My Blogging Self-Evaluation: Why This Blog Should Only Focus on One Niche

This thought came up right after I read Darren Rowse's post about the benefits of building a more focused blog. By 'a more focused blog', I mean a blog that has more a specific niche (a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it- Wordweb dictionary). Darren wrote that he at the first time and a lot of other newbies wrote their first blog with topics ranging from topic A to topic Z. This would be very easy to start with because we simply have endless supply of topics to talk about. We can write a post almost every day,  even  several posts a day, hoping to attract more readers, search engines and bucks!

My Third Award

Actually this award was given weeks ago but unfortunately I was a bit busy to give the reciprocal award afterwards. Furthermore, the 'game' rule is a little bit beyond my ken so it took a while for me to know what to do.

Thanks a bunch to Angga for his award. I don't have much time to blogwalk and tell all the bloggers mentioned below to take their awards, which is why I must apologize. For the friendship, however, I can say nothing but thanks.

1. TUTORIAL DESAIN GRAFIS  
2. Blog napi Belog  
3. Not Yet Titlelized  
4. Pras Free
5. Taekwondo Indonesia 
6. masterGOmaster
7. Blogger Kuningan 
8. Pusat Download Gratis
9.Blognya Angga
10. Akhlis Purnomo 


And the award also goes to each of my all fellow bloggers who once visited this blog or appear and give comments on this blog on a regular basis. Thanks a lot, guys!

On Migration to Dot Com

Welcome back to my blog, my beloved readers! After more than 3 months clinging to blogspot as a parasite, I resolved to purchase a new domain. I suppose the practicing phase has got to be ended soon and I have to gradually shift to a more professional stage. This is my historic moment as today my new domain is already set up successfully.

It took me a while to realize that staying in blogspot doesn't really give me much space to monetize this blog. In spite of my intense craving for dollars, I promise you and myself that I will never leave my idealism here although everyone knows how hard it is to be ideal and authentic amidst the gigantic trends of capitalism.

As a blogger who gets bored easily with my blog's appearance, now I apply a different kind of template. It's brown and darker than the previous one. Even though blue is always my favorite color, this  brown template  called WOODY is so lovely I fell in love with it at my first sight. It also gives more spacious and warm impression on my blog.

And still don't know why, my jumpbreak issue still persists. I tried to break my posts into two so my homepage doesn't load too long when you try to view it. To no avail, the whole layout of my blog got screwed up. My right column went down! Anyone of you can tell me how to solve this?

My Second Award

One of my fellow bloggers, Rendra Sangir, a couple of days ago told me in my shoutbox that he gave me an award. Hmm, thanks a million buddy. This is another award after my first award given by Blogger Ingusan a.k.a. Dudi. 

My (Fellow Blogger's) Blogging Self-Evaluation: Should He Stop Blogging for Good?

Previously on my post issued in the early October, I was whining how this blogging journey felt so steep and unfriendly. One of my fellow bloggers who happened to read my hopeless-toned post was trying to lift my mood by saying:

Blogger Ingusan said... Good morning brother, I'll feel so sad if you're thinking to stop blogging. Please, you're one of my best friends. Don't give up... bro..

Miracle or Coincidence?: An Oddly-Unexpected Blogging Phenomenon on my Korean Blog

Just breaking news! Hmm, not news actually but more like curiosity. Using blogger.com as my blogging platform, I'm running two blogs, this blog and my Korean blog. I am nearly every day updating my first and never updating the latter. The last time I wrote on my Korean blog it was September 7, so you could imagine how long I have abandoned it (guilty mode: ON).

Speaking of Tagline.....

After inspiring Abid Famasya to write a single post about his tagline, now it's my turn to get inspired by him. His post encouraged me to change my old boring tagline 'Nothing but English' into a more 'insane', wild and weird one 'Blogging- My Second Religion'. The words just literally came up and couldn't help typing it before I missed that  very brief 'divine (or impish?) revelation'.

