Hello Folks! After a long time we are writing a personal post here and today’s agenda is pretty simple. BlogAdda had come up with an interesting title
“I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15. ”
And without a second thought, there was one person who came to my mind the moment I read the title and finally I am proud to be making a post about him – Alok Vats – #YouMakeMeWin
And without doubt the one person who has kept me inspired all through has been Alok Vats. Well, its quite unusual of us to write an adulatory post and I think we shall try and stick to that. I remember the time I took up blogging, I literally did not have much of an idea as to where to start and how to go about blogging. I knew that I had some ideas and I loved to write which I thought qualified me as a blogger. But I had missed on a couple of pointers about blogging which makes it so effective. And all of these pointers have evolved over time and Alok has been a great inspiration all through the process to bring this out both in me and the site we have here today in the name of Inspire99
1) Blogging is less about you and more about people
Well! It goes back to the basic question as to why we write. And for us, it was a platform to share our real life experiences, the stories and thoughts which motivate us and keep us going. There is no doubt how essential motivation is in life and how simple it is as well. All along I had thought that writing was about sharing experiences and thoughts, but if these thoughts and ideas are shared without the reader in mind, it is absolutely pointless isn’t it?
2) Specialization goes a long way.
The first time I started writing, I felt is was all about the things I feel for. And then I realized I feel for a lot of things – poetry, people, travel, food, entertainment, lifestyle and so on. But Alok suggested that a site can have a larger impact if it means one thing to people. A jack of all and a master of none has a longer way to go. So we thought- What is the one thing that inspires us the most and without doubt, that was really the birth or standardization for inspire99 and we have maintained it as such over the last couple of years.
3) Blogging is not just your writing skill
Alok through his posts and discussions constantly provoked me to think out of the box and was always there to help with the stupidest of the questions I have had. I am quite amazed that he has never been mad at me (yet ;)) even thought I have asked so many silly questions. And he has always been the big brother to count on when the site ran into trouble or hit a so called ‘Writers Block’. And that is how we started working on the SEO, visual appeal, speed of loading, usage of images and so on to our site
4) Using own images
We realized that if a site needs to be accepted, it becomes important to use in-house images. After all, content is the king and nothing clicks like originality. And we did not want to use copyrighted material cos we know and appreciate the hard work of others in creating content. At the same time we did not want to sit queit without any images as well. That is when we started designing images with the help of Canva and later on further research helped us develop more images and better ones too.
5) The theme!
I have been pretty adamant about changes in my site and the one change which Alok constantly talked to me about was the theme. I constantly clung on to an age old theme atleast twice and Alok has been a constant motivation helping me push to improve the aspects of my site and the effort goes on even today. And I have always been very glad that I have listened to Alok whenever I had thoughts about blogging.
The discussions, the thoughts and ideas are the ones which I will cherish for a long time and above all what he is as a person. For,eventually we remember people not just for how good they are technically. There is something beyond that, something more meaningful and something more essential. Thank you for being the Big brother Alok, you truly make me win, not just for the #youmakemewin hashtag, but a lot more than that.
Thanks for being there buddy and looking out for me, I am truly indebted to that.
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So wonderful of you to talk about Alok.. A great blogger..
Thank you so much Parul, I am honored :)
I am also fond of Alok in Blogging community :) He is very helpful and humble as well. A good person and a doting father for his Pihu :)
Thank you so much Roohi, other than being a doting father of Pihu, whatever else you said about me is not correct :)
That’s super nice of you Vinay to bring out so many good things about Alok! Kudos! :)
Thank you so much Archana :)
Aaaaaaaawww this is so cute.Yes Alok is very helpful and friendly.when i started out last year his blog inspired me too and i too asked him some stupid questions but he answered them patiently.Alok vats will not remember me but its very sweet of you Vinay to write so many nice things for your buddy.
Don’t say that Nima, I do remember you. I actually do remember everyone who connects with me. And thank you so much for all the nice words about me. Vinay is a gem and praises for me so much, but the fact is that since he himself is a nice person, so he considers all others as nice only :)
Vinay & Alok, believe me, or not, the moment I got notification of this post in my mail, I knew it was Alok. :-D
Alok has helped so many of us and inspired us to become a better blogger… :-)
Very well-written, Vinay. :-)
Oh common Maniparna, I did nothing. You people are actually already a great bloggers and good people, so you guys say good things about me. Thank you so much for all the praises.
It’s a real surprise for me buddy and a special privilege to me that you dedicated such a nice and lengthy post on myself and made me the reason behind #youmakemewin
It is truly a statement which really means a lot to me, and I am very much glad to know that I being a source of inspiration for you and your website. I am going short of words at the moment buddy. Many thanks for such a inspirational post.