|
| Home RSS Directory F.A.Q Try Custom Feed Sonneries Portable |
Latest Flows from this sub-category: random selection from this sub-category: |
Many of us have the dream to write a book and get published. This dream is very strong and in internet, I can find that there are many companies that would take money from you and publish your book. Self publishing is not bad but I consider that it is not actual publishing. I know that many writers would get annoyed with me but the reality is that the writers who could not get published in a standard way go for self publishing. I think that it is better to publish your works in a blog or website because then you can make sure that some people will read your works. For example, this blog nearly attracts one hundred visitors per day. That means that per month nearly 3000 people are reading my content. I know that the content of this blog is not that good because I can not give enough time for it. Still, some people are reading my content. The same can not be said when you are publishing a book on your own and you are spending the money. You just get the satisfaction of printing a book. In most of the cases, hardly anyone will read what you have written. So, I think that in stead of going for self publishing, you should start a website or blog and even you can make e-books.  There are not a lot of blogs on literature in the first place and it gave me a lot of happiness a blog called Everything Historical. It is managed by Deanna Proach. She updates the blog only a regular basis and she is putting excerpts from a historical novel that she has written. The novel is based on the events of French revolution. So, if you have any interest about history and historical novel then I think that you should visit this blog. In future, I hope to write some historical fictions only after I can get free from the money worry.  French revolution is an important time in history of man kind. To many people, it is perhaps the start of the modern age. The events before the revolution and after it were full of anarchy and a lot of people lost their lives. It was a very troubling time for With all the problems and anarchy, the message of French revolution was very powerful. It inspired of the people of About French revolution, the best novel that I can think of is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Here, we can see both sides of the coin. Dickens showed the torture of the aristocrats and also showed the anarchy that happened when the aristocrats fell. In  Yesterday, I was talking with a journalist. We mainly discussed about the current economic crisis and how it is affecting everyone. The economic recession has harmed all the economies a lot. Fortunately, in my country Doing an MBA is perhaps the best thing for any student anywhere in the world now. As a result, bright students are running after business and technology and people are forgetting humanities subjects like history, philosophy, literature and political science. When I was young, I made a serious decision of studying humanities. Most of my friends went to science or commerce. At that time, many of my friends could not understand why I was doing it because I was basically a good student. Now, I don’t regret because I understand the importance of humanities subjects. Yesterday, we were discussing that it is very difficult to earn money everywhere in humanities field. I can understand it because I wanted to write about literature and history. History is my main favorite topic and whenever I find any spare time, I try to read about history of different countries. However, at the same time, I know that opening a blog on history will not bring any money for me. I think one of the good parts of economic recession is that suddenly many people can see that studying MBA cannot guarantee your future. At least in In the last one decade, most young people everywhere felt that running after money was the best thing to do. They became too much addicted to consumerism and they felt that they must earn more money and enjoy life more. However, this idea reached in its peak and then the great recession of 2008 came. I just hope that people start to think about this matter seriously and try to think about humanities subjects. They must try to understand that history and philosophy are very important for any human being.  After the French revolution took place in 1789, The lesson that we have to learn is that when any change or glorious revolution happens in any country, people should try to give it some time to work. They must not have too much expectation and they should not imagine that everything will change overnight. When a bad system is deep in the rout of a country or society then it takes a long time to remove the hidden impacts. People have to always remember that they make the leaders. The leaders of any political party or any country are made by the ordinary people. They must always remember to push the leaders in the right direction. They must not feel that some leaders will come and make everything ok or save them. This is another lesson we must remember from the French revolution.  