I started my first blog in 1998, the same year Google was incorporated. It was a free website hosted with a provider called “Tripod”. The term “blog” was still not common and there were no CMS systems or blogging platforms like “Blogspot” at that time. The popular CMS system - “WordPress” was released 5 years after I started blogging. We had to develop each post as an HTML file and upload to the web host.
In the year 2000, I switched to a more formal blog with the domain name tonyjohn.com. At the same time, I started a business website called spiderkerala.com, which eventually became one of the leading matrimonial and business portals in Kerala. Until I stopped updating this portal in 2005, this was a popular website in Kerala.
In the year 2003, Microsoft announced the new technology called “.NET” and at the same time I started a new tutorial website called dotnetspider.com. As long as I was actively working on this site, it was one of the leading .NET tutorial websites in the world.
In 2006, I launched MyWindowsClub.com, which became a popular website sharing information on tips and tricks to use Windows operating system and computers in general. Microsoft recognized my contribution towards the community by awarding me “Most Valuable Professional” (MVP) award for 3 consecutive years. However, my relation with Microsoft went pretty bad when they filed “domain dispute” against my portal MyWindowsClub after I criticised them for a couple of flaws in their products. Even though Microsoft was forced to withdraw the domain dispute after a 3 month long legal battle, I had lost interest in Microsoft technologies and so I rebranded mywindowsclub.com to Techulator.com so that I can cover other technologies as well.
In 2007, my brother completed his B.Tech and he wanted to do an academic project. I helped him to develop a small college directory project by spinning off a piece from my custom developed web platform. That gave birth to one of the most popular educational portals in India called “IndiaStudyChannel.com”, popularly known as “ISC”. With nearly 1 million registered users and about 5 million monthly page views, today ISC is a popular name among students and professionals in India as a trusted revenue sharing platform.
Even though I started blogging nearly 2 decades ago as a hobby to pass my time during my life in USA, today it is my primary business. My network of blogs are managed by a strong team of partners, webmasters, editors and staff.