Sumant Luhar, A Blogger & Social Media Strategist is with us today for an exclusive interview so without further ado, let’s hear it from the man himself.
WPJuicer: What is your background, & how did you first get involved with WordPress?
Sumant: While talking about my background, I was born and brought in Dubai. From my childhood itself, I was so much involved and keen to learn things with computer and websites. I had a hobby of collecting websites and today luckily I have around 2000+ website links saved. Wow, even I cannot imagine this!!! I had also a passion for learning new languages. Maybe that was the reason I became a creative content writer and a tech blogger because of such intense love for languages.
My childhood was normal at one side but filled with pain as well on the other side. The reason was I had to undergo 7 – 8 leg surgeries due to locomotive issues.
But it was in the year 2003, I shifted to India along with my parents. In the beginning, things seemed difficult to understand the perspective of people in India but then slowly I started communicating and learning from so many like-minded people. I was without any vision in the beginning.
But today, when I am in Ahmedabad things seem to be sorted but that was not the case earlier for me. I have gone through all hardships physically, mentally, and financially as well.
It is the result of that sweat and hardships that today I can withstand on my own. In this tough journey, there have been the instrumental roles of Almighty God, parents, teachers, mentors and friends who stood by way in the worst situation.
And now, starts the most interesting story of my life (a total twist of life). In my college days, while I was doing BCA (Bachelors in Computer Applications), I learned from my professors that making a career in web development was the best option. Somehow, I even started off my career first as an English teacher in a private institute for one year.
Thereafter, I worked at one of the consultancies as a WordPress developer intern and things changed. I started to fall in love with WordPress. At same place I learned about social media tactics, designing, and identifying right approach for website development.
By now, I had almost decided to move with web development which was not of much of interest but due to WordPress I wanted to move further. It was a tech-fest in one of the university and I participated there. Since all the responsibilities were distributed, now only content and social media was left behind.
I thought let me try with these two responsibilities. Soon after the tech event was over my team leader thought that I was so much keen to learn about social media, blogging, and content.
So, he recommended me to one of the institutes and that’s where the vision was enlightened. I went deeper into social media, blogging, and the content world.
But I knew somewhere that the love for WordPress was growing as the days passed by. In the year 2017 ending, I discovered about meetups in Ahmedabad and first I came across WordPress meetup.
Interestingly, I found my career and love for work with WordPress in blogging and content creation. And, today that’s where I have reached learning from so many people within Ahmedabad WordPress Community. Thanks to them who guided me well in this journey.
WPJuicer: What should readers know about all the stuff you’re doing in WordPress these days?
Sumant: Definitely, readers would be keen to know what exactly I do. Well, to begin with, my main profession is tech blogging and content creation. Earlier, from the year 2015 to date, I worked with various IT companies and by side, I have been doing freelancing work since 2013.
I am a hardcore tech blogger on Blogospedia.com and as well as run a Youtube channel called “Digivaat” which primarily focuses on educating people about digital marketing, the latest technology in a local language i.e. Gujarati and I am proud of it. This channel is intended to fill the gap between the younger generation and the older generation on the parameters of knowledge efficiency.
In these many years, I have not only worked on content creation, tech blogging or creating WordPress websites. But also designing has also been my other domain where I am versatile with creativity. Be it logo designing, social media creatives, banners, and portfolios.
So, collectively I can say that the time, passion, gut-feeling, and creativity helped me to learn WordPress website development, content creation, tech blogging, and designing. Today, that has been my biggest asset as I work upon various projects and also team up with potential individuals who can work upon projects I am working on. I also help startups, IT companies, brands with content, and social media strategies for better outreach and engagement ratio.
Apart from that, I am always keen to volunteer for WordPress events or WordCamps. Even in recent times do_action India is underway so that also I am contributing with my skill set as a co-organizer.
Lastly, I am also learning video editing techniques at the pro-level as of knowledge and many things. (few things are kept for guessing and secrecy) So, in the future, you can expect that to be used with WordPress as well. Never know what can surprise you coming next from my end and that too when you have passion for something.