Last few days, I have been able to work some more compared to the past. My health is improving and I have also come back to blogging. My blogs are doing well again and one of them is South Asia blog. The only problem that I can see at this moment is that I have to write on various topics. For example, on a typical day now, I have to write on sports, blogging, in literature, business, entertainment and technology. It is very difficult and it surely destroys the possibility of writing any quality content. I have good knowledge of South Asia and that’s why when I write something about Writing is not an easy thing. I am gradually thinking of just focusing only one topic and writing about it and I know that if I just focus only one thing then I can write quality content and perhaps get good success too. However, at the same time, I have to earn money on a day to day basis and I can not simply neglect it. Perhaps the best way, is to update other blogs once every week. This way, I can focus on South Asia Blog. Last night, I opened another blog, http://www.bangladeshresearch.com/ If you have any interest about  Last few days, I was thinking a lot about promoting Bangla literature more in internet. The easiest solution came to my mind was that many people should open blogs on Bangla literature in English language. This is the best way and they should all try to right something and whatever they can do. Even if you can translate just one short poem or write one hundred words about any poet or a novel or a drama of Bangla literatures then it helps. Don’t get discouraged if you see that it is not bringing you any money or does not make you famous. It does not matter because reality is that you have to do it not for earning money but for promoting your own literature. I live in For this blog, I never give time seriously simply because it does not bring any revenue for me. However, I gave small amount of time whenever I could and this way now we have small but good materials on Bangla literature. You may wonder why not open a website but open a blog? The best part of opening a blog is that thanks to Google it is free and you don’t need to have any technical knowledge. All you need is just a free Google account and then the rest is very easy. Just simply go to blogger.com and then sign up for a blog. It takes around five minutes and it is very easy to do. After opening a blog you don’t need to have any technical knowledge or you don’t need to maintain the website. All you need is that sometimes write some content and then put in it. If you do not want to maintain a blog then there is another way. In Wikipedia, there are many entries in Bangla language and English language on Bangla literature. You just can add two or five sentences whenever you can. This will be very helpful if you can do so because Bangla has one of the richest literatures on earth. But unfortunately very few people outside of Yes, we are proud of Tagore but people from other countries hardly know anything about our writers and poets except Tagors. This must change and because we live in the age of Internet, we all can contribute.  Last night, for a long time, I was thinking of translating some short stories from Bangla language to English. I know that I can do the work and it may not be very good at least, something is better than nothing. At this moment, there is hardly any short story or novel from Bangla literature that have been translated in English. Secondly, the translations are not even available in internet. So, although Bangla has one of the richest literatures in the world, very few people have got taste of it until now. This is sad and sometimes I feel that I leave everything and just do this work. However, I have to think of its impact too. I do not come from a rich family and I have to pay all my bills and then save some money for future. Thus, I was thinking last night to find a balance between these two. On the one hand, I wanted to translatehttp://translate.google.com/ some short stories from Bangla literature and while on the other hand, I was thinking of a revenue model. I understood that one of the biggest problems is that here people are not yet accustomed to buying e-books. I just simply can translate any short stories and then publish it in a DVD. It is possible but most people do not have a habit of buying e-books. Piracy is another big problem. I was counting the expenses related to this project. The biggest expense is my time. Then I was thinking that if I publish this kind of DVD then it will be pirated very easily and I will not get any money. I just wish that some people set up an organization or a NGO to work for translation of Bangla literature.  In our time, marriage is losing its significant in western countries. Many people are living together out of marriage and even many children are born out of wedlock. This has become a natural part of western life and most probably, in Asian countries, the same thing will take place in the next two or three decades. Still, many people are fan of Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and Prejudice, the main theme is love and marriage. There is romantic relationship between Jane and Mr Bingley. Mr Darcy also fell in love with So, it is really confusing to think about the popularity of Pride and Prejudice of Jane Austin when marriage itself is losing its significant.  While browsing internet, I accidentally came across top 100 novel list of BBC. BBC did a survey a few years ago and it listed 100 most popular novels. In the first place, it was The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I think that the massive popularity of the movies of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has something to do about the popularity of this novel. In the second place it is Pride and Prejudice and it is a novel that is read by millions of students who study English literature around the world. In the fifty ten places, JK Rowling has a number of them and you can easily understand why she has four books in the top 50 positions. Harry Potter is a very popular character and Harry Potter’s novels are liked by almost everyone in In the list, I could find that there are some classic novels like David Copperfield of Charles Dickens, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm of George Orwell. A Christmas Carol of Charles Dickens, and Great Expectations of Dickens. I was a bit unhappy to see that there was no novel of Sherlock Holmes in the top fifty. I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes but I think that many people are not fan of detective novels. Anyway here is the webpage containing the list and check out how many of them have been read by you. I have my own top ten list too: Ten Novels of English Literature that I enjoy a Lot Hoping that you will like my list too.  