To The Point

Penfold

Recently I presented a question relating to the point of blogging.

To many the point was the pointlessness. Or an open plan diary for you and the world to share. Or a stream of conciousness (or unconciousness in the case of the Old Git) to satiate a desire to communicate something to somebody somewhere…

I first started mine for a completely different reason - I wanted to learn how to build a website and get a podcast together - at the time I was starting to mix music again (unfortunately work has taken that desire from me for the moment) and I wanted to be able to share it with others. Rather than take the easy route I built a site from the ground up learning html and xml and all those fun ‘ml’ things tripping over each obstacle as I went and struggling through (the remnants of those pages are still in my archives). Then to facilitate the graphical side I started to get my head around Photoshop and Illustrator so I could make my own banners, buttons and widgets…

So all the while I was blogging almost as a side line. Then I finally added comments to the site and the whole thing sprang to life. I discovered that the stats I’d been getting were actually real people with real lives from the furthest reaches of the planet and they actually enjoyed what I was writing and in turn I was loving reading about their worlds and lives. My tiny isolated bubble that I’d been trapped in was growing and changing shape and I was starting to make friends such as Lucy, Lizza, Surftwin, Nursie, Kevin and Sylvie, Paula, Rachie, Jen and many more...

So months later I switched to wordpress so I could concentrate on the content and the communication. Now blogging has become a huge part of my life - I feel so disconnected where I live sometimes and it’s like a small vibrant web spreading out through the internet keeping me in contact with the rest of the world.

For some reason it’s also given me a boost to get back into things that I’d long discarded such as my photography and some artwork and then of course I get to rattle on endlessly about my greatest passion surfing. So all in all it has to be a good thing…

Cheers everybody for spending time here and thanks to all the other bloggers that put so much effort into their own sites for everybody else.

I didn’t surf today.

Words of a Broken Mirror

Alina Popescu

I will not go around the “what is a blog” question. There are dozens of definitions on the Internet and in some printed books. Yes, there have been a few books written on this topic. I will try to focus on what blogging means to me, on what it can bring and on why some blogs simply stand out.

Besides being a means of expressing every possible thought and feeling, a blog is mainly a means to meeting interesting people who always come with extraordinary stories, photos, advice and comments. Bloggin is sometimes like having guests. You invite plenty of people. You prepare everything for them: food, music, conversation, other ways to entertain them. Some respond to your efforts, some keep quiet and smile in approval, some come back, some never show up.

After the age of “asl pls” we all needed a different way to meet people. A way beyond useless data exchange and dating purposes. For most of us it is quite impossible to see all the countries in the world, to hear every tale of grand heroes, legends or historical truth. But reading travel posts, seeing photos or simply reading about the day to day life on the other side of the world might compensate.

I started this experience in January 2005. It started as a “why not” kind of project and I then decided to write my license paper on it. It’s been over two years and I can honestly say I am addicted to blogging. By blogging I mean of course writing my own posts, reading comments and reading other blogs. I have experimented with different approaches and I could say my blogs are now a mix of everything: news, articles, personal posts, travel posts, photos, songs, movie reviews, book reviews, jokes and funny posts and many more.

I see my readers as an extended circle of friends. We visit each others’ blogs and have common interests. With some of them I keep in touch through emails and we collaborate on common projects. Blogging has indeed brought me some very valuable friends.

What keeps me coming back to a certain blog is not only the quality of the material published. It is also the publisher. I see blog owners as hosts receiving guests, as I said before. So replying comments is something we all should pay attention to. Also, being able to moderate conversations and to take a stand when certain lines are crossed is part of their tasks.

Having a constant audience is the true test for all bloggers. But new readers are as important as we should never stop trying to learn more and find different views and perspectives. The most important tool one has to attract new readers is frequently updating their content.

