Hi, I’m Umapathy Sekar. I’m a blogger, an affiliate marketer and an IT professional from Chennai, India. This is my personal blog, the one place where I write about my own journey rather than a single topic.
I have been blogging since 2013. Along the way, I built three websites, learned SEO the hard way, and kept a full-time career in IT running alongside it. This page is the full story, plus links to everything I do online.
Quick facts about me
- Blogging since 2013. Running OnlineDecoded since 2014.
- Also publish WPSBlog (WordPress and hosting) and this personal blog.
- About 10 years of full-time work in IT service management and incident management.
- B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Anna University.
- Based in Chennai, India.
My story so far
I finished my engineering degree at Anna University in 2012. A year later, I found Harsh Agarwal’s ShoutMeLoud and got hooked on the idea that a blog could become a real source of income.
I learned the basics by following his work, set up my first WordPress site and started writing.
The early years were mostly trial and error. I learned what does not work before I learned what does: chasing keywords nobody searched for, installing plugins I did not need, trusting tools because of their sales pages.
What finally moved the needle was treating SEO as a skill to study, not a trick to find.
In 2014, I launched OnlineDecoded to share what I was learning about blogging, SEO and affiliate marketing.
Later, I started WPSBlog to go deeper into WordPress, and this site to write in my own voice about the whole journey.
What I do for a living
Blogging is my passion project. My full-time work is in IT service management, where I have spent about nine years as an incident lead and IT support specialist.
I manage P1 and P2 incidents, run bridge calls during outages, facilitate root cause analysis, and track service levels using ITIL practices and ServiceNow.
I also hold certifications in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and CompTIA A+.
The two worlds feed each other. My IT work taught me to test before I trust, document what I find and explain technical problems in plain words.
Blogging taught me to write for real readers and think about what they are searching for.
What I write about here
- Starting and growing a blog. My step-by-step guide on how to create a successful blog is the best place to start.
- SEO. What I have learned about ranking, from keyword research to indexing. Browse the SEO category.
- Tool tests and reviews. Website builders, email marketing and WordPress plugins I have tried, like the best AI website builders and my guide to making money with email marketing.
My websites
| Site | What it covers |
|---|---|
| OnlineDecoded.com | My main blog since 2014: starting a blog, SEO and affiliate marketing |
| WPSBlog.com | WordPress themes, plugins, security, speed and web hosting |
| UmapathySekar.net | My personal blog: my journey, experiments and tool tests |
How I recommend products
Some links on my sites are affiliate links, and I may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
I only recommend tools I have used or tested; I always list the downsides, and I say so when a free option is good enough. Posts show when they were last updated so you know how current the information is.
Find me online
- Facebook: facebook.com/umapathy.sekar
- X (Twitter): @umapathysky
- Contact form: umapathysekar.net/contact-us
If you are just starting, welcome. I was in your place in 2013, and most of what I know came from people who wrote things down. That is what I try to do here.
Umapathy Sekar