In case you happened to read my article "The Blog Biz" published in the latest Businessworld, you may be puzzled by the opening line:
"Is the office the best place to practise Buddha Satan"?
Um. That was supposed to be Bodhisattva - and a correction to that effect will be appearing in the next issue.
How did the mistake occur anyways? Well, part of the blame goes to the spell check feature that is inbuilt into all publishing software. Given that few of us update its limited vocabulary (designed for American use), any page you try to spell check inevitably throws up 50 + errors. Most of these are Hindi words or proper nouns.
It's not that hard to click 'replace' and end up with a Buddha Satan from the list of 'suggested alternatives' :)
A software may be intelligent but it never has the contextual awareness a human brain has. Well, at least not yet.
Anyways, the article features three Indian bloggers - astrologer G Kennedi (), Dr Anirudh Malpani and Anouradha Bakshi .
I picked these people because they are blogging not just for love, but money.
You might think Kennedi is just another office-goer flaunting his creativity online. But Kennedi is no Dilbert sneaking in a blog entry or two from the office computer during lunch hour. He is actually writing his blog to make a living. Kennedi is probably the only astrologer in India with a personal blog - one which not only sells his Vedic astrology services, but also his thoughts on the legalisation of prostitution, and on the recent Tamil film, Anniyan.
Kennedi's blog directly gets him clients, Dr Malpani's connects him with potential patients and Anouradha's is being used to raise funds for Project Why (benefitting children in the slums of Delhi).
A blog being more personal (and more frequently updated than a website) offers a unique opportunity to anyone with a great service to sell. People are inclined to buy from someone they feel they know and can trust.
Of course, you have to maintain a blog with passion - and not as a pure sales pitch -to generate that warmth and trust.
You can read the story here or pick up a copy of the latest Businessworld for more.
