Who is Siddharth & Shruti Prabhu?
Listen, in their own words…
“We are Siddharth and Shruti – two nerdy souls who are either wandering the world or playing video games in their pyjamas. We love offbeat destinations and try to take the path less explored. We are both geeks and enjoy history, culture and trivia which influences the way we plan our travel.”
Can you tell our readers about yourself and your blog?
We are travel and food bloggers currently based in Mumbai. We have been blogging since 2016. Our blog is our way of documenting our travels. Siddharth is a data analyst and Shruti is an illustrator and graphic designer. We work on our blog in our free time.
Describe how you first get into blogging?
We started https://siddharthandshruti.com in 2016 when we got married to record our travel adventures. Initially it was meant for family and friends, but it soon grew into a small community of like-minded people.
How would you describe your blogging style?
Our blogging style is pretty casual. Mostly our style is based on storytelling, but we also do the conventional tips & tricks as well as itineraries.
What type of networking do you think is better to enhance your traffic to the blog?
Pre-covid, we used to attend networking events. Meeting people face to face is a great way to connect with people. But post pandemic it has definitely been more social media and SEO focused.
What do you think is the best service a blogger can provide to their readers?
The best service a blogger can provide is an honest opinion. Authenticity is important no matter what the subject matter.
How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently?
We try to set aside a few hours each week to write and edit. Since we are two people running the blog, we divide and conquer blogging tasks.
How do you want to improve yourself in the next year?
We would love to work more on making our blog SEO friendly and improve our page speed.
What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from that?
Our blog got hacked a year after we started. It was very early on in our blogging journey and we had not focused on securing our website. We never thought of the possibility of being hacked and were not prepared. It took us months to sort and put security plugins in place. It was an eye opener and something we prioritize even today.
Tell me about your proudest achievement?
We hit 30 on our domain authority a couple of years ago. Given that we are part time bloggers, it is really amazing that we could achieve DA 30.
Who has impacted you most in blogging and how?
Our family has been our biggest support system. They always take interest in our blog and encourage us. That definitely keeps us going.
What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging?
Both of us have changed our careers to get to our dream jobs. It has taken us a while to get there but we are both very passionate about our career paths.
What do you do in your spare time?
We love to play video games especially retro video games from the 90s. Anything from Mario to Caeser 3!
Where would you like to be in blogging five years from now?
We would love to keep blogging. We would love to work more on long form content.
What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
Time is our biggest challenge. As we do this in our free time, juggling work deadlines and family commitments along with blogging is always difficult.
Can you name some of your favorite bloggers and explain why they are your favorites?
We love Jade from @thatgoangirl. She's such a lovely person and her content is super authentic. We also love Swati and Sam from @thetalesofatraveler. They provide a lot of useful information on traveling in Europe from a couple's perspective.
How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?
Our blog is like a time machine. We can go back and re-live our experiences. That keeps motivating us to record our memories.
Can you tell me about a few sources from where you get products for review on your site?
We don't really review products on our website. A select few products that we have reviewed in the past were sent to us by PR agencies.
What do you find the most frustrating aspect of blogging?
Staying consistent is one of the most frustrating aspect of blogging. We do struggle with time since we both have full time careers. Staying on top of blog posts as well as maintaining the website does feel like an uphill battle especially with work deadlines.
What is the biggest difference in your life post-blogging?
We've made a lot of genuine connections with like-minded people through our blog which has been so much fun. We have also learnt to be more organized.
Did you have any professional help or did you create the blog yourself?
We built the blog ourselves. Shruti is a professional graphic designer & illustrator and has worked on wordpress websites for clients in the past.
How active are you on a weekly basis? How often do you communicate with your followers?
We try to stay connected with social media once-twice every week. Recently we have actively tried to be offline and not get too caught up in social media. Offline is the new luxury.
How much time do you spend blogging?
A few hours each week. We both have full time careers. When we started the blog, we were fully aware that this was always going to be a part time activity for us.
What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?
The best social media strategy is to provide information.
Would you encourage other people to make their blog?
Definitely. Blogging has been a very positive influence on our lives. It's a great way to record your thoughts and sharing them with the community.
Is blogging your profession or just a hobby?
Blogging is a hobby for us.
A lot of people think that blogging is an easy way to make money online. Do you have some tips for those people who are interested in making money from the blog?
It is definitely not easy. It is a labour of love and takes a lot of patience. Keep working hard and you will start seeing results. Whether it is through affiliates or through sponsored posts, make sure that you are being real and authentic with your audience.
