The 300th Post -- Do Not Congratulate Me

Well Well...

This post would be my 300^th post .. I am sure many bloggers would have  blogged more than what I have done over the last eight years that I have tried to keep this habit of blogging alive.

It all started in the summer of 2006. I had the habit of writing emails to few colleagues and  friends  and sharing thoughts with them.  I realized that it was becoming difficult to maintain track of what I wrote and also keeping and retrieving from the archives of the emails was very challenging. At this point , someone suggested –“ Why don’t you try blogs and Srividhya Venkataraman ( thank you Vidhya ) helped me set this page up. I did little to improve the look and feel of the blog page set up but I have over the years increased the content and so getting to the 300^th post was not that difficult . 

In the initial years , I was writing and posting every week . There was no structure , I just put in what I felt I want to in a very random manner . I copied a lot and so there was lack of originality . If someone asked me “What would my blog represent” ? , it would be very  difficult for me to answer. But precisely , it was the reason for me to blog – No real purpose but I was keen on laying down my thoughts on varied things .

 I used the blog for the following :

• Share my thoughts , views, experiences
• I did not worry too much about the audience ( first few years , viewership to each of my posts was less than 10 )
• I wrote on various topics but Sports was a  favorite
• I knew that what I wrote will never get published in the newspapers but here is my opportunity to Publish !

I rumbled through my posts from 2006 to now and  if I read some of the early posts , I would be ashamed of myself .  I had been too quick to post , never giving the time to proof read , get to the right verbiage , highlighting areas that need attention etc. The intent was to ensure that I published a post every week  . Data tells me that out of the 299 posts so far , 215 posts happened from 2006 to 2010. Slowly , I cut down on my posts . This was done on purpose. It was not drastic but I kept away from doing one every week for the sake of doing it. As the years progressed , my writing and ability to narrate has improved  . I also became more selective . I saw the quality of my writing go up . The last three years there have been average of around 20 posts or so per year . Sports continues to my favorite theme ( the Football world cup helped me to get closer to the 300^th post ).There were times when I wanted to stop using the blog post and move to other avenues like Twitter ( Micro blogging ) but I realized that I really enjoyed doing this and so continued with this rather than moving away. So, far there has been 22,265 visitors to the page and my post on a Movie review had the maximum visitors ( 346 ) .. And it was a Tamil movie that I reviewed!

Some people ask me – how long does this take of your time. To me , very little . Once I have decided on what to write ,  the content and the flow is done in the next thirty minutes.. that is all I  spend. But ,most of the pre work in laying down the flow and my thought process happens much earlier –  mostly when I am on my morning walk … So it has been pretty simple and efficient so far.

Plenty of things to do on  site – I want to re work on the  Labels and stack them – this is something I missed or was inconsistent in my work during the past years. This will help to get the topics arranged  and will enable potential future use.

Many thanks to all of you who found time to read what I wrote and have given comments over the period of time in to the Blog or through emails. I value and treasure all the feedback that I have got. Please continue to do so.

Happy reading !

My next post is nearly ready and you may have guessed what it is about !