Comments (6)

By Ritwik Agrawal | July 21, 2009 5:41 am

Some interesting recent comments on this blog:

Naval Das comments on Why statues won’t help Mayawati:

Ritwik and Shivam, you don’t truly understand this matter: you shouldnt be talking about this.

Mayawatiji is truly the heroine of the hindus of this country.

Like dayanand, the struggle of ambedkar and mayawati is an internal struggle of hinduism.

Mayawati has never said that she will convert to another faith. she now accpets hindu iconography openly (haathi nahi ganesh hai, brahma vishnu mahesh hai)

The act of erecting statues is a truly pagan, hindu act.
Its christians who find it odd that someone is erecting their own statues. The kings of vijaynagar did this often. so did other hindu kings. and the romans and other pagan people. Ritwik, when people like you feel odd that statues of a living person are being put up, I shake my head at the christianisation of this country!

the dalit struggle is an internal reform movement of hinduism, and that is the reason why mayawati has never had a problem in joining hands with the BJP.

inspite of political tensions, mayawati chose to stand with narendrabhai in his hour of distress, when she campaigned for bjp after the 2002 “riots”. This when so-called allies like the unpatriotic paswan had withdrawn support to the nda.

wishy washy liberals like Ritwik and pseudo-friends of dalits like shivam can debate all they want, but unless they realize the true nature of the dalit movement, they will always miss the truth.

Long live the dalit cause.

jai bheem!
jai bharat!

(Naval Das on July 19, 2009)

In reply, Neelakshi had the following to say:

I really don’t see how the question of ‘Christianisation’ (or whatever that is) is relevant here. It may be a very ‘Hindu’ act and Ritwik is probably very very wrong in writing against it. Only thing is, Mayawati’s statues and lavish birthday are not helping the Dalits in any way. erecting massive statues to instill ‘pride’ in the Dalits is also not working. As Ritwik pointed out, the Lok Sabha elections have shown that Mayawati does not hold resonance with the Dalits any longer. And has lost pretty badly in the elections.
There is nothing wrong with statues per se but if that money was only used for the upliftment of the Dalits, it would be better. Mayawati champions the Dalit cause, but I would really like to know; how will erecting statue after statue help the Dalits in any way whatsoever? (Neelakshi on July 20, 2009)

Dilip Simeon writes on Great Danes:

The Danes were not colonised, but despite their helplessness before the Third Reich they dealt with the Nazis with much greater dignity than did Vichy France. There are different ways of dealing with the same predicament. Your blank verse implies that the gross inequalities, injustice, corruption & lack of accountability after 62 years of independence are attributable to the fact of being colonised. I find that unacceptable. We are responsible for how we manage our resources and conduct ourselves in the public realm. No light is shed on the matter by continuing to blame the British for everything. (posted by Dilip Simeon on July 19, 2009)

I reply with:

Then why is that almost all former colonies in Asia and Africa find themselves in a pretty bad shape as far as human development indicators are concerned?

Nobody is blaming the British for “everything”, but equally they cannot be absolved entirely of the blame for India’s crushing poverty merely because “62 years have passed”. If the British can’t be blamed for everything, neither can the post independence leadership be solely held responsible for all our ills.

This blank verse was only meant to highlight the fact that for many, colonialism either never took place or with time, it has become a minor blip on the radar; the gross exploitation inherent to it is being forgotten. (posted by Ritwik Agrawal on July 20, 2009)

Comments (0)

By Ritwik Agrawal | July 5, 2009 2:40 am

Everyone knows that there exist people who make money off their blogs. They run these little “ads served by google” on their online pages and get paid every time someone clicks on one of these links. If one has many thousands (or even hundreds of thousands or more) readers, then these translate into a lot of clicks on ads. In the language of e-commerce, such clicks are called click-thrus. In the era of Web 2.0, blogging is a major industry.

But just how hard is it to convert your blog into a profitable venture?

The “business” of blogging comes with a very unique set of challenges, over and above the basic challenges that are to be faced by any entrepreneur.

When you sell a product,  you face the following fundamental challenges:

1. making a good product
2. promoting your product
3. providing strong after-sales support and service to make sure the consumer returns to you time and again, and also sends others your way through word-of-mouth.

Companies that manage to meet these challenges adequately over a period of time are generally successful, that is to say, profitable.

Now let us consider blogs. A blog owner has to inevitably be good at points 1 and 2.

(1) He has to create a good product – an interesting blog that preferably fills a niche in the market.
(2) He has to constantly promote his product (ie, his blog) on search engines, on sites like technorati, and through word of mouth.

Point (3) is not critical to blogs simply because no physical product is being sold. But a blogger does have to use good sources and generally be honest with his readers,respond to their comments and engage in discussion, otherwise his credibility would go up in smoke.

But, even a blogger excellent at handling what I call the “fundamental challenges” would struggle to monetize his blog. The problem is not strategy. The problem is content.

In terms of content, blogs are unique. A blogger has to literally think of fresh, interesting, slightly out of the ordinary stories practically every day to keep readers interested. He dreams up some idea, packages it in an attractive style and tone, maybe adds a dollop of sensationalism, and finally looks for a HOOK (maybe in the form of a smart title) to find an ever greater number of potential readers. A blogger gets no breaks; he does not have the luxury of waiting for moments of inspiration unlike musicians, artists or novelists.

A musician or a novelist can produce an album/book over the course of a long period of time, then sit back and relax and spend their royalty cheques as they recharge their batteries, till they hit the next jackpot idea. A blogger simply cannot afford that. 2 or 3 days of no activity on his blog and his readers will move on, taking the advertising dollars with them.

I know what you are thinking: journalism. Newspapers, news channels and websites survive on the basis of fresh content served everyday. So what’s unique about blogs?

Simply this: ever heard of a newspaper produced by a solitary journalist? Ever heard a news broadcast created day after day by a single person? There may be some blogs with multiple authors, but the vast majority of blogs are the personal musings of a solitary individual.

At a deeper level, newspapers can choose, and are generally encouraged, to be formulaic. Their basic function is very well defined: serve news. This function requires a lot of hard work, writing and editing, but not necessarily creativity. Blogging is different. You typically wouldn’t change your newspaper if it covers news adequately. On the other hand, you’ll never stick with a blogger who becomes formulaic, who fails to hit you with new, interesting, maybe bizarre events and commentary day after day.

You read newspapers because you want information, film reviews, gossip and a couple of editorials and analysis. On the other hand, from a blog you basically want entertainment. Or at the very least, information not provided by other sources. Familyhack is a great example of such a blog.

As I become a somewhat regular blogger, my respect for people like Seth Godin keeps rising; bloggers who make money are people who have the ability to produce exceptional content on a daily basis to keep us all entertained through our virtual wanderings.