Blogging37 » Razib Ahmed

What is your mission statement as a Blogger?

Razib Ahmed — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:55:13 +0000

Mission statements are important for companies. Well, when you are a professional blogger then it is like a business. In fact, it is everyway like a business. You have to manage many things and surely, you want to grow in terms of traffic, Google backlinks, page rank etc. You want more recognition for your blog and for yourself.
So, when you start blogging, you should have a mission statement. It is not mandatory but having one will may just bring some extra benefit. Then you know what your goal is and how you want to achieve it.
Today, I was thinking about it. I do not know what my mission statement in blogging. I do not know about it because I entered into blogging at a very instable and abnormal condition in my life. I was in a situation that I had no where to go and nothing to do.
Anyway, my main problem had been the limitations I always face in a third world country. In terms of traffic, I had a fabulous last 4 months but the money was not good. The reality is that I have to wait another 2 months or may be 4 months to get back to full health and then I can start in a good way from 2011.

Having a Fixed Plan is a Good Thing

Razib Ahmed — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:45:59 +0000

Today is the beginning of a new month (September 2010) and from today, I am going to follow a fixed plan for myself and for my team. The good thing is that we know what we should do everyday.
I have also made a target that is achievable. In the past, always my main problem was that I used to put an ambitious target and it was never achieved. As a result, I felt frustrated and stressed out. Actually for success in blogging, we do not need to do a lot of things but what we need to do is to work smartly and work every day.
Also, it is better to focus only in one blog. This is the wisest decision that I have taken in my life. We have a team of 5 bloggers. Two are sick and are not working. One is supposed to return after one month and the other after two month. Another blogger is still not upto the mark. I myself is half fit and I am hopeful of becoming fully fit within 1 month. So, only one person is working full time now.
Thus, within two months, we hope that we will our team of 5 bloggers fit and working full time for a single blog. It has been a very tough last one year for me and my team. However, we just could hang on and now we are hoping for a very future.

Now Focusing on Just One Topic

Razib Ahmed — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:31:38 +0000

This is perhaps the best lesson I have learnt in blogging so far. I spread myself thin across many topics and in the end, I could not become expert on anything. Not only me, I guided another two Bloggers in the same way: jack of all trades but master of none. As a result, after 4 and half years, we went no where. Now, I have decided to just focus on only topic.
Yes, we are going to focus on technology- writing about gadgets and devices. This is one of the toughest decisions of my entire life. More than anyone else, I enjoyed writing about sports, business, South Asia and perhaps literature. However, doing this was not taking us no where.
We are really good in writing about sports and South Asia but sports may bring traffic but not money. We live in a country with no Paypal. So, getting direct advertisement is an impossible proposition. Even we cannot buy a dedicated server if our blog becomes very popular.
We have to work within our limitations and that is why, I have decided to focus solely on technology. This is the field that can bring good revenue for us as it had done it in the past.

Another Recession will be Catastrophic for Many Bloggers

Razib Ahmed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:42:39 +0000

Unfortunately, experts in the US are talking these days about double-dip recession. The recession that started in 2008 has not fully gone yet. A new recession will make matters worse for many people including Bloggers.
The recession that started in 2008 had very bad impact on blogs. Some blog networks were forced to layoff Bloggers or decrease the salary substantially. They stopped hiring new Bloggers. Many individual Bloggers saw their income decreasing.
The thing that affected me most was that I saw decrease in epcm (earning per 1000 page views). In the last 3 months, my blogs had 1.5 million page views but income was that much like past.
In other words, my blogs had half million page views each month for the last 3 months and if I had got it in 2007 or early months of 2008 then it would have really made me rich. Now, it is just bringing enough money to survive in a decent way.
So, another recession will only make matters worse for Bloggers like me. Well, I guess that the recession will not come this year because Obama Administration will try to prevent it. However, if they cannot become successful then things will get worse for the entire world.

Every Entry Counts in Blogging

Razib Ahmed — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:13:31 +0000

I have 3 blogs that get at least 50,000 page views a month. I have noticed that only a few entries bring 70%-80% traffic of a blog. For example, the blog Techtainment is the best example. The blog has 2700+ entries but only 15 entries bring 70% of the daily traffic.
The same can be said about the other two blogs. So, you may wonder that what is the benefit of writing the other entries. Well, just think of a football or soccer match. The two teams are attacking for 90 minutes but they score very few goals. Often, there is no goal in a soccer match.
Thus, in blogging, the same thing happens. You have to increase your archive by writing every day. The bigger your archive is the stronger it gets in Google search. So, when you write a quality entry then it brings good traffic from search engines.
That is why, every entry counts in blogging. For example, I know very well that this entry will not bring anything for me but it will help to increase the amount of entries in my archive for this blog.