Another easy means is to always keep up with new interesting blogs. Yes, it is hard, as they seem to spread like mushrooms in rainy seasons, that is why I always try to see what others recommend, not only search on my own. If you like a blogger’s work, you will surely be interested in what those in his/her blogroll have to say.

However, all those thinking about starting to blog should simply forget most of what other people have to say and give it a try. Most of what you should do depends on your personality and interests. The rest, well, you start paying attention to it and learning all you can along the way!

Bloggy fusion

Just Thinking

Kirk M Blanchard

Ah yes, that would be me now wouldn’t it? Alright, here we go…

There were three reasons that I started blogging. The first is simple enough...I love to write. The second reason had to do with my past career and hobby which was computer technology. From the late 70’s to the late 90’s you might say that I (and others of course) rode the crest of the wave that eventually lead to the birth of the home computer and the operating systems that came with them. I won’t get into detail here but it was a fascinating time and a fascinating field to be in. And like all new technology, things evened out eventually, standards were achieved and to put it bluntly…it ended up becoming fairly boring when the PC and associated equipment thereof became more of a tool to use rather than something to improve upon and evolve.

So what does the above have to do with blogging? You’d have to be me to really understand why but suffice it to say that after several years of being bored with my favorite interest, here finally was something new, fascinating and evolving and it involved great ideas like writing, community and conversation. It grabbed my interest and wouldn’t let go and now at this point in time, neither can I. I couldn’t really envision not having this avenue that satisfies so many of my interests at once.

Oh yeah, and the third reason; DSL! If you don’t have DSL you don’t blog. Well, you can try but it will likely take you half the night. When we finally got DSL up in my neck of the woods, I grabbed it and shortly thereafter, I was blogging.

And, after all this time, this is what having a blog has come to mean to me personally:

A blog is a vehicle that allows a person to place part of who they are out into the virtual world that the Internet has become. And this virtual world is just as real as the physical one where each blog can be likened to a house or business or library to name a few, in a neighborhood where folks can drop by at any time to pass the time of day and/or listen to what you might have to say. To me a blog is a conversation amongst the folks of a community that has no rules or boundaries, no law enforcement of any kind yet is a much more kind, compassionate and self disciplined group of people than what one may find in anywhere in the physical world. And each community that surrounds a group of blogs resembles a small town in more ways than one. Yet the physical and the virtual is all part of the same thing---the same people are involved and that’s something that I find quite tolerable.

I love it.

The above is something I could go on and on about but in the interest of keeping control of my rather wordy self…

I don’t really monetize the blog in any way that involves making any real income off of it. The only possible avenue of making a bit of pocket change now and then is a few minor ads in my sidebar and occasionally the footer but even then I’m not really expecting anything from it. This personal blog of mine is for my own use and satisfaction and not something I feel should be turned into a substantial revenue generating device. Besides…that would mean I would have to post on a regular basis and that takes all the fun out of it. If I ever attempt a “niche” style blog, then is the time when I would have to get serious about monetization but until that happens, it’s just pure enjoyment.

One thing I do get serious about is SEO and it’s something where I will always have to “do my homework”. SEO is not a “set it and forget it” type of thing these days while the search engines are constantly fiddling with their algorithms and what the “powers that be” in the world of search engines consider to be important as far as page ranking goes. Even now I’m having to change the way I’ve handled SEO in the backend of the blog due to those very changes but I don’t really mind all that much. It exercises the few brain cells I have left. It keeps them healthy and all that.

So, for nearly 5 years I’ve attempted to start a conversation with the entire world and I’m happy to say that the entire world hasn’t beat a path to my door since that would mean a whole lot more conversations than I could handle at once. I’ve been very content and pleased with the small circle of friends and acquaintances that have revolved around our respective blogs and the various social communities that I've joined over the years. Unless the world as we know it falls into a black hole or civilization-as-we-know-it goes down the tubes, you’ll find me out there writing and posting away just for the pure enjoyment of it. After all, that's what blogging is all about.

