IndiBlogger Bloggers’ Meet At Pune

Firstly, I would like to say that this was my first ever bloggers’ meet. I had never been to such a meet before, and therefore, I didn’t know what such a meet would be like. At the end of it all, I must say that it was a great experience and I hope that such meets are held in the future too.

The venue for this meet was the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning. At the very beginning of the meet, there was this great video shown to us which defines a blog. I guess it was made by Vineet (the organiser of the meet). It was a great video, dude. Keep it up!

I have embedded the video below. I hope you guys like it too.

After the customary introductions by the IndiBlogger team and a lady called Sandhya Rajan representing Microsoft it was time for ‘1 minute of Fame’, where every blogger was supposed to introduce his/her blog(s). Here I came to know about quite a few great blogs which are worth a mention here.

First there was a ProBlogger called Karamveer Singh. He has a software company called Ayush Software and he claims to own about 200 websites. And his earnings for February 2008? A mind-boggling $55000! I am sure he is one of the highest earners in the blogosphere. Probably the most surprising thing was the presence in the meet of quite a few regional language bloggers (bloggers who blog in Marathi, Hindi etc). This surely is testimony to the fact that the Indian blogosphere is now maturing. And yes, I also met two fellow mutineers Harsha and Maltesh. Then there was Ketan Pandit who has launched a campaign against female foeticide, through his blog. Noble campaign dude, I wish you the very best of luck! And finally, not to forget, there was a ‘celebrity’ blogger among us! She humbly calls herself Just a mother of two.

The next item was ‘How well do you know your readers?’, where the IndiBlogger team would read out a comment and you have to recognise whether that comment is from your blog. And if it is, you have to do what is called ‘The IndiBlogger Jig’. Unfortunately, the second comment read out was from my blog and I had to do that jig! Of course, I botched it up, but I promise to do a better jig the next time around.

After dinner, which consisted of pizzas (which were quite good) and some Coke, it was time for the skit. I had volunteered for this skit and, honestly, though it didn’t make much sense, it was great fun to participate in. The skit was about how a blogger writes a post which is appreciated by a few visitors. But when his blog starts getting spammed, he starts losing visitors, his page-rank goes down and in the end, Akismet (the great anti-spam plugin for WordPress) saves the day.

Then there was the inevitable Microsoft Live Writer presentation. One incredible fact I discovered here was that LiveWriter is a freeware. Heh. No one was ready to believe it, but after repeated assurances from Sandhya that it was indeed a freeware, we sort of came to terms with this (grim) reality!

As for the discussions that took place during the meet, I must mention Vineet’s tips on starting your own self-hosted blog by spending only Rs. 200. He has also written a post on this topic on his blog. Then there was Karamveer Singh doling out tips on how to monetise your blog. And yes, not to forget, there were around four guys from BarCamp who announced that there is a BlogCamp and simultaneously a BarCamp in Mumbai on the 29th of March, 2008 at IIT Powai. Heck, I don’t think I will be able to attend it because of the damned college submissions. Sorry, guys.

For those who want to want to join the blogging bandwagon and feel that they have missed out on a great opportunity in this meet, don’t fret. Such meets happen regularly. The BlogCamp I mentioned above is an example. There is also an IndiBlogger Bloggers’ Meet in Mumbai on the 20th of April 2008. Be sure to drop in there. Honestly, it’s worth the pizzas and the T-shirt (yes, you get a T-shirt too!). Finally, I would like to thank Vineet and the IndiBlogger team for organising this bloggers’ meet. You guys did a great job!

And yes, on the front side of that T-shirt they gave, the following sentence was prominently displayed: “We Blog, Therefore We Are!” Indeed, aren’t we? Happy Blogging!

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