Blogging And Me

A blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom. ~Darren Rowse

Well that is a “traditional” and “literal” definition of blogging, isn’t it? My first impression of blog was a web-space where people wrote on various topics and everyone had their own web space to do it. So I guess this definition is better :-

A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list.

When I started blogging, the first thing I knew that I didn’t want to write the minute details of my daily life because I am a secretive person 🙂 Also I was not aiming to change the world with my writings.

One critical consideration when launching a blog is what you are going to call it. ~ Chris Garrett

So, I had decided to write down the thoughts I kept getting in my head when something interesting happened around me. And thus the second thing I did was that I came up with lamest title for my blog. 😀 [I had thought of changing the name but then my readers voted against it so I decided to stick with “My Random Thoughts”.] But my blogging frequency was negligible. After 3 months I decided to pursue blogging actively. I searched blogs on Google Blog search and started following a few Indian blogs. Soon I realised that :-

As I have repeatedly written in one form or other, blogging is not about writing posts. Heck, that’s the least of your challenges. No, blogging is about cultivating a mutually beneficial relationships with an ever-growing online readership, and that’s hard work. ~ Alister Cameron

Also I understood another important requirement for getting an online readership was linking and commenting. In fact that is the heart of blogging according to George Siemens. Soon my blogging journey gained speed and as of today these are my stats :-

163 readers who read my blog via Google Reader.

On my way I have even managed to inspire other people to start blogging! In his Blog Anniversary post, Kanagu wrote :-

Reema: One of the first few blogs, I have visited in blogosphere and I am still grateful of that. She has shown the way of what can be written in a blog. She had the command on whatever she was writing, which I have doubted whether I have at the start. But somehow I shrugged off that initial rustiness to write some meaningful posts. The first one in her blog that impressed me was this one.

Mahmud who calls me his Blogging Guru wrote in one of his comments at my blog :-

Reemapu, you might have marked that I had followed your blogging style madly as newbie… (pardon me for that please ) It’s because I was extremely impressed with your blogging style.(still I am, will be for sure… ). I started blogging with ‘Mistylook’ theme when you were using that one

Thank you so much dear Kanagu and Mahmud. You can’t imagine how happy you have made me with such words! This journey would have been impossible without YOU – my reader! As Deeps said in her post “I Am Because You Are”. And also the bloggers who made me blog in the first place. Taking the idea from Kanagu, I would like to mention some of the bloggers who have inspired me when I started my blogging journey.

# Suda -The first blogger I read and now a friend for life 🙂 And the only blogger I have met in real life yet. He has bought a new laptop and blogging was his top priority but he is still invisible. Come Back Stupid!

# Amit, Ishmeet and Ashish – Again bloggers on hiatus. Their blog posts were wonderful, their gang was cool and I loved reading them. Ashish aka The Geek Wrestler or The Emperor has even deleted his blog 😦 And oh! Amit has got engaged! Congrats!

# Nikhil – Once upon a time he used to be the funniest blogger and a good friend. Sadly he talked of deleting his blog

# Sandeep – His blog header was and is the cutest one I have ever seen! Good blogger and awesome photographer! Status? again Dormant!

# Arvind – His blog was my inspiration for blog layout! He is facing a very long writer’s block but can be found on orkut. 🙂

# Poonam – Her blogging style and topics influenced me a lot.

# Nita – She needs no introduction 🙂 When I saw her blog, I thought the quality of my posts must be as such that she starts to read my blog. 😀 I am honored that you read my blog and encourage me so much 🙂

# Sakhi – We started our blogging journey around the same time and she has has been a great support and friend throughout. LOL Dear! 😉

# Nova – She used to have the most beautiful theme and lovely short posts.Thankfully she is back now in blogosphere.

# Vishesh – His commitment and passion for blogging had impressed me very much! 3.5 yrs and 770+ posts!! Blog On Dear!

# Vimal – Not only an awesome blogger but also an awesome friend. Happy Dumbo? 🙂

# Adarsh – One of the oldest bloggers on my roll. Sadly he is also dormant but still comments once in a while. You still read my blog – that makes me happy!

# Dev – Again one of the oldest bloggers and a nice friend. He has converted his blog into a film blog as he is an aspiring film maker.

I met more wonderful bloggers along the way. Destination Infinity had awarded me the Addicting Blog Award.

Thank you DI! I pass on this award to the following bloggers :-

Smita, Deeps , IHM, Vee, Prerna, Man of Roma, Dinu, Indyeah, Kiran, Scorpria, Mahak, Harsha, Rashmi, Prateek Gupta, Monika, Harsh

Blogging started as a curiosity, developed as an interesting hobby and now is something I am good at. 🙂 It was never about the money for me and never will be. My blogging frequency has become less, but I hope it doesn’t end up like this even though I do tweet a lot! 😀

Yes, blogging is entertainment. It is performance. Each blog post a show, sometimes an opera, sometimes a 30 second commercial. Like a show, it may start with a bang, lead you along from song to song, have a great climatic moment, then leave the audience wanting more.~ Lorelle Van Fossen

I have been trying to entertain you, my reader, for the past two years and I hope I will continue to do so!! Hope the show goes on and you are there to watch it!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, My Random Thoughts!!

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