Meet the Blogger – Shruti Pangtey

In our latest interview series which I like to call “Meet the Blogger”,where I spotlight inspiring creatives on this Blogger Magazine. We caught up with Shruti Pangtey who runs Digital Empires blog and travel blogger turned entrepreneur. Covering travel. Based in Germany.

know how this MBA turned blogger built a blogging empire in 18 months

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your Blog? 

I’m a travel blogger turned entrepreneur, who wanted to pave a different lifestyle from what I was offered after my MBA. I was born and raised in India, and currently reside in Germany, having lived in Indonesia and Poland for short periods as well. I started blogging when I moved to Germany to study a second master and was able to make that a full-time career in 18 months. Now, I own two different blog-based businesses in the travel and marketing niche.

2. Describe what inspired you to start your blog? 

I was inspired to share my life and experiences with my family and friends back home. This made me start an expat lifestyle blog, which then I shut down and pivoted to a Europe travel blog in July 2018.

3. How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running? 

I keep watching and reading reports from long-time professional bloggers. As someone from a background of leading startups, I know that any business takes time to pick up. The same is true for a blog as well. Once I was clear that I wanted my blog to be a business in 2018, I was patient and consistent to see the efforts.

4. How active are you on a weekly basis? How often do you communicate with your followers? 

I’m pretty active on a daily basis on my Facebook group and Instagram stories. I believe that you can be the best writer in the world, but if the world doesn’t know that you exist, then your efforts would be in vain. I have an 80:20 formula where I spent 80% of my time promoting and 20% of my time creating new content.

5. What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?

Identify one platform where your target readers are, and commit to mastering that. For me, this platform was Pinterest and that’s where I build an audience of 70,000 monthly page views and 35000 social media + email followers without ever spending a penny on ads in under 18 months. Had I tried to master every platform for traffic, I wouldn’t have been able to gain traction effectively. I use Pinterest for traffic and lead generation and FB/IG for connecting with my tribe.

6. Would you encourage other people to make their blog? 

Yes, I definitely would. However, I would tell that having a successful blog just like having a successful business takes longer than you think. Be patient, consistent and keep learning and you’ll see results.

7. 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? 

Ha-ha, I find it funny when people say this. In a world of over a billion blogs, making money off of it is anything but easy. You need to have a clear strategy for how you will differentiate yourself, get more people to see and interact with your content and then think about the best way to monetize. There is no one size fits all. You can make money in so many ways, but you have to try and stick to one before you give up and try another method. Personally for me, I like creating products and I have high-traffic blogs which monetize well with ads. So my favorite combination is ads + products. But this can vary a lot depending on your niche and personal preference.

8. What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far? 

When I decided to shut down my hobby blog and start a “serious” travel blog in summer of 2018, I went through a lot of doubts. I was scared no one would want to read my new blog and don’t even get me started on the tech nightmare of migrating and changing domains. It was a good three months of a lot of growing pains, but once I started to get more comfortable with my new brand and gain traction, things improved.

9. What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging? 

My greatest achievement outside of blogging is leading national sales teams and growing startups from early growth stage to acquisition. What I learnt during my time working for startups has enabled me to apply that to my life and business today. I find that I handle stress and uncertainty extremely well and that has been monumental in helping me stay calm and grow consistently as an online entrepreneur.

10. Who Is Your Blogging Hero And Why? 

Melyssa Griffin! I relate a lot to her journey as she also moved abroad and started a blog and found her passion. I can only hope one day we will cross paths!

11. What Advice Would You Give To A New Blogger Starting Out? 

Just start. Don’t overthink it. Pick a niche and start.

12. Have you collaborate with brands? If yes, name few brands you worked with 

I have worked with companies such as HostGator, Constant Contact, Kicksta, etc on sponsored content. However, I don’t actively reach out or work with brands regularly as that is not my main focus.

13. Finally, what are your thoughts about BloggerMagazine? 

I think it is a great initiative, especially since we need to hear more stories of people from different spaces and fields who have managed to create a successful lifestyle around blogging.

Follow Shruti Pangtey on her journey at:

http://digitalempires.co/
https://www.instagram.com/shrutipangtey/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHlld-wj2sP40Feb-oVZmdg