So...my dear readers, what do you think of my new tagline? Is it lovely? Magnificent enough to attract more curious visitors? Or too off-limits? Sounds like a tagline written by a perve or a deeply-disturbed blogger?  Speak up your mind, people. No worries as no boundaries apply here. Criticise, praise, flat response, sneer, mockery, yeah...I'm up for anythin'!

My Pagerank: Why I can't Care Less

In the end of last month Nyubi -some fellow blogger I discovered on Blogger Indonesia- told me my pagerank had gone up. Filled with disbelief, I tried to check on the validity of his seemingly great news. The following morning I wishfully thought it was true. But well... I had to  dispel that wishful thinking as the news was utterly wrong. I have no hard feeling about it. It's completely fine.

Pesta Blogger 2009

I dedicate this writing to Pesta Blogger 2009, an event I just missed. It took place yesterday (Oct 24, 2009) and sadly it was in Jakarta, which is much too far away from where I live. However, my absence in the event doesn't stop me writing something about this lovely festivity. 

I browsed the web with mind full of curiosity what was happening at SMESCO building Jakarta where it  happened, and stumbled upon news about Tifatul Sembiring. If I may remind you all, he was the top leader of PKS (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera) who is now appointed the minister of communication and informatics in the new cabinet formed by the commander in chief SBY. 

Award: What It Means to Me

It has been more than a week since the day when my fellow blogger (blogger ingusan) gave me the award. I still have no idea what to do with the award given to me. I am completely blind to what an award is, and most importantly, how to share the award I got. Because it's an award based on friendship among bloggers, I give it to some fellow bloggers whose blog I once visited or  who ever visited my blog and left some words on my comment box.

New Jump Break Feature did Break my Heart!

Tonight is probably one of my finest nights ever. My prayer was just granted. Alhamdulillah, Thank God. My blog is back to normalcy and 'sanity'. I bet some of you frown "Anything was wrong with this blog?".  Yeah, if you just happened to visit this blog once or twice or never (which means this is your maiden visit), I thought you missed something in my blog's layout. The layout was a bit messy. The right column of this blog was abnormally located below the other column so it looked weird on so many levels. I asked frantically to some fellow bloggers who are far more experienced but turned out they have not solved this type of disorder. I went desperate but then I got the 'AHA' moment!

So this is how I got the answer:

1. the AHA moment was the suddenly appearing idea which seemed unspecial, asking this issue to those who are known to be responsible for the platform I am currently using. "CLICK the BLOGGER HELP link on your dashboard right now, moron!", that was what my brain instructed me. 

2. After clicking the link just like what my brain ordered, to cut the long story short I somehow found a box in which I could type my question about blogging issues I encounter. 

3. Next, I posted my question.

4. After several days, I got some email notifications on my layout issue but none of them brought enlightment. One may address the problem of conflicting 'read more' techniques but he did not specify the steps to tackle the mess.

5. Everything appeared hopeless until I found this.

Someone whose initial is HBL answered my question and elaborated what the root of the problem was and how to get everything back to normalcy. As HBL advised, I had to savedeach post to draft manually! Though it sounded tiresome and time wasting, it was worth it. It turned out the posts using the new jump break feature (the feature to enable 'read more') were the triggers! I removed ALL the jump breaks I applied to those posts and had them republished one by one. Voila! This blog regained its gorgeous look.

And to beautify it more, I figured changing the template (again!). I know when it comes to my blog's look, I am so insatiable. Luckily I discovered the template I am using now. Without forgetting to backup all the widgets I already have, I uploaded this new amazing template called 'UltimateBlogger'. Simply click here to get the zip file of 'UltimateBlogger' or if you wonder how it looks, click the demo.

My Blogging Self-Evaluation: Should I Stop Blogging for Good?

I have started writing this blog since August 10, 2009.  Today is my 53th day of blogging. So far, as you can see on my frontpage, my stats are not quite impressive. As I was typing this very post, my blog's Alexa rank  has reached 7 digits (1,525,118) although actually it is getting higher from time to time.  It was 8 digits when the first time I wrote my first post here (around 12,000,000 or so). My first post was about my favorite American teen series Gossip Girl. When published, this post is going to be my 58th post. Within 53 days blogging, I can post 59 articles for my readers. Quite productive, to be frank. When some other bloggers can only post once in three days or four, I can post three times on the same day. I can be proud of my productivity but that is not what I am going to talk about here. Occasionaly, I ask myself by heart "Is my productivity  futile without any visitors leaving comments, or this productivity will somehow pay someday?"

