Boomeranging questions back to Muneeb Syed from Magenticians!

Muneeb has been grilling almost 40 people from the Magento community and now it’s his turn to get grilled! 

via GIPHY

In fact we all want to know about the man in the shadow who allows member of the Magento Community to shine and share about how they contribute in the ecosystem.

It’s only fair we return the favor and learn a few things along the way.

Thien-Lan: Muneeb, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for us. Could you please share some of the highlights of your background and career with our readers?

Thank you, it’s an honor for me 🙂

Well, I completed my graduation as a Software Engineer in 2015, and at the beginning of 2016, I started my professional career as a PHP developer. And yes, it hasn’t been that long, but it’s been great so far.

I always knew there’s a huge scope in the eCommerce industry, and so at my first job, I was very keen to learn eCommerce development. Hence, I went through a lot of research, and found Magento as the best CMS 😉 I got an offer to join Magenticians mid-2016, and I availed it immediately because they were doing an amazing job. I was appointed as a Magento developer and blogger, and I’ve loved everything about it so far.  

My basic role at Magenticians is to educate people about Magento through my tutorials, bring Magento Influencers closer to people through interviews and also to provide the community better solution to problems. Of course, I try to understand the problem before writing a tutorial or blog. I have found that learning about Magento is actually fun!.

I have achieved great recognition in my little time working here, and the best thing so far was when my article got listed in Magento DevDocs! I am thankful to Chuck Choukalos, the Product Leader at Magento, for listing my article!

Thien-Lan: Magenticians is ranked 6th blog about Magento. How did the team achieve that?

All that Magenticians has achieved so far is because of the hard work all the team members put in. The secret is that we don’t just work; we enjoy quality time together and are always ready to help each other out. We are glad that people admire us 🙂

We want to become the best Magento resource after Magento DevDocs and I believe the way the team is working hard, we will definitely get there 🙂

Thien-Lan: What is the business model of Magenticians, who came up with the idea, how, why and what advice would you give to people who want to monetize content?

Magenticians does not really have a go-to business model.

The idea was conceived by Elias Zerrouq and later bought out by Cloudways. Despite being owned by Cloudways, Magenticians acts as a standalone property and operates on its own. One of the ways we make money on Magenticians is through Sponsored content, but we are hoping that once we become recognized, we’ll be able to leverage our content to generate revenue and also introduce awesome Magento products and services to our audience.

As for monetization, I can’t really say much on this topic since I’m mainly focused on growing Magenticians in the community and driving traffic through technical articles and tutorials. I’m sure, though, that our Marketing team has something great in plan, and once that kicks in, I’ll be sure to advice my readers then! 😉

Thien-Lan: Please share a picture of your workplace with our readers.

Here you go!

Thien-Lan: Through your interviews you’ve gathered a lot of insights and opinions about the future of Magento. What are the salient trends that you see and what message would you give to Magento’s Management team?

Each influencer has a different opinion but all of them are important in their own way. The one common thing on which everyone agrees in the interviews is that Magneto has a very bright future and I have no doubts about it 🙂

I want the Magento community to grow and I believe that the Community forums have to be more active. And the responsibility to make community forums more active falls on people like  us who use Magento daily to earn bread for their families. I am really thankful to Sherrie Rohde as she is doing an amazing work for the community and hope that in future Magento Community will become larger and more interactive.

My message for Magento’s Management Team:

‘’You guys are doing an excellent job, just keep up the hard work and we (Magento) will rise more :)’’

Thien-Lan: Where do you live, how do you manage your work-life balance and how do you spend your free time?

I live in Pakistan, and contrary to the popular belief, it’s an awesome country. As for work-life balance, I make sure that I take care of my health and dedicate the rest of the time to my family and friends. Health (both physical and mental) is wealth, and if you are not fit in either, you cannot give your 100% to the work.

Also, I love my work, so it makes it all the more easy for me to maintain a good balance.

Thien-Lan: Now it’s time for a fun Rapid Fire round! Rule: You can’t spend more than 15 seconds on this question 😉

It’s an honor for Magenticians that you have copied our Rapid Fire Round 😉

If you liked this interview, read here how he grilled me!

Also learn more about how to use Influencers Marketing. It is pretty obvious and common practice for B2C brands but works for B2B too. A great example is how Magenticians are using this brilliantly by reaching out to Magento Masters and well known personalities in the Magento Community! What are the other examples of Influencer Marketing you see in our software industry?