Let me tell you why I smiled

Blogging, and blogging, and yet more blogging - this is what my friend SAJS emphasizes to be 'in' in the blog world. He says:

'Bloggers are very creative at storytelling. You may find them bombarding readers with meaningless updates or personal rants but when they become brand ambassadors, they are like hens who know best about eggs.'

I am not here to talk about eggs as neither I am a hen nor I am a good blogger, and obviously not a good story teller either. But since I do blog, bad or worse, I can tell you why I smiled when I read SAJS' blog 'Tell me your Story.'

Just before getting the link of his post from the Facebook, I was watching a cartoon - the following cartoon:

And surely I smiled when I read the blog in question, about hen and eggs. A story teller blogger can make anything out of nothing and write a blog.  And the above cartoon exactly fits into the quality of blogger, who can start anything from anything or nothing and write a blog post.

You may have found this post rather meaningless, but I am certain sure you got what I wanted to say - didn't you?

See you again - smiling.

Follow @HobbyShobbys

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Blogger's Life Cycle

Follow @HobbyShobbys

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Blogging – a growing hobby of many

Once people used to ask the children, “what is your hobby?” Now people ask, “Do you blog?” or “Do you have a blog?” Times have changed and many technology intensive innovations and facilities have overtook innocent pastimes, which we called hobbies in our childhood. Purposely or inadvertently, we have a hobby of blogging these days, but we shirk to call it a hobby, lest we sound childish. But the mere fact is that blogging today is the fastest growing hobby of many. 

One of my friends, Syed Asghar Javed Shirazi is a blogging hobbyist or should I say over obsessed with this new technology of putting across his ideas and mindset to his audience across the world. Yes, he does have a wider audience than many think as one can see the contributions made to his blogs from across the seven seas. Now instead of writing books, he always have three to his credit, he blogs – and does so intensely.

April 5 was Shirazi's birthday and it was celebrated by his blogs followers in many ways. Deb Sistrunk started a blog-birthday party, while other friends swarmed him with tweets and messaged excessively on his face book. It makes him one of the famous blogger around. 

Light Within was his first blog that he started in 2000 and then there was no ending. Today he maintains a number of blogs, like the Doodh Patti (a blog about travel and foods), Logic is Variable (his favourite perhaps) and Thatta Kedona ( a project he is part of to uplift the life of rural women in Pakistan).

He has many more if you want me to continue, but he is happy as he treats each of these as his children and takes care of each blog with utmost care. He is always trying to improve his substance, expand his audience and add to his acclaim. And I think he has been successful on all accounts.

The good thing about him is that he encourages others to blog. Sit with him for a cup of tea or for a most causal sitting, and you will end up determined to start a blog first thing you do once you reach your desktop or work station. And if that is not all. He will also tell you many tricks to earn money, if you are interested.

And gurus and mentors like him are all around us. The blog thing seems to have overtook all other pastimes  I believe,  and everyone these days who has access to an internet laced computer and a little knowhow of computer literacy is into blog thing. This is how blogging is changing moods and setting new trends of passing times. And before I end this post, may I dare ask, “Do you  blog?”

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SocialSpark helps bloggers to earn money

Bloggers these days are always running after making money from what the write and post in their blogs. My friend SAJS is an expert in advising people how to do it. Yesterday a mail from him introduced me to the referral program initiated by the SocialSpark that provides advertisers and publishers both an opportunity for a fistful of dollars, remember that famous Western fim?

The referral program is simple. You refer publishers or advertisers to join via a custom link that one can distribute wherever one like. One can earn a commission of between 5% and 15% of what one’s referrer makes (or that gets paid out in the case of advertisers). Easy – isn’t it? 

If you are into making money, click the widget above and register yourself.

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Why I blog?

Dine Racoma

Blogging, to me, is another form of "literary" medium, a new one, as opposed to the traditional media--books, magazines, journals, etc., in hard copy. Blogging allows one person, as the owner of his/her own blog, to freely post articles in one's own writing voice/tone, without going through an editor. As it is immediately published, and one gets instant gratification. Blogging is a medium to share experiences with, and to reach out to people. This, however, entails responsibility, responsibility to one's readers, and respect for other people in the blogosphere.

