The fight for being India's Top Blogger

It all started when chenthil posted that Kiruba being India's Top Blogger was an Urban Legend and like most urban legends, this one too was untrue. This started off a heated debate in the Indian Blogosphere with bloggers taking either sides and some preferring to remain anonymous because of their vitriolic comments on the issue.

I believe most of the bloggers used this opportunity to express their jealousy for kiruba's popularity in the Indian Blogging community. No, I am not a supporter of Kiruba nor am i opposed to his blog. It is a fact that Kiruba is popular that, judging by the number of links to his blogs from other blogs. But, I guess , most of these links are in the hope that Kiruba links back to their site and thus, gain valuable exposure to their site. Even my site has been linked to by three other blogs (a little small compared to Kiruba's 275). Out of these three, one has always been defunct!

Patrix opines that there is no hard-and-fast rule to judge the popularity of a blog and gives an example using Technorati's rankings to put Digital Inspiration as one of the top Blogs. He also adds that even this ranking might not be foolproof and it is purely a matter of the "current event" which might make a blog appear popular.

WA jumps on the bandwagon and writes an interesting post, taking upon herself to judge the best indian blogger and in the process, providing me with links to many new blogs :-)

IndigoWarp has a small but to-the-point post on why he likes Kiruba's blog. His post prompted me to search for the post on Kiruba where he is shown trimming his toenails before a marathon :-)

So, what does it take to become India's top blogger or what does it take for one's blog to become popular? There is no definitive answer to this question as it largely depends on the kind of audience you expect on your blog or the ones you want on your blog. A blog is purely a personal medium to express one's thoughts to the external world and it may or may not be to the liking of people reading it. Kiruba has expressed this in reply to all the posts regarding his popularity or the lack of.

Of course, if your intention is to become a top blogger, you have to constantly adjust your content to suit the current trend of visitors on your blog. This takes lot of time and effort and may even reap rich rewards in the end, as can be seen from "Professional Bloggers" who blog their way to the banks.

I started blogging (if you call what i do as blogging), just because everyone i knew was doing it. It is a different matter that most of those people have stopped blogging after a few posts. What started as a blog for me turned into an elaborate exercise in maintaining a complete website. It was also an attempt at increasing my knowledge in html, css and other basics of building webpages. Even now, each of my pages are hand-written in EditPlus (of course, on top of the basic template page i created). Somehow, I never got to using any content management system or any other WYSIWYG editor. I just put on my website whatever i was interested in, like The Hunt (puzzles), Hindu Crossword Solutions, Travelogues, Photo Galleries, Photography Tips and Tricks, Photoshop work and even yesterday, i introduced a new section for my photoblog. Yes, i would like lot of people to read my blog/site, but all these were not created for the sake of others, but only as a realisation of my interests.

I read a lot of blogs, including Kiruba's. But, my concept of an interesting blog is slightly different. I read blogs for passing time, so i expect it to be an amusing experience. If it was current affairs or social/political issues that i was interested in, i would rather watch NDTV, CNN or any other news channel rather than reading a blogger's opinion on the same. So, i skip blogs which talk about such general issues. I like blogs which have humorous posts, like this one on vinod's blog, posts from which i can get a laugh and share the same with others. I also like to read photo journals and travelogues. I read Kiruba's blogs for his posts on his cycling trips or the marathon experiences and skip the podcast interviews from who's-who of some industry.

I am a regular at Chennai Central, not because he is one of the three nice guys to link to me, but because he often collates interesting posts and links to them. I also use his site and Kiruba's as a starting point for my daily blog-reading by using their huge blogrolling links.

So, if i were to judge the top bloggers based on the frequency of my visits, it would present an entirely different picture, contrary to public opinion. So, lets all leave this "top blogger" issue aside and continue blogging to please the masses in the hope that some huge MNC, someday buys out our website for millions of dollars!

Incidentally, "India's top blogger" anagrams to

• Bloating Ego Drips
• Bad, Losing Ego-trip
• God! Boasting peril
• Top Libido Naggers

Mind-B(l)oggling !