Blogging Philosphy: for Pro or newbie - Real heroes are readers

 I talked about reconnecting with our neighbors, and other people we meet everyday during, filling gas, standing in grocery lines, at post office, and so on, To see original post click here . Blogging  is also like online community that we meet on world wide web, how do we connect with them all, get to know them?

Many people blog for different reasons, for some it is connecting with far away relatives for family update, for others it is making money, or writing about subject close to their heart, place for rant, rave and other life's philosophy, some people use it as an online journal to some people write about things they want to change in their life such as debt reduction, getting fit and so on.

Whatever, your reason might be, none of us could survive without people's support, real people behind the screen. These people could be in the same city or be in different country, be it readers or blogger. Wherever your readers are, they are "REAL" people, how to be sensitive towards them?


For "Pro Bloggers": Bloggers who are very successful and blogging is their full time job.

No matter how expert or successful they may be, all of us have feelings, fears and emotions. They may not have time or chance to respond to all people who wants something from them. It is not personal, they are just bogged down and it is hard to differentiate between people who wants some piece of action/help from them to people who are true fan. Leave them comments (if they allow it), send them email or find other ways to communicate. Do not stalk, let it go, if you do not hear from them. They are very busy and can use some down time for hundreds of fan trying to get hold of them. You can still learn a lot from their writing, their tweet messages and their interview on other popular blogs.

Do not be envious, when their post gets 100's of comments such as , great post, I agree with you's, while you wrote similar post a weeks ago, which was excellent and similar by the way, got merely a few comments. The problem is not your post or your writing, problem is no one knows who you are and where you are,yet. Besides, everyone wants to hang out with popular and successful people, and while some commenter might be posting comment just to advertise others about their new blog. (I am guilty of this myself)

If you are "Pro Blogger" overwhelmed by thousands of fans, try to be grateful and be kind to those upcoming bloggers. As a expert on your field, you can educate and help wonderful causes and I see many great bloggers doing that, giving back to community. I know of a few successful bloggers mentioning new upcoming blogs on thier blog, helping newbie bloggers, I have found many gem blogs that way that I read now.

Remember good old days when you really could reply to each comments and knew your readers.  I know of some bloggers still try to response to each comments personally even when comments are in range of 80s or more. That is a dedication and weather they know it or not, I think people who read their blog sure appreciate it.

For small or Newbie bloggers:

Try not to be jealous of someone's success, while it does not seem fair, when you are working hard on your blog, not making any money or getting many comments, it is hard to measure your worth. Remember that very popular blogs that you are so envious of, were once small and newbie blogs themselves. While some may have been lucky to find success sooner than others, most of them have worked hard just like you. Key is consistency and do not give up blogging, even when there is no money, no comments; keep doing your work.  Lord Krishna (Hinduism) has said  "Keep doing your work without expecting any rewards, it will come in due course". Follow that great wisdom and you will be lot happier while climbing the success ladder no matter where it takes you.

Blogging now is lot easier compared to a few years ago, when a bloggers had to know html or other type coding to actually do blogging, so I have been told. We new bloggers have it lot easier so let's count our blessing. There are social media and other tools available for those technical savvy to help achieve success. If you are in this for get rich quick reasons, I am sure failures comes easy as there are not short cuts for making money or be successful.

I know of a few blogs that gotten so much publicity due to guest postings, twitter messages and Facebook friends connections, but that person may have worked very hard for it, you may never know. So relax, let go of any envy you may have and do blogging for yourself, for your true fans and readers and leave rest to destiny. Without hard work nothing is gained.

For commenter without blogs:

My hats off you all, as you comment for article and yourself and without ulterior motive. Some of you visit or subscribe to blogs, making them a successful. Without commenters and readers, we will not be anywhere. Thank you from bottom of my heart for taking time to comment. For many bloggers like myself is true measure of writing and self worth.

So be kind and comment often, not only on this blog but other new one, successful ones, we all need readers feedback. Sometimes simple "Thank you" is enough, other time "constrictive" criticism is welcomed, as long it is not in form of personal attack, remember we are all real people with real feelings right, just like you.

My way of connecting

I reply to my each comments and emails and I usually check out commenter's blog (if he/she has one) and comment there too.I choose not be part of any social media right now, as I do not think I can do justice to it fully with my kids, family and other responsibility. In future, if it is possible, will see. I see this is my minimalist way of online life for now.

I go to blogs that interest me, despite they are in same subject blog as me or not, I have many interests and it goes into my reading others and writing here. I comment on posts usually like and love to share my point of view. I try often post comments on new blogs more as I know some people have been kind to me when I was a brand new blogger (I still feel newbie) and I am passing the favor I got.

Web  is big place and it has a place for all of us, pro blogs, medium size blogs, small blogs, niche blogs,mishmash blogs, and parenting blogs and many more. Blog about something you are passionate about, which has value to help others at the same time, it will be sustainable and has a chance of success.

