How Successful is your Blog ?

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long gap between my last post and this one. I was compelled to sacrifice my on-line time for something else. I’ll get to it in a short while. But first, I’d like to thank you all for responding so zealously to my previous post. It’s good to receive flak and/or appreciation for my views than to have a passive reader, whilst it also broadens my ken of understanding. This kind of dialogue helps me see the flaws in my argument as well. So, I would encourage all of you to share your thoughts and opinions.

The reason for my absence here, is that I was hooked to the hit television action drama 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland. I became so addicted to the serial, that I ended up watching 48 episodes(season 1 & 2) in 7 days. I couldn’t help it, each episode ends with a to-die-for suspense string, that I had to watch the next episode. Well, I’ve snapped out of the 24 reverie for the time being. And I’ve decided to watch seasons 3,4, 5 at a future date. As of now, I’ve got my social and on-line life back .

Coming back to the topic at hand, me and many other bloggers out there, are trying to figure out the recipe for a successful blog. What does “successful” mean in this context ? It means to have a regular and growing stream of readers; readers who not only cherish reading the blog, but also contribute their views, ideas and thoughts for each and every post. Successful also means that the readers either hate or love the author’s ruminations. There is no scope for mediocrity. Everybody likes mediocre products, but not necessarily love it. A great product always evokes extreme emotions from its users, they either ‘love‘ it or ‘hate‘ it. Similarly, readers of a great blog will either swear by it or will try to abolish it. A successful blog also converts it’s readers into passionate evangelists who spread the word to others, and before you know it your blog feed is being subscribed by several thousand RSS clients.

There are many good features of a successful blog, but the one’s which stand out are:

Original Content:

Every topic discussed, every idea written in your blog should shine with originality. There are gazillion blogs out there who just plagiarize each other. In their quest to jump into the blog bandwagon, many just copy paste ideas from other sources. The key to make your blog stand out is to always have original thoughts. Dare to take a dive into unknown topics, who says you have to be an expert to discuss anything. Just think aloud, type out your thoughts and you’d end up with ideas nobody else thought of. Try it, it is not as difficult as you think. Try brainstorming your topic of discussion, write down as many random words, sentences that come to your mind during this session. Then re-wire these random words and sentences into something meaningful, try connecting the dots to get the complete picture. The end result would be a highly original version of the topic ever written.

Make it worth reading:

Whenever I write a line or a para in my post, I imagine a fictitious parrot sitting on my shoulder, asking me “Is that line really required? Do the readers give a damn about it ?”. Validate everything you write before posting it on your blog. Ask yourself again and again, whether this will make the readers care. If your answer is yes, then your blog is in safe hands.

But, if the answer is no, then do something about it.

Keep it short:
Again, this formula manifests itself in many of my previous posts. I’ve re-iterated this idea here, because I’ve read long posts which lose their momentum half way through. The writers start to deviate from their central theme and eventually the readers attention wanders off with the theme. So, in general, it is best to have short and precise posts with strong and rich content. Though, there are few exceptions like Paul Graham or Steve Yegge.

These are the few basic characteristics that I’ve observed in many successful blogs. And if you want your blog to have that kick-ass element to it, try to inculcate these basic features.

If you’re successful in doing this, tell me how .

You’ve Got Email

 

Email ettiquetes have been discussed with much gusto in productivity books like Getting Things Done, and there are thousand posts out there on LifeHacker about this topic. So, I’m not gonna re-invent the wheel. But, I’d like to touch upon few common email fallacies that I’ve come accross and which tick me off. This post focuses mainly on business emails or work related emails, and the faults pointed out here, may or may not apply to personal emails.

Bad Grammar:

Whenever I receive an email, which is adorned with lines such as : “The bug have been in the codes for 2 months.”, I weep silently. You can get away with inferior grammar, only if you’re as hot as Salma Hayek and you have an equally sexy spanish accent. If you don’t satisfy these criterias, and you suck at basic grammar, you’re doomed, my friend. Bad grammar , not only puts a question mark on your hold over english language, but also undermines your credibility. You may be very efficient at your work, but if you write emails embellished with faulty grammar, the final impression on your colleagues or supervisors would not be so rosy. Personally, bad grammar is a big turn off for me.

Despite popular belief, not only people with vernacular background have been accussed of poor grammar, but also few Europeans and Americans have their share of occassional grammar slips. So, if you feel that your grammar needs improvement, please take special efforts to improvise your grammatical vein. My tip: read more, write often, take grammar lessons online( if required), and get this handicap out of the way, before it turns into a hindrance in your path to success.

Don’t Write a Book:

I’ve read emails which can very well be the next best seller fiction novel, if sent to a good publisher. Yeah, I tend to exaggerate my metaphors a lot, when I want to emphasize my point. Well, what I mean is, write short, precise and to-the-point mails. Use phones for long conversations/discussions, don’t type it out in a mail. Keep the mail as concise as possible and most importantly stick to the facts and the matter-on-hand.

Respect others time, people are busy, they have tight schedules, they have meetings to attend, don’t expect them to read through your saga. Infact, writing long mails has proven to be counter-productive, because it tends to conceal the actual message in the mess of unimportant and useless statements. As a rule, always limit your mails to at most 10 lines. This is what I follow, and it has proven to be very effective for eliciting the exact response from the recepient.

