Bliss

Off late we are seeing various entities asking this one question.

“Is blogging still alive?” or similar questions like “Is social media reducing the number of bloggers?”

Chip, had asked this question recently in its April 2011 issue. In this article Priyanka (who authored this article) has picked a lot of interesting points from different bloggers about their take on how they feel blogs are doing these days and how well is it doing amidst the rise in micro blogging.

Blogging is always here to live. I feel that asking this question is much like “Will emails live since we all stared using SMS and chat engines extensively?” As many of the bloggers have mentioned in the article, blogs are still popular form of self expression platform. It has actually come of age over these years and especially with the help of Social media. Social mediums are nothing but enhancing the blogs by increasing its visibility and making your network much more extensive. It has taken a while for a lot of people to understand that blogging is not here to replace print media. Paper backs are here to rule too! No doubt.

Having a profile on a social media platform is basically like leasing a small space on a real estate that is not yours! However a blog could be your own real estate on the web. The one can strip down and reconstruct it any which way you want. There is really no “Blogging VS Social media” as much as “Blogging and Social media”.

Like Anoop has mentioned in the article IndiBlogger is seeing a dip in number of blogs getting rejected as spam and a rise in the number of active bloggers. Beside the personal bloggers, which is the dominant category in India, more specific bloggers are on the rise. Movie Directors and politicians have started blogging regularly to keep in touch with their followers and fans. And their presence in Facebook and twitter is complementing their content on their blog. Before these social networking sites only search engines were doing the job of bring people to your blog. Now Facebook helps in that front and so does Twitter.

What am I going to do once I finish this post. Share it on Facebook and tweet about it too. So the point of killing or competition really does not exist. Blogging is here to stay and stay in Style. Big brands are investing in maintaining their blogs and reaching out to bloggers. And what do you know.. there are various apps and features coming up everyday to make blogging much more easier that it is today. So Blogging is really far from dead!

Brilliant! If I have to say in one word.

Let me begin at the beginning.

Friday the 13th: We all reach the Airport at least 1/2 hour earlier to the check in closing time. Nandita (People call her Nanny, I don’t know why, it means Babysitter ) So I’m going to call her Naandi. So she comes late to the check in counter. All of us finished check in and were waiting for the group to assemble so we will pass security check and get in on the plane. Naandi got to the counter 30 seconds late to collect her boarding pass and they were not allowing her to get on the plane. But this is where JetAirways was Awesome!

So Renie was trying to get her to board the same flight and was talking to the lady responsible. I wish I knew her name. After losing a lot of time arguing and requesting we find all of us except Rashmi,  yet to get our security checks. When the lady at the counter realized that its just one girl to board a late flight just because she missed the margin by a minute, she made the calls and made sure Naandi got on that flight! Now that’s what I call an Ace service. Respect JetAirways!

By that time that drama was over, we finished Security checks as the boarding counter was calling out our names and warning us that the flight cannot wait a minute more.  With a lot of running and drama, finally well boarded the flight.

Saturday the 14th: Day started a little late for us. Went to the Venue and made sure everything is working the way we wanted. Trust me the whole day went in that. Some of us might have caught half hour of sleep.

Sunday the Independence day: We were well prepared, went to the venue by 11:00 in the morning. Pre event preparation started and the partners started coming in by then and prepared to connect with the bloggers.

I can safely say Hotel Sea Princes is the best hospitality partner Indiblogger has ever had so far. Ms  Neha, who owns the Hotel addressed the bloggers and welcomed them.

Jet Airways was present at the event too. With out for them our travel to Mumbai meet would have been a nightmare. JetAirways is coming up with a lot of plans for the community and we are thrilled to be associated with them.

Ajay and Sowmya were there representing HP. Ajay gave a presentation. Which was then followed by Big Rock.  They made a mark for them selves among the blogging community. Gul Panag came in during the chart session and also moderated the Battle of the bloggers session.  Very kind and professional she was.

Rest of the meet went as expected and surprisingly we were able to warp all the sessions on time! Kudos to the pretty women at the registration desks giving out Tshirts and handouts etc.

We are so happy that everyone who came for the meet were thrilled that they did not sit this out in their homes and are still making the rest jealous!

Team members present at the meet were: Renie, Anoop, Anwin, BG, Simi, Vineet, Rashmi, Shilpa, Nandita, Edin and Myself.

Team members present in Spirit were: Nafisa and Diana

Thank you everybody for coming and making it the best blogger meet ever!

