Voicing communications, crazy phrase innit? Anyway it’s used here to mean speech patterns as applied to the transfer of information from one person to another/other persons.

For this talk the first port of call is the news rooms. I’ve observed that the news casting voice…intonation…accent…pronunciation…or more particularly “stress on words” of our broadcasters (mainly from private stations; Channels Television being a chief example) sound so foreign. At times it’s often as if one’s listening to the BBC or CNN. What I want to know then is if it’s an industry standard or if it’s just another act in our endless imitation of the West. It worries me the more because on the other hand I listen to NTA and Radio Nigeria broadcasters and they do none of that yet they speak clearly in very good English. It’s a pity I can’t yet put up sound clips to drive home my point.

Cool FM Abuja’s broadcaster Benny Arc (I’m thinking his full name is Benjamin/Benedict Archibong) is the scapegoat at our second port of call. On air the brother is so loud…animated in an “uncool” sort of way. He practically hypes every word! I might not be a pro but one thing I’ve learnt about broadcasting is that on air it’s best to assume that you’re talking to just one person and not to a multitude. That way you’d sound more pleasing to the ears, confident and you’d have that personal touch about you. The personal touch is really great as it gets to and captivates the listener, making him/her feel like you’re there with him/her having a one on one conversation. If Cool FM’s on air personalities were on a reality show Benny would undoubtedly be the first housemate to be evicted. Enough said.

Ahide a Cool FM broadcaster posing with Bola.

At this last port of call I’m leaving you with these words of Toshmann. I came across them while snooping through the Nigerian Village Square. Reading it made me bury my head in shame because I realized I’ve been guilty more than a few times. I guess it’s a call to change

…our people seem to be proud to say “I can’t speak Igbo, but I understand a little bit”. What nonsense! this is something that one should be ashamed to say, yet people say it with pride as if those who speak the language well are “igbotic” and being “igbotic” is a bad thing…this is sad.

Before you read this know that I’m not trying to work up a misunderstanding with my music industry family; I’m just speaking as an average music lover with his own personal opinion.

I’ve not at all been happy with most of the Rhythm 94.7 Abuja Hit Song of the Week selections of the past few…months! A lot of which have been ridiculous nonsensical songs…which are not even “sweet”! This is the kind of thing that makes one take Modenine’s point of view: “bling bling, bubble gum rap, I don’t feel that”. Having got my grown man on I’m kind of not feeling such theme of songs but I could make exceptions for tracks like Cassie’s “long way to go”. The song’s a banger so I guess it’s bumpable on my radio and gets my nod for song of the week. But sadly majority of the selections are a glorifying of C-class US acts/songs to the detriment of our own artists. I therefore consider it an insult to be put through the torture of hearing such type of songs week after week. Surely Rhythm can’t tell me that these are the songs Nigerians of all classes honestly prefer as their song of the week.

My research led me to realise that the choice of foreign songs over ours is because of the fear of being labelled as playing favouritism and the “why should I do this artist a big favour when I’m getting nothing in reply” feeling. I just wish the DJs and On-Air personalities knew that as far as a song’s tight no one has a problem with you shoving it down our ears for your “friend’s” sake.

But after all said and done if they still decide to stick with foreign songs (after all it’s their prerogative) I would be happy if they picked from the generally acceptable stock. I’m still waiting on the day we’ll see Nigerian songs of the week on a regular basis. That honour could really lift someone’s career.

I’m in love…with the music, are you?

It beats me why many of us who claim to be the perfect wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend material always have lonely Valentines or are forever wishing on love and moaning about needing a partner. So to unravel the mystery I started with myself. Over the course of conversing with this new chick that I’m really feeling I realised that I’m actually the shit but when I consider my finances I always loose confidence in my ability to cope in the relationship department. I thus bug off and go for the easy lay…how sad. So the jury’s out, we know other people (unromantic cheating guys, money hungry girls etc) and circumstances can be blamed for your loneliness but what portion of the blame are you willing to apportion to yourself for being lonely?

Fuck traditional roles I believe in gender equality. Rhythm Unplugged, Rhythm 94.7 Abuja’s music-comedy show comes up over the weekend. Any lady wants to take me out?

For some ladies it’s the time of the month…sorry I mean time of the year, for love. For Terry Tha Rapman, as versed in Modenine’s “spazmodic”

it’s the time of the month so I’m writing raps all day/
punch lines keep flowing so I’m with my pad Always/
haha did you get that? flowing, pad, Always?/
let’s go back to when I was writing raps in school hall ways/
reading Superman comics, bumping Dr. Dre’s Chronic/
speaking Ebonics, my pastor said it was demonic/…

While for me it’s the time of the month where my thoughts flow, and so inevitably it’s another blog post :). Time don reach, abeg your kind permission to unleash.

