by I was introduced to “personal” websites around the year 2001 when I learnt that even normal people can create their own websites. I had an active hotmail and a Rediffmail account and recent learnt HTML through a programming course
I was quite eager to test my programming skills and began creating my own homepage in my local desktop with the fair bit of HTML code I had learnt. A few months, I found a couple of hosting sites through Yahoo and Rediff who offered me a personal hosting space
This was a breakthrough for me as I now boasted of my own webpage , though hosted in Rediff’s and Yahoo’s Geocities domain
I proudly flaunted my website and started creating interesting designs and posts in it.
The introduction of social networks like Hi5, Orkut deviated my focus a bit and I began posting and connecting with people through these networks. I shifted my albums from my website to the social networks which had far more visibility at that time
Around the year 2005, I found that the search giant Google had acquired a blogging website called Blogspot. I was the first ones to sign up with my existing GMAIL account and luckily found a blog address under my own name available
There was no turning back as the blogging world took me by storm and had a massive impact inside me. It created a new channel for me to express my thoughts, reviews or even opinions around me. I had a small bit of readership who usually commented with a fair bit of criticism. This is when I signed up for Google Adsense, started actively promoting my blog through blog directories, emails, added blog links in my email signatures and even signed up to write sponsored posts for companies
The impact for the above marketing activities made it quite prominent as I began to receive a sizable traffic across the world . This was also the time Indiblogger began who gave me a huge boost in showcasing my blog to fellow bloggers across the country. I began discovering blogs and understood their model as well . This whole blogging habbit gave me a considerable experience to start writing creative posts, reviews and articles. Initially started off with movie reviews and match updates, I began to write about general things as well including the current politics
Hacing completed nearly 10 years in blogging, the impact has been quite tremendous. I was invited by companies to blog about them, companies have looked into my writing and my blog when I had applied for a job interview which boosted my CV. Blogging helped me understand social media analytics including the click through rates , open rate, impressions etc that’s aiding my current role as a social media analytics advisor
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
