For as long as I can remember, I have had the Writer’s Itch. I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. While I was growing up in India, I used to write poetry in my native languages of Telugu, Hindi and also in English. I filled up one journal after another. However, I got distracted with getting an engineering degree and proceeding further with graduate studies to get my Ph.D. Even after I got my Ph.D., I realized that I still felt empty. Something was missing. In order to find out what was missing, I started writing in my journal—again, after more than a decade. That helped me realize that I wanted to write—write novels, screenplays, etc., mostly fiction. I got many story ideas. I picked up a story that interested me. I outlined it and started writing a novel based on that outline about three years ago. I also realized that breaking into the market was very difficult—forget about making any money from writing. Also, during this time I matured more in my outlook toward life and realized that the story I was working on did not interest me as much as the path my own life was taking. I got more interested in improving myself through the practice of yOga and other techniques. I realized that I had a lot to say to and share with the world, but I did not know how to achieve this.
I was aware of the concept of blogging, but I was not sure if it would suit my needs. All the blog sites I visited were mostly personal in nature. Most of them posted short articles, but I like to write long informative articles. Most “how-to” sites, suggested posting short articles only. So, I was not sure of what to do at this point. Though I started a blog on MSN, I did not write much there, as it did not give me the flexibility I needed.
A couple of weeks ago, while searching for something else, I stumbled upon a Personal Development site run by Steve Pavlina. To my surprise it seemed to answer all my questions. Steve also writes long articles, like me. Mainly, his very informative article, “How to make money from your blog?” really helped me in setting up my blog. His suggestions of, having ones own domain name, deciding on whether to monetize the blog or not, blogging with WordPress, really helped me.
Another great site I visited was Darren Rowse’s Problogger. Information on this site has helped me a lot. I am still reading whenever I get time. I looked up some of the topics in his blog, especially “Blogging for Beginners.” I am still reading that one single post. 🙂
Additionally, my Google search revealed that WordPress was easy to set up. I followed the instructions and installed it.
I developed the theme based on the WordPress’s default theme using their instructions on theme development. Then, I developed the rest of the site to follow this theme. I picked up some design cues from other sites as well.
With everything set up, I have already started posting my thoughts here. I hope to continue to post more useful (at least, I think so 🙂 ) articles.
Edit 02/14/2007
Today I found this nice blog about boosting traffic to your blog. Very informative and useful. I am going to implement some of the concepts given there. I found technorati yesterday and became a member. The procedure for claiming the ownership of your blog seems to have changed a bit since that blog was written. I am going to set up the FeedBurner account this week, when I have a few minutes. I already have the Chicklet Creator plugin installed and various feed buttons displayed on my blog for interim use.