Interviews! God damn, life is one big school of diplomacy. The interviews I’ve seen on TV and read in the print given by Obasanjo, Babangida, Adedibu, and Andy Ubah confirms the point. These are people we all know with serious cases to answer in the court of public opinion but when given the chance to bring em out our journalist disappoint at all levels. All they did was throw light questions at them, they never got deep into the one million Naira questions and at the end of the interviews we were back at square one. Not much learnt just the interviewees coming off at the top looking like saints. Let nobody attribute it to fear, it’s more of the “you chop I chop” policy. I give you five perfect moments of fame and you grease my palms…enhance my CV…guarantee me future exclusives. It’s the rat race, journalist gotta eat too you know.

And talking about politics, I was elected Fin Sec in the four-man Exco (executive committee) for corps members serving in Ukum LGA of Benue State. I’ve had a relatively quiet political past so I’m really pleased to have bagged that post. You know, I got to test my popularity and recognized that others believe in my capabilities. It’s got me slightly tipsy and feeling like I’ve got one over our politicians :). But I’m afraid that my mistakes and the manly ego coupled with my fear of tomorrow might not allow me serve to the best of my ability. You see I love myself…believe in myself and any one who wants to mess me up I’ll be like fuck him/her. But I’m not all hot though; I could put up with bullshit especially when I’ll come off better in the end. I just gotta check my grudge levels while taking in so I don’t kill myself inside while the oppressor’s happy.

if wishes were horses, beggars would ride/
if I said I’m falling, would you ask why/
if you should stop calling I’ll probably die/
and if I could see you, Val would be you and I/

Much love to “you”, you sabi who you be now. For everyone else happy Valentine’s Day!

Abeg permit the loveless pup to unleash

It’s holiday season for the kids here in Naija, a whole two months of it (mid July to mid September). Young boys on my street are now tapping leather from morning to night! Israel and Lebanon are knocking each other out while the world watches; another unresolvable political murder has been committed, this time in Lagos. And yours truly is dragging his fucked up ass to the radio on the regular in the name of work. On that note I kick off my situation report of sorts.

I’ve been doing my thing in the Production department. We do the jingles and adverts, produce programmes and part produce the news etcetera. It’s been alright…I’m getting that knowledge and boosting my CV. One of the good things about this is that you get to meet and work with the stars. Groupie heaven you might say. Gospel artist and Kora award winner Sammy Okposo came by to promote his latest album; ABJ’s own Sixfootplus did same to promote his sophomore album. And upcoming producer turned Ragga artist: Uchie the African Rock star did as like. The director of the Orji Uzor Kalu for President Team: a certain Alhaji (it’s the usual “one Naija” political move. Northerners have Southern hype men and Southerners have Northern hype men) also came through to do his thing. But he blew it big time. He was talking as incoherently as a member of a rented crowd in a political rally would do if asked to explain his political stance. I’m sorry to say but if the eloquence of ones’ campaign manger determines ones’ results at the polls then Orji Uzor Kalu stands no chance in 2007.

Shit is also great cos I’ve been getting a feel of how radio stations work from the inside. Of particular interest to me is the airplay dynamics. A lot of upcoming artist do come around to drop their demos…singles in hope of decent spins to send them on their way to stardom. In fact Ruggedman’s new singles were dropped over two weeks back. I’ve always been of the opinion that we don’t give our local artists enough airtime and I still am. But I’ve been able to see things from the eyes of the On Air Personalities and DJs who do the actual spinning. You see life is all about the money and some complain that it’s unfair that the artists don’t drop a little something-something; especially when the artists goes major. It’s like the “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop” thing. Styl-Plus be touring and getting groupie love while I’m here stupidly spinning the cuts. Anyways it’s a two-way thing; the OAPs make the artist and the artist in turn make for the OAPs to have a job. With skill and dedication ice can always be sold to the Eskimos.

With all the rough drops and liners I have here I’m thinking of doing me a song. Don’t know what a liner is? Maybe this will help you. “Do re mi fa so la ti do”. “Hi this is Jay-Z; you’re listening to Mugu FM 41.9, don’t touch that dial”! You know get a tight beat and rap or sing over it for the verses while using an artist’s vocals as the chorus or part chorus. Have you heard Cassidy’s “I’m a hustler” or 2shotz’ “which level”. Yeah that sorta thing, you just might hear a TRAE and Daddy Showkey song someday.

I better stop here before I’m become the latest employee who gets the boot for blogging. Last line, thanks to Tom Hanks we all know that the Godfather answers all of life’s questions. But do you know what the Godfather said when he was presented with a rotating chair (chair on wheels) for his birthday? He declared it the “greatest thing since sliced bread”! And man he wasn’t far from the truth. If you ain’t sitting on one on the daily than take it from me that you ain’t sitting; you’re standing. Peace!

Weird MC, one of the numerous artists that have made it to the moon…hey Weird who’re you giving the finger to?