If you are an interested about Bangla literature then you must know the names of Rabindranath Tagore and Sharat Chandra Chatterji. In South Asia Blog, in the last few days, we have uploaded two entries that might be of some interest to you. The first entry was the translation of Bilashi. Bilashi is a famous short story written by Sharat Chandra Chatterji. We know that Sharat Chandra was not famous for his short story but for his novels. However, he wrote some memorable short stories that are still read and people like them. Bilashi and Mohesh are his most famous short stories. The second entry is about the review of Tagore’s famous novel Gora. Gora is the longest and perhaps the best novel written by Rabindranath Tagore. It is like a semi-epic and it is a historical novel. Religious conflict is the main theme. To read this two entries visit the following link: Enjoy them.  I just finished writing an entry in this blog Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening of Robert Frost: Some Reflections. I felt a lot of peace and happiness after uploading it. This entry will not bring traffic or money and not many people would even read it but I felt very good because I felt that it was written in a good way. In simple words, I felt satisfaction after reading it. The poem made me think of my own life and condition. Have been suffering from bad health for long time and recently, I realized that the stress of managing a small blog network is also putting a lot of stress on me. Earlier today, I felt that writing anything was impossible for me because I had the burden of 14 blogs in my mind. I felt sad because writing is the thing that I enjoy most. I don’t need to go any party or celebrate any festival. If I can write then I feel a lot of satisfaction. When I was suffering from money worries then I always dreamt that someday I would be able to just write and write. Nearly 4 years ago, blogging brought this blessing for me. However, blogging also brought another problem- stress. When you are a blogger then writing an entry is not enough. You have to arrange traffic (visitors) for your blogs and you also have to earn money. Poor health meant that I could not work for last 6 months and it decreased the traffic by almost half and economic recession resulted in decreasing my income. So, I have started to suffer from stress and writing became a very difficult work for me. Earlier today, my wife told me that I should not bother about managing a blog network, getting visitors and earning money. Instead, I should just do the only thing I enjoy in my life: write. I should leave the burden of the network and just focus on one blog. Then I realized that she was right and I should focus on just one blog: South Asia Blog. I am deeply passionate about I always dreamt that I would translate many short stories and novels from Bangla (Bengali) Literature. I am going to just start it from tomorrow. I am also going to write about my favorite poems, short stories, dramas and novels of English literature in this blog from now. We all seek peace but modern lifestyle is full of stress. Many of us perhaps do not understand that we have lost peace from our life. May be a new car or new ornament bring joy for us but surely they cannot bring peace. That is why, despite economic prosperity, many of us do not have peace. We are often restless and literature can be helpful in bringing back the peace. I am not saying that just reading a novel or writing about a beautiful poem would solve all of your problems. No, they are not going and even I know this very well. However, at the same time, I know it very well to that a beautiful poem or a short story would make me think about my life. Writing about ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening of Robert Frost’ just did that. I could sense some meaning out of the poem and put in my own life. A good poem always contains some good message and some food for thought.  ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ of Robert Frost is one of my most favorite poems and I often recite it. I know that many people like it and they also love to recite it just like me. The reason that I like it is that it is great to read it aloud when I am alone. The words are carefully selected and they create a musical feeling in my heart. Yes, this musical feeling alone is enough to like and admire this poem. There are other reasons too. Robert Frost is perhaps the most celebrated and famous American poet of the 20th century and ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ indicates his superb craftsmanship as a poet. Here is the text: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. I have already talked about the musical quality. So, I am not going to repeat about it now. Instead, I want to say something now about the natural setting of the poem. The first line talks about the woods. The second line clearly tells us that it is a rural setting. You have the owner of the house in the third line and then there is snow next. So, in the first stanza you can find four important things: woods, village, the owner of the house and snow. Of course, the poet does not see the owner of the house but mentions him. When I read this poem, it reminds me of William Wordsworth a lot. The description of nature by Robert Frost is not only excellent but also, nature signifies something. I wonder why Frost is not included as a part of Romantic poets of English Literature. When I studied about Romantic Literature, we studied about works of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron and Shelley. I know that Frost does not belong to that generation but his poems should be included in this course. Then, we can admire him even more. I am not an academician