Breakfast Babble: ED’s own little space on the interwebs where we gather to discuss ideas and get pumped up for the day. We judge things too. Sometimes. Always. Whatever, call it catharsis and join in people.
I don’t know if the blogger life chose me or I chose the blogger life. That doesn’t really matter right now. I am here and I am blogging. And well, this is my 50th article as an official blogger of ED Times. Woohoo!
The doctor who blogs way more than she crams
Before I go into details of my blogging experience, let me tell you I come from a stream where you’ll be least likely to find bloggers: I am pursuing my final year MBBS studies. Yep, I will soon be donning the white coat and healing (?) lives (hey, it sounds fancier this way but it is actually not half as fancy). Throughout my undergraduate life, I am yet to come across another medico who has taken up mainstream blogging.
Personal blogs, yes, but mainstream blogging with prominent websites, no.
Consequently, I was apprehensive at first. I applied at this company in a bit of a rash decision. Given the quintessential Bong that I am, it was all “Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo” for me. I wanted to try out something new other than Davidson’s Principles and since I’d always loved impactful writing, I was not content with just writing my notes and answers.
The beginning of the blogger life
The blogger life was difficult at first. I am a lazy Bong who is used to eating, sleeping and occasional cramming (because I HAD to). It came as a bit of a shock when I was thrust into the world of SEO scores, views, promotion of my blog, cornerstone content and all that jazz. I didn’t know I was signing up for this! I thought I’ll be happily writing something and voila, it will get published and people will be patting my back and the NY Times will be begging to have me on their team.
HAHAHAHAHA!
Reality: the first 3-4 articles were really taxing. It is something if you’re writing stuff like “30 Things Priyanka Chopra Can Do Better Than Your Basic Ass.”
But that would not be impactful writing and thus, during the first month I cribbed a lot.
I had to actually research my stuff, you know? Hours spent on the Internet to learn up the history of Bastar, days spent to research on the exorbitant fees structure in private schools, getting frustrated over the lack of information on the issue of illegal child labour in the mica mines of Jharkhand…at a point I even thought I’m better off studying Davidson’s. Blogging is serious work and if you want people to read your content, it has to be pretty, freakin’ GOOD.
My phobia with technology which I overcame (?)
So I’m basically this innocent (not really, LOL) person who can barely get through everyday technology (no kidding here). Imagine the horror when I was told I will have to create a WordPress account on the website and actually upload my articles myself, sort out things like focus keyword, title, etc…aaarrrgh!
My boss at the website is an absolute darling and she has helped my technologically handicapped self immensely and on numerous occasions, so have my co bloggers. Without that help, I’d probably have had to write this down in a copy, click bad pictures of the same and upload them on Facebook!
The myriad of things I learnt
I still suck at computers but, at least I can publish my articles without being a complete doofus!
I learnt incredible work ethics. I learnt a lot of Delhi Hindi. I got to know a lot of really nice people. And most importantly, I had a peep into the vast world of social media blogs.
Those articles that you read on the Internet every day, all of them have a lot of effort put into them. It seems so easy to be dissing a particular blogger, but hey, he/she worked really hard to provide that content for you so that you don’t get bored while scrolling.
A human being has an attention span less than that a goldfish. You have to capture the reader’s interest very fast, or well, you can bid goodbye to traffic on your blog.
I have had many people praising me for my blogs and it gives me peace when I see my writing making an impact. Dumb content is easy to read and easy to forget. But, dear readers, at least for half an hour in a day, spend time in reading quality blogs.
You don’t really need to know what Priyanka Chopra does better than you but it is important that you knew how various cosmetic houses are using your hard-earned money to employ child labour in mica mines.
As I look back on this lazy Sunday morning, I’d say it’s been an enjoyable ride so far. I will obviously not take up blogging as a career because I love my clinics too much. But, yes, blogging will always be that detox for me which no medicine can match.
Image credits: Google
You may also like to read:
http://edtimes.in/2017/07/i-have-been-really-busy-and-its-the-best-thing-ever/
