Tag-Archive for ◊ blogging ◊

15 Jul 2009 Get Help or Go Solo?
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment

Last question today and then I’ll have to wrap up this Q&A series, folks. Thank you all for sending your questions in, and feel free to continue sending more to askmridu@gmail.com. Once they’ve piled up, I’ll do another week or two of Q&A, but it’s time now to return to regularly scheduled programming.

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Congrats on your new blog! If you don’t mind, I’d love to know why you decided to go with True/Slant rather than start your own since you seem to have a large following. Is it a paying gig?

Great questions, and nope, I don’t mind answering. Yes, it’s a paying gig, but I’ve been offered blogging jobs (some higher paying) before this that I didn’t take up. What interested me about True/Slant were a few things:

1. The quality of the contributors. I checked out several people who’re involved with this project (and actually follow the work of a couple) and was convinced that this isn’t one of those websites that hires just about anyone who wants to write for them. They’ve carefully handpicked their contributors and have a limit on the number of people they take in. Most of them are nationally and internationally published journalists with decades of professional experience.

2. This is a professional venture with a business plan, management, editors and people who want to discuss regularly what your blog will be about and how to make it better. That alone gives me confidence in them.

3. They’re offering support for marketing, which means I don’t have to go around begging people to please click on my website (though if you do, I won’t mind!). Given that they’re serious about promotion, that makes content my primary job, not marketing (though I’m just wired to do it anyway).

Yes, I could have started my own blog, but you know, I already have a blog and I don’t really need another one. I don’t think I would ever have become a blogger if this one hadn’t just started out by accident, and why it’s popular, I will never know. I do know, however, that I didn’t want to invest all my time marketing, when I could be writing instead.

The only reason for a second blog could be to (a) add to my income and (b) add to my career goals, both of which Panties and Principles does. Also, the selling point for me was definitely that there’s a team at True/Slant behind me working with me on helping this thing succeed and they have a built-in audience for the kind of issues I’m interested in discussing.

There were other factors, of course, that I can’t get into here, but I will say that I had a long chat with one of the editors and what they are trying to do long-term matches with what I’m trying to do long-term.

That could change, of course. They might not like what I do; I might have a change of opinion along the way. But those were my reasons primarily for not starting a blog on my own and choosing True/Slant instead.

14 Jul 2009 Jane Boursaw: On Blogging for Pay
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: ,  | Leave a Comment

I’ve received a few questions about blogging for pay that, let’s face it, I’m just not qualified to answer. So today I’ve brought in an expert, who in addition to being a fabulous and wonderful person, is also a huge inspiration to me in terms of what she has been able to do with her blogs. I’m posting a short Q&A I did with her recently and she discusses how to get started in blogging and where the money is.

First, her bio:

Jane Boursaw has been a freelance writer for 25 years, and a blogger for 5 years. She’s the co-lead blogger for two TV blogs: AOL’s TVSquad.com and CliqueClack.com/tv. Her movie blog is FilmGecko.com, which is part of the b5media blogging network. She’s also blogged for People.com and SoapNet.com, and teaches an online blogging class at http://www.blogging-for-passion-and-profit.com/. Next class starts Sept. 7, 2009 (class size is limited, so sign up early!). Her articles have appeared in Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal, Fitness, USA Weekend, Christian Science Monitor, AARP, iVillage.com and many other print and online publications. Her celebrity profiles have appeared inAmerican Eagle Latitudes, Emmy Magazine, Valley Lifemagazine and others. She also writes a family movie column, Reel Life With Jane. Home base is www.ReelLifeWithJane.com.

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How important a part should blogging play in a writer’s business plan today?

Blogs are really where it’s at right now. I still write some feature stories for consumer print magazines, but that portion of my income has dropped off in the past few years, mainly because magazines — the ones that are still around — are using more in-house writers and assigning less. It’s easier to get a blogging gig on a magazine’s Web site than a feature story in their print magazine.

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How does one get started?

It’s easy to start a blog with one of the free programs, such as Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com or WordPress.com. You sign up, create a blog, write a post, and suddenly, you’re a blogger! Of course, you can get more options with a program like WordPress.org, but there are plenty of really easy blogging programs out there.

If your goal is to get a job blogging for a magazine or Web site, I recommend starting your own blog first to get a feel for it, learn the ins and outs of blogging, and get in the groove of blogging, either on a daily basis or a few times a week. Once you’ve done that, then you can start looking for jobs on the writers’ and bloggers’ job boards.

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For journalists new to the medium, what are the things to remember?

