While watching ABC insiders on this beautiful Sunday morning, I read this post which I would like to share with you.
ලියන්නේ නැත්නම් අඩුම ගානේ වෙන කෙනෙක් ලියපු දෙයක් වත් බෙදා ගම්මු. //Blogging isn’t easy though, it’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s a lot of work! But when you do the time and the work, things will (usually) happen, and it’s so worth it// මාත් එකඟයි. ජිවිතයේ කිසි දෙයක් ලෙහෙසිද? නැහැනේ. සියල්ලටම යම් පරිශ්‍රමයක් දරන්න ඕනේ. නිකම්ම කටට වැටෙන දේවලුත් ජිවිතයේ තියනවා නම් තමා. හැබැයි ඒ වගේ දේවල් වලදී පවා, උත්සාහයෙන් හදා ගත්තු පසුබිම වැදගත් වෙනවා.
වැඩිපුර ලියනවා කියල කියන තවරිෂ් ලා වගේම, ඇයි මොකුත් නොලියන්නේ කියලත් අහන ගස්පදින්ලා ඉන්න එක එක වගේ සතුටක්. ඔය පාරේ යන විට පින්තූරයක් ගන්න මතක් වීම පමණක් නොවේ, එය ලැබීමට සැලැස්වීම ත් ඒ වගේම සතුටක්.
මේකත් පොස්ට් එකක් කරන එකේ තේරුමක් නැහැ. මැල්ලුමක් හෝ හොද්දක් පසුව හදමු! 🙂
Originally posted July 30, 2015.
I’ve been in the blogging business for a little over three months now. While every fiber of my being screams that that is barely any time at all, I cannot help but feel like I’ve been immersed in this world for much, much longer. I have made it my top priority to take this hobby and turn it into my second job. Not in a money sense, not at all, but in a creative, time consuming, goal oriented way. For the past three months, almost all my free time has been poured into learning, crafting, creating, exploring, and making this blog into what I dream for it to be. I’m still working out major kinks, making tons of mistakes, and hitting every road block imaginable. During these first 100 or so days, there have been some huge, glaring problems that could not be ignored. But…
View original post 871 more words
raigamahandiya 
Pingback: 3 Blogging Mistakes I’ve Learned in the First 3 Months. | සතුටු වැස්ස බ්ලොග් කියවනය
//මැල්ලුමක් හෝ හොද්දක් පසුව හදමු! // අනිවා හදමු රසම රස එකක්.
The first mistake I made in blogging was starting the blog, I guess.
හදමු නලින් හිමිහිට! 🙂
In this case, it is never too late to stop, මචං!
Nope. Easier said than done. Ever tried to stop peeing in midstream?
🙂
I won’t add much to that!
Interesting read. In retrospect after 4.5 months, I have at least been aware of these 3 pitfalls since the beginning, albeit my half baked products are the results of a constrained optimization process. Perhaps, the biggest mistake I did was diving in and getting immersed in blog-ocean without the slightest idea how deep the waters were. Unlike most others (as I believe), I started blogging with absolutely no idea about the hundreds or thousands of Sinhala blogs that existed for many years. If I spent time to survey existing Sinhala blogs thoroughly beforehand, I would have realized that there was no gap that I could fill.
I hate to disagree with you here (to some extent) Eco. I’ve been blogging for about 4.5 years now. It is obvious (or may not) that I’ve evolved not only as a blogger, but a human being too.
This is a “so-called personal blog”. As Rsasika has pointed out recently, I’ve been writing about a wide variety of themes (ranging from the pathola karal to the sausage karal). However, more recently, my focus has shifted quite dramatically. In other words, I am drifting away from the main stream.
This is a problem as well as an advantage. There is always a gap to fill in personal blogging. Because you are you and I am me.
Recently, I’ve read an interesting blog post (an old one) (http://www.chrisg.com/why-have-a-personal-blog/. ) I would like to quote two things from it.