Know Your Audience:

It really annoys me, when I receive an email that doesn’t concern me or my work at all. I call these mails as: unintended spam. The sender of the mail, assumes that the information contained within, might be useful to me and decides to add me in the “To” or “Cc” list.

I can’t put my finger on the exact reason, why some people have the inclination to include everybody they know in the email list. They are very much aware of the fact that certain people in the list really don’t need to read the mail. Maybe they feel, it’s harmless to add couple of people. But, it just goes to show that you don’t respect others time. It might also irritate the receiver, when he realizes that the mail wasn’t intended to be dropped in his/her mailbox in the first place. So, be considerate of others time and be careful before hitting the “Send” button by making sure that you’ve included only those people who should/must read the mail.

Lastly, never write an email when your mood is rotten, or when you’re angry. You usually end up writing an emotionally charged mail, which might hamper your relationship with the receiver. I’ve burnt my fingers doing this, and it is from my experience that I advice you to strictly forbid any kind of communication when you’re furious about something.

Well, that’s all I’ve got in my sack of experience. If you’ve got any more email related wisdom, do share it with me and let me know your opinion on this topic.

Yahoo Pipes

Yahoo, this week launched a curious, but interesting service called Pipes. The official description says:

Pipes is a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. The name of the service pays tribute to Unix pipes, which let programmers do astonishingly clever things by making it easy to chain simple utilities together on the command line.

In layman terms, it means you can filter your feeds according to your tastes in a clever and intuitive way. For e.g. if you subscribe to 100 feeds, but you’re selective about certain tags/topics; pipes provides a visual mechanism to do so. It allows much more than that. You can play around with different feeds from different sites, mash them up and create something new. It looks original and promising and although there are certain rough edges, it has potential to evolve into a very cool browser tool. I haven’t played around with it much, but soon a post on how to hack these pipes will follow.

Pipes already has created buzz in the online community. Probably it’ll give Yahoo the required edge over its steep competitor Google.

Check it out.

UPDATE: I just stumbled upon a wonderful post by Tim O’ Reilly on Pipes. A very different perspective of looking at this tool.

My First snowFALL Experience

I woke up to a very chilly morning, today. I was freezing, so I checked my cranky room heater to see if it was working properly. It was. A weird scraping noise, similar to the noise generated when you rub paper on your head, fell on my ears. It seemed to come from outside the window covered by curtains. I moved the window curtain to examine the source of the noise. What I saw next will be etched in my memory forever. I glanced beyond my window to see snow flakes dropping from the sky with delighted harmony, accompanied by gusty, rebellious wind. The entire lane beneath my window and the cars parked nearby were covered with snow. The slanting roof tops, which otherwise do not elicit wonder, looked pristine with all the white colour smeared by millions of snow particles.I dashed through my daily morning activities, dressed up quickly, and stepped outside . I was bursting with excitement to experience my first ever snowfall. On any other day, my routine constitutes of stopping at Reeves for doughnuts, a quick halt at Starbucks to grab my usual dose of caffeine, and then a brisk walk to my office. Today, I was consciously walking slow, relishing the experience of strolling the streets and sidewalks covered with ice; watching the cars muscle their way through the snow; admiring the tiny little birds wrestling the frosty weather to fetch food for their young ones.

I looked around to see if anybody shared my joy, but everybody else looked grumpy and gloomy. They reminded me of the colony of ants who go berserk when someone splashes drops of water on them. Maybe the snow has disrupted their routine, maybe they don’t like the biting weather. I didn’t care. I was joyful in my heart and wanted to express it. I recalled Gene Kelly’s “Dancing in the rain” song, and I mulled over a question, “Why didn’t anybody write a “Dancing in the snow” song ? Hmm..well, I’ll do it. It’ll be history in the making. ” I got carried away by this thought and tried to move my legs to jump like a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, providence had other plans. My left leg slipped awkwardly on the icy surface,I lost my balance on the right leg and began my descent to my right. My reflex action prompted my hands to grab a light pole which was just within my hands reach. I saved myself from falling, but was still holding on to the pole for balance.

A spectator, standing 10 meters away from me, would now see a right angled triangle, wherein I was the hypotenuse, the pole was the perpendicular side and the slippery street was the base. I tried to regain my original balance, before I become the butt of everybody’s geometric humour. I guess, it was too late. I heard a stifled giggle to my left. I turned my head to find 2 school girls smiling at me.

One of them said, “Watch your step, mister, the roads are too slippery”. The tone had a mocking tinge to it.
I could only manage a mumbled, “I know !”.

I went red with embarrassment, though. Now, this claim isn’t entirely true. You see, I cannot possibly go red in the literal sense, considering the fact that my skin colour is wheatish brown. So, let me rephrase that, I went “red+brown” with embarrassment.

As I struggled to break the triangle created by me to save myself from further disgrace, I heard the other girl say to her friend, “Wanna bet…5 bucks, he will fall down !!”

I exclaimed ” Whaa….”, but before I could complete my exclamation, my hands slipped on the wet pole, and my feet went off balance. Needless to say, I fell grandly.Geometrically speaking, the hypotenuse was now parallel to the base.
The two girls bursted out laughing, as if they just saw Charlie Chaplin run with his pants on his head.
I now understood the wisdom of why nobody attempted a “Dancing in the snow” song.

Well, I picked myself up as gracefully as possible and ambled my way to Starbucks, which thankfully was just a few blocks away.

It was indeed my first snowFALL :-> !!!!