Blog has become a buzz word that can be seen everywhere on the internet. Like a ubiquitous identity, it has become a part of our lives and our internet friendly work environment. It is highly improbable that you open a page and do not notice the word- ‘blog’ written anywhere.

Rather than discussing how a blog can promote and affect a business let us find out what exactly it is and what has been its journey so far (but briefly).

Meaning or definition: According to Wikipedia a blog is a “Website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.”

The above definition might work in the exam paper but I would rather call a Blog as a means to communicate and share personal perceptions about the world and to the world. It is a collective voice of opinions and ideologies that does not restrict or hinder anyone. Generally web users find the highlight of a Blog with ‘Knowledge’ but another important facet that make it a rage is its aspect of ‘Interactive-ness’. Blogs empower people to leave comments and send each other messages via widgets on the blogs which distinguishes it from other stagnant websites.

Origin:

The first term was ‘Weblog’, coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 which was further shortened as ‘Blog’ by Peter Merholz. Before becoming what a modern Blog is today, it passed through various versions of digital communities and Internet forum software. Initially, blogs were updated manually but as time passed various tools allowed posting of Web articles in a reverse chronological order.

Popularity:

Blogging gained momentum in the year 1999 and onwards as five major blog tools were launched.

• Open Diary in October 1998 which started the ‘Comment’ feature in the blog entries.
• LiveJournal in March 1999
• Diaryland in September 1999 that allowed the users to write more on a personal diary format.
• Pitas.com in July 1999 that facilitated maintaining a news page on a Website.

• Blogger.com in August 1999 that included a variety of options to the Bloggers to write.

What followed was a fusion reaction as every industry whether political, religious or commercial started using Blogs to outreach the masses. As per the latest records there were over 156 million public blogs operational in February 2011.

I admit it. I’m a gamer first and a writer second. I first played a video game when I was 4 years old and I got hooked. Fast forward 18 years and I’m still playing video games whenever I get some free time and I will most probably be playing video games till the end.

During my journey through the virtual world, I have come across a couple of great games which I feel will be a great asset to writers and lovers of the English language.

1. Bookworm

There is only one word which can be used to describe this game, addictive. I installed this game on my mobile a couple of months back. I have scored more than 500,000 points and I’m still going strong. The pick up and play aspect of the game makes it a great game for newbies or n00bs as they are referred to in gaming terms.

2. Typing Of the Dead

What are you going to do when there is a zombie outbreak? Grab a gun? No silly, you grab a keyboard. After all, you are a writer, not a fighter. As the horde of zombies approach, quickly type out the words that you see on the screen to defeat them. What better way to speed up your typing than by threatening you with death.

3. Scribblenauts

The object of this game very simple, you have to make the character collect things called ‘starites’. You can do that by any means necessary, you get a keypad that you use to create items out of thin air. You can use a helicopter, a dinosaur or anything. Your imagination is the limit. The only problem is that it is only available for the Nintendo DS. But there are ways you can get it for the PC.

These are just a handful of the games that you can play to improve your skills as a writer. A quick search will turn out more. Although when it comes to me, I personally prefer the latest version of the Call of Duty franchise, or a long drawn game of Age of Empires with some of my friends.

Good bye to the old shows. It’s the era of reality shows in the Indian television industry, where every possible effort is made to project the reality in the reel life. If you look at the content of these shows, I wonder how many of you will actually call them reality shows; for me they are merely scripted shows to draw attention of the viewers and for raising the TRP’s. If using abusive language and violence is called a reality show then it is far better to switch off the idiot box.

If we look at the past era of Indian television, there were some great shows that certainly had good content for the viewers, especially the sitcoms. I remember my childhood days sitting with the family and watching some great shows that contributed towards clean and wholesome entertainment. The present scenario has some weird concepts that are not even meant to be watched with all the family members, according to the values our Indian culture. The concepts are such that it seems as if the producers of the so called ‘reality shows’ are tampering with the values of our culture and beliefs.

