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.
I mentioned it one of my earlier posts that blogging's benefits are much more for the professional services business than WhiteGoods/IT/FMCG companies.
ReplyDeleteOuch. Ouch. Ouch. Reminds me of when "Widows of Vrindavan" got published as "Widows of Viridiana" (in a headline!) in the tabloid I was working for, because of some poor intern's excessive faith in the powers of spellcheck.
ReplyDeleteBtw, Spellcheck turns Mrinal Sen into Urinal Sin. Learnt this while writing a filom article once. Just thought I'd share.
I read your article this morning. Very well written and informative.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteA 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.
I dont think so because,firstly, there is always the risk of spam blogs/fake blogs.How difficult is it to create a "n" fake blogger profiles and n blogs and fool the hell out of people!
Secondly Blogs are NOT created for e-Commerce.Would you trust amazon.com and buy a camera or from Tony's blog ?
Assuming that Tony maintains a blog from May 1984?
//yes, you can set the date and time of the post too!
I agree that it is more personal...But it is still "high-tech"...You cant expect Cardio Vascular Surgeons to keep updating blogs....every day or errr...every week or even fortnighly!!
Reason, they dont have the godammn time
But yeah the Dilberts like me do maintain blogs not just for killing time, but for serious things like "forming multi-disciplinary task forces to re-engineer our core-processes until our blogs help us become the best developer minds across the country."
The maximum money you can make thru' blogs is "Google Ad-Sense".
I read your article, it was a nice one.Good job!. Why haven't the Indian corporates started blogs.
ReplyDeleteSpellcheck turns Rashmi into ... ugh I cannot even write the word here. Those curious enough can try it in Word. Seriously, the only thing to do is shrug and say well, tomorrow or next week - who will remember? Especially in JAM, we've found readers are very forgiving. Sometimes even when we make a mistake they think we're just being funny :)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I used to be a perfectionist.I got over it some years ago and have been at peace ever since. I still strive to be error-free but if shit happens, then it does. You just gtin and bear it.
Untoward wordplay. Execrable indeed.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read your article. So perhaps I'm wrong (I tried reading the BW article but for some reason couldn't). But I couldn't help wincing when I read this line which talks about Anouradha Bakshi
ReplyDelete'I picked these people because they are blogging not just for love, but money.'
Ouch, ouch, ouch!! I sure hope it doesn't mean what it says. And that you go on to add something
else.