Kashif Aziz asked bloggers on the Pakistani Probloggers Facebook group page:
Pakistani Probloggers: Lets share more about ourselves, specifically:
- Why you started blogging.
- What are / were your inspirations.
- What other blogs / sites do you frequently read.
- Were do you see yourself as a pro blogger in next couple of years.
Replying this post I realized I have never wrote about it on my blog, it is about time I share my blogging story, at least for the record keeping. I can then look back at this page and see how it started.
It was back in late 2004, I was new to internet and there was nothing much for me to do on the internet other than reading. As many of you might know, while reading is fun it is not very interactive. I thought I should do something, one thing led to another and I came to know about blogspot. I thought how awesome it is to publish your thoughts and share them with the entire world. First I started an Urdu blog, just because it was more challenging to do so. The response I got from the small and closely knitted together Urdu Blogsphere was overwhelmingly positive. Which encouraged me to be creative and write on different topics. I was then asked by Spider Magazine‘s Editor to write an article for them. Which gave me the confidence that I can write in English and thats how I started my English blogs.
2. Among bloggers Jason’s kottke.org inspired me a lot. It made a significant impact on not only the way I wrote, but also on how I think and see the web today. Chapati Mystery and Huma Imtiaz‘s personal blog were also good motivations. Later, when I started professional blogging, Darren Rowse’s Problogger helped and inspired me. Apart from bloggers, I started blogging because I had this innate desire to tell stories and ideas and hear other people’s stories and ideas. When I look at blogs, I don’t see articles, I see conversations, storytelling, a party.
3. This is going to be a long list. I read mashable, lifehacker, kottke.org, problogger.net, copyblogger, Slashdot, The onion, Matt Cutts, Design Milk, blogs of people I am following at Google Plus, Urdu blogs, Tribune blogs (because it is difficult not reading them everyone’s sharing them on facebook), etc, etc.
4. I see myself outgrowing blogs. I think I will be able to move on to other fields particularly social web, online marketing, copywriting, advertising or something else too. I will continue to blog professionally but I will be known for other things as well. I am not quite sure what those other things would be, but its going to be an awesome journey.
