April 22nd, 2007
My Piece for the ‘Fine Art of Blogging’ Project
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Diogenes at ‘Quasi Fictional Views’ asked me to contribute a piece for her ‘Fine Art of Blogging’ project. Blogging biggies like Liz Strauss and Chris Garrett have contributed to the project previously and I’m truly touched that Diogenes asked me to participate. Diogenes asked me to answer a few questions about my blogging and here’s the piece as it appears on her blog.
What is my blog to me?
At the simplest level, my blog is a repository of my thoughts and ideas. It is also a white board where I experiment with words and projects, a place where I try to find my voice as a writer, and a project that will become my purpose, my calling, or my legacy. My blog is also a medium to create new conversations with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and some of these conversations have already become entrenched into friendships.
Why do I blog?
I started blogging because I wanted to be a writer, to write for a living, but wasn’t sure if I had the voice or the discipline to shape it into literature. Blogging was one way to find out.
Over time, however, why I blog has changed. It is not only about writing anymore, it is also about ideating, creating conversations and helping others find their own voice and purpose.
Take, for example, my Desi Blog of the Day series, where I offer gratuitous blogging tips to one known or unknown desi blogger everyday. To most people, especially to the more established bloggers, it probably means nothing at all. However, to some bloggers it does, and it feels great to know that, by taking out a little time, I have been able to help someone else, in at least a small way. I’m now planning to start a desi blogging network that will help new bloggers in India find their own voice and an audience for it.
Another example is my 30 by 30 list, or the thirty things I want to do before I am thirty. It’s a very ambitious list and every single thing on it looks impossible today. I’m trying to do two things with the list. One, by putting it out there in the public domain, I have committed myself to it, and the amount of positive energy it has already generated for me is amazing. Second, if I do get all the thirty goals on my list, or most of them, it would be such a positive example to motivate others to go all out for their own goals.
What do I blog about?
Gauravonomics is my personal weblog, an online diary, but I also offer blogging tips for beginners and write about desi blogging, desi popular culture and marketing in a converged world.
What have been my blogging high points?
Every time I create a new conversation online is a high point, but the big high points will be getting all the thirty goals on my 30 by 30 list and setting up my desi blogging network.
What is my blogging philosophy?
You need to give others a reason to visit your blog. You also need to give others a reason to continue reading your blog. Focus all your energies on finding that reason and, once you do find it, let your readers know.
Diogenes and I first got to know of each other through my Technorati Favorites Exchange and creating new conversations like this was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote about using linkbait projects for discovering new blogs, not only exchanging links.
