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Blog Pongal - Fine Servings of the past 2.5 years - part 1 - Year 2004/2005

Sukumar — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 04:58:36 +0000

Updated Jan 16,2007: Wonderquest home page now features a link to the Non-Human Farmers post mentioned below. Thanks April.

As you all know, i have adopted an analogy to food for the theme of this blog with “Knowledge is Scrumptious” - knowledge as nourishment for the brain. That is also the reason i call my links of the week post - Fine Tastings of the Week or simply FTOTW. Today is Pongal, the tamil harvest festival and I decided to celebrate with my own harvest festival on this blog with a question - why not harvest the best posts that I have made over the past 2.5 years and do this every year on Pongal day? I am calling it Blog Pongal - Fine Servings of The Year, since these posts are dishes i have cooked for your as well as my brain’s pleasure. This blog gets between 50-70 visitors a day depending on what the Google god ordains (over 95% of non-subscription visits are referred by Google for the statistically minded). Given that meager traffic volume, i could not use the no. of visits to a post to pick the best ones. Instead, i decided to pick the best posts based on whether they appear in the first page of Google search results. Using that methodology, here are the finest servings on this blog for the past 2.5 years - part 1: [Note this is in regular chronological order, oldest first] :

1. Probably my earliest interesting posts - Ashta bil Asal - a lebanese sweet . Still generates traffic and is in the Top 5 for Lebanese Sweet and Ashta Recipe on Google.

2. Master of the “S” curve - this one caught the attention of Joe Kissell at ITOTD and led to my posts on ITOTD (see links on right hand column of the blog) including the one on Non-Human Farmers, which I consider to be my best post on Science till date.

3. Longtail business models - This is a top 3 on Google for “longtail business models”. This is not exactly a great post because i did not write any original content, but I included this here because this post marks a turning point in my blogging career - the point at which for me blogging started giving me learnings and true knowledge some of which i could apply back at my work.

4. My series on Microsoft Avalon - top 5 on google for “smart client avalon”.

5. iPod SD - My conceptualization of how Apple could attack the smart phone market. Now Apple is releasing a full-fledged iphone instead of a add-on strategy that i came up with. This post is my best work in the technology area till date and is the most popular post on this blog.

6. How the paleolithic technique Fermentation changed the world? I was inspired by Mark Kurlansky’s Cod and Salt to write this up. No.1 link on Google for “Paleolithic Fermentation”. Did you know that Fermentation was behind the founding of Israel? read the last link on this post for details.

7. Collective blogging wisdom from the unsung blogger series. This post was Desipundited.

8. A Question of Taste - is it 4 or 6? No.1 link on google for “4 tastes”. Another post inspired by Mark Kurlanksy. It was Desipundited.

9. 4 more types of peoples based on communication styles. This post was linked to by Communication Nation, the CEO of meetup.com, Vinnie Mirchandani and others.

10. New York Times linked to Sast Wingees - a proud moment for me.

11. My first moblog (mobile blogging) experience on my Italy trip. The posts from this series are in the Google Top 10 for many keywords. If you reached this far and you celebrate Pongal - Happy Pongal! Continued over to year 2006 in part 2. read on.

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Unsung Blogger of the week #14

Sukumar — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 03:48:00 +0000

This week’s featured blogger is 21-year-old Daniel Hegder from Australia. He has been maintaining his blog hedger.blogspot.com since September 2004. Text from the email interview follows.

1. ‘Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with blogging.’
I am a 21 year old student from Melbourne, Australia, currently studying Criminology and Anthropology. I’m also a singer and budding writer.
At first I started blogging because I didn’t understand what the fuss was about. When I started getting into comedy writing, I realised my blog could be a creative outlet and have treated my blog in this way. I prefer this to the ‘diary’ style blogs, which can often be tedious.

2. ‘How do you publicize your blog?’
Aside from having it listed in various profiles for message boards etc. that I might contribute to, my blog gets very little publicity.

3. ‘Which techniques have worked for you and which ones have not?’
Reading other people’s blogs and leaving comments can be a good way to publicise your blog. However, if you comment on blogs that are dissimilar to yours, this won’t necessarily work. Also, very popular blogs get so many comments that it can be hard to get noticed by commenting alone. When it comes down to it, people just have to make that leap and check it out for themselves.

