Conversion is a good word in the blogging world

The most common conversion that I see happening in the online world is people with no love for words or expression turning into bloggers. No, they neither sit under the Bodhi Tree meditating to stumble upon the true nature of blogging, nor do they go for the proverbial arduous treks over virgin hazardous terrain to meet some sage on a mountain top to open one for a fraction of a second to mumble some life-giving mantra! They just hop on to the blogger trail and… well, there have been so many hopping on to this trail that it is terribly congested now and blogger rage occurs more often than road rage that troubles our traffic statistics so much.

So does this mean that I want people to stop blogging? No. All I want is that everyone understands the nuances of blogging and stays on to add value to this wonderful community.

I can already hear groans of ‘Oh God! Here comes another pontification on the art of blogging!’ or ‘We cannot really digest another post on some classroom type lecture on how to blog!’ or ‘Leave us alone… we’ll find our way on our own!’ Well, all I can say is that blogging is like a thriller and I’ll prove it in a separate post. I believe that blogging is also a romantic novel, a mystery, a crime fiction, has a detective moving around surreptitiously, has the potential to be a fairy tale, can be a fable, or a science fiction as well… I mean, blogging is like a chameleon that can effectively camouflage itself according to where it stands and this is what makes it so flexible. It’s an art.

Before we explore the umbilical relationship between blogging and various literary genres, let me dwell for a few sentences on all that blogging must not mean. Blogging is NOT a pathetic villain in a third-rate movie that doesn’t even get to the A-class cinema screen in the country and so this is something that bloggers and potential bloggers must not convert it into. Blogging isn’t a platform for personal vendetta agendas and like conventional journalism, has no place for what I call ‘yellow bloggers’. Now if paid editorials have given newspapers their shady contours, it is up to bloggers to not let blogging slide into this slimy rut. Blogging isn’t at all like a bunch of finance executives racing to get more and more subscribers. Blogging is not about giveaways and corporate gifts too. I mention this last one because I have noticed people from all age-groups gravitate towards blogging with drool all over their shapeless and spineless sentences and I could do nothing but snort in disgust. Dammit, try and excel in extolling… and if ethics isn’t a part of your life, go on and embrace excellence in expression and presentation at least. To such people (and I am always reticent to call them bloggers because they are, at best, PR  sympathisers disguised as online crusaders) I must remind to mention the word ‘promotional’ in a post that is one.

Some of you may not warm up to my using the term ‘online crusader’ for defining bloggers. I agree that not every blogger is a crusader in the conventional way, fighting injustice and leading the hoi-polloi towards some imaginary el-dorado somewhere. Bloggers can very well be like pied pipers leading the bloody rats in our society to a well-deserved end. Or they can be like ballad singers communicating the truth in rhymes and a beat that makes the mind dance in joy. They can also be like fiery speech makers having the power to incept radical and revolutionary notions and ideas into minds. They can sing lullabies as well aimed to sedate some rotten core somewhere until the law-makers catch up with the disrupters. What I mean is that blogging covers more territory than you can ever imagine…

The obvious question now will be: where does it all start? Blogging starts with a simple resolve to write what you see and hear or experience. Once you are on this path, other paths appear and you are actually on your way to discovering a part of yourself that even you did not know existed. It is these other paths that put you on to your choice of a blogging style… your blogging mantra or your blogging metaphor, whichever way you wish to describe it. We’ll talk about these blogging metaphors in the posts that follow and slowly uncover other small and big aspects of blogging that troubles you. For this first post, just understand that the blogging world welcomes all those who have not been blogging as yet. Yes, we’re out there to convert you all because I believe that those who write more will also read more. And when I say ‘read more’ I mean more than the first interpretation that comes to your mind.

Stay with me on this exciting journey where conversion remains a good word in the blogging world.

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This post was published in MarketingBuzzar dated 03 July 2015:

2015_07_03_MarketingBuzzar_Converson is a good word in the blogging world

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Conversion, blogging, and creative thinking…

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Arvind Passey
03 July 2015