Fine Art of Bloging

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!

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.

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.