Some of the concepts are so brash and in-your-face that the Indian audience is not even ready to accept them. Do we still call them reality shows and make them a part of our entertainment schedule. In my opinion, reality shows are scripted with zero percent reality. The new set of reality shows presented on the Indian television is not even worth categorising under the reality show genres.

Writers do care about the incorporation of the keywords, but they forget to care for their eyes that are generally affected with Computer Vision Syndrome, commonly known as eye-strain. Staring at your monitor screens can be very strenuous and at the same time affect your performance. There are a few tricks that can help you keep your eyes sparkling and healthy.

Tiny Breaks

It is important that while working on systems for the whole day, you should look away from your screens every half an hour. Just leave your chair and move around for five minutes and feel fresh to come back and continue with your task. This will not only help you from eye-strain, but will also keep your mind refreshed.

Look Away

This small exercise can do wonders for your eyes. When you work on your desktop your eyes tend to get stuck in one focus, therefore it is important that in between your work you should look at an object that is placed at a distance from your seat for ten to fifteen seconds. This will help in maintaining your eyes focusing ability.

Palming

Well known yogic technique that you can practice while sitting on your seats. Just rub your palms till they get warm due to friction and them put them on your eyes for thirty seconds. Remember, not to press your eyes with your palms.

Acupressure

If you have frequent headaches, itching and burning sensation in your eyes then acupressure can help you a lot. Close your eyes and use the tip of your fingers to slowly massage your eyes, inner corners of your eyebrows and orbital bones. Relax, concentrate on the massage, do not have unnecessary thoughts in your mind and you will feel the difference once you open your eyes.

Blinking

Other than your keywords, do remember to blink in order to avoid dry and irritated eyes.

There I was, standing in the metro with my headphones glued to my ears and my thumbs dancing away on my phone as I try and defeat Darkseid, the final boss of the Superman/Batman game that I was playing. When suddenly, *beep-beep*, ‘LEARN PUBLIC SPEAKING…..’. “NOO…” I exclaimed as quickly deleted that message, but alas, I was too late. Batman had been defeated and the only option I had was to start the whole game all over again and I was too angry to do that. So I just stood there, one part of my brain worshipping Iron Maiden, while the other was thinking of some choice words for the advertiser who sent that message.

We live in the information age. We live in a time where a person can locate the nearest pizza parlour at the touch of a button and we can find out all the important details of a girl/guy before we even meet them. Unfortunately, everything has a positive and negative side. The flipside to the information age is that we are no longer shown advertisements, we are bombarded by them.

They are everywhere, look out the window, open the newspaper, turn on the TV, visit a webpage, and , thanks to the miracle of 3G coverage, you can get advertisements straight to you, even if you are on the top of Mount Everest (that’s a fact). Aggressive advertising has become such a pain that the ‘100 sms/day’ rule was passed just to contain it. Think about it, people are willing to give up a bit of their freedom just to avoid advertisements.

Of course, that doesn’t change anything, we still are bombarded with advertisements and promotions as though we are mindless cattle who wouldn’t know what to do if left to their own devices. Take for instance a certain actor who ran an extremely long and complicated publicity campaign for his new movie. How bad is your product if you have to force feed it to the public to make sure that they use/see it.

I get it, advertisements have to be there. People would like to know about new and interesting products. But keep in mind that there is something called ‘too much’. Subtlety and class will still get you customers, forcing them to buy something via constant texts and humongous billboards in front of their noses will only make them mad.

I hope that advertisers will read this blog and understand the plight of the consumer. Now if you’ll excuse me, Batman has a score to settle.

Blogs have come up a long way from a platform where people expressed their personal thoughts to the business world where they are considered a vital tool for marketing. It was just a few years back when people were expressing their opinions on different issues through blogs and slowly it became a publicity tool where celebrities started communicating with rest of the world. The success of blogs soon made them known to the marketing world where increasing competition was treated with this new tool. A drastic change has been seen in the formats of blogs. They are no plain web pages as content has become more organised, sorted and presentable. With the speed blogs have come up to a professional level shows blogging power and popularity in present business scenario.