I blog almost every day. My readers have to get a clear indication of how regularly I blog, so that they will know when to come back. My blogging is kinda witty, light material, open, sometimes personal, sometimes funny, sometimes poetic. My favorites are my series on "The Joy of Being a Mother".

My main objective in blogging is to put my free flowing thoughts in essays and poetry, and eventually share, educate, entertain, and sometimes inform. Blogging has done a lot of things for me:

• Blogging has made retirement easy for me. No transition, no regrets, no post-retirement blues, no sadness, ALL joy. Now, I am doing what I like doing most--writing. It's my passion. Yes, it's true, In the past, I would write everyday: endless templated memos, endless templated letters, endless templated reports. Now, I am free, I can write anything that I would like to write about, with no templates, no rules, no boundaries. Now, I am more aware of my surroundings, creating thoughts out of anything interesting that would catch my eye, taking snapshots, scribbling notes, which I could eventually shape into the art (yes, I call it an ART), known as a BLOG.
• Blogging has helped me recreate myself. Slowly, I have made a career out of writing (content, research).
• Blogging has unearthed for me new friends--they're my latest finds, my latest gems. Diverse interests, different personalities, all ages (doesn't matter at all) living in different parts of the planet, sharing experiences, expressing thoughts, crazy thoughts, sane thoughts, concocting out whatever is in their minds, new recipes, amazing photographs, anything, accepting me for all my writing worth. Sometimes, I wonder–are they really from this planet? are they for real.
• Blogging has made me keep my old friends. In the past, I would have daily lunches with best friends and weekly drinks (those margaritas are unforgettable!), mostly blah blah blah of daily toiling and bickerings. Now with thoughts passionately written, hilariously explained, secrets bared, I am sharing more than what was shared in daily lunches and weekly drinks.
• Blogging has helped me find classmates, former colleagues, former neighbors, even the dead.
• Blogging has made me understand my children more better. When I was not into blogging yet, I would PEEK into their blogs and other social networking media (friendster, my multiply, tweeter) to catch up with what they and their friends are up to. Now i would DIGEST each sharing and each emotion expressed.

Some tips on blogging: Be yourself, think about your readers. If you want to reach an international audience, use English. Mind your grammar, at least subject-verb agreement should be correct. Interact with your readers.Give personal touch in responding to comments. Visit other blogs, too, and make meaningful comments. Do not plagiarize, do not post photos of other people without either asking their permission or acknowledging their source, do not smear other people's reputation.

Here are some personal high blogging points in my blog life. When a reader sends me an email or a comment saying that I have touched his/her life, I am happy. Each time I see my daily statistics come up is a high for me. Each time I receive a comment, I am happy. High point in blog life is when others link me, others discuss about me in their blogs. When the big wigs/pioneers in blogging write about me or acknowledge my work, I am happy.

About earning money? My primary reason in maintaining my blog is to share my thoughts and experiences with my readers. I also keep my blog because it is one way of networking and introducing myself--of telling my readers that hey, here is a writer. It also showcases my writing skills. Through this blog, I was able to earn money--it has caught the attention of some people who wanted help in writing and research. I have adsense, though this is not much. I have learned from a recent local blogging summit that blogs can be monetized. I am trying to learn about how one can get passive income or residual earnings through the blogs.

 

Originally posted as: The D Spot (Doodh Patti)

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Basic blog tools

Originally posted at Logic is Variable by SAJS

 

The Web has always been interactive but the blogging phenomenon has accelerated the interactivity. The new software and blogging tools appearing every day are making it easier and attractive for everyone to start a blog.

Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008 Report reads, “With blogging so firmly entrenched in the mainstream, the story now is about the Active Blogosphere. The trends, stories and behaviors here influence not only the rest of the Blogosphere but mainstream media as well.” It is in this milieu that one can say, everyone should start a blog.”