Blogging is different from print journalism, in that you write a blog post, hit “publish,” and you’re done. For most consumer magazines, getting a story published is a lengthy process of querying, getting the assignment, doing several interviews, submitting the story, waiting weeks or months for edits to come back, revising the story, re-submitting it, waiting more weeks and months until it finally makes it into the magazine, and somewhere in there, hopefully you’ll be paid, either on acceptance or publication. Blogging is fast and more seat-of-your-pants type writing. You also have to be able to write something, let it go, and move on to the next thing. There’s not as much time to ruminate over things. But because of that, I think blogging is more in tune with how people really think. Our brains work fast, and that’s how blogging is, too. A blog is definitely a great place to let your personality shine through.

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Can blogging supplement a writer’s income? Can it completely replace it?

Blogging can definitely supplement a writer’s income, and even replace it, if that’s what you want. For me, the key is having a lot of different blogs I write for, in addition to other revenue streams, such as my blogging class, my syndicated family movie column, and a few feature stories and celeb profiles for print and online publications here and there. Anyone who’s been writing for a while knows you can’t have all your eggs in one basket, because you never know if that basket will implode. So it’s good to diversify and keep a lot of things going, so you’re not panicky if one goes belly up.

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How much can someone expect to earn, on average, in a month from blogging?

It really varies, depending on the publication and payment system, and whether you’re blogging for someone else or monetizing your own blog. I know writers who do very well, earning several thousand dollars a month from blogging income. A friend earns $1200/month blogging three times a week for a consumer magazine. Some blogs pay per post, anywhere from $5 to $300, but even the pay-per-click blogs, which often get a bad rap, can be moneymakers if you have a good topic, market the heck out of it, brings lots of readers in, and keep them coming back for more.

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Is it better to blog for a particular company, or start your own?

Again, it just depends on your business model and goals. If your goal is to make money blogging - with no other goals in mind - then blogging for a company (or several companies) might be the way to go. If you’re looking to build a book platform or build your expertise in a certain niche, then your own blog might be the way to go. But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Jen Singer has built a successful platform for her books by blogging at both her own site, www.MommaSaid.net, as well as for Good Housekeeping’s “Good Grief! A Tale of Two Tweens” blog. Her new book is “MommaSaid.net Presents: Stop Second Guessing Yourself — The Toddler Years” (HCI April 2009). Says Jen, “I probably wouldn’t have gotten the GH gig if I hadn’t already blogged for years at MommaSaid. I used it to prove to my editor I could sustain a well written blog for long periods of time.”

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How did you get started in blogging? How long have you been doing it?

I’ve been a freelance writer for 25+ years, but got into blogging about five years ago, when it was starting to be the “in” thing. I’m an entertainment writer, and because blogging seemed to be the growing trend, I started my own TV and movie blogs to get a feel for the process and show editors I could write fast with a lot of personality. After I’d been doing it a while, I started looking for blogging jobs and pointing editors back to my own blogs. Basically, I was saying, “See, I can do this! How about if I do it for you?” Those early blogs of my own were an important stepping stone to the work I do now. During the past few years, I’ve blogged for People.com, SoapNet.com, and I’m now the co-lead blogger on AOL’s TV Squad and CliqueClack.com/tv. And my movie blog is FilmGecko.com.

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Anything else you’d like to add?

Any writer would benefit from adding blogging to their mix of work. Not only are blogs a way for publications to offer up-to-the-minute info on anything, they also offer writers a way to get their thoughts published within minutes. Whether you’re promoting a book, writing about something that’s important to you, or blogging for pay, blogs are definitely the trend right now, and I don’t think they’re going to go away anytime soon.

And because a writer has never blogged before doesn’t mean they can’t learn how to do it. As a rule, freelance writers are usually able to roll with the punches and keep re-inventing themselves to produce whatever editors and publications need. And with the user-friendly blogging platforms, you don’t need to know a lot of html to blog. It’s just a matter of learning the basics and continuing to build your blogging expertise from there. Like everything, it’s a learning process.

In my blogging class, I teach basics such as finding a good niche, using offline editors, using tags and categories, where to find great images and videos, using SEO tools to best maximize your blog, building a fun community for your readers, how to find good blogging jobs, how to monetize your blog, how to use social media sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg to spread the word about your blog, and a lot more.

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Sign up for Jane’s class here: http://www.blogging-for-passion-and-profit.com/

03 Jul 2009 Panties and Principles
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment

People sometimes ask me the purpose of this blog. I tell them it’s about my life as a female freelance journalist in India (or wherever work takes me), the focus being female, freelance, and journalist, usually a combination of the three.

People ask me how I came up with this blog, and I tell them I didn’t really. I came up with a newsletter for international writers, in which I wrote a weekly editorial about my life as an Indian freelancer, and when I gave that up to focus on my own work, hundreds of my 7,000+ subscribers said they missed the editorials and kept pestering me to give updates on my life and work. (Many of you still remain. Thank you!)