Recent surveys have showed businesses that indulge in blogging are successful in maintaining their image and popularity compared to those who have still not experienced the blogging power. Blog definitely deserves the top status for the benefits it offers and the wonder it has done for small and large businesses. It will not be wrong to say that soon online marketing will have one chapter within the whole concept and this will be “blogs.” Firstly, blogs have provided one on one communication platform where through comments people can participate and express their views and opinions. Secondly, brand building is something where blogs have acted like catalyst, increasing the rate of speed in climbing the ladder. Thirdly, blogs have helped in building public relations with the key customers for expanding the business. Fourthly, web traffic is one of the most important factors that have made blogs come in the online marketing world. Lastly, nothing is free in this world, but blogs cater to every aspect without any fee charged. There are free blogging sites where you just have to get, set and go writing.

As it is with most things in life, practice makes perfect. This is also true when it comes to writing. Writing is a skill which requires patience, practice and repetition.

One way to make writing a regular habit is by setting you a number of goals. You could set yourself simple goals like starting a blog, but it would be a better idea to set yourself a number of specific goals which are a bit harder to accomplish, a goal which isn’t impossible and can be accomplished through diligence, like for instance writing 3 or 4 blogs per day.

Another thing you can do is to commit yourself to a scheduled routine. Choose a date which can be easily fit in to your already tight schedule. If you do not have a fixed schedule, writing will become a victim of procrastination and will never be completed. If you do make a schedule, writing an article per day will come as naturally to you as brushing your teeth.

If you do not feel connected with whatever you are writing, the solution can be something as simple as a change of topic. It is perfectly natural if a writer churns out a lousy article if he can’t connect to it. Try to choose topics which are to your interest. If you have to choose a certain topic, try and put your own angle to it so that it gains a bit of interest

You can also create an ideal work environment around you which will stimulate your mind’s eye. Maybe you need a clean work environment with no sounds or distractions. Or maybe you need a bit of music and a cup of coffee to kick start your brain. Find out what works best for you.

Sometimes I wonder why people kept a pseudonym while writing a book, was it because they wrote about something controversial or because they had apprehensions if they could even write, but there was a lot more to this fact. There were times when women writers were considered inferior to their male counterparts and hence kept a male pseudonym to become accepted and read in the society. Even those female writers preferred to remain in anonymity for the fear of being rejected and admonished. The biggest example of the 21st century that comes to belittle us is, J.K. Rowling, the writer who sold more than 400 million copies for her maniacally famous ‘Harry Potter’. She launched her first book of the series with a pseudonym – Joanne Rowling. Everyone is aware of George Eliot, A.M Barnard and Andy Stack that have stirred the bestseller lists and won numerous literary awards but names such as Mary Ann Evans, Louisa May Alcott and Ann Rule are still mysterious to masses. The latter are the names of female writers behind the so-called renowned names.

It’s difficult to imagine a world of literature sans female authors whose books we repeatedly read and regard as classics. The saddening part is that despite all the accomplishments, writers’ credibility is still judged on basis of the gender. But can we only blame only those narrow minded publishers? After all, they act according to the mindset of the masses. Female authors have constantly challenged the stereotyping and still do. People somewhere question these unnecessary beliefs that they have associated themselves for no obvious reason and for those who still firmly believe in the orthodox and sexist perception; it’s time for them to feed their century old starving brain cells.

Be it a book author or a blogger or for that matter any kind of writer, what connects them with the reader is the words they write. The reader creates an image of the writer through his/her columns, blog posts, books and articles and tends to perceive the likes and dislikes of the writer from what he/she writes.