WPJuicer: What is the contribution and importance of BlogoSpedia for people looking for passive income?
Sumant: Yes, that’s a good question and highly admire for asking it. I am proud that Blogospedia is built with WordPress technology and another reason to fall in love with it. Let me through some highlights of blog topics published on Blogospedia.
Many times, even you might have come across that the blog is generalized to so many areas or they talk about trends for which a lot of people talk about. And as time passes we start losing interest because of the monotonic accent of the blog.
Here, in the case of Blogospedia, the scenario is different. Though I write blogs that people like it but I am always a learner and keep on improving reading blogs from so many sources. And while I am writing a blog or content I have a vision statement for myself and i.e. “NEVER FEEL SATISFY, SETTLE WITH THE CONTENT/BLOG WRITTEN AND KEEP IMPROVING IT”. This boosts up my writing ability and encourages me to write from a different perspective.
When you read blogs on Blogospedia, the topics picked are very precise and small topics for which people generally do not discuss in-depth. Like we talk about the power of direct message on various social media channels, every content strategy that we decide should not be static (meaning you have to keep changing looking at interest and trends of the industry), etc.
Blogospedia talks about WordPress, social media, content marketing, latest technologies and one more category soon to be added that will help people to understand them in the common language with examples for which they can remember easily and never miss out any features or updates.
And when you have that knowledge and understanding it ultimately helps freelancers, web developers, WordPress lovers, digital marketers, startups, and also at the upper level.
This knowledge-sharing blog will make them confident, aggressive in their profession which is much needed at times, and thoughtfulness in their domain to start earning as well as making way for themselves towards success. But this all is possible due to WordPress because I am able to write and share knowledge with so many people. Hail WordPress!!!
WPJuicer: What are your perspectives on the future of WordPress? Do you think that the WordPress market will keep on growing? What is that one feature that you would love to see in WordPress?
Sumant: In my view, WordPress is having a golden era not only for now but for the future as well. When so many minds are working on one vision, the results will always flourish to the next level.
Be it in terms of themes, plugins, widgets, or coding standards at every area WordPress is consistently improving. All the things newly released with WordPress will not only help developers to settle for an ideal developer experience (DX) but also designers, freelancers, bloggers, agencies, and companies will benefit from it.
Since the release of the Gutenberg editor things have changed. Everything is slowly being reciprocated in terms of features, functionalities, content blocks, etc. It has made it easier to develop a website and even handle it at the same time seamlessly.
You can count on thousands of businesses to migrate towards WordPress and numbers are growing at a faster pace.
Now, answering your second part of the question is about the WordPress market. Earlier, when WordPress came into existence who would have thought that the popularity of WordPress and its community will grow worldwide in less time. But it was the collective efforts of community members and vision that brought WordPress so far.
Earlier, WordPress was limited to core functionalities and features as what one might imagine of it. But, today if you see its integration with Gatsby, Storybook, and many such platforms as changed the perspective of WordPress. And according to me, WordPress rose to never settle at one level but going to the next level. That is the habit of WordPress and we all should be proud of it.
In the coming years, the more you explore with WordPress it will feel you with excitement, prosperity, enlightenment, and at the top self-satisfaction to be on the right track.
WPJuicer: What are your views on WordPress content writing? Is it a viable career?
Sumant: Undoubtedly. Content writing is here to stay longer with WordPress but only if you bring in versatility, engagement element, emotions, jaw-dropping facts backed by statistics and latest trends.
WordPress is known to be the power-house of SEO-friendly nature that boosts up your content on search engines if done it rightly. The more refined content you can write it will help you grow big.
Just one thing that needs to be taken care of while selecting content writing as a career is just thinking from your perspective. Look for what audience wants or aspire and serve them with different content variants like infographics, intensified maps, heatmap data, podcast,s or videos.
Let your content have a combination of videos and other formats. You will see the magic that it can create and engrave everlasting impressions in the mind, soul, and eyes of the audience.