The goal of this blog has never been to teach anything, but to share my experiences, as I stumble, succeed, and stumble once more. Clearly, the stumbling happens frequently.

But there’s another thing that I’m quite passionate about and that’s women’s issues in India. I don’t identify as a feminist; I believe as much in male empowerment as I do in female empowerment. But we all know that in countries like India, women are sometimes treated like second-class citizens. And I’m always interested in challenging that, while raising a few eyebrows.

I could ramble about social injustice all day (and I do; I’m great fun to be around), but this blog is not the space for that. Which is why the nice folks over at True/Slant recognized my need for ranting and offered me a space on the website to start a blog about women’s issues in India.

It’s titled Panties and Principles (hop on over to find out the origins of that name) and I’ll be posting frequently. I’ll take a sometimes-humorous-sometimes-serious look at the lives, challenges, and successes of the Indian woman.

Come talk to me.

Recent posts:

Welcome to “Panties and Principles”
Delhi High Court Legalizes Homosexuality

11 Apr 2009 “Too many shoes are missing their targets.”
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , ,  | 2 Comments

In an article on the online magazine The Hoot, Mayank Chhaya writes:

This may not be a trend yet but journalism schools around the world, if there are still any left, should introduce a specific course in shoe throwing. These journalism schools will have to invest in shoes of all varieties and develop a precise science based on their weight, shape and material. Trajectories will have to be studied based on the distance between the shoe-throwing journalist and his or her target. There is a whole science of aerodynamics waiting to be tapped on what material to be used in shoes so that they do the job efficiently. Schools will need NASA engineers who are able to calculate to the last inch where a probe would land.

Seriously though, what’s with all the journalistic shoe throwing? Chhaya sees it as an extreme form of editorializing.

The whole issue of journalists as activists comes up fairly often in my life. While I will never participate in any protests or sign allegiance to any party out of principle, I have several friends who don’t have that luxury. Some have escaped from repressive regimes, have fought for their lives, been imprisoned and tortured. They were activists first and became journalists later. I suspect they wouldn’t mind throwing a shoe or two of their own.

But their work often does end up in opinion pages and in the first-person. It does, they admit, limit the potential of their work as journalists. There is a clear bias.

I don’t believe in the so-called “objective reporting.” There’s always an inherent bias, no matter how hard a reporter may try to get rid of it. And you choose that bias as soon as you try to come up with an angle for a story.

But there’s a difference between having a bias, being aware of it so that you can make sure to provide an alternative viewpoint, and throwing a shoe at a politician you don’t like or agree with.

That’s when you’ve definitely crossed over from journalism into activism.

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P.S. Even bloggers need a rest. I’ll only be blogging Monday to Friday from now on. (I know today is Saturday. From next week, I mean.)

03 Feb 2009 Oh No, Journalism is Dying!
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments

During my cyber adventures today, I came across three separate articles bemoaning the end of the world. Or maybe just the end of journalism and publishing.

I have to say, as someone who’s had the pleasure (mostly) of working with full-time print journalists, this doesn’t surprise me. Print journalists have been crying about the end of journalism for a while now, but if recent figures are to be believed, people are reading more than they ever have before.

They’re just doing it online.

As a journalist, especially as a freelance journalist, I’ve witnessed first-hand the changes that have come with new technologies and new mediums.

I remember when editors only wanted to look at your print portfolio and being in India worked against me when trying to get work. Now, editors shake their heads if you don’t have a website or at least some work online that they can check out. New Delhi, San Francisco, Nairobi, Melbourne, what does it matter? You’re using e-mail anyway. And you’re talking through Skype. And having quick conversations on iChat.

I remember when mailing your clips and your query using postal mail was the preferred method. Now even if you use postal mail, the response will arrive by e-mail.

I remember when people thought it a tad silly when I started blogging. Now they’re fighting over what’s better: Wordpress or Blogger.

But as a journalist, a writer, a freelancer, what does this mean for you?

Nothing, really, if you’ve kept up with the world of publishing. While the print journalists who’ve just lost their jobs post rants (on their blogs, no less), many writers, including me, have had the busiest month of our careers, possibly the most profitable too. That’s because we’ve been writing for small publications, for international publications, and mostly, for online publications.

Once, freelancing was considered something you did if you couldn’t get or keep a “real” job or were too scattered to have focus. Now people who can multitask and handle several projects at once are in high demand.

Journalism is not dying. If anything, there’s a need, now more than ever, for original reporting, for investigative reporting, and for foreign reporting.