The Fire Within

Jalal hameed Bhatti

Sometime back, I had a colleague in my office who had taken up evening classes in IT. One day I asked him how he was doing and was he learning. I am happy that I asked this question that day since the answer to my question led me to the world of www. He said that he had just begun to learning the web page designing. This was an interesting topic so I asked him to give me some details. So he took a paper and drew the basic tags of a web page (the thing). And that was the day I joined www.

The same day, I went to the market and bought a book on the basics of learning html and web page designing. Completely self taught, I made the first prototype of my website that I named “Pakistanpaedia”. I included some basic information and looked for free website hosting services. I soon found 0catch.com and hosted my website on it for free. And was glad to see my own website on www. I kept expanding it, when the same friend asked me to buy a domain name (like dot com, dot org or dot info etc). So I bought the www.pakistanpaedia.com and then there was no ending. Today, this site of mine has endless information on Pakistan including text, photos, videos and links to countless external sites. And it grows every day.

As if this was not enough, I bumped into yet another friend of mine, who had been lost for quite sometime ago and taken up to writing and had become a writer. So this friend of mine, who is known as SAJ Shirazi (of Doodh Patti fame) to a lot of people on the blog thing, asked to me to start writing a blog. I told him that I was not a good writer and my blog would not get any traffic at all. But he was instant, so one day I gave in and started a travelogue covering my travel experiences and places that I visited. But Shirazi wanted me to expand the scope and also suggested a new name for my blog: Jaho Jalal. With the new name taken, I entered into he world of blogs and really started enjoying. It is a place where one can write anything, express oneself and listen to the reverberations.

Now I keep adding whatever wanders into my mind, other than my travel experiences and sharing my photos, that I also share on the Flickr as Jalalspages. The forum also allows me to read what others are writing and how good. This would lead me to improving my substance and may be one day I also start writing as close to good as others are.

Aprons from Poduct Impex

Go to Macro - a local supermarket and you see bananas from Bangladesh, Coffee from Brazilian, toys from China, clothing from Pakistan and electronic gadgets from Japan. That is how International trading allows to expand our markets for both goods and services that otherwise may not have been available in local market o r would have been costly. It is the reason why you can pick between a Pakistan cotton products. As a result of international trading, the market contains greater competition and therefore more competitive prices, which bring a cheaper product home to the consumer.

As it opens up the opportunity for specialization and therefore more efficient use of resources, international trade has potential to maximize a country's capacity to produce and acquire goods. Opponents of global free trade have argued, however, that international trade still allows for inefficiencies that leave developing nations compromised. What is certain is that the global economy is in a state of continual change and, as it develops, so too must all of its participant

Everyone know that Pakistani cotton is the best in the world and cotton products like aprons, workwear or sports socks are the cheapest anywhere in the world. What is more, Pakistan is less cost intensive economy and labor too is cheaper.

Trading globally, Product Impex gives consumers and countries the opportunity to be exposed to goods and services not available in their own countries. Almost every kind of product can be found on the international market - towels, aprons, sports socks, beachwear, work wear like overalls and dangrees, edible salt and salt decorative products. Approach Produc Impex and see how they offer the best and the cheapest wholesale deals anywhere in the world?

DESiGN YOUR WRiTiNG LiFE

Lisa Gates

People are inherently curious and social. And what that means to me as a bloggerpreneur is that I'm here to meet the core human needs of information and connection. I keep blogging because beautiful humans keep showing up at Design Your Writing Life for my information and my connection. When it gets really quiet and I can hear my own echo, I know I've gone off the deep end somewhere and not paid attention to my community. I got on my pedestal somewhere and forgot to take off my tiara. People want to know everyday how I'm going to show up for them, and they want to know there's space for them in the conversation. An invitation.