The problem however is I only have got four followers up to this second, no single feed burner reader, and the other miserably pathetic details of stats I do not have to elaborate. It is definitely not something to be proud of.I know it is so easy for people reading this post to comment on how weak my determination is as a blogger. But seriously, I suppose there are lots of bloggers , especially those who just began their blogging journey, who feel the same way too. And I bet those famous and professional blogger used to go through this phase as well in the beginning of their blogging career.

I am fully aware of how green I am as a blogger at the moment. I just began to develop and I am of course not going down without a fight. I really hope I can never plan to write my last post. Because when I plan to write my last post, I stop being a blogger and that would be a betrayal for my own ambition I set a couple of months ago. As long as I live, I wish I would be a blogger. Yeah, becoming and being a blogger once and for all. So no matter how rocky the road is, no matter how steep the climbing is now or is going to be later, I will stick to my goals. And how long I can stick to it, only time will tell.

And to answer my own question title, absolutely I should NOT stop blogging! I feel like blogging is part of me and blogging is my channel for self actualization. It is fun,  awesomely hip, unexpectedly cool and thoroughly rewarding in so many aspects.

What makes me stay determined is that we - Indonesian bloggers- are going to celebrate our Bloggers National Day on October 27. And it is such a divine coincidence that my birthday is on the same day!
I love blogging and being a blogger! Bravo!

The Bleakest Point of My Blogging Journey

It has been 3 days since the last time I posted my last article. I had almost no time for this blog as I got absorbed by  my efforts to get over the fatigue I had been suffering from. If you may notice, something weird is happening on my homepage. Yes, my right column is not on its right place. It is now 'hiding' under the posts. Oddly enough,the layout is normal, the right column is just on its place but every time I view the page, the right column becomes the footer. At first I guessed it was only a viewing issue due to the browser, or server, and blaming this on any other likely factors. Then I realized it was not. Before I used a certain template, this did not happen. But then I shifted to another one and this problem arose. Don't say "that's what template backup is for' because I did the backup and tried to apply all the backup templates I saved on my hard disk. But still, problem remains unsolved.

I have struggled to solve this by contacting somewhat frantically some of my fellow bloggers and experts but definitely there is no considerable progress made so far. And as I am getting tired of seeking the cure of my blog's ailment, I arrived at a proposition that my template is a superficial factor that is not supposed to dampen my burning blogging spirit so easily. But as I am clueless about what to do and how to fix the whole mess I caused, I just try to apply some templates that can at least soothe my blog's readers' sight. I found the template I am using now and thought it might 'ease' the pain. The white background makes the 'abnormalcy' less noticable and that is what I badly need now.

Now I think I should just think billion times before making some improvement on my blog as I do not even want to imagine to cause another mess worse than what I experience now. Someone help me?

How Passion can Transform Your Blog

The title above is actually a title of guest posting written by Leo Babauta at Darren Rowse's Problogger.com. The theme is somewhat hackneyed, I must admit, but some people may still find it useful. 

In his post, Babauta was preaching in great details how critical the role of passion in each of our blogging activities is. He has got seven points altogether on how to tackle most of our blogging problems with passion as the panacea. For those who do not realy have much spare time to peruse his words, just take a look at the following summary.

Seven ways to transform our blogs with passion:

1. write things we are passionate about
2. find things to be passionate about (if you are now a passionless blogger)
3. write when we are excited (not on schedule)
4. pump up the jams (listening to music while blogging)
   
5. coffee
6. write passionately, become a better writer
7. read others who are passionate
   

 To compare to my own personal blogging experience, I would say that there are some points Babauta and I have in common. Speaking of point 1, I do love to write things I am only passionate about. I hardly ever write or post things I don't even throw a single glance at. Posting something that we do not really like is torturing and futile. 