Let us assume that you also have a blog or two on a platform (software) of your choice. You have also defined your goals, your target audience, and the type of content you will be writing. Your next aim is to pick the right blogging tools that work for you and reach out.

In addition to integration of blogging tools into available free as well as premium blogging software, new blogging tools and services are being released every day to help blog masters add new features to their blogs. It can become quite overwhelming to choose between them all.

How to choose the best from among a number of blog promotion tools and add-ons? That depends on your goals, your expertise, time you have to play around and the platform you are using. Here are a few basic solutions for different situations.

Any serious blogger needs to read a lot of others' blog to know what is going on in ever expanding blogsphere. One of the marvel of technology is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered direct to you RSS (Really Simple Syndication).Google, Technorati and Bloglines are a good online choices to start feed reading. There are so many others.

Similarly you can make it easier for your readers to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed. "RSS is a protocol, an application of XML (Extensible Markup Language) that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. Using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from your Web site. Users can have constantly updated content from web sites delivered to them via a news aggregator, a piece of software specifically tailored to receive these types of feeds," reads a Web definition. One of the ways to do this is to go to FeedBurner and burn your own RSS feed their and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so that even people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck can subscribe to. It can be figured out without the buttons but why not have a prominently visible button? Also create an option for people to subscribe by giving email address so that they can receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBurner offers this service for free.

FeedBurner also offers automatic pinging but in case you want to use separate service for pinging, try PingGoat and Ping O Matic. Most blog software these days ping each post automatically though.

As readers walk from blog to blog they may find interesting sites that they want to point out to own readers. Online bookmark managers allow readers to collect, bookmark and categorize blog pages and all other interesting stuff found on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well.

Statistics produced by analyzing the access logs for a blog are very useful for the success of blogs in addition to being a big ego booster for the webmaster. Number of hits also determines the click through rate for those who have subscribed to Google AdSense or other similar affiliate programs. Countless technologies make it possible to track statistics in real time to show what other web users may be visiting or better still might be linking to you or posting about your blog. Technorati does this job fine. Similarly mymloglog not only tells where traffic is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on.

With almost all blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application (like w.blogger, Performancing and Qumana) to create and publish their posts as it gives them some extra help and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer. May be these look like they are for more tech savvy folks but no harm in trying and learning in the process.

Many bloggers display automatically changing daily quotes or cartoons on the sidebar of their blog for their own interest or for that of their readers. I am not counting different revenue generating blog affiliates (Google AdSense, Amazon) that turn in content related ads on any blog.

The choice is endless and users can have anything on their blogs from blogchat to blogmap to time, temperature and weather display of any area or a nifty new blogbar ( blogbar.com) that allows to search from twelve search engines from single search box that can be put on any site. On one blog, I clicked on the array of symmetrically stacked colorful buttons and found Email Icon Generator, Official Seal Generator. Good thing about blogger community is sharing when anything new is announced. That way it gets moving in blogsphere fast.

Since 2003 when I started blogging, I have been using many blog tools. Fact is that any new announcement used to attract me to try. But over time I have settled for site meter ( statcounter.com), analytical tools (Google Analytics), news aggregators and news sourcing tools (Technorati and Blogpulse), polls (blogpolls.com), email subscription and newsletter service ( feedblitz.com) and some other like pingoat, audiobloger, blogrolling, picasa and flickr.

When my daily blogging time starts, I first go to my invisible site meter to find who has been reading me and surfing my blogs. Then I read my feeds and know what has been happening on blogs of my interest since I last went offline book marking items of my interests in the process. I also visit facebook and twitter  to update with friends and fellow bloggers. In the meantime, I plan, write and post my own entries and start pinging. At the end I read the feedback I get, firing of some replies. That is what keeps me going.

What blog tools are you using?