As the festivities come to an end in the office and we all get back into work mode, I thought it would be interesting to interview some of our writers, so that you get to know the people behind this blog. Read on to know about three people from our team of young and enthusiastic writers.

Isha has been with us for 7 months and believes chocolates help her fight writer’s block. Full of mischief, you’ll always see a smile on her face.

CWI: How do you manage to come up with interesting content even when the project is not very inspiring?

Isha: Although I can never make out if the content written will be able to please or interest the reader but I make sure that I’m not bored while writing on the topic. That’s the only way I keep myself going. Creating a milieu of various notions and incorporating different perspectives into a topic makes it writable and readable. Well, I too after a point surrender in front of the failing-to-cease and not-so-happening projects and just plain write.

CWI: Okay, now a non-work question – What would you prefer: A shopping spree or an evening out with friends?

Isha: Oh! It’s like asking a mother to choose her favorite child among her children… I can’t let go of any of them, since the happiness quotient attached with both of them are different. Going by my past track record I will say ‘ an evening out with friends’. Woohooo… Where’s the party tonight?

Our next writer Shrey is from Goa (one of the biggest reasons we like him!). He is the motor-mouth of our office and is known for coming up with witty articles consistently.

CWI: Before you start off with a new project, do you play around with different ideas or follow a similar format every time?

Shrey: It depends on the deadline. If it’s tight then I usually follow a simple and common format. But if I have some time on my hands then I usually try something new and different. To tell you the truth, I generally just copy a nice format from my colleagues, saves a lot of time. I hope you edit out that last part. (Sorry Shrey!)

CWI: Apart from playing computer games nonstop, what is your idea of relaxing on a weekend?

Shrey: I usually just sleep all day or read books and play video games, but every now and then I am surrounded by a couple of friends with a bottle of beer in one hand and something to eat on the other one. Sitting in a bar or on the terrace watching the sun drop down into the city, talking about absolutely nothing in particular. Though following Monday becomes a nightmare!

Sid is one of the most versatile writers we have in our team. From a travel writer to a tech expert, he can churn up interesting content even under the tightest of deadlines.

CWI: Sid, we all know that ‘content creation’ is about creativity. What is your take – is the creative process exciting for you or plain hard work?

Sid: I dare say it is ‘plain hard work’. Creativity is the major player in content creation. Hard work is just a part of it, but you just can’t do away with that also!! However, deadlines are the ghosts. Creativity may go away for a vacation if deadlines are there to haunt you.

CWI: You’ve written a lot on gadgets, what is the most must-have gadget for you?

Sid: Undoubtedly the iPad. It’s the coolest gadget I ever saw. Though I am not as tech savvy as Shrey, but I would definitely go for an iPad. The features are just awesome!

A person who has good grammar and command over the language can write good SEO articles, but, only till the time when s/he is not stuck by ten articles every day on the same keyword for next five days. Trust me this is the time when every writer has to face a few minutes or may be hour to sit and stare at the keyword on the screen to think about a new angle (that is just next to impossible) that s/he can give to the article. And then after thinking for a long time at last surrenders and change the format (this time lets add bullets to simplify) rather than a new angle to write one more article on the same keyword.

Sometimes it will be a pleasant surprise for you to write on a topic that you have never thought can be written about and it will be more interesting to know that the keywords just not match to the thyme of the articles. Being an SEO expert (one will become after writing a few sets on same keywords) all you can do is find ways to fit in the keywords, squeeze them, hide them do anything, but have them in your article. The best way to escape from this scenario is to match the topic with the knowledge you have and try and put in your own experiences related to that topic. Make sure that the keywords come in the articles with a natural flow.

You may also come across a time when you have to write on the topic that you never came across in your life. Do not stress yourself. Search and read as much as you can on the topic so that the number of articles can be completed. When writing SEO, think how to do rather than thinking what to do (though it will be not very easy for you to think in this manner). This will surely reduce your burden when you need to come up with ten original articles on the same keyword.