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TheShareStory.in is an initiative to build a community of Entrepreneurs, Founders, Startups & Industry Stalwarts to celebrate success & to learn from shortfalls, and to Contribute, Inspire & Embellish Entrepreneurship by sharing their exciting Stories!

And as a part of our initiative, we invited yet another passionate Entrepreneur Mr. Suraj Lulla for an interview with us to understand more about his entrepreneurial journey. He is the Co Founder At Websiters. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey, his background and his advice for our growing community! 

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;

I could start with “I am Suraj Lulla and I am the founder of…” but, let’s not do that. If I take you to the beginning of my journey, it would turn out to be really funny and juvenile as I’d have never expected what I’d be X years from then.

To give a little more insight, I’d say that I am working on a number of blogs (built from scratch) which gets millions of views straight from Google, organically.

But how did we reach there?

Well, it is said that opportunities happen when you expect them the least and that’s what kinda happened with me.

I believe I was 18, in my first year of college where everyone has a lot of free time to spare “& enjoy”. I was however, working a part-time job alongwith my college. Yet, I noticed I was doing nothing productive for 3-4 hours a day as well as during weekends.

I didn’t have any specialized skill(s) back then, I was from a commerce background where everyone in school talked about economics, statistics & accounting subjects which were completely out of sight for me. During my part-time job, I was working with an IT company and we worked on Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategies as well as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

But it was way different in 2015, organic results were a huge hype and I was curious about it, like how could Google decide which result to be shown on top when they have more than 1000 good websites talking about the same thing.

Fast-forward, it was just another Sunday when I was out with a friend for some great Pizza, because why not?

Out of a completely irrelevant conversation we talked about starting a blog, only because we had a lot of time which we were wasting watching the TV, movies or sleeping. Well, we didn’t have the flix back then.

Gusec office Suraj
That’s how it happened. My first Website!!

I was super pumped-up that evening as it was a very productive conversation, I registered a domain right that moment. It was a great time and .COMs were very cheap back then, they still are…That’s when we realized we also need a server/hosting which was expensive for us during that time as we had already run out of our salaries.

I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t know any upcoming expenses/investments + I had completely no idea on what I was doing. But, I had to give it a shot and so it happened. I still remember one evening where-in we had 50 visitors at the same time on our website and the server stopped responding & everything was shut temporarily.

There were multiple challenges during this entire journey (till date) but they were exciting and helped me acquire a lot of skills to work on. I have talked about my other part of this journey in my book.

I believe I haven’t decided a specific direction which I want to pursue, I’m still tasting everything that we have in the buffet.

We built a troop of 50+ authors within the 1st year itself. The blog is still alive and I’ve been building a network of some more blogs & websites as well. This is an era of paid ads and campaigns but I believe organic & SEO is going to be huge once again considering the ad costs and experimental losses.

You cannot purchase a million visitors from paid ads & expect them to visit again.

As of today,

Suraj Lulla Skyz
  • I’ve won a couple of State & National-level awards for Website Development.
  • I’ve been an instructor with over 30,000+ online students.
  • I have self-published a book on eCommerce mindset: surajlulla.com/book/
  • I’m just starting out (and always will).

Please Provide a brief overview on How You Help Clients?

Apart from my own blogs, I am also working with a number of clients as well as agencies and taking care of their online presence; right from building a completely conversion-focused website to giving consultations on what are the existing loopholes which are making them leave money on the table.

I am in no impulsion of selling anything in this interview and I’d love to jump on to the next question.

How did you find the industry you are in?

It can be endless talking about the industry, I would like to believe that I am not specifically bound to one industry or skill such as Blogging or SEO. However, I can talk about the outcome.

Have you ever noticed a real-time website traffic? I love looking at the seesaw of real-time website visitors. It feels tremendous but at the same time, it still is a considerable responsibility to fulfil their need of information, that they’re looking for.

What is that one thing that you’re scared of?

I don’t want a day where I wait for the weekend to come or get excited for a Sunday, living a life like that scares me.

How are you managing your Life and work during Lockdown caused by COVID 19?

I didn’t expect the pandemic to be this big, but it hasn’t been much of a difference for me. I’ve been habitual to working remotely for years. One benefit is that we can skip the time consumed in meetings & objectives are accomplished over a simple call.

Apart from this, no one asks for face-to-face meetings anymore before taking a decision. I believe this is going to make a huge difference in the way we work.

On the other hand, I miss going out for Coffee and Italian food, big time!

What is your source of motivation for the day when you wake up?

I use a countdown death clock in my laptop. Whenever I start working, it reminds me that I have only 19k days left. If this doesn’t drive you, then I don’t know what will.

Death Clock

Money or Emotions, what comes first for you?

This is a debatable one but if you have money & no emotions, what are you gonna do with that? But, if you have emotions and no money; you cannot eat emotions for brunch.

How do you manage your stress?

I haven’t figured out that one yet. I haven’t met a person who doesn’t have even a single-percent of stress. Stress & challenges are what keep us going. What if I show you a movie without any twists or challenges? Just a straight-forward “optimistic” 3-hour movie without any tension. That’s boring.

Which Apps/tools do you use the most and Why?

  • I use 15+ Chrome extensions for my day-to-day work.
  • I use Trello & Slack for project management.
  • Skype is still my go-to communication channel.
  • Notion for team management.
  • I love to maintain my to-do with a book & pen, it’s a game-changer for me.
  • I have a decent stereo system to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody.
  • At least 4 cups of strong coffee in a day.

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

It was something said by Gary Vee.

“We buy things we don’t need,
 With the money we don’t have,
 To impress the people we don’t care about”

Your advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs.

Firstly I’d ask is to stop everything you’re doing and read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” (if you haven’t already).

Another thing I’d like to remind is to stop perfecting everything that you want to do. Start small with whatever you have, it could be lonely and you might to need to cut-out some toxic people from your life as well, the ones who try to stop you from doing anything different or big.

“Your new life is going to cost you your old one.”

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4 thoughts on “From Being a Nobody to Helping Businesses with Their Online Presence – An Interview with Suraj Lulla | Co-Founder at Websiters

  • Ajay Maheshwari says:

    I have known Suraj for a long time and I didn’t know this about his background. I was completely engaged while reading this.

  • Namita Panchal says:

    These are such powerful lines to know. Even I maintain my to-do in a physical book and it is a really good habit I guess.

  • Naveen Kumar says:

    I think this one has a lot of lessons for everyone’s starting out such as getting started without perfecting your plan.

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