but I think that it is logical to include the poems of Robert Frost along with the Romantic poets in any literature course. We know that in poems of Wordsworth, nature was not just nature but it was alive and had strong role in human life. Frost did the same thing in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’. The Woods is not just a collection of trees but it is an alive entity to the speaker. He talks of the Woods as if it was like a beautiful actress (attractive). Well, may be ‘beautiful actress’ is not the right idea here but the Woods is something that is more than trees. I feel a sense of Buddhism in the poem. In Buddhism, there is a strong urge to abstain from luxury and maintain a very modest lifestyle. You are even advised not to consume meat or wine. I am not sure if Frost was influenced by Buddhism or not but the last stanza is very much similar to Buddhist principles of life. It is also similar to the ideas of Sufism. In my personal life, I try to avoid all kind of luxuries and I strongly believe that we need to be happy with normal lifestyle. ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ was written in 1922. It was written after 4 years of the end of World War I. I am also not sure whether the destructions of World War I had anything to do with the writing of this poem but I find it to be a great answer. The poem talks of peace and tranquility which is just opposite of war.  Just two decades ago, in my city, there was only one TV channel and was owned by the government. This TV channel used to broadcast program from 5pm to 11:30 pm. So, my TV viewing was mainly limited to three or four hours a day or sometimes did not watch any program at all. I still remember that those days, there were more time to read novels or short stories or even to read poems. Now, television occupies larger part of my life and lives of almost everyone I know. When Internet came I became happy that at last I was doing much more reading than watching TV. However, soon I discovered that I was reading about sports, technology, business, politics or news but not that much of literature. Still, compared to average people, I read more novels and short stores. But at the same time, I understand that this internet has changed reading habit. Now, those people like me who are Bloggers are too much consumed with news of our own field. For example, I mainly write about South Asia and I try to read as much as possible about this field. On the other hand, those people who even just come to internet for fun and entertainment now read a lot about the field they like. For example, if you are a fan of The best example is the recent scandal of Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods had relationships with many women and this matter came out and then many websites that jumped into the band wagon and tried to give extensive coverage to the scandal. They tried to do so because many people were interested in The sad part is that there is no popular blog on literature in internet. You can find many popular blogs on any topic but not on a novel or short stories. Even there is no popular blog on William Shakespeare. The main reason for this absence of blogs on literature is that first of all, there is not a very big audience for it. It is natural that people are more interested about the scandals of Tiger Woods than the killing of King Scotland by Macbeth and his wife. On the other hand, there are not too many products related to literature in internet that readers can sale. For example, almost all the great books of English literature have no copyright problem to put their texts in internet. So, you cannot sell them and when there are not a lot of products on something then there is not a lot of advertisers and there is not a lot of money. The main reason that I do not or cannot give any time for this literature blog is this matter. If I give a lot of time for it then I can not earn money and I have to suffer in my daily life. So, it is a bad thing and I hope that this problem changes because no matter how much we are economically or technologically advanced, there is always a strong need for literature. A good novel or a good poem not only gives us a lot of entertainment but also helps us with improving our thinking ability. It makes us more humane and it gives us more peace.  Tomorrow is 1 February 2010. February is the month of language in my country It is a coincidence that I am going to back to my full time blogging work from tomorrow and then March is birth month. I feel very fresh today and hopefully from tomorrow, I can go back to my work. In happiness, I would like to invite you to read two short stories: Enjoy them and happy reading.  I think that it was the year 1983 and I was a student of 3rd grade (grade 3). Our English teacher asked us to write a short essay on “Aim in Life”. Most other students wrote that they wanted to be doctors, engineers and teachers and this way, they wanted to help the society and country. I just wrote that I wanted to be a journalist because I liked it. I wrote nothing about helping the society or developing the country. My essay was poorly written but the teacher liked it and she even praised me. From that age, I knew that I wanted to be a journalist. When the time of getting admitted to university came, I wanted to study Journalism but my parents convinced me to study English literature because earning money was very easy from English background. You don’t need to be a top student. They also told me that I could become journalist even studying English and many of the top journalists and newspaper columnists in my city were from English background. So, I happily went to English Department and I enjoyed studying English Literature. Then when the time of Masters came, I did a shift and studied Applied Linguistics and ELT instead of continuing literature. This time, my parents did not try