4. ‘What do you consider as your best post so far? You can include upto 3.’
That’s a hard one. After the London bombings earlier this year, I did a series of blog entries about different ways of dealing with terrorism (for example, http://hegder.blogspot.com/2005/07/governments-consider-abolition-of.html and http://hegder.blogspot.com/2005/07/our-impotence-in-face-of-terrorism-is.html). One from July 8, ”Guy Tries to Masturbate Fear of Terrorism Away” was a little controversial.
http://hegder.blogspot.com/2005/07/guy-tries-to-masturbate-fear-of.html

5. ‘What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that
are not in any Top 100/500 lists).’
I’m not sure if these are on any Top Lists, but anyway:
Toe to Toe - http://www.steppinonyou.blogspot.com/
Bitch Pulled My Weave Out - http://psychadelicbuttersnazzy.blogspot.com/
81 Vaginas - http://81vaginas.blogspot.com/
Japanese Lee - http://japanlee.blogspot.com/
BoltWatch - http://boltwatch.blogspot.com/

6. ‘What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient).’
A Devil’s Chaplain - Richard Dawkins

7. ’How is the blogging scene in Australia?’
Thriving. There’s no shortage of Australian blogs, anyway.

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Unsung Blogger of the Week #13

Sukumar — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 20:58:00 +0000

This week’s featured blogger is 22-year-old Vijay Krishna from Chennai, India (at last, someone from my home town!). He has been maintaining his current blog vkpedia since May 2005, alt hough he has been blogging for the past 3 years. Text from the email interview follows:

1. Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with blogging.
I’m a software engineer, working out of Chennai, India. I’m interested
in a variety of things, one of them being blogging. I find it a natural vent
for my thoughts. I’ve been blogging on and off for almost three years
now. VKpedia is my only serious (?) effort. Predictably, it is a
play on Wikipedia. 2. How do you publicize your blog? No real publicity efforts. However, I try to leave comments in blogs, and
this I’ve found drives people to mine. 3.. Which techniques have worked for you and which ones have not? Content. That is what works. I’ve discovered quite a few good blogs,
may not be very popular, yet rich in content, and then they become popular.
So, the technique is good content. Another is to find out what others
feel about a topic you’re interested in or have written about.
Technorati, IceRocket, even Blogger Search are quite useful. 4. What do you consider as your best post so far? You can
include upto 3. That’s a toughie. Probably the entire Notes of a Nomad series, the Thiruvasagam review
[Excellent review. Need to listen to the CD I bought a while ago after this! - Ed.],
and Dude, where’s my shirt? 5. What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in
any Top 100/500 lists). That’s tougher still. I’ll suggest
Joe Anderson’s Webby’s World,
Soumyadip Chatterjee’s Mindless Musings,
Anthony’s A Journey Called Life,
maverick’s freewheelin,
and Mandar Talvekar’s Ink Scrawl. 6. What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or
2 is sufficient). Freakonomics is definitely the book of the year, according to me.
[Sibu was not impressed. Check out his rant. -Ed.]
I would also recommend Tuesdays with Morrie. 7. What are your current movie recommendations
(1 or 2 is sufficient). None in particular. I would recommend Yves Robert’s
My Mother’s Castle (it’s not a 2005 movie though) and
Parineeta.

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Collective Blogging Wisdom from the Unsung Blogger Series