1. I only spend minutes on my personal blog. It’s not something to be uptight about, I post there when I feel like it. My personal blog readers do not have any expectations about what I post there and if they do they soon learn the error of their thinking Where here I have quality control, on a personal blog it is not a professional conversation, more like a casual chat with a friend. This means you can spend as much or little time as you feel like.
2. It can be embarrassing for stuff you write today to be found years later. I cringe at some of the stuff I have written, and there are things I would rather not remember. You have to be careful to only write what you wouldn’t mind anybody reading. This stuff can come back and bite you on the bum. Also there are some things you should never share in case angry or crazy people come stalking.
I write my blog as a diary. At times, I do not share what I write here, because they are “too personal”. Because, I write //whatever is in my head, and keep some sort of record.//
At the end of the day, personal blogging is all about you. Readers come next.
A blog constantly evolves, doesn’t it? So, it is mostly improvement rather than correction?
Exactly, Pra, so does our life.
බ්ලොග් කියවන්න ගත්ත තැනින් තමයි මම නම් මුලින්ම වරද්ද ගත්තේ.. එකෙන් පාඩමක් ඉගෙන ගන්නේ නැතුව බ්ලොග් එකක් ලියන්නත් ගත්ත,, දැන් ඉතින් බැඳ ගත්ත බෙරේ පුළු පුළුවන් විදියට ගහනවා.. 🙂
It looks that your blog has gradually evolved to be a personal blog and all what you say is correct for a personal blog; One always have a gap to be filled in personal blogging and it takes less time.
Since I am still young in this space and just started to evolve I have no conclusive opinions about blogging. However, I am not sure whether personal blogging will work well for me. First, no matter how personal I want it to be, there still are some constraints when one opens herself up in an open space. The broader the bandwidth of one’s readership the more the constraints are.
I know that you have an answer here- screening the audience. Yes, it is a possibility but a very narrow possibility for a Sinhala blog, at least as I feel at the moment. I need someone to read what I write! I was never successful in consistently keeping a diary. Writing to self doesn’t sufficiently motivate me.
All the constraints I have to face are and will be the tradeoffs of maintaining a readership. As you have experienced, a fully personal blog will drop this already small audience significantly. This may not be an issue for an English blog since you start with a large number.
The second issue is that any surviving readership is more likely to comprise of like-minded people. While conversations with like-minded people are less stressful they are also boring. Different, even aggressive, opinions break the monotonicity.
If I do not wish to completely ignore the size of my readership, I have to serve some niche. Obviously, myself is replicated nowhere else the same way. However, though all my thoughts and experiences together as a single package is unique, replications of its individual bits and pieces are not rare.
Since I started my blog before studying about the Sinhala blogs existed for many years I was not aware about the places where these bits and pieces existed. One way, it’s good that things happened this way- I started a blog!
When one realizes that she has nothing unique, probably the logical response would be to move towards personal blogging. In my case, it could have been a reasonable motivation if I could think about it as something I save for my kids but unfortunately I can’t achieve that goal by writing in Sinhala.
So, I will have to balance my own needs and the needs of the readers at least in the near future. Since catering to the needs of readers, even partially, is costly I am not sure when my engine will stall suddenly.
එහෙම තමා කල්‍යාණ, මෙහෙමයි කරන්න ඕනේ කියා උපදෙස් දෙන්න හෝ නියෝග පනවන්න අවශ්‍යතාවයකුත් නැහැ, එය කරන්නටත් බැහැ. මොනවගේද ලියන්න ඕනේ කියල ඔබම තේරුම් ගන්නවා. 🙂
I won’t write a lengthy reply as I normally do. Mainly, because I am compelled to agree with everything you have pointed out here.
Do NOT worry too much Eco, you will find your own way of blogging soon. I like reading you. I am not going to reveal the number of blogs that I read regularly. However, it is not a large one. 🙂
Sometimes we don’t know why we do the things we do I guess…I wrote about this a looong time back here:
Blogging : Why??
Niroshi, I have written a few things in my life. I did not have “a clear idea” why I did so at the time. However, when it comes to blogging, I do have a clear idea why I do this. Nothing was clearer to me than this in my whole life. 🙂