Print may or may not survive in its current format, I’ll give you that. But journalism is far from past tense. It’s just changing. Instead of the one journalist, you now have collaborations. Instead of exclusives, you now have sharing of resources. Instead of “front page” news, you now have most-emailed news.

As long as you have an important story to tell, there will be someone out there willing to buy it. Open your mind to the different ways of working in this new media world, and you’ll be just fine.

01 Feb 2009 Dear NDTV: Engage Your Viewers, Don’t Sue Them
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , , , ,  | 4 Comments

An ongoing debate in India is bringing to light yet again the huge disconnect between traditional media and blogging.

In December, I reported that sensational reporting of the Mumbai terror attacks by the Indian broadcast media was causing quite a stir.

Earlier this week, one of the bloggers who first started talking about this “shoddy journalism” posted a retraction and an apology for his statements made about one particular network and anchor: NDTV’s Barkha Dutt.

And that’s where the disconnect starts showing.

Because blogging is not journalism. Blogging is blogging.

Think of the many times you’ve been at a party among a large group of people discussing politics.

“Obama is a Muslim!” one of your has-a-penchant-for-histrionics friend cries out. “I read it in the newspaper.”

“He’s not a Muslim,” another friend says. “He only has Muslim family.”

“Hey, wait a second… what’s so wrong with being a Muslim?” a third person chimes in.

Before you know it, you’re all talking about Obama, his politics, his speeches, his family, his background, his future, his whatnot. You may all disagree on pretty much everything, but you’re talking. You’re having a discussion.

Blogging is a bit like that. Except that you’re having this conversation online, in public, and everyone’s invited. Instead of saying “I read it in the newspaper,” you’re now posting links to that newspaper article.

Blogging is a mix between opinion and fact, and everything in between. It does not hold the authority of a news organization. Everyone understands this.

People blogging about a certain subject may reach a mutually-agreeable conclusion after much debate, or they may not. They may continue posting rants, opinions, and links on their blogs to prove each other wrong. But that’s what’s so interesting. They’re having a conversation. They’re having a debate. And you’re welcome to join in by commenting or continuing it on your own blog.

Just like at the party, you may feel like punching the ignorant friend but you can’t take away his right to say what he thinks (depending on where you live, of course.)

Blogging in free and democratic societies is like that. It’s opinion. Blogging is conversation. Blogging cannot be regulated any more than that conversation at the party. You may not agree with it, but unless it’s plain and simple libel, the blogger has as much a right to express his opinion as you.

Journalism, on the other hand, is more like being at a conference. Speakers come and talk, what they say is taken as fact (they’ll usually back it up), and errors of judgment are not taken lightly.

I’ve spoken a couple of times about print journalists not being able to easily make the transition from journalism to blogging. That’s because while there’s an overlap between the two, you have to come to both from completely different mindsets.

Media organizations in the West have been making an effort in recent years, to bridge this divide and more importantly, learn and understand this phenomenon called blogging. They’re mostly learning to give bloggers respect even if they don’t fully understand it.

Most media organizations in India, so far, are still largely suspicious of bloggers and go out of their way to try and control this free flow of information.

Clearly, that doesn’t work. Because what happened is that NDTV completely missed the beat on this one. They got ONE apology. But they got hundreds, maybe thousands, of others to rehash not only a dead story, but express outrage at the network’s actions. At this point, it doesn’t even matter if NDTV had a case or not.

I respect that blogger’s decision to back off. However, had he decided to fight back, I think he would have received a lot of support from the blogging community, including money for legal fees.

I feel traditional media houses still think that they hold more power than lone bloggers. But what they may not understand is that the blogger is not a lone reed. When they’re writing away inconsequentially you can’t see it, but try and silence one and they’ll all come out in droves fighting for their right to free speech and expression.

That said, not all bloggers are always right. Some do indulge in rumor mongering, several repeat false information, and it’s very easy to find an incorrect statement paraded around as fact.

The way to curb rumors and untrue statements posing as fact, however, is not to threaten legal action. The way to deal with it is the same way you’d deal with that obnoxious friend at the party. By engaging them, having a conversation, and presenting facts.

And maybe, once in a while, admitting that you could be wrong.

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Some links, if you’re interested in the issue:

The original post (Scroll down to the bottom; See why it’s so hard to shut the Internet up?)

Blogger Silenced by NDTV

Blogger’s Bile or What STFU Really Means

Throw the Constitution away

Shame Shame NDTV Shame

NDTV’s Assault on Free Speech

When “free speech” bears a price tag

Open Letter to NDTV

Chetan Kunte, Blogging Hero

And a little bit of fun: The Further Adventures of Hark! DaButt

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