blogging secrets

3 Idiots guide to Bloggers

Most of you would have watched the movie “3 Idiots” by now. If not, first watch the movie and then read this topic for better enjoyment and understanding of the article.

What made me combine 3 Idiots and Blogging tips? Well read along you will know.

Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad: In the movie “Rancho” is the key Idiot of the three. What are the characteristics of the character?

• He gives creative answer to the professor (remember when the professor says millions have been spent on finding a special pen that can be used on space by astronomers, Rancho simply says “instead they could have done with a pencil”)
• He gives unorthodox answers (remember his long twisted line to simply mean a book)
• He is passionate for excellence
• He does not chase ranks though ranks follows him
• He is witty and at times whacky
• He is attached towards his friends

Be a “Rancho” Blogger: Be creative in your writing. Think Different. A thousand people may write about a same news but if you develop an unorthodox style, creative, unique style – you will stand apart. Discover and cultivate your own writing style. Write about subjects that you are passionate about. Don’t chase the blog stats, pagerank , alexa rank, google analytics etc. Everything will fall in place once you are passionate for excellence. Your readers also develop to be your friends in due course. Develop a rapport with them, be nice and show your attachment to them. It will help you in developing a regular line of readers.

Farhan Qureshi: He is one of the other idiot of the trio in the movie. Though he was passionate for wildlife photography he was forced to pursue engineering by his parents. Later in the movie, he realizes his true call and convinces his parents to chase his real dream.

Be a Farhan Blogger: Don’t waste your time on blogging just because every third person you know is blogging. Blog if you really want to blog and blog on subjects you really want to write about.

Raju Rastogi: His grade slips because of his fear. Fear for future. He starts trusting in lucky charms. Later he gains self-confidence and sheds away his dependence on lucky charms. He accepts his mistakes he made  and overcomes it.

Be a Raju Rastogi blogger: Don’t fear what your blog will be in future. Don’t succumb to pressures. Have confidence in you – confidence in your blog, your writing, work on developing your style and update your knowledge on the blogosphere. Accept mistakes made and try to rectify it. Don’t be an always a “scratch my back, I will scratch yours too” blogger. People will scratch back consistently only if you have a good blog. Simple.

Millimeter: Though he was illiterate, he was an adorable character. He had a knack to mingle with everyone and finally this character made it to be a centimeter.

Be a millimeter blogger: You might be a non-techie. So what? Be a likeable character you will have many to help you out. Soon trickle of knowledge will make you a centimeter.

Chatur Ramalingam: A character who typically mugs of the lessons. Aims at only rank. Goofs up a speech in the ceremony by mugging up a text without knowing the meaning.

Don’t be a Chatur blogger: Don’t make a fool out of yourselves by writing on subjects that you have no clue about.

Virus: A principal of the college obsessed with the motto :Life is a race:

Don’t be a Virus: Don’t consider blogging a race and your co-blogger fellow racers. Don’t punish yourselves to exhaustion and desperation out of this thought. Run your own race. Run along with excellence. Be best in what you do and be dedicated to it, fame and recognition will come along in due course of time. Understand your strength and fault lines and craft your blog destiny.

Five Point Someone: Give due credits. The success of 3 Idiots had its own controversy in the name of “Five Point Someone” Chetan Bhagat. In this article, I am not going to delve into the controversy and take stance on who was right and how much is right. (It makes for a different article) The point is as long as you are a small time negligible blogger no one is going to stir a controversy (remember the flop movie “Hello” based on another Chetan Bhagat novel, since it was a dud movie it was not even worth stirring a controversy) but if you are a blogger of some stance be very careful in giving due credits to other’s works. Controversy does help at times but it comes along with a price. Weigh your options before stirring a controversy. (Last heard, the book “Five Point Someone” is having a brisk rerun, am not saying anything controversial– just shared an information)

So I hope you enjoyed my “3 Idiots guide to Blogging”.

Happy Blogging !

Credits: The topic image is based on the movie poster of 3 Idiots.

The 7 habits of highly effective bloggers

“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is a widely acclaimed best seller self help book written by Steve Covey. 

The 7 Habits he puts forward are:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
• Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
• Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
• Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

Now let us see how these 7 habits can be effectively applied in blogging.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

The magic mantra for bloggers is definitely to be active and be proactive. Active in delivering contents, active participating in discussions, active in interaction with readers, active in updating oneself and proactive in various blogging activities.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in mind.

From blogging point of view, we can infer the end as a short term goal. End of the year goal or any time limit you set for yourself. You can have a vision of how you want your blog to be. For some the vision could be how many visits you would like after a particular period, for some it could be how many subscribers they make, for some it could be increase in comments… The vision could be different but what is important is to have a vision in mind. It will help you work towards a goal and keep you blog-active.

