Read The Entrepreneurial Journey of Karan from CharteredClub.com | BloggerStop.net

Read The Entrepreneurial Journey of Karan from CharteredClub.com

Posted: 27 Oct 2016 09:58 PM PDT

If you have ever tried to save your taxes through a Google search, then chances are high that you would have landed up at CharteredClub.com. Today at BloggerStop, meet the person who founded this great blog helping so many Indians to save hundreds & thousands of millions of rupees.

Sai: Welcome to BloggerStop, Karan. To start with... How do you best describe yourself - An Entrepreneur, Chartered Accountant, Blogger or something else?

Karan: A CA turned Entrepreneur. Blogging is something I'm good at and consider it as a part of Entrepreneurship.

Sai: Your blog and forum in one line/less than 50 words.

Karan: Chartered Club is an online content platform which tries to simplify the complex tax laws and helps its users to legally minimize their taxes and maximize their wealth.

How It All Started - The History

Sai: Please tell us, how did you came into existence in the online world. When & how exactly did it happen?

Karan: Chartered Club came into existence somewhere in 2008 in the form or an Orkut Community which I created just to engage myself with other professionals. It started gaining traction in 2009 with the launch of a Facebook page and in 2011 – we launched CharteredClub.com

Sai: Does your blog supplements your forum or is it the other way round. Would you suggest a new blogger just beginning her online career - to start with a forum, blog or both?

Karan: It is our blog which is more popular but the forum is also gaining traction. Building an active forum or a community is a very difficult task as you need a lot of registered users actively using the forum. And as it is difficult to build – very less people try to create a good community and therefore the competition is comparatively lesser.

Current Blog Stats

Sai: What are your present blog stats, i.e. number of daily visitors, your global reach etc.? And on an average what percentage of your online audience gets converted into your customers?

Karan: If I talk about our monthly numbers – we easily get a few million users every month and this no. tends to increase during the peak seasons.

Sai: At the scale of your website's popularity and the community you have grown around you, it is definitely not possible to manage it all alone. So how much of your work is out-sourced?

Karan: I firmly believe that your core area of work should not be outsourced. So we prefer to keep the content part in house and not outsource it to any third party. The tech part and the design part is completely out-sourced.

Is CharteredClub.com Hiring?

Sai: If some of our readers like to connect professionally with you, then what all types of collaborations or jobs do you offer at Chartered Club?

Karan: We don't mind experimenting with something new. So if there is something which we believe can work well on our website – we are always willing to collaborate.

Sai: Do you have any specific goals/expectations from your blog? Have you already achieved any of these goals (please share some of the milestones that your blog has achieved)?

Karan: Goals are time specific and person specific. From getting my 1st client for Advertising to 1st Client for HR Consulting to 1st million users to getting featured on NDTV– it has been a long journey and various goals have been achieved (and some missed as well). We prefer to keep focusing on small goals and at the end of the year – the collaborative sum of small goals is that we have achieved the bigger goal.
Our end goal is to build something much bigger and better than what we currently are. However, it is still WIP (work in progress) and will take a lot of time to build.

Sai: How much time do you devote to your blog? And when do you usually write the articles, weekdays or weekends or just randomly.

Karan: My efficiency is usually higher during the morning time. So, I prefer to focus on writing content in the 1st half of the day and in the 2nd half – I'm usually reading, researching and digesting content on various topics.

Want Traffic to Your Blog? - Learn From Them...

Sai: Your main source of traffic: Facebook vs Google?

Karan: Initially it was Facebook that was the major traffic driver. But there is only limited traffic which you can drive from Facebook. In the longer run, it is always google which works much better than Facebook for most of the websites.

Sai: The strategy you would suggest to our readers on gaining fans and followers on Facebook.

Karan: The only golden mantra of getting more readers is Quality. If there is quality – it will keep getting shared on Facebook and you'll keep gaining more followers.

Sai: How do you make sure that Google maintains its love for Chartered Club?

Karan: I never write for Google – I write for myself. If there is something which you like – your readers will also like it. And if your readers like the content – Google will also love it.
There is a direct correlation between how much your readers like your articles and Google rankings. If readers like your article and spend a lot of time on your website and share it with their friends – Google rankings are bound to increase.

Sai: Other than Blogging what are your hobbies or what do you do in your leisure time?

Karan: I have a keen interest in Stocks and have been trading in stocks for more than a decade now. Apart from this – I'm usually found playing foosball during the lunch and tea breaks. I wish foosball was a popular sport in India and we could have foosball competitions.

Sai: We can see some adverts on your blog. Do you suggest using ads on service providing sites, don't you lose your potential customers to your competitors through these ads?

Karan: Yes, it does. But then – that is our bread and butter. We mainly earn from advertisements and therefore can't remove it.

CharteredClub's Top Revenue Sources

Sai: What all services and products do you offer? And how do you sell them. Please share 3 of your top income generating sources (like consulting services, eBooks, affiliate marketing etc.)

Karan: Our Top 3 Revenue Generating Sources are as follows
• Advertisements
• CA Services
• HR Consulting Services
The revenue generated from the above 3 services may or may not be in the correct order.

Sai: Most of your services are for Indians. So what do you offer to your International visitors or are they mostly Indians too (NRIs) and how significant is it for you to attract their attention?

Karan: Our International Traffic forms a very small part of our total traffic. Moreover, the international traffic on our website is also of NRI's only.

Sai: Blogs, Communities or Forums that you follow and read regularly…

Karan: I read all the financial newspapers like Economic Times, Hindu Business Line and Financial Express etc. on a daily basis. I'm also fairly active on Quora as well as on the Facebook page – Asaan Ideas for Wealth. I have also learnt a lot by following Jagoinvestor blog.

Their Mistakes - Your Learning!

Sai: Have you done any mistakes in your blogging life? And what have you learnt from these mistakes?

Karan: Yes, I have done numerous mistakes. Some of them can be corrected but some sadly are irreversible and have a long term impact :( One thing I have learnt from is that you should never assume things and should always try to research a lot and see how others are doing it.

Sai: Something you really want to change in your blog or in yourself being a blogger?

Karan: I wish I could change the name and opt for a name wherein there are less typing errors :(

Sai: Any special message you would like to share with our readers and with everyone else?

Karan: The population of India is more than 1 Billion which is extremely large. Whatever you are doing or are trying to do – somebody somewhere would surely be interested in it.
The most important attributes required to succeed is quality, conviction and patience. If you have all the 3 – you will surely succeed.

Sai: How can we connect with you?

Karan: Linkedin is the place where professionals connect with each other. I'm fairly active on Linkedin and anyone can reach out to me anytime.

PS: There are thousands of unread messages and pending friend requests on my Facebook account but they don't get accepted as that is not the right place to connect for work related matters.