Seriously, how much can an Indian blogger really earn?

[Storyboard credits: Tannistha Maiti and Kriti Sen Sharma]

There are 3 inconsistencies in this storyboard above:

1. To say that Chandoo’s only skill is Microsoft-EXCEL is wrong. He is also a great entrepreneur and businessman.
2. Chandoo is not looking for jobs, even if the job paid him more than $450,000 per annum.
3. Chandoo would never boast about his earnings. He is one of the most humble people we at GoHatke have ever met.

And YES, the figure is correct:

Chandoo did earn $450,000 in the period Jan-2011 to Dec-2012 through his EXCEL blog.

For those of you who have headed over here from Chandoo’s EXCEL blog, Chandoo needs no introduction. Others might be wondering who Chandoo really is…. So here goes:

Chandoo.org is possibly India’s most popular 1-man blog-site.

Chandoo.org is possibly the best resource for EXCEL in the world.

Chandoo is the founder and owner of Chandoo.org

Here’s an intro about Purnachandra Rao Duggirala a.k.a. Chandoo from his Pagalguy interview in 2010:

“Four years after getting a campus placement at TCS, Chandoo quit his job in April 2010 to run a Microsoft Excel-training startup he had built on the side doing what many of us do non-seriously — blogging. Last month, Chandoo’s lean two-member blog ‘Chandoo.org’ recorded revenues of $100,000, justifying his decision to quit and be completely on his own.”

That figure has gone up to $450,000 per annum in the year Jan 2010-Dec 2011. Seriously, $450,000! What the BLEEP!

GoHatke got a chance to speak with Chandoo, and we had 2 burning questions for him.

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On managing job and a side-business

GoHatke: Before you quit your job to pursue your website fully, you maintained both your blog and your job. During these 2-3 years, you were becoming increasingly ‘awesome’ in EXCEL. But were you maintaining the same awesomeness in your job? For example, were your managers happy with you?

… Was Chandoo maintaining the same awesomeness in his job as in his blog?

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Chandoo’s Answer: Some people think doing work and business hampers one or both. But my job was in business analysis and project management. I needed to use EXCEL and Powerpoint pretty regularly. Basically my job motivated me to learn new things in EXCEL, and I would come home and blog about it… In fact, my bosses and clients were very appreciative of my EXCEL skills. Also ‘moonlighting’ was allowed in my company so I was not going against any rules.

I loved my job quite a lot. But I decided to quit because I realized I deserved to spend more time with my family…

My blog’s topic meshed closely with my day job. But that does not mean I tell everyone should have their job and business to be well matched.

Listen to the conversation:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/41077316″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ iframe=”false” /]
Can’t see the Audio player? Listen to Chandoo’s answer here.

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On childhood experiences

GoHatke: From very early on, you wanted to do something on your own, start your own business. So what childhood experiences influenced you? How were you different from your school or college-mates?

… What were Chandoo’s childhood experiences that shaped his life?

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Chandoo: In 7th or 8th standard, read an article about Bill Gates. At that time, I did not know what a computer is. But I was fascinated to think how 1 person can make millions of people happy. It might seem like a cliche, but that shaped my interest towards technology and starting my own company…

There was another factor from my personal life which played a major role in my way of thinking. Very early in my childhood, my father passed away. My mother raised us (me and my younger brother) single handed. Though our relatives helped a lot, there were times when we faced tough (financial) situations. Thus, very early in our childhood, we learned the value of money.

Firstly, that prompted me to go for higher education (engineering and then MBA) — to secure a good salary. Later I started my own company but that was not entirely planned for. I knew I wanted to start a company, but I never knew what kind of company I wanted to start.

We do not want to be in control of money. But we do want a comfortable life, and we surely do not want to go back to those experiences. Also if something happened to me, I wanted that my family be provided for.

Also many people who are creating start-ups are not able to manage money. They are successful in getting money from VC-s, but they are not able to manage the money well and generate profits. This kind of news is regularly featured in many business periodicals. In this aspect, my early childhood experience has taught me how to manage money well.

Listen to the conversation:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/41078743″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ iframe=”false” /]
Can’t see the Audio player? Listen to Chandoo’s answer here.

For great tips on how to become awesome at EXCEL, visit chandoo.org

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