to convince me but I took the decision myself as money is always an important factor for the only son of a lower middle class family in Then after finishing University, I decided to become a teacher and I worked as a teaching assistant and Lecturer in several universities. I did not stop writing in newspapers but a change happened. I noticed that it was easier to earn money by writing about computer and Internet or IT. I realized the potential of Internet 8 years ago and I left university job and I started teaching myself about Internet and computer. For 4 years, I suffered a lot of money worry but I became sharp in my field. I became one of the top ICT journalists in my country. I still remember that in 2004, I wrote 6 cover stories at a stretch in 6 months for a computer magazine. However, I again discovered that in a third world country, unless you come from a well off background, you cannot survive as a writer. Yes, there are some exceptions but exceptions are exceptions. I got married in 2006 and realized that if I wanted to earn money by writing then I had to try my luck at Internet. Fortunately, Blogging was flourishing that time and I got the opportunity to write in one of the good blog networks and they paid enough money. I could pay my bills and even save some. I started with writing about business but soon discovered that entertainment and sports brought a lot of traffic and there was some decent amount of money to be made in these fields. So, I devoted myself to write about movies and sports and saw impressive success. After all, traffic comes from the things that people search. Advertisers run after people and we bloggers run after advertising money. In January 2009, the great recession came in global economy and I saw that if I wanted to survive I must go back to the topic of business and technology. Then, in July 2009, first my wife and then I became seriously sick. I have been sick for the last 7 months and from 1 February 2010, I am again going back to full time work as I feel better now. Today, I was thinking that what should I write about? Business, Technology, Sports and Entertainment- I have four options. Each of them has their strengths and weaknesses, good sides and bad sides. Most probability, I will go back to writing about South Asian Business in my South Asia Blog. This is the thing I know very well and enjoy. This time, I am going to try totally to stick to it. Thus, in the end, you can see that I could more or less implement my aim in life but life was full of ups and downs. Well, my dream has changed a bit too. In the past, I dreamt that I would become very famous and successful as a journalist and would someday work for BBC or CNN and get prestigious awards. Now, I really don’t have these dreams. May be, I have realized my limitations as a writer and I know that I do not belong to that league. More than that, I dream to have satisfaction from my works and life. Fortunately, I am very lucky and happy in my couple life and now my dream is that I have the same kind of happiness after 50 years. I don’t mind for having a mediocre career as long as I have satisfaction from my work and marriage life. I got this kind of change in dream after seeing so many people unhappy in life and work. What about you? Could you fulfill your aim in life? Has your dream changed?  The last two days have been nothing short of disaster. I had to run a lot and could not write that much. I felt very bad naturally but then, I realized that the next 3 days, I am free and now, I can write from tomorrow. When things are not good then don’t expect a lot from yourself. This can put a lot of mental pressure and then your productivity will get hurt. For the next 3 days, I am totally free and this time, I must work. For this, I need good mental condition. I need freshness and energy and confidence. However, if my mind is full of stress for the lack of any writing for the last two days then I surely cannot do well in the next 3 days. So, today, I a trying to keep my mind fresh and tomorrow, write something in my blogs.  If you read my entries these days then you must have become tired of my whining all the time that things are very tough for me. On the one hand, my health has been consistently bad for the last 6 months and in our small network, we have been missing two of our regular bloggers for quite some time now and it has put me in the most challenging condition in my blogging career of 4 years. Today, one of the bloggers has come back from long sickness and it helped me in every way. So, I feel relaxed and because he did his part of the job, I can now work on my part in a calm mood. I learnt a valuable lesson today. It is difficult to work under pressure. I was good at working under the pressure and meet strong challenges and deadlines. However, bad health and continuous mental stress have their toll on me and I cannot do that anymore. My health has been improving lately and it is helping my mind. So, perhaps, from today, I can focus on my writing more and do works regularly. I need to focus on dealing with mental pressure better. I don’t know if meditation would work for me. However, I really need to now deal with pressure. Well, at least, today, I don’t have any pressure and I do not need to think of the work of others in my network. I just can focus on my own work.  I was at a loss about what to write in this. I try to update it more regularly. It does not matter if my entries are no upto the mark. I know that I can write well now it is not the time for that. Instead, it is the time for just continue updating the blog and some other blogs. So, this is the thing I am doing now- just updating the blog with this entry. If you are reading it then I apologize to you because it has nothing- no substance. However, if you fall into similar problem someday then just remember the lesson.  