Habit 3: Put First Things First:

Management of time, effort and energy is very vital for bloggers especially when most bloggers are multi-tasking with job, home and blogging activities. It is very important to organize, prioritize and schedule so that you don’t get into activity trap. Refer: Tips for bloggers to avoid activity trap

Habit 4: Think Win/Win:

Let your blog and thoughts be win/win for all. Write the right subjects you are comfortable with, one that gives you mental satisfaction and also provides your readers with a good read. Its a win-win situation for all. Good Win/Win blogging style helps you increase your readership, goodwill and the benefits of blogging.

Win/Win : A blogger as well as reader benefits.

Lose/Lose : You lose as a blogger. Your readers waste their time and energy reading it.

Win/Lose: You win as a blogger with some aggressive promotion or advertisement or by any crook and hook but the reader finds the content not worthy a read. It is important for you to indentify with your correct reader base and build relation with them.

Lose/Win: Ok, you have great articles. Your blog has stuff in it. Your readers enjoy it but you fail to leverage the goodwill and the power of your blog.

Be smart. Develop a habit to cement a Win/Win situation.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood:

Understand as a writer : It is a vital habit to make you a an effective blogger. You need to understand what you read, have a grip on the subject that you deal with – If you cannot understand what you write, don’t expect your readers to. So make it a habit to write on matters that you understand.

Understand as a commenter: Opinions differ. You cannot expect everyone to agree with you. One can always agree to disagree. So understand all the varied, diversified comments you may get for your posts. Understand and respect the other’s view of point. Listen to them, people will listen to you too. Refer: commenting etiquettes for bloggers

Developing this habit helps in building the positive goodwill of your blog and you as a blogger.

Habit 6: Synergize:

With millions of bloggers around, everyone vies each other for eyeballs. Many bloggers write on similar subjects but very few bloggers stand apart even if they touch the same subjects. How ? They have mastered the habit of creative cooperation. They have synergized their thoughts and interactions with readers in a creative manner that result in an refreshing thoughts and look of their output. Synergize your thought waves in a positive manner, navigate your way through the negative comments and roadblocks (road-blogs?!). Stand apart from the crowd by synergizing your output and interactions in a positive and creative way.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw:

Blogging should be part of a healthy lifestyle. So for being an effective blogger, you need to prepare yourself mentally, physically and technologically. From the blogger’s point of view:

• Clear, healthy mind and body increases the quality output of your content. Invest time and effort in cleansing your mind and sharpening it.
• Try to update yourselves with the various technologies related to blogging. Atleast a basic information and knowledge helps you stay ahead in the race. Join forums, read articles, observe other blogs you will learn automatically. You don’t have to be a nerd to understand the basic science of blogging.
• Be a good reader. Good reading helps open up your mind and thought process. It gives way to new ideas and trigger for your future posts.
• Be a good observer. We are bombarded by information through multitude of platforms. Be a good observer, there is always a story hidden for you to be discovered and retold in your own style.

Happy Blogging!

Every blog has its own day

“My friends blog, So I too started blogging”

“Since childhood I used to scribble, so why not do it online?”

“Started as time pass”

“I always wanted to voice my opinion – blogging gave me a platform”

“One day I just woke up and created one”

“Err… I forgot how but now ‘am blogging”

“It was free… so tried”

“I always wanted to be a writer…”

May be one of the above reason or something else could have led you to blogging. If it was something else, do share “how it all started for you” in the comment section. Some of you might have hit upon readers block or comments block or bloggers block resulting in a writers block. If you are one of the victim this post is to pep you up.

The Blog mantra : “Every Blog has its Own Day”

Yes. You, Me, We and every dog blog owner has its own day but we need to prepare ourselves for that day.

How ?

Keep writing. One day the world will look back into pages (atleast bet Google search to help in that)

Be sincere to yourselves when you write. If even you don’t like what you write, spare a thought about others.

Write on subjects that interests you. Instead of being a “Know all” be good at what you are genuinely good at. For example, You don’t like cricket. Fair enough. Don’t attempt to write on “how great the last match was” Instead try writing “Why it does not interest you” “Why you don’t find God in cricket stadium”. Trust me – You can be assured of fair number of eyeballs turning towards you.

Be creative. You can even write “how to mash potato” in an interesting & creative way that will the blog worth its bytes.

Be consistent. Don’t write on first day of January and then wake up to write a post on 5th day of March. Write regularly and consistently. Even if you write once in a week, let your readers know when to expect your next post.

Do Interact - Am single ready to mingle. Ok, I just meant you are single as an blog owner so do mingle with readers. ( I just spiced up a bit to trigger interest, nothing else)

Spice up a bit. It does no harm if you spice up your writing a bit in your own style. Well, am not asking you to do any nasty things but occasionally you can wear the coat of “devil’s advocate”. People love it.

Be Patient. Yes, finally be patient and be positive. After all, you should be knowing it by now or read the post header again.

Happy Blogging!