Sukumar — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 02:01:03 +0000

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday last week, I could not feature a new blogger this week. To make amends, I decided to summarize the ideas that have been accumulated so far on Blogging. If you
want to experiment with blogging or if you already maintain a blog, some of these ideas may help you. 1. First, its important to understand the 3 major types of Blogs - Cat Blogs, Boss Blogs and Viral Blogs. Saket has an excellent description of it borrowing heavily from Seth Godin. In my view, the term CAT blogs is a bit derogatory because it seems to convey the impression that someone’s observations/incidents from their own lives are not interesting. A case in point is Sherry’s Blog - as she eloquently writes - a mosaic made from fragements of daily experience. A cat blog of this type can make for a genuinely interesting read. My recommendation would be to call these Journal Blogs which is more appropriate. Boss Blogs are a very
useful tool for communicating with a specific group - for example, see Kris Bordesssa and Ferrellweb. The third category - Viral Blogs also known as Topical Blogs - probably will account for the majority of the blogs out there. Maintaining a Journal Blog can be a bit difficult as it requires a certain amount of flair for writing. You may want to try this form, if you are used to maintaining a paper journal or have other experience with writing. If you want to experiment with Blogging - Viral Blogs may be the best bet. As you observe or read about things that interest you, you can write a few lines about that. Prevalent opinion (although I don’t completely agree with it) is to focus your blog on one key topic and keep blogging on that topic alone.
2. Why should you blog?
Terrance is right, every single blogger that you encounter would say that they blog because they get motivated by the comments they receive from readers. Citing personal experience, its important at least in the initial days to have a few readers who will read your posts and give you some encouragement. I have been blogging for over 1.5 years now and I will not have continued but for the initial encouragement I received from Wingees to whom this blog is dedicated. Borrowing from management theory - there are always extrinsic motivators and intrinsic motivators. Extrinsic motivators in this case are reader’s comments, receiving links from other bloggers, becoming recognized as a A-list blogger etc. As Selva says, if you are looking for extrinsic motivators blogging may become a bumpy ride. Remember there are over 21 million blogs and no one may have the time to read your blog. If you really want to be a blogger, you may want to focus on intrinsic motivators. Some of them are - just the pure thrill of seeing your thoughts in a post as Saket puts it, or exercising your creative muscles like Dean. In my case, I see blogging as having some type of therapeutic value - in that I can just publish some of my ideas and get them out of my head. Aside from this, if you are a really good blogger, you will gain some visibility and may help you in my career. You will also observe that because the Mainstream Media (MSM) is editorially controlled, it takes time for some ideas to be covered by the MSM and usually the Blogosphere has covered something way ahead of the MSM. In my personal experience, I have learnt so much about technology, management, human behaviour, politics etc from the Blogosphere. I have even been able to apply some of the ideas in my line of work some of which will appear in the MSM probably a year or two later. This in my opinion is the biggest single benefit of being a blogger. Of course, you could receive some of these benefits if you just read blogs, but being a blogger makes you a better hunter of ideas as Dina explains. 3. What do you blog about?
At the core of it, the Blogosphere is one giant group discussion about the world. Like in any group discussion, the best discussions happen, when each participant is listening to the others, building upon each other’s ideas and moving the discussion forward. And for that to happen, you should have a perspective on what is being discussed. By that analogy, you should read other bloggers and just react to what they are saying and share your perspective on that subject. Don’t be afraid to share your honest opinion. Over a period of time, you will be able to start some threads that other bloggers react to. You must read a lot either online or offline - I am sure you read several books, movies, listen to music, travel to places, meet new people all the time. Each of those experiences can give you the seed from which a blog post can sprout. Or as Joe Kissell says, get a smart spouse and brainstorm with him/her. This is a very effective technique - witness the number of posts on this blog I ascribe to my brilliant wife - Priya Raju. 4. How do you avoid the “Blogger’s Block”?
If you are talented like Sherry you may never suffer from it. But its typical for bloggers to experience a seeming inability to blog about anything for periods of time. If you do hit such a spot, don’t sweat it. Take a break, do something interesting and you will get your groove back. There is also a school of thought that encourages you to write what are known as “filler” posts. In my opinion, in the age of RSS that may not be necessary. If your readers are subscribing to your feeds, they will get a feed next time you write anyway. Its not like they are going to unsubscribe as soon as there is a short period of silence. If you are silent for extended periods of time, that may happen. By writing “filler” posts you are just filling up
valuable real estate in the Blogosphere, so it may be wise to not do it. Dean’s guerilla tactics may come in handy to overcome Blogger’s Block. 5. If you are like me, I have the exact opposite of “Blogger’s
Block” - the blogging equivalent of verbal diarrhoea. I have so many thoughts about so many different interesting posts that others have written, that I am perennially backlogged on what I
want to post about. One method I have started experimenting with recently is maintaining a Link Blog. I use Yahoo Web 2.0 and any time I see something interesting, which is quite a lot, I just bookmark it with public access and it appears in the Link Blog (small panel on the right hand frame of this blog). This has helped me a lot in keeping my backlog to the extremely interesting ones which I want to truly write a few lines about. Hope this is useful. I do intend to summarize the ideas we have seen on the blog marketing front after a few more runs of this series. References:
1. Tim Bray’s Top 10 reasons why blogging is good for your career. 2. Blogging is good for your brain by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide (Via Jollyblogger).

