A Special August 17th
Today is the 100th day since yeknee.blogsome.com published her first post in the blogosphere..
Looking back.. I was first inspired to blog after I read an article from the Nov 2005 issue of Personal Money magazine. I was inspired by LiewCF, a full time blogger who is making money in his pyjamas. I was really a blur sotong, knowing nuts about blogging. So I wrote an email to this blogger, purportedly asking for a gmail account and some tips on how to start a blog. I almost forgot about my email to him when I received a reply from him after more than 10 days. Yes, he got me a gmail account and gave me some tips on how to start a blog and then wish me all the best. Full stop.
I never kicked off. Probably I wasn’t serious then. Then I saw a thread about blogging in a parenting forum, MyMomsBest. Wah.. so many blogging mums! I visited their blogs, hoping to steal some ideas and themes to start my blog. I was so impressed with their blogs. But still I did not kick off. I hadn’t a clue then what I was going to blog about. Aiyoh yoh..getting a blogger block even before I started to blog. Ha! Until my sifu (a pro-blogger) came along, pushed a bit and told me just to say whatever I want to say when I told him I hadn’t the slightest idea what to blog about. With that, I was on my way to make the first entry on yeknee.blogsome.com on 10th May 2006.
Yes, blogging is the buzzword now with podcasting (check out Jeff Ooi and Oon Yeoh’s Freetalkin’ to get a feel of what is podcasting all about) and vlogging slowly coming up next. And blogging has recently been gaining some attention in the local news and even attracted Pak Lah’s administration to the extent that a caution was issued through the mainstream media to warn bloggers to blog the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And almost all local newspapers create a space for you to blog and get paid for being the best blogger of the day.
What surprise me is most of my friends, colleagues, relatives, young or old or I should say majority of the people around me do not know anything about blogging nor do they read blogs. Hubby, an engineer never reads blog, not even mine and my brother, a programmer for an anchor bank doesn’t bother to read blogs too. They really don’t know how much they have missed until they read my blog..LOL..
That leaves me wondering, why people write blog? 90% of blogs which I visited are one way or another generating some income from Google adsense, BlogAds or some other affiliate programs. They write, they get the traffic to their blogs and tata.. get some pocket money for every click readers make at their blog.. sounds easy huh! People click, you get paid. Well, it isn’t as easy as what you may be thinking…getting traffic to your blog is one challenging task, and don’t forget rivalry happens too. Some bloggers can be so nasty to leave insulting comments and some are so jealous that they can hack into your blog and delete all your posts! And even end up in police files! And mind you, plagiarism happens too among bloggers! Hard to believe but true..
Me? I still practice what my sifu preaches.. just say what I want to say.. and you? Start blogging if you haven’t yet. Once you start, you will never want to stop (?)…If an IT illiterate like me can blog, so can you..
Oh yes..before I sign off this post, ever wonder why I gave this post the title "A Special August 17th"? It is not only to mark my 100th of day of blogging, but also my Birthday, another 3 more years to go before I hit the Big 4! And also to our Indonesian friends who reads this, Happy Independence Day…
