Guest Post: Around The World in Just A Day or Two!

No, it’s not really about Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any reference to any form of communication on the Internet or movies for that matter.

I love to travel. Looking at the list of countries I have visited, I’m quite proud to say that I’ve been to Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Cambodia, Turkey, Italy, and France. I am 25 and recently got married and moved from Malaysia to the United Kingdom. Of course, I don’t intend to end that list just yet!

I was enjoying a nice long bath not too long ago, and this triggered the thought of my friends back in Malaysia. Don’t get me wrong – we don’t share baths! But the nice warm feeling reminded me of the common poolside area we have in the condominium where I used to stay. That was where we neighbours usually met, gathered with friends, ate and bantered about life. That made me suddenly realize that I probably know more about the rest of the world than without realizing it!

Guest Post: Giving your blog a much needed makeover

Sometimes a blog just won’t work in the way that its creator originally envisioned it. And that’s ok; blogging is all about embracing change and implementing good ideas. Most bloggers try again when one idea doesn’t pan out. But when you’re assessing the success of your own blog, it can be hard to accept signs of failure. An unsuccessful blog isn’t something that just happens overnight; the causes and symptoms can be seen over its entire lifespan. These signs are universal for any failing blog, including (but not limited to) the following events:

1. Infrequent blog posts on topics not worth posting about in the first place (i.e. posts about being busy, posts that promise more posts in the future, and so on)
2. Few (or close to zero) comments on any of your posts
3. Little enthusiasm or drive on your part to contribute new material to the blog
4. The existence of numerous blogs that do what you try to do better, funnier, or faster

And that’s one year since I started blogging and tweeting!

6th July 2009 was when I made my first post on this blog. I give the sole credit to Himanshu Bhagat (2008-10) batch of SIBM Pune MBA Marketing for “indirectly” bringing out the social media guy in me. A team called the Internet Communications and Blogging team was established a year back to maintain the Official SIBM Blog and the entire online communications of SIBM Pune. I applied, got selected and the rest is history.

As my first post says, I used to write earlier in bits and pieces like some articles in Times of Oman and had been a part of editorial teams at college. But my real writing began when I started blogging. Be it my love life, friends, political issues, social issues, economic issues, I began writing about anything and everything. While writing, I realised that there was so much I wanted to speak about but probably wasnt able to. So if one isnt able to communicate very well in terms of physical communication, writing is the best medium to reach out to the world out there.

As I went on writing, I also realised that if I was interested in something, I could write a post about it in just 20 mins. Many people have always asked me as to how I choose the topics for my blog posts. I would like to say that whatever I write, I strongly feel about each of those things. I never make a conscious attempt to think much before on a topic and then write. Whenever I get an idea to write on something, I just pen down my thoughts.

Interestingly on the same day I joined Twitter too. This was also too for the team work. But I did create my account because I was told to do so. Truthfully speaking I didnt know anything about Twitter before and had the usual question as to what should I tweet about. Till November I had just about 150-200 tweets. But then all of a sudden I started tweeting like crazy. As I started getting the hang of it, I realised the importance of networking. This is the reason I improved my Linkedin account to what it has become today.

And so today, I am connected to 280 odd people on Linkedin, have 12,600+ visits on my blog with more than 7000+ new visitors with a rank of 72/100 by Indiblogger and 550 odd followers on Twitter. The statistics apart, I have realised the importance of having a very good social media presence in these times.

There are a couple of things I know I still have to improve on my blog like the design, making it interactive etc. Its all a work in progress and I am sure with time I would able to improve a hell lot.

Lately I have began my biggest ever project ever – Writing a novel. I have miles and miles to go before I sleep and I really want to be in this field for a long run.