Oh wait.. forgot to mention the Awesome guy doing the introduction of all the brands. Man was he awesome. That’s the best intro I’ve heard so far! He he…

11th April 2010 was my first day in Hyderabad ever! Seriously, I have never been to Hyderabad before. I was there for the UniverCell Hyderabad IndiBlogger Meet. It was a huge gathering and needless to say that it was a super hit!

Every blogger who is writing a review has used this awesome picture at the beginning of their post. Can’t believe we did not think of this in the earlier meets.  Mostly all the meets end up late and everyone is in a rush to leave, but this time we were able to finish exactly within the schedule. Unfortunately UniverCell’s core team was not able to make it to the meet, but they were prompt in sending their representatives with various mobile phone models  for the Official UniverCell blogger contest. There were some really interesting phones from HTC, Sony, Samsung etc.

As usual, Indiblogger we started the meet with yet another Hitler video. Only this time, Hitler came for the meet but couldn’t stay. That’s a video you can’t miss. Will provide a link once uploaded in Youtube.

I don’t want to bore you on how the meet was because you might already know that it was awesome or you can see that lots of bloggers have already covered the entire event multiple times here.

UniverCell has clearly understood the power of blogging and they have decided to be a part of the community. Whats even better is that they want to engage with the community well and they have huge plans to achieve it. They are running a contest to choose the best mobile blogger to be their “Official UniverCell Blogger“. Beat that!

They had launched their blog http://univercellblog.in in their previous meet at Chennai. Their blog was showcased in this meet too. There were about 8 mobiles on display for bloggers to experience them so that they can go back and write about them to become their official blogger. The Venue was good, it was Fortune Select Manohar and the crowd was awesome but the food was not really that great. I actually didn’t like the combination that was available. Mini Burgers, Dahi Balla and Jamuns.

It would have been awesomer if Ramesh from UniverCell was able to make it to the meet, as “Message from the sponsors” was the only one missing from the agenda. However he was unable to come as his mother was admitted in the hospital. We wish she gets well soon.

Finally, we also managed to take a picture of just the Indiblogger team at the meet once all other photo sessions were over.

I almost forgot, there were quite a few people I saw were willing to work with the Indiblogger team in organizing meets like these and may be more. It was really wonderful to get that kind of support from the bloggers. Indiblogger team is trying exactly that to connect more bloggers with brands like UniverCell and connect both the community and the brands. After all Bloggers are the best evolved marketing force yet!

UniverCell IndiBlogger Chennai meet was held last Saturday at GRT convention center and the more people than you know already know and already blogged / tweeted / buzzed etc about it. So instead of adding to the same thing I’m going to focus on the main purpose of that meet.

1) UniverCell as we know is the biggest mobile chain in India and they are expanding like a blob.

2) They want to connect with the community directly and be a part of the ever growing social media crowd.

Now there are lots o companies these day going the social media way to engage themselves with the community. And as for UniverCell is concerned, they are coming up with some serious plans for the community.

Now ever since the beginning days of blogging, bloggers evolved and there cam a time when people wanted to blog full time. People work, come back home and rant about their work on their blog! If they are happy then blog, if they are sad, they blog, if they had sex, they blog… my point is that people love blogging. So how good is it if you can be a full time blogger? You get paid to do what you love! Now that’s a dream job.

Ever since monetization of blogs cam into the scene, lots of companies started using bloggers to market their product. And as you might already know there are more than one ways to earn from your blog. Ads, guest posts, banners etc… Some (including me, briefly though) even fell for the concept of getting paid for each post where I write about something that I have never seen or used in my life, just because I can make $20 per post. Anoop used to call it spamming your own blog! Now why would you want to do that. I have written about holiday packages that I have not a single clue about. Anyway… but to be an official editor of a brand where you be the voice to the community and blog about what you actually love is something else!

Now that’s the opportunity that  UniverCell is providing to the bloggers across India. In the meet, they passed on 6 different models of mobiles and asked the bloggers to review the phones. And the best reviewer wins the opportunity to become the official full time blogger for UniverCell! Ain’t that sweet?

So I’m all geared up to choose one of these phones and review the hell out of it. Haven’t decided which one I’ll choose yet, but I’ve started my homework. Once you have written about it you can submit it at IndiVine for the UniverCell & Indiblogger team to judge. UniverCell has also started their own blog. We can keep a track of what they are into right there.

Wait, let me explain…

I’m willing to give away my next 7 generations of fortune to own this piece of land!

I saw this image on Daily galaxy blog. A blog I follow for news from Earth and beyond!