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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Gaining Some Blogging Perspective

Keen observers might have noted some reticence here as far as blogging activity is concerned. Not to worry. I haven't really stopped blogging. Just that quite a few things have happened in my online world that this blog has become relatively idle.

For one, I have been blogging a LOT lately. So much that I haven't actually posted anything here. Now why, you may ask, that nothing is posted here? Well for that I will have to bring to your attention three things that have kept me away from this blog.

I had mentioned earlier that I started blogging at two other places namely, DesiDabba and Soccerlens. At DesiDabba I blog on Television and Entertainment in general (Mr. Eranat, if you are reading this, that blog might interest you). I also post sporadically on such topics on this blog, but I must admit, I post far too little here. I would really want to have more posts on entertainment than I have so far. Let's say, something like weekly episode reviews of shows that I like. Stuff that I can't post on DesiDabba which is more targeted at the Desi audience, which means I can't post reviews of latest episodes of Heroes and 24 lest I incur the wrath of my resident Indian readers. (Of course, I'm sure 99.99% of my readers are Desi, but on my personal blog I wouldn't much care for reader sentiments as much as I would for a group blog.)

Anyway, on Soccerlens, I indulge in punditry, following day-to-day happenings in soccer/football (depending which part of the world you are from) with a slight Manchester United bias. The site started by Ahmed Bilal, is a year old, but now gets over 500,000+ page impressions a month! That is something, I assure you. (Even PTV has jumped on to the contributors bandwagon) On the day Soccerlens turned 1, Ahmed had asked people who were interested in starting their own fan blog (for their respective clubs) for which he would help set it up and promote. I'd always wanted to set up a Manchester United blog, but never felt that I could keep up with the pace and demand of posting regularly all by myself. (Possibly due to a lack of resources?) But this opportunity was too good to refuse, and now we have started up our Man United blog (of course aggressively campaigned on Soccerlens.) Once we get featured on Newsnow, hopefully within the next week, it will be smooth sailing. Also I will post less of football on this blog because, only few people would really be interested to read such stuff on my personal blog, and I will be better served spewing my punditry elsewhere. For those interested in visiting the Man Utd blog, (i.e, Red Rants) click here. (I blog as the Red Ranter on Soccerlens and Red Rants. Hope to see you there.)

Now that's enough publicity for my other 'projects'. Back to this blog, it would be nice to know what you guys want me to post. True, the blog is personal and I don't have to cater to every other person's whim and fancy, but there can always be points of common interest that we all like to talk and write about that can make this more of a conversation, instead of the one way traffic that this blog has mostly been. I am still easy on the commerce aspect of the blog. I have read about the dangers (financially) of having a blog that writes a little about everything instead of focusing on particular topics. But well that brings us back to this whole idea that this is a personal blog, and I will hopefully write some of those short stories and short essays that made certain people admittedly happy visiting this blog.

Oh well, enough rambling. Over to you guys.

3 comments:

  1. Well frankly speaking, I think one should blog about what they wanna talk about rather than what others would like to read. It just brings out a much better feel more than anything else.

    But then again this is just my view....To Each Its Own. ;)

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  2. Ditto Sakshi although reader interaction is important but not to the extent of asking them what they would like to read. Anyway, I think you have already become too big for this blog and have found your calling in those two group blogs...guess should concentrate there.

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  3. [Sakshi] and [Patrix]

    True. I shouldn't ask people what they would want me post. I guess I must rephrase myself, by asking what you would like to see posted (with the caveat that it's not necessary that I will post them). In this way I try to gauge what people think I write well about are, as against what I see myself better placed to write on. Get it?

    Now again you might ask why this is required on a personal blog. The answer to that question can stem from how one wants to use his blog. I might want this blog to be a guide to the way I articulate my thoughts in writing and comments, requests for certain posts, rejection of certain other posts can give me a much rounded view of my writing from another person's view. Not that I am necessarily going to change and pander to someone's wishes, but it will help in my general thinking. That's all.

    Anyway, as Sakshi said, To each his own! :)

    And Patrix, I will stay faithful to my personal blog. It's my first love, just some mid-life crisis I'm sure I will get over :)

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