It was a bad day today. I could not work and to be honest with you, I have been fighting against excessive weight. I have been fighting against obesity and for the last 6 months, I could hardly work. Now, my health is some better and my mind is some more fresh but still I don’t have physical or mental strength. I have lost nearly 10 KG and I have to lose another 15 at least. I have to again start a very tough diet regime from 1 February 2010 (just after 10 days). Sometimes, life gets very frustrating as I cannot concentrate on my writing. It gives me a lot of pain. Then, I have seen much worse in life. Life is a very complicated and tough thing. However, you have to survive and move forward. You have to deal with the challenges of each day. That is why, never give up your dream and hopes. My income took a serious beating in the last 6 months. My blogs lost traffic immensely and I am back again to the same level of 2009 January or even worse. The irony is that I feel happier than the past. I feel happier because I have a dream now to be a good writer or blogger. I am more hopeful. I now know that to reach to the dream there will be some obstacles and perhaps, I could pass one big obstacle in life- health.  We dream of having happy and peaceful life but the reality is that life is not idea. It is full of stress. Modern life is not good anyway either. I have noticed that if you want to be a writer then having mental calm is a must. It is not easy and your life is full of problems. However, try to evaluate the problems. How many of them really that bad? For example, are you upset now that your favorite lost a football match last night? Is it really that big of a problem to destroy your peace? I am sure that if you try to look hard then you will find that there are many problems that should not destroy your calm. So, if possible try to make a list of these problems and try to get rid of the problems that are somewhat artificial. Second thing is that try to have a closer and more emotional relationship with your spouse. This can really helpful in bringing calm in your mind. A good marriage is the best blessing from God but we often do not understand this matter. Then you can really write in a good way.  If you have read this blog for the last few weeks then you might have noticed that I expressed my frustration for the last few weeks on a regular basis as I have been suffering from sickness. Fortunately, for the last 2-3 days, I could write some more and I feel very happy. It is like that I am back in business again and it gives me a lot of happiness. Well, the main mistake I made until now was that I was trying to put a lot of pressure in my mind for writing in the normal way. However, my health was very weak and my mind got fatigued. What I should have done at that time was that I should have only written the things I liked. The other day, I understood this matter and as a result, I decided to write mainly in Asianbiz blog. I started Blogging in July 2005 with this blog. Thus, I went back to my roots. These days, I am writing more in this blog. I wish that very soon, I start writing a short story and publish in this blog. I enjoyed doing it a lot. I also like translating from Bangla to English and it gives me a lot of mental pleasure. So, next time, I fall into this kind of problem that I lose the energy to write about business, technology or sports or in other word write for earning money, I must try writing about literature.  Today, I was thinking about my skills. I felt that I really have no other skill in life. I cannot ride a bicycle, climb a tree or climb mountains. I do not know how to drive a car or a motorcycle. In fact, I really have no skill except just one- writing. Yes, I can write and I love to write. It does not matter if others don’t like my writing but I like it, enjoy it and dream about it. For the last 6 months, I have been suffering from bad health and could not write enough. So, today, I felt very bad and then I realized that I must start again seriously doing this work. I have to get back the fun I used to have. I don’t need to think of money or getting traffic. I don’t need to think whether my writing is good or not bad. I just need to do it and do it for my personal enjoyment. There was a time when whatever I wrote, with it, I could not earn any money but I liked it a lot. I wrote and then read and then burn or tear the pages. I was foolish to do so but I enjoyed them a lot. This is the thing I have to get back. Unfortunately, these days, my head is more filled with revenue and page views than writing itself. When I write something and it does not catch Google or other search engines then I lose interest and this way, my motivation goes down. In fact, I know how to write for search engines and get traffic and even sometimes my entries get nearly 100 comments but this should not be. I have discovered that this kind of writing may bring money and it is very much necessary for income (as blogging is my only income source) but getting totally obsessed with it is a very bad thing. It takes away the life spirit, energy and encouragement in life. In fact, more than sickness, this is my main problem at this moment and only today, I discovered it. This blog itself is the best example of what I mean. I studied English literature and I love it but in this blog, I hardly wrote in the last 4 years. I should have written much more here. I should have regularly written short stories or translated short stories from Bangla Literature to English. However, I did not feel any strong motivation because this kind of writing does not bring revenue. I need to earn money, no doubt about that. Everyone needs to do that and this is the right thing to do in life. On the other hand, there should be fun in writing. The best kind of fun in writing comes through writing a short story or a novel (as I cannot write poems). I am passing very tough days both physically and emotionally. My productivity is all time low in the last one decade. Unfortunately, two other members of my team are also suffering same problem and they are even less productive than I am. So, it is often frustrating but then, today, I felt that perhaps, this is a good opportunity for me to get back to doing something that I really enjoyed most. Writing is the only thing I can do and I want to get back to it. I was always good at motivating others and now, I have to motivate myself. I never needed any motivation to write. I enjoyed it and it came to me spontaneously. Now, I have to do it again- write spontaneously.  