I blog because it is the most direct, authentic forum for me communicate who I am and what I offer in my work as a writer and coach -- or more fun and accurate, a completion catalyst. Even in face-to-face conversation with clients and potential clients, I always refer them to my blog as a way of getting inside the process. They get to see another side, another view and a series of conversations all focused on their interests and my offer as partner in their process. And blogging has built my business far better than any other marketing tool I use.

A straight website has no appeal to me -- just words on the page with no engagement structure. Design Your Writing Life is about building community and relationship (isn't everybody's?) so I wanted to create a compelling collection of thinkers, feelers and do-ers who are passionate about moving great ideas, books, businesses and life projects to completion. And people are showing up!

Blogging well matters. There are a lot of coaches and consultants out there, some with dismal websites that make the profession look bad, honestly. We all need to strive to stand above the flak so we can be of service to each other and the profession. Blogging, writing well, and listening like I have a tuning fork embedded in my ears helps me find a POV that entices people to wonder what I'm writing about today. As a fairly new blogger, I don't always hit the mark, but that's my goal nonetheless. Ever evolving. I am constantly asking myself, "Am I there yet?" Of course, I never am...

Now here's some of the scratchy stuff: I am not into bells and whistles. No AdSense for me. I'm developing some ebooks and teleworkshops, but beyond that I avoid commercialization like the plague. I'm choosing to be patient and let the wildfire of conversation and word of mouth do its job. Of course, MyBlogLog, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, and all of those are incredibly helpful tools. But by far the best tool for blog building is going over and having morning coffee with your favorite bloggers and joining in their conversations and showing up with an offer to be of service, and a unique POV that adds to the conversation.

There is always something to write, to say. If I'm listening, observing, playing, connecting, reading, commenting and participating in a big way, there is always something to write. Writer's block is a convenient box to sit in when we really just want to say, "I don't wanna! I don't feel like it!"

In my work I am always striving to help people hook up core values with actions. So it seems only right that we, as bloggers, should state our core values, our mission, our authentic offer.

My top 5 core values: Fun, inspiration, connection, wild self expression and yep, completion.

Tag: Fine Art of Blogging

My Life in Progress

Maria Celina Gallo

My very first finished website was released to the digital ether towards the middle of the year 2000, when I was a sophomore in high school. I thought it would be cool to have a website, so I made one. It was a poetry site which exhibited rhyming narratives that I thought was ‘share’-worthy, and it was hosted on Homestead, when it was still unconditionally free. Afterward, I left the website alone to collect dust, and so did my interest in website making, until towards the end of my junior year in high school. I befriended someone when I was involved in a drama production in the first semester of the school year. We exchanged numbers, then interests. Before we knew it, we became very close. I found find out that she had a domain of her own. It looked good. She said something about ‘hard coding’ and the involvement of Notepad and other graphics-making applications. I nodded, seemingly coherent to the jargon. Either way, it piqued my interest again.

With a little pushing, my very first personal website was created and hosted on Envy. It had an endless range of different subpages – most being for anything I could think of that would warrant a page of its own -- whether it would follow up with further updates or sit there forever without much use, quite like a trophy spouse. Then I added a ‘journal’ subpage, thinking that it wouldn’t progress into anything worth mentioning.

I don’t know whether or not the addition of the journal was serendipitous or one of my life’s ironies, but over the course of time, my main focus for the website was on the ‘journal’ section. After finishing my homework, I would make a short update as well as little tweaks on the general website itself. The word 'blog' slowly seeped into the reality of those maintaining sites, and a major shift in the personal website trend happened, causing many to turn their online repositories of boredom into internet diaries. The journal would later relocate and go from free hosting to a host (after quite a number had made offers to host me) and jump hosts a few more times before I landed my own domain. I lost my entire journal when moving from free hosting to hosting, but started a new one. I registered for accounts in Diaryland and Diary-X, but those never lasted for long. Then I rediscovered Blogger. I used Blogger before, but never got the hang of the templates. It took me a while before something clicked in my head about a coding priniciple where I realised the solution was under my nose all along. That's when my 'journal' became a 'blog' or a ‘weblog’. My account in Blogger would last for two years until I changed to Wordpress through the judicious counsel of the one who re-introduced me into webpage making in the first place. Altogether, it held a record of the end of a tumultuous friendship, to my high school senioritis, and even my high school graduation and my first days of university. Four or so years later, it has recorded my life as a design student, yet another graduation, a collection of past memories, outings with friends and family, my journey as a follower of the Roman Catholic Church, and anniversaries with my boyfriend.

