magazines, and were interviewed by many bloggers, and things changed a lot for me and around me. Blogging was growing in popularity, and it became the next big thing.

2013 was the golden year of my blogging career.  During that year, I had my first opportunity to give a stage presentation, and later that year, I was invited to speak at Asia’s largest hosting summit (Reseller club hosting summit).

A lot has changed about blogging, as it has become the next big thing with time. Apart from being a cool thing to have a blog, it has become the main source of living for me & many more bloggers around the globe. All this time, I keep adding new features & new flavors to ShoutMeLoud.

On a personal level, I started engaging myself in outdoor activities such as Public speaking, video blogging, ad shoot for companies like CitiBank.  By the end of 2014, I added features like the Deals section and Video section here at ShoutMeLoud.

In 2015 my focus will be to launch a product for upcoming bloggers & the blogging community. I will be launching smartphone apps.

If this is the first time you are visiting the ShoutMeLoud blog, this two-minute video will give you an overview and ideology of our blog:

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Things that I learned over time:

In the past six years, I have learned many new things.  During this time, many of my beliefs were broken, and I learned that life is not so simple and it will never be a constant joy ride. There will be good days, and there will be bad days, but what matters is how you deal with them.

Also important is how you imagine your life to be. One of my friends suggested that I read “The Secret“.

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And after reading the book, I must suggest that you read it, too. It will help you solve problems better, and you will live a better life. This book is for anyone who wants a better and more meaningful life.

Here are a few things that I would like to share from my 28 years of experience with life:

  • Have goals in your life that will help you to keep moving forward.
  • The key to success is confidence.
  • Give as much as you can without expecting anything in return.
  • Success is an endless journey. Once you are on the track, you never have to stop
  • The best thing two people can exchange is- ideas n experience
  • Positive thoughts and good ideas are contagious.
  • Kindness is always rewarded in style.
  • The moment you lose the fear of losing, you will win every game after that.
  • When u try to see your worth from somebody else eyes, you would never know your true worth!
  • You are the creator of your own life, and you can make anything you want.  So dream big, act big and make it big.
  • Be the person you are. We all like honest people.
  • Your problems are your own, and they will keep coming. Instead of worrying about problems, put your energy into solving them.
  • Whatever is happening in your life right now is a result of the actions you have taken in the past. What will happen tomorrow is will be determined by how you are acting right now.
  • Find your inner strength, and never let yourself down. You might not be perfect, but you are the person that no one else can ever be.
  • Never sacrifice your present for the future, and find the perfect balance between present and future to live a better life.
  • Never share your problems with anyone because everyone is busy handling their problems.
  • Most important: your blog is your personal space. When you write anything, write it from your heart, and you will earn a million hearts.

This is all I have to share today.  Thank you for being a part of the ShoutMeLoud community.

You can connect with me on Facebook @ShoutHarsh & Twitter @denharsh

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

319 thoughts on “After 2191 Days of Blogging, All I Can Say is: “Blogging Is Incredible!””

  1. Manik

    Hi Harsh,
    You are making India proud! Keep up the great work!

  2. Manpreet Kaur

    Hi Harsh,
    I’m following you from last 2 year, and seriously as time goes on you made me feel that yes it is incredible. Now, Finally I’ve started my own blog. Thanks for inspiring us.

  3. DEBSHIKHA BANERJEE

    Hello Harsh 🙂

    The feeling of freedom and contentment that I get from blogging has never happened with any other experience so far! YES, blogging is incredible. I started off as a writer sometime back just for some extra pocket money.

    Now that I’m in the final semester of my engineering life, I have decided to become a full time blogger. I could totally relate when you wrote about the confusion of choosing your campus placements or going ahead with blogging. Being a newbie blogger, I spend a lot of time reading ShoutMeLoud to gain as much knowledge as I can.

    Cheers,
    Debshikha

  4. Debashish

    Hi Harsh Agrawal,

    The journey of shoutmeloud is really incredible. This post is really a motivational post for all bloggers. we hope that shoutmeloud will give us more tips that we can do well at blogging. Thanks again.

  5. rahul

    Your a big inspiration for many newbies bloggers. I am too one of them… love to read your blog posts.!!!