It was 4 years ago this time- third week of January 2006. I was in another country and I went there to get married (I met my wife through Internet). Before that, I left my job in my own city and in the country, there was no way of earning money as I did not know the language. So, the only thing to be done was to apply for writing jobs or works in Internet. Nothing good happened for one month and on 19 February 2006, I started writing in my Asianbiz blog again. On 20 February, I started this blog: Literature Blog. At that time, I had no idea about earning money through blogging. Yes, I already opened Adsense and put Adsense Code on my blog nearly 6 months ago but I had no idea about getting traffic or earning money. I needed to earn money desperately but I was at a loss and I blindly gave all my heart to writing quality entries. When I look back to those days, I realize that I tried with all my heart. My blogs did not bring any success immediately but I got a blogging job at Know More Media Network. I got selected to write in South Asia Biz. I again gave all my heart and tried to develop the blog. At first, it was very difficult to get traffic. However, after one year of trying, the blog became strong and I learnt the secrets of getting traffic through search engines. Then in December of 2007, a very bad disaster happened. Know More Media was penalized by Google for selling text link advertisements and although Know More Media continued paying us (the bloggers) until July 2008, things started to fall apart from December 2007. Know More Media was closed and the rest is history. I really miss the network as they were very good in every possible way to their bloggers. 2008 was a difficult year for me and I could just hang on. Then at the beginning of 2009, I along with 2 of my students tried for two blogs- South Asia Blog and Sports37 and both of them achieved tremendous success with in just 4-5 months. Of course, it was not easy to achieve good success. I had to again try with all my heart. Fortunately, my two students helped me a lot. Then again, I suffered a bad disaster. I did not have idea about shared hosting and when these two blogs reached page views of more than 100,000 in a month, the hosting fell apart. I used WordPress.org blogging platform in the two blogs and I had to dismantle them and transfer them to Blogger hosting of Google in June 2009. Well, then a new disaster happened. On July 2009, my wife and I both became very sick and we are still not fully fit. I cannot work even 25% of past now. Thanks God that my health is gradually coming back and I feel some better in the last few days. I wrote this background story about myself because I have noticed that my blogs have become weak for 2-3 reasons. First of all, for the last 6 months, we could not work well and as a result, they have become some weak. We lost some back links as two popular blogs dropped the links of our blogs from their blog rolls. Thus, our traffic has decreased or at least not increased and that is why, income has not increased either. Thus, again, I find myself back to the pavilion and I know that I have to again try from my heart. I have not gone back to the condition of 4 years ago as I have decent income now from my blogs. However, I really like to again write from my heart just like 4 years ago. It was a very tough time but I enjoyed writing. It is the only thing on earth that I can do. I think that I can do it quite well and it is something I really enjoy. I lost this enjoyment last two years because I had to deal with many problems- personal and professional both. Now, my mind is calm and I think that I am ready for another round of fighting for my career. Sometimes, I feel like the movie ‘Rocky’ because I see success and then I fall flat and then I try again with all my heart. Living in a third world country has one good side- you don’t need to earn a lot of money to survive. However, there are some nasty limitations like you cannot have a PayPal account. It takes many weeks to encash your Adense Check. Fast Internet is still a dream. Fortunately, at last, I have got Wimax and I now get a speed of 20-30 KBPS. So, I have to again make a new effort and try from my heart. If you are struggling as a writer, I would give you the same advice- write from your heart. This is indeed the only to become successful. Writing is not an easy profession and it is too much full of uncertainties. The global recession only made things much worse. One good thing is that if you really try from your heart and give your best effort then there is a good chance that you will earn enough money to make a living.  William Shakespeare is perhaps the most popular poet and dramatist in history. He is still very popular in our time. If he were born in our age then perhaps he would become a movie writer who would write mainly for TV. He would become a billionaire. He would also sign many deals with many sponsors. I wonder if this is the problem of writers of our time. They can earn a lot of money easily compared to the past. People like Shakespeare or Dickens had to struggle a lot to earn through writing. Now, if you have some skill in this field then money is no problem.  |
  |
contact |
All rss from this site
Print this article
Webmasters ! Get this feed on your site