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Bloggers need to be open, credible Commercialism must be kept within limits

COMMUNICATION technology has shrunk the world. You can write something about a local event, and get a response for it from halfway around the globe. Asif Shah, the owner of the famous blog, www.chillnite.com, speaks to the Arab Times on his experiences as a blogger and what the opportunities are in blogging. If in the old days, people maintained personal journals, jotting down their everyday thoughts and experiences, bloggers today do much the same, just that the pages of their online diary are open for thousands to read and connect. Blogging also contains commercial opportunities; however, if not kept within limits, it can compromise the true spirit of blogging.

Answer: Until a few years ago, blogging was not something that was known to anyone. People used to have diaries. Even my father used to write diaries. At the end of the day, he used to jot down his notes. I still have his diaries from 30 years back. Blogging is a similar concept. It is your own thoughts and views, but this time it is not private, it is public. You are actually making your views public. You want to share your experiences. A lot of people blog about their work. Because they want to write about things in which they are experts. For example a doctor might blog about his cases. Blogging can also be on general subjects, for example, you want to write about some food you had at a restaurant and so on. You don’t have to write an entire story... just your views, your experience. Keeping it personal is what attracts people. It could be about a bigger theme, probably about politics, but I am not into politics at all, and so I would avoid that. So it is about what really excites you. One more thing to bear in mind while blogging is that you don’t have to be a very good writer to be a blogger. Be casual, be yourself. Otherwise you are better off writing novels, and articles in magazines and newspapers. That’s what attracts people. You don’t want to be writing that kind of hi-fi things, and get to a very intellectual level in your blog if you are targeting the normal reader. However, there are blogs for niche readers also, catering to particular professionals, say a heart surgeon, blogging about some complicated case. He will have readership among other doctors. So, the style, tone and the feel of your blog really depends on who you are talking to. But then this doctor can write a research paper or in a medical journal and perhaps accomplish his mission more successfully. The spirit of blogging is in keeping it simple and accessible to the many.