What about finding things to be passionate about? Since I already found my passion long before starting blogging, I practically have no problem with it. One thing I might consider is perhaps I need to develop some other new and invigorating things to be passionate about. But for the time being, what I know is I do blogging to hone my English skills by sharing what I know.

On the third point, I kind of have a dissenting opinion. I once heard that a good writer should set a target because relying solely on his/her mood to write might be a waste of time. A prolific author even said that we should write only when we get excited or  are in a good mood to write. But regardless of the situation, circumstances, or any possible hampers, it is one of a writer's jobs to perpetually create a situation where s/he can be excited or is in a glaring mood to work. The same thing applies to bloggers. Blogging is basically writing, isn't it?
Listening to music is the one and only thing I can do while blogging. It does not make sense that someone can blog intensively while s/he is watching a DVD. I love some classical pieces of music and some pop songs.
 Coffee? I have never thought of becoming a coffee drinker, now and then. So I must disagree with him in this issue. Drinking coffee, to me, is as bad as drinking liquour. I prefer a cup of green tea, or a full glass of fruit juice to wash away the fatigue.
About the sixth point, it is a natural consequence that our writing quality improves as we do blogging continuously.
Reading other passionate bloggers' contents is a compulsory routine for any novice. It is easier to get some perfect blogging idols as our models, which in turn may boost our spirit to stick to our blogging goals.
See ya!

Blogging in English: Dollars or Nationalism?

I'm not talking about bloggers who are living in English speaking countries, like the US, England, Australia, etc; or some other bloggers who live in countries other than the mentioned above, but are lucky enough to get themselves exposed to English on a daily basis. Who I'm talking about here is a group of Indonesian bloggers, like me, who hardly have chance to practice their English proficiency regularly. 

For bloggers with English as their mother tongue (first language) or second language, blogging in English is a piece of cake, literally. But for us, Indonesian bloggers, unless we're exceptionally determined, excelled at linguistic skills, erudite/ learned enough to go to college and drench ourselves in some English literary works or writing pieces, we won't be able to write our blog posts in English entirely.

Today I happened to visit a blog run by a fellow blogger whose nickname is blogger ingusan (conotatively speaking, meaning a novice, green, less experienced blogger in bahasa Indonesia). He posted an article Write in English, Why?, which made me giggle almost to no end because he told something that I am experiencing now, i.e.  the lack of visitors' response. I've had only three or four commentators so far. My blog is already a month old now and having no visitors to comment on what I wrote is unbearably pathetic, I know. There, he spilled all his thoughts, fear and wish about how to blog in English. He elaborated three reasons why blogging in English is worthtrying.

A number of bloggers argue that using Indonesian instead of English shows how much someone's proud of their national language is. But as a matter of fact, we can't decide someone's nationalism solely by measuring how skillful  s/he is at using Bahasa or how frequent s/he is using it. I can't stress much on the fact that English is one thing, nationalism is another. Language is merely a tool of communicating ideas in blogging. Thus, I get really concerned when I discover someone who uses nationalism issue to cover up their reluctance (or disability?) to blog in English.

 Some time in yesteryear, I was kind of impressed when the first time I found an English blog written by an Indonesian blogger . Though it was actually bilingual, the blog was quite a breakthrough to me. I did find some blogs run by Indonesians but this blog is distingushed in the way that it persuades Indonesian bloggers to write their blogs in English. The blog belongs to Fatih Syuhud, who (if I'm not mistaken) is a graduate of one of Indian colleges. If you're someone who is fully determined to start  blogging in English, Fatih Syuhud's blog is certainly a must-visit blog that you must bookmark in your browser.
And to wrap up, I'll answer the question I used as my post's title. I blog in English just because I need to actualize myself, my passion about English learning. What about dollars and nationalism?  I do care but not that much, to be frank (presumably true at the time when this post was being typed). Now, what about you, buddies? Is it all about bucks (monetizing stuffs), showing off to the world who you are and what you can do and know or ...what? I'd be thrilled to have your words on my comment box. Cheers!