During this process, my weblog initially started off as an account of ‘what I did today’ entries sprinkled with references to people who I knew offline who read the site. Later, it became a collective of ideas and thoughts that I wanted to have written down and when I opened comments, shared as a dialogue between me and those who commented. This was particularly helpful when I had been going through some hard times in the initial part of my college years and my weblog became a tool of catharsis and release. After emerging victorious from those hard times, I eventually mixed the two and was able to write each entry in the form of a story. Soon, that became my method of blogging. As a believer in being honest, I also believe in the art of telling a good story, delivering the truth in a way that people can sit to read and enjoy and perhaps share in the experience. I soon became comfortable with this, and even started writing short stories in the place of ‘what I did today’s, to take the extra step in being creative. While there are things that I choose not to reveal on my weblog for either personal or professional reasons, I became a storyteller, a muse, and I had my own space to practice my craft; the space became my platform for me to exercise my personal voice.

Before blogging – or any form of public journaling – I found there was little space for the personal voice. The only options available were columns, and even then, were written by a select few. Integrity was vouched for by hard facts and generally accepted principles that left little room for dialogue and debate. If any, they were given a sentence or two of brief publication but only enough so that it could be forgotten in time. Only later when blogging become a popular and even commercialised through its use in news websites and endorsements by public figures (i.e. political leaders, celebrities), did the value of the personal voice become realised. When I would visit the websites of my favourite music groups, there would a weblog section for the band members to update their fans on the progress of their tours or upcoming songs and albums. Non-government organizations that have assisted in the recent natural and man-made disasters leave updates on what is going on with their relief work, giving readers a picture of the work that is being done in the affected area. News sites have weblogs set up for some reporters and are open to comments that could possibly be mentioned on television (though not necessarily directly to the reporters themselves). With the sudden influx of the ‘web 2.0’ movement and the integration of so many applications, blogging had also taken on many forms. Firstly, it became an optional function for networking sites, which have provided those who do not want to get their own external space for their outlet but still want to write every now and then. Also, video blogging and voice blogging evolved from the pre-existing written blog entries and photography blogging. Blogging had developed so much, and now, there were so many options at people’s disposal on how they wanted to go out projecting their own personal voice. I feel lucky to have entered the blogosphere relatively early because I went from a teenager to an adult in the process, and I became witness to its evolution and got the best of both worlds.

Success in blogging, for me, is personal, because the purpose of weblogs is likely to differ from person to person. My weblog, for most part, is personal, and most of my networking generally consists of those who share the similar purpose of ‘day to day with occasional thoughts’ blogging and a smaller circle consisting of people who know me offline that might know about its existence. The rest is all in the question of chemistry: if they like what they see, they come back, and the same goes for my personal preferences on weblogs: if I like what I see, I keep on returning. After all, I find that good personal weblogs showcase the author’s personality as well.

For a long time, I have viewed my own weblog as a documentation of my own life in progress, a never ending story done in first person in a very raw form. It only ends when the author calls for it, but that’s only the weblog, because a life will continue to be a work in progress. On the practical side, it has helped me maintain my passion for writing and is a helpful in terms of providing me an outlet that balances out my regular obligations. Being a design student, I have done assignments that require a lot of drawing and 3-dimensional modeling, but very little writing. I believe this is one of the reasons that keep me going until today. I just hope that regardless of how long my own weblog shall ‘live’, that it has a good ‘life’ while it lasted.