  6. NISHAD NIZAR

    Hai Harsh;
    This story was very inspiring.After reading this article, I started a blog.www.newfra.com, I learn all kinds of stuff about blogging from https://www.shoutmeloud.com .Shout me loud was my e-guide.Now I get a good amount of traffic from Google.Also, i have good earning through affiliate marketing.I am thankful to harsh in my whole life.I know many of them leaving by the earnings from blogging.Harsh is the motivated role model of every blogger.The word blogging is now related to Harsh.I wish you all the success in this new year.
    Thanks & Regards
    Nishad Nizar

  7. Fernando

    Awesome history Harsh!!

    I love blogging, I have one web site, but I have not decided to leave my full-time job 🙁

    You inspire me to continue and at some point convert blogging in to my full-time job 😀

    Thanks for share

  8. Nitin

    Blogging Is Incredible Yes ..There Is Really Impossible To Believe because Blogging Is Just Best Business Now A Days And We Inspire From You HARSH.. You Did A Great Job Well Done!

  9. Jiya Mustehsan

    You are incredible guy,how could you write that,simply awesome .i love to read that.keep it up stay blessed

  10. Sanu Mondal

    Hi Harsh,

    Actual I had been inspired by you and recently I made a blogging site. and now I am writing the blog for my site.

    I had been working as an SEO developer in an SEO company ( Kolkata ) for 5 years. but that’s time I had no any about blog writing. I would take very lightly about on this matter. I would just comment on other blog sites for back links. but never I followed them Why they are writing and why they giving us information.

    So a few months ago I was thinking that why they are giving us this type of info and now after I was starting to study by online ” Why Blog? And what is the benefit ” And always I would get your link on the first page and I started to read your articles.

    1 month ago I became ill and the doctor told me to take bed rest so after that I left my office and now I am taking bed rest also I am writing the blog for my new site inspired by you.

    So Harsh ji please blessing to that I am success like you. you are my conductor. I want to thank you very much from my heart.

    Also, i need a favor by you I have a question about on blog writing may I get your mail id where I can send my quire. then it would be very helpful for me…

  11. Dipika Desai

    yOUR JOURNEY is so inspiring. Loved every bit of this post.

  12. Randy

    Harsh, I am very inspired by your long journey in blogging. I am on the same path at the moment, but in way different niche. I follow your blog because you bring motivation to me every once in a while, thanks so much for your inspiration! Wishing us all success. 🙂

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Thank you, Randy. And all the very best for your blog.

  13. Navin Rao

    Harsh your a big inspiration for many bloggers. I am too one of them…!!!
    Your strategies of blogging are just outstanding.. keep up the good work and inspiring people…!!!

  14. ojas

    Hey Brother, you are really and inspiring person. After reading your journey im really motivated, Thanks.

  15. nirav kalola

    Great Inspiring post. I must say I’ve been motivated by this post. Keep sharing like this.

    It’s very helpful to me for getting sparks in my life again.

  16. Harman Gill

    You’re inspire me bro. Thank you for this great article.thanks for inspiration Dude !! i was doubting myself , if you can do this , why not me

  17. Paventhan

    In the past i thought..only few in India will do blogging as their professional, but after reading these comments i came to know there are more people who are blogging in India…

    Its really motivational.. I am doing my blogging since 2013, i bought a domain without knowing what to do…It took me around 2 weeks to bring my website alive…later i learned without any guidance and still learning a lot from your website, because i am from a remote village and still people here don’t know what is blogging…

    As my career is moving on, i am moving with it… to fulfill my dreams…

  18. nitish

    Everytime I feel low I visit this post to find inspiration. I started my blogging journey after getting to know about you.
    I mean there were many international bloggers but to have an Indian among them doing so good was motivational.

    I have been blogging for about a year now and I credit Harsh for the success I have garnered . Be it his posts or income reports they have been all very helpful to me and surely for many more bloggers who are starting out.

    Thanks Nitish

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Hey Nitsh,

      I appreciate that. Thank you for your kind words.Keep blogging

  19. Guneet Singh

    Hi Harsh Agrawal,

    I am great fan of your blog, your articles motivate me. This blog always give up to date information that’s why its my favorite tech blog. Its like a newspaper of tech, whenever i don’t read newspaper i come on your blog to get all my knowledge updated.
    Thank you for creating such a wonderful bogging site.

    Regards,
    Guneet

  20. Maniona

    Inspirational post!

    But these days it has become really tough to deepen the roots into blogging. I have started one for own as part time but still digging the ” Something” that can help. As i also dont have any source or guide who can guide the steps to move forward. So, basically learning, experimenting and moving.

    Thanks Harsh, Cheers!

    Maniona

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