The best advice here I can give to all potential content writers and bloggers is to never settle for less and stick with your original taste of writing accent. Never compromise on your writing style and you will lead the world sooner. Hold on your authentic flow of writing because you never when people start loving your writing work.
And at the same time do not underestimate anyone in your journey. This is the biggest mantra one should take if you want to be successful.
WPJuicer: There are thousands of plugins available at WordPress.org repository. Which plugins are must for you to install with every WordPress installation?
Sumant: Yes, you are absolutely right. There are lots of plugins that are being developed and contributed by community members across the world.
But to name a few recommended plugins are:-
- Yoast SEO
- W3 Total Cache
- VaultPress
- JetPack
- Sucuri
- Optin Monster
- Google XML Sitemaps
- Google Analytics Dashboard
- UpdraftPlus
- WP Optimize
- Elementor Page Builder/ Visual Composer
These are some of the plugins according to me that is highly recommended to use. But still, it does not limit you here. You can always try and test for yourself to get a better idea.
WPJuicer: Name five people who have inspired you the most?
Sumant: This is the toughest question you asked my friend. There are so many people from whom I have been inspired. During my journey, these people changed my perspective either directly or indirectly.
But still to name a few of them::
– Rajesh Bhonkiya (Website Consultant from whom I learned WordPress during my initial days of college),
– Amish Shah (Prosmit Inc.)
– Deep Patel (Vrizm Innovations Pvt. Ltd.)
Within WordPress Community
– Parth Pandya (Founder, KrishaWeb),
– Aslam Multani (Co-Founder, Multidots Solutions),
– Nirmal Desai (Founder, CreedAlly).
WPJuicer: Do you think that WordCamps are one of the great reasons that WordPress is getting the right exposure in regional communities? What more can be done to grow the community?
Sumant: I have experienced and agree to the point that WordCamps have helped enormously to thousands of people explore, learn, exchange ideas, and gain confidence. In fact, I have been so successful in blogging & content writing after I joined Ahmedabad WordPress Community.
And when you travel at different WordCamps you not learn about the WordPress ecosystem of a city but also their tradition, history and helps us to come closer with thoughts & perceptions.
Many people who never knew about WordPress are now successfully running their business with WordPress services. Isn’t it interesting?
I think everyone in the community is trying their best to take the WordPress ecosystem to the next level. And that I have seen so closely how people think, contribute, inspire, help others, and grow together.
WPJuicer: What do you look for in a managed WordPress host?
Sumant: The core of the managed WordPress hosting is within::
- Security architecture
- Timely solutions to the issues
- A framework to cater to the needs of the business
- Maintenance & Easy-to-access support
- Performance-tuning
- Features enhancement
- Lastly customer satisfaction through consistent communication.
WPJuicer: Who should we interview next, and why?
Sumant: According to me these people are some of them who can inspire others through their observations Parth Pandya, Aslam Multani, Pravin Parmar, Mayur Keswani, Ravi Shah, Ronak Ganatra, Prathamesh Palve, Nagesh Pai, Yogesh Londhe, Alexander Gounder, Vishal Mukadam.
WPJuicer: We have talked too much about your professional life. Let’s tell our readers about your hobbies and interests. What does Sumant do other than work? (Can we have a pics)
Sumant: I travel..travel..travel in different cities of India. Apart from that I actively participate in various events, summits, conferences on the other round. And, yes how can I forget WordCamps happening in Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Vadodara, etc.
WPJuicer: Any other thoughts or things you wish to mention?
Sumant: Yes, this is just the beginning of Blogospedia and more yet to come. I was learning and will keep learning to give the best what I can within the WordPress community.
Content marketing, blogging, and social media are in my blood veins so will inspire people to walk on the right track keeping the foot on the ground.
And, lastly, I am thankful to all those who have supported, taught me directly or indirectly and showed the right path towards success and advising to not settle for small milestones.
I am thankful to WPJuicer for featuring me here.