We are all real people with real emotions and we have an opportunity to connect online to friends whom in real life we could have made.  Let's connect by being our true self online and be kind to each other online too.

Zengirl

Re-connect with community around you

Have you ever watched "It is wonderful life", 1946 movie with James Stewart and Donna Reed? Many of us watch it during Christmas holidays as a holiday tradition. Why am I talking about a holiday movie in February time?

What I love about the movie, is not only uplifting and inspiring story, but also a sense of community in the movie, where everyone knew each other by name and were friends. I would like to live where everyone knows us, and we know them and are friendly with each other too. Our older generation used to know people around them such as neighbors and other everyday folks they met during the course of the day.

Now a days, we have lost that connection with people, a sense of community is hardly there. Many of us live in Apartments, Condo or house for months or years, yet we do not know many of our neighbors! I mean really know them as a friends not just by face or car they drive only. We no longer know people we deal with often such our bankers, bakers, gas station workers, mail man as they keep changing jobs often and due to lack of time on our part. And not many knows "real" us either, as we seemed to busier than ever.

We go to work, office, business, school, college or work at home, busy making money and paying bills, running errands, yet hardly we take time out to connect with people whom we meet. Take an example of us, Zenguy and I have lived in same place for many years yet we both used to work crazy hours till late evening. We used to eat out or crash in front of the TV eating take out food, we did not have energy for people who lived around us. Now, that I am home and we have 2 little ones, we are just beginning to know some of our neighbors truly. However, there are still some neighbors who are busy working long hours or as soon as they come home, they close garage doors, so no one gets to know them.

R loves to say hello to our mail man and garbage man, he genuinely  is interested in them and want to know their truck and how do they deliver mails or how the garbage truck picks up the big trash cans. If they are rushing, R still likes to wave at them and smile. And thanks to him, I am also getting to know people and  helpers around me.

Sometimes when we go to grocery store, we say hello to people in line with us, chatting up with cashier as well.  Once Zenguy saw one couple ahead of us in checkout line, and gave them our extra coupon that he saw they were buying, so they can save few bucks. They were surprised and very thankful. Little P was restless and crying so I wanted to rush home, like I used to, but that act of Zenguy made me not only proud of him but reminded me to connect with others, even though we may or may not see them again.

While, we may not be friends with neighbors like in movie "It is a wonderful life", but we are improving and getting better. We have have made friendship with single old woman in her late 60s and have shared some meals with her, we were there when her mom passed away and she in turns shares her stories with us, and helps us when we least expecting it.

There is always a first step to every journey and these are our conscious choices to smile and say hello to everyone we meet such as neighbors, grocery cashiers, Bankers, farmer market sellers, garbage truck driver, mail man and even those who solicited selling things at our door. It does not cost us anything to smile and be friendly and in return we get good energy that uplifts us.

Do you know people around you? Are you always rushing from one place to another? If so, slow down a little and get to know your community around you, slowly. It may do wonders for you.

If you are friendly with people around you, I would sure like hear your story.

Zengirl

13 ways to be compassionate

How do we feel and treat other with compassion? Maybe you see someone struggling to carry large bag, do we help him? Maybe someone is feeling dizzy and fainting, do we rush to help or move on our way hoping she will be alright? If you hear a small child crying in grocery store, do you feel annoyed or do you feel bad for mother or father and ask them if they could use help? On flip side of the coin, what if you were offered the help, and you get annoyed by them? Are we ready to offer and ready to accept help and compassion in this society without being judged? I sure hope so.

I believe most of the people are good natured and kind hearted and ready to offer help but somewhere along our hectic life, we may become annoyed at others, or we think our privacy is being invaded when someone offers the help. However, we can still live our life relatively fine and help others and accept the help from others. Here are a few ways to be compassionate and helpful.

1. Trust others, most people are nice and not out there to hurt you, or con you.
2. It is good karma, what goes around will come around.
3. Try to think of it from their perspective, really, walk a mile on their shoes before judging them.
4. It will make you feel good.
5. Someone who you helped will be truly sending you best vibes/wishes your way. It may make
your life better, somehow.
6. The person you helped will be inspired to help others, starting a chain of "pay it forward" goodness. Can you imagine the impact of it?
7. Truly listen to person or people asking for help, before saying no, yes or even maybe.
8. Be open minded.
9. Do not just help person in suit, or good looking girl/boy, help someone who needs help, regardless of religion, looks or status.
10. Do it from heart, without any expectations.
11. You may pass it on to your kids, spouse, or friends, being nice and kind that is.
12. For little time and effort the feeling of satisfaction you may get will be 10 fold.
13. Just do it, you will be glad you did.

How do you feel compassionate? Do you help others when they ask? Do you help when they do not ask but yet you see them needing help? Do you feel compassion is important? How do you feel when someone offers you help? Do you graciously accept or act like you have it under control? Some answers may not be easy, but if we think about it, it just may be easier to accept and offer help to total strangers and be happy about it.

Go out and do one random act of kindness today, if you can.



Zengirl