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Unsung Blogger of the Week #12

Sukumar — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 16:16:34 +0000

This week’s featured blogger is Jeff Ferrell and his blog Ferrellweb.com. Its a fine example of a Boss Blog as Seth Godin calls it. The text from the email interview follows: 1. Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with
blogging. I’ve been teaching English at a rural high school in the state of
Tennessee since 1993, and first experimented with a class- and school-related web site in 1996. I noticed web logs sometime around 2003, I suppose, and adopted a blog as the foundation for my own site, hoping it would make updating easier. It certainly did, though it probably didn’t make the actual *posts* any more frequent. My blog (and web site in general) is aimed at a pretty narrow target- group: my high school students. I use it to try to provide them with information beyond the regular curriculum, to direct them to current material related to class lessons and discussions, or to point them to sites, articles, and ideas they might not normally run into on their usual Internet rounds. I try to post things I hope they might find generally interesting, intriguing, or heck, just plain fun from time to time. Even though there’s little personal information
(deliberately so, considering the focus), I hope the site as a whole
manages to convey my personality, and proves useful or entertaining to anyone else who wanders in!

2. How do you publicize your blog? Publicizing has never been a top priority of mine; so I haven’t given
this angle much thought. I’ve dreamed of developing a massive
resource-site for students and teachers, but it’s always tricky
finding the time. Until then, I’ve always considered it a “work in
progress” and haven’t tried to actively draw in outside traffic.

3. Which techniques have worked for you and which ones have not? Since I’m not actively seeking publicity, it’s hard to say — I’m
sure word-of-mouth is my biggest hit-generator, and most of my
referral links come from my school district’s web site. I do get hits
(in spurts) from a few other sites that are connected to teacher web
site development workshops, and that’s pretty flattering.

4. What do you consider as your best post so far? You can include
upto 3. This is a tough one, since my posts are usually derivative — I’m
usually just writing about *somebody else’s* material, rather than
posting my own. If I had to pick one, though, it would have to be “A Man of Many Talents” ( a post triggered by a class discussion of Julius Caesar and ancient Rome that included the question, “How much is that in dollars?” when young Caesar’s debts came up. It’s the only post I’ve really written totally from scratch, and it occasionally gets hits from web searches like “talent worth in dollars” and “drachma equivalent ancient rome,” which is pretty encouraging. It’s the kind of stuff I wish I had more time to research and write. [Excellent post. - Ed.].

5. What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists). I’m not too sure about who’s on what list, but here are a few I check in with on a regular basis: Desbladet makes me grin.[Don't miss Desbladet's Getting Cold causes Colds -Ed.]. The Comics Curmudgeon makes me laugh out loud ["I read the comics so you don't have to" is the old name of this blog. -Ed.]. Heather Armstrong’s Dooce continually renews my faith in the possibility of domestic bliss, although that may not be her intention, exactly… The Languagehat makes me wish I read 1/4 as much, and knew a few more languages.
Slacktivist makes me think. And Creating Passionate Users (
makes me try to think of ways to help my students kick ass. [This is the 2nd mention for Headrush in this series. - Ed.]

6. What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient). I’m reading criticism right now; interesting, but maybe not exciting
for all. Here’s some general stuff, though: I really dig books by Umberto Eco. Really. For pure escapism, I grab any of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels;
sometimes I dream of being Archie — confident, self-assured,
impeccably dressed, and packing heat. Sometimes, it’s Nero — either futzing around with orchids, reading, or sitting in my chair drinking beer and issuing diatribes. Either way, I win.

7. What are your current movie recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient) I’m not too big in the “current movie” scene… I spend a lot of time
backing up over all the movies I’m too young to have seen on the
first run. I recently caught Sunset Boulevard for the first time in
quite a few years on Turner Classic Movies, and loved it again.

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