Why is it that we keep complaining that it’s bad news that we always hear? Have we ever wondered what good news would be like? It’d be boring, and life would be uneventful. I’m not a sadist it’s just that it’s just the way of the world, shit happens. Shit makes you think, talk and debate. It puts the media all up in your face and enables them make a killing from adverts. If we heard only good news we would be like “oh really…cool” but in our minds we’d be like “who gives a fuck”. This is how horrible good news would be:

-MTN gives new SIM packs to customers who’ve purchased at least one thousand Naira worth of airtime in a month.
-John Mikel Obi falls in love with daughter of Nigerian politician while on vacation in New York. Now set to be her High School Prom date.
-Federal government pumps money into power industry; repaints PHCN offices nationwide.
-Former head of State Yakubu Gowan takes “Nigeria Prays” initiative to Aba. Abia State governor Orji Uzor kalu gives life to Christ; subsequently speaks in mysterious tongues.
-President Obasanjo has a hard day at work and relaxes by playing golf with his son Gbenga at the IBB Golf course.

It seems to me like all work is dishonest. It appears as if businessmen are your friends who’re out to help you but in reality they’re only ripping you off by selling you shit. They put you in a hypnotised state that you believe you can’t do without their goods/services.

Look at the ICT/IT industry it’s like the new craze is ICT/IT and employment seminars. And man it sure does pay. Give a “go get em” speech for a small fee to thousands of knowledge eager and prosperity dreaming students and smile home to the banks. But being that everybody can’t be at the top at the end of the day those that use the skill to really progress in life are very few.

Cable TV channels are also shady. They constantly call on you to subscribe to them and get unlimited viewing and infotainment. It’s like E! is an essential and you’re not worthy to be alive if you don’t know the latest celebrity gossip or the life history of the stars. Yeah right, like I have nothing else to do than engaging in brain rot by living in front of my TV.

HYIP Schemes too are shit. Buy stuff from me and sell to others, get a commission for each sale. Those others would also sell to others and you’d get a profit from their sales etc. Truth is the more you buy the more they get rich and if you’re unable to find someone to in turn sell your stuff to then God help you.

HIV/AIDS NGOs belong to this same pack. Person no go hear word again with their ubiquitous adverts. At they rate they pump them out it makes you scared to even think about sex. You start to wonder if the activists are all life time virgins. But the real deal is that the fight against AIDS ain’t all that much in their hearts as they try to portray. It’s just their fucking job; it’s how they make a living. Sell more condoms and get more foreign grants. Pocket a nice amount of it and start a support group with the leftovers. By distributing drugs to peeps you make your benefactors think you’re on your toes so they’ll pump in more dough.

Damn…I need a job, any offers?

We’re all a bunch of dishonest folks out only too make that money

So it’s my birthday today, I’m 23. Yeah yeah who cares; OBJ is 79 and is gunning for another four years. Ok I kid, I kid; dude is 69 and wants to be life President. Yep, we all got the third term blues. At times I wish I wasn’t so interested in politics and could just take the passive/siddon look approach. Anyways being that I am interested I’m going to roll out some of my observations on the third term issue.

1) Asking OBJ to continue for a third term in office is like asking Austin Jay Jay Okocha to continue playing and captaining the Super Eagles (defying age and despite all the bright young talent out there) for another four years. Agreed, Okocha is one of the best Nigerian players ever but without him we ended our WorldCup/Cup of Nations campaign on an excellent note and still went on to win bronze at Egypt 2006. Word is born Okocha is not indispensable to the national team. In the same vein in a country of over 120million people OBJ is not the only person who can run things well. And please don’t come with that stuff that the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. What we’re fighting for is to get it into the Nigerian psyche that no matter how well (you think) you’ve done you should never overstay your welcome.

2) The NTA we’re seeing these days is slowly turning into the NTA of the 1998 era. Then everything was pro-Abacha. Abacha for president this, Nigeria needs Abacha that. Nowadays if the NTA is your only source of news you’d be fooled to think the nation overwhelmingly supports OBJ third term bid. But after thinking the issue over being that the NTA is the government’s baby it’s to be expected. Compare the NTA-OBJ situation to a large household. If something really bad happens within the household like a scuffle between sibling A and B and sibling B is left critically injured you don’t expect the household’s spokesman to come out publicly and rubbish siblings A’s image. Surely he’ll be admonished but being that blood is thicker than water it won’t be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. The case would be acknowledged as an unfortunate incident but the dirty incidents won’t be washed in public, everything would be dealt with on the low low. Nonetheless NTA still owes it to the public to always portray both sides of the story.

3) The NTA issue can make you want to cry, but thank God for little mercies like the independent press. Yes kudos to AIT, Channels television and co for correctly feeling the pulse of the people. Political discourse phone-in programs on the stations lets us know that unlike