On blogging and the chase

Ever since I started taking my blog seriously (I mean I have always taken my blog seriously but for last few weeks I have been trying to put in more effort than usual in terms of thinking about what to write), I have seen something terible happening to me. Rather than worrying about what to write, I am obsesed with getting more and more readers. I get some 40 odd readers everyday, from Google mostly, and most of these are one off hits. They stumble on to my blog from obscure sources and read posts on Javed Akhtar and Harivashh Rai Bachchan and then move on, never to come back (btw these two were written in 2005 and 2004 respectively). Nothing wrong with it if I was writing to make a quick buck. But I am not. My objective with this blog is to improve my craft and try create a tribe that likes the way I write. And get that tribe to feed me back with their feedback. So I rather want people to read posts that have taken much more time and patience to craft. And the ones that reflect the style that I want my writing to evolve into. For example this post on Mumbai. Or this on Panchgani.

Ofcourse its not an easy task. It takes time and effort to create any tribe. I have already done the homework. I have committed myself to it. I would write and write and hopefully see some traction (a column with a weekly/monthly magazine etc) by the end of 2012. So far, just been 10 odd days, I have lived upto the promise. I have been able to write something or other almost every day. Even if its crap. Of course I need to figure out a genre that makes me want to write. I dont really have a strategy in place apart from writing something or the other regularly.

I would also try and write some stuff for blogs/websites that get far larger audience than this one. I submitted this one on Sachin Tendulkar to cricinfo last week. They chose not to publish it. I sent this one to afaqs in December last year. They said they like it but I dont think they published it. Anyways, rejections are fine. Rejections mean that things are moving. The outcome is not what you intended it to be they are outcomes none the less. Things are moving. I am hoping to send things to 50 publications this year. And keep a track. So if you are an editor, beware ;P

Anyways, for some reason, even I am not sure why am I doing it, I would move all the serious writing to a new blog/domain. Need to think of a name for it. This shall remain a repository of whatever I write but I would have a separate domain for my serious writing efforts. And then I would try and market that domain. Even on facebook/twitter etc.

Only thing that I need to remain careful is that I dont want to be chasing readers and hits. And p.s. if you do read this blog, please please let me know (comments or emails or phone calls) that you do read this blog and I would send you a small questionnaire and see what can I do to improve things.