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Easy ways to make money online in Pakistan

By Syed Asghar Javed Shirazi

Year 2010 was big for Pakistan blogsphere. Able Pakistani bloggers did a wonderful job covering everything from WikiLeaks to fight against terrorism in addition to traditional raves and rants and hobby blogs in exponentially growing blogsphere. Walk around online and you can see prize winning blogs with a strong voice and reach out.

Many of the Pakistani bloggers are also making passive income through their blog work (AdSense, links backs, sponsored ads). But there are no meaningful examples of outright making money through blogging and Internet in Pakistan.Need is to go active for making money in local market.

Given my personal experience, I can’t agree to these old myths: Pakistan doesn’t have sound infrastructure, we have yet not developed online culture, corporate sector has yet not realized the importance of powerful online presence and more. Pakistan does have infrastructure including WiFi and broadband, Pakistani users base is one of the largest in the world (ask facebook) and a lot of local businesses are shifting online and looking for ways to create buzz in online world.

The only thing that seems lacking is that Pakistani bloggers, perhaps still shy, are not presenting themselves as available to work with corporate sector, marketers and advertisers. I suggest local bloggers should approach local businesses, including those who are doing business in global market, and tell them what they can do for them. I can assure you that they will find a lot of opportunities out there. That ‘seth’ culture where owner use to think what has been working good for m grandfather is working for me good’ has changed. Now CEOs look up to search engines to get new clients and customers. Given the unavailability PayPal, that limits Pakistani bloggers from working with foreign businesses, they have more reasons to explore local market.

After having worked with local TV channels, many NGOs, businesses and services, let me confess that it is easy to work with local businesses and easier to make money online in Pakistan. Make 2011, making money online year!

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The Fine Art of Blogging

Before the world of internet, expression of one’s inner voice and persuasion of literary stride was an unthinkable for most of the people. Only those who could afford to publish their literary work were listened to by the world. The cheapest forum was the newspapers, magazines and tabloids, but access to these was very limited since the editors had a choice to accept and reject.

Then came the internet as we know it today. It was easily accessible and provided a limited platform to the writers to use it to express their work. It was not till the beginning of the 90s, when the blogging thing appeared and it came with such a bang that today more than anything it is the most favourite of all ages. Even children have a flare for blogging and are adding their young inquisitive thoughts to the World Wide Web.

Most of the bloggers start blog as a hobby, but the concept of making money now seems to be overtaking blogging for mere pleasure sake or sharing one’s thoughts with others. Today more and more bloggers are interested in how to make money rather than using it for their literary pursuits. Perhaps one of the most favourite question being asked from the SEOs and the “successful” bloggers is how to make money. Although there are many companies that assist the bloggers in doing so, it remains still a million dollar question as everyone has one’s own strategy in this regard.

As per different surveys taken to know why people blog, one of the analysis I found worth quoting. As per the survey, a majority (about 49-50%) blog for personal pleasure and pass time, while the remaining 50% is spread over making money and to promote business, either own or that of the employer.

Blogging in general remains explorative, as more and more bloggers join in the blogging community each day to explore their writing skills and polish their literary techniques. The platform provided by many free service providers, like the Blogger of the Google, can be used to one’s convenience from the comfort of one’s home or work place. Blogging is also challenging as it provides a contesting place as people read blogs and leave imprints, both negative and positive. I once read a blog by Peggy Payne, the Peggy Payne’s Boldness Blog, in which she describes her blog as “a conversation designed to encourage creativity, spunkiness, and audacity of the most profound, delightful and deeply fulfilling sort.” And how aptly has she described the fine art of blogging which served as inspiration for me and I am sure for countless novices vying to express their voice through blogging forum.

 There are many ways to fine tune one’s blog and we will talk of these in our coming posts. A friend of mine has a blog with a beautiful caption, which is now the caption of my post. Yes the Fine Art of Blogging by my friend Shirazi is a wonderful platform to fine tune one’s blog. I will post excerpts from this blog in future, but for the time being, if you have time, have hop over to his blog and enjoy a professional’s input to better your blogging skills.

Related Reading:

History of Blogging (Wikipedia)

Fine Art of Blogging

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