Going Back to my Roots in Writing

Razib Ahmed — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:49:01 +0000

It is raining a lot outside now with heavy thunderstorms. The sound of the thunders took me to the past. It took me to the rainy season of 1997 when I started writing in newspapers seriously. At that time, we used to live just outside of the city and the area did not have any modern facility.
So, heavy rain like this meant that there would be no electricity. Our roof was made of tin not of brick. So, some water would leak and fall in my room. This was a natural part of life. I started writing in the newspapers amidst this kind of condition. Well, I have to admit at least to myself that I suffered a personal and mental shock that time and I felt the best way to escape was writing.
Anyway, it is my roots and how I can forget it. Now, after 13 years, I am writing this in on August 2010. Wow, it is 13 continuous years of freelance writing for me. Sometimes, I joined a university or two and taught but it was mostly freelance writing.
I started writing mainly in Bengali (my first language). However, 4 years ago, I shifted to blogging and I have been writing almost everything in English language.
Now, it is time to again make a new start to my writing career. I have decided to focus more on quantity instead of quality. Writing has brought a lot of success for me. Yes, for many years, there was all the stress about money but since I turned a professional blogger, things have become much better for me. I have mental peace and a happy life with minimum amount of stress.
Actually, my stress did not originate because I decided to become a freelance writer. It happened because it was my bad fate to be born in a bad family. Anyway, I am out of these bitter past and I stand at a point of life now that I am really free from the bitter past and I can feel that a very bright and happy future is waiting for me.
I suffered many setbacks and failures in writing but now, I have no sadness for them. In fact, Internet has brought the freedom for me. It has given me the platform to publish my writings. Blogging is the platform that I always needed. No need to wait whether others like my writings or whether others would publish or give me money in time.
Blogging has indeed brought the freedom from stress and unhappiness.
I talked about my roots because at first, it was a very tough struggle for me to become a writer. I could never focus on quality as I had to think of money more than quality. Thus, there was always some kind of missing feeling as a writer for me. Now, I have reached to the point that I really can think of quality.

Starting from the scratch again

Razib Ahmed — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:05:17 +0000

Again, my blogging career has taken a dramatic turn. I moved my Laptop blog from Blogspot to a domain: http://www.laptopet.com/
What happens is that at first, we have to lose Pagerank and Google Backlinks. Even, the new entries get indexed slowly. Still, I am happy for this move. The good thing is that I could sustain the traffic. It gets around 1400 page views after the shift, traffic has not decreased. So, I am happy.
Well, it is not beginning from the scratch but for 1 month or 40 days, we will not get the expected result from our efforts. The entries need some time to get the strength in Google search results.
It is again some hard work and we will try our best. In fact, we are in a transitional period. I have to wait another 10-11 days and then start professionally.
I am optimistic this time as I have learnt a lot about blogging, traffic and SEO.

Cut your Coat According to your Cloth

Razib Ahmed — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:35:05 +0000

One of the problems in life we face is that we often forget our ability and then try something beyond our ability. This is the important lesson I have learnt while blogging.
The main mistake I have made until now is to try for several blogs at the same time and as a result, I could not become successful despite being a hard working person. I have read extensively about blogging and SEO in the last 2 years.
Blogging is not a mysterious thing to me anymore. I know how to get traffic. However, because I have always tried for several things at the same time, I could not become successful in any of them.
It is really better late than never. Now, I feel enlightened about blogging and about life. We are going to try for our blog on Laptop and Gadget. It is called Laptopet.
I am happy because the economic recession in USA has become tolerable and hopefully within 6 months, things will improve.

How to Ensure that Blogging remains as a Fun?

Razib Ahmed — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:18:51 +0000

To be honest with you, this is my problem. I started blogging for earning money and fun. At first, I enjoyed blogging a lot but then it became a source of too much stress. Now, I even cannot work 20% like past. From fun, it became a source of stress for me. Today, I was thinking that how it can be fun again.
The main problem that I realized is that I became too much consumed with it. I became mad for traffic and blogging success. I forgot to take any rest and I tried to read a lot about this field. Well, whatever I did was good but I did too much extreme and it had a bad impact on my health and mind.
So, the first thing I should do is to take regular breaks. Once in every week, I should totally stay away from it and get refresh. This is a very important thing to remember and I must follow this rule strictly.
The second thing to remember is that I should not bother too much about traffic and money. From my experience of last four years, I have understood that if we can work regularly then traffic comes sooner or later. I have seen highest traffic of 87,000 page view in a single blog in a single day. That traffic came mainly from Google not even from social bookmarking websites like Digg or Fark. So, from now, I will try to work regularly without bothering too much about traffic.
Write at least entry for fun- this is the third rule. To be honest with you, no matter what many successful bloggers would say about writing for fun or writing for passion, the reality is that you have to think of many factors while you write an entry. You have to think of traffic, SEO and so on. So, you should have a hobby and you should spend at least 30 minutes for that hobby each day. What I will do is that I will try to write an entry once week that would make me happy. The entry should give me satisfaction. It should not be related to about SEO or bringing traffic- just bring pure enjoyment to my mind. This will be a good escape from reality for me.
Is there any other point that I am missing? Well, one good thing for me is that my blogs bring some regular traffic and that is why, I can now afford to write for fun. I should write for fun for the next few months until I recover both mentally and physically.

Stress can be a silent killer to your Blogging Career

Razib Ahmed — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:23:43 +0000

For the last 7 days, I tried not to blog and not to do any work. I found that it helped me a lot because I discovered that more than anything, my main problem was suffering from stress. I am trying to deal with this matter and I feel much better now and from yesterday, I could more or less come back to blogging.
This stress is not from blogging alone. Yes, blogging has its own stress but naturally, in this busy modern life, you have to suffer from mental stress all the time. In the last one year, I stayed in home more or less and thus, my body got a lot of rest. However, my mind did not get rest because of various factors.
In the last two months, my blogs got around 1.25 million page views of traffic. This month will be bad but still, I am expecting around 300,000 page views. Thus, this month, daily, I will have nearly 10,000 page views. So, still it is a good traffic. I am expecting good increase from next month as all of us are now available.
Coming back to the topic of stress, I have discovered that when I am facing any problem then the best thing is to get some break some life and become fresh again.