Being a blogger

Lack of work in hand, lots of free time, easy accessibility to internet or an urge to share your ideas with the world, What does it take to be a blogger? The first two reasons as manifestations of vexed minds meant to ridicule people whom they don’t like. Easy accessibility to internet is a contributing factor to blogging becoming a habit. However, the defining factor to be a blogger is an urge to share ones ideas with the world.
One need not be a born writer to blog. Like learning to ride a car or to swim, you can also learn to blog. Just have a pocket diary and make a single line note of all the ideas that may come to your mind throughout the day. At the end of the day, instead of spending your time in front of the television set, get in front of the system and key down your ideas. To begin with blog in quantity, quality will come by itself. Read the blogs of others, this will also give you ideas how to refine your blogging skill and also make new friends. Never be disappointed if your blog goes unnoticed, it happens to everybody and even to the best.

Other than an urge to share my ideas with the world at large, blogging was the safest way out for me to get away from the emotional dump I found myself in a couple of years ago. I could have taken to pleasurable vices of life but choose blogging. Today blogging is an obsession with me, but one which enriches me and not enslaves me. I am forced to think objectively and subjectively on issues which previously did not even come to my attention. I don’t restrict to one aspect of blogging but try my hands in all the spheres. Close to my heart are current affairs and society but that does not restrict me from dabbling in poetry, satire and creative writing no matter how unconvincing they are.

When you blog, write in the way which is most suited to your personality and thought process, never ape anybody’s style because you will never able to sustain it. Be inspired by other ideas and use of language but not by their style because no two persons are the same. I have a very unconventional way of expressing my thoughts in writing and I have never tried to fiddle with it. My attempts at poetry have been ridiculed as forced rhyming but that does not deter me because that is the only way I know to write poetry. If I have to borrow on a cricketing parallel, Shewag and Dravid should stick to their styles of batting and not copy each other.
Never believe you have conquered grammar. There is always scope for improvement. Keep the language straight and simple. Use of flowery words is going to turn away most readers. Anybody can blog and to a certain extent that makes it a double edged sword. You don’t have an editor who will do the job of refining the sentence or chopping out the superfluous. You are your own editor in a blog. If you want your blog to be successful, be your own merciless editor. Write on topics which are very close to your heart be it on economic policy, society, values, etc. Make some research on the topic you want to write especially if it involves major topics like global warming, bio-fuel, inflation, etc but don’t make it look like an exercise in cut and paste of others works. Add your own touch and ideas to it.

I have found that when you write on serious topics in life, the blog does not become popular. It is quite understandable; people are saddled with enough problems in real life and would not like to carry it to the net also. Express your views in a balanced method and most importantly on topics which interest a larger section of people. This does not mean that I am urging you to write candy floss stuff. Write in a manner which interests, entertains and inspires people. You can choose to write a blog on the grim realities of global warming quoting innumerable statistics and future projections or just write in simple words why you appreciate the contribution of Al Gore, ex-US Vice President towards global warming and how he has successfully demystified the entire issue.

Can blogging be profitable? Yes,Google Adsense does pay for ad clicks on your blog page but the conditions are so hazy that you would love to add the alphabet M before the word adsense. Blog to appreciate the numbers of views on your blog, the comments you have received and the debate it has generated on your blog site. Blog for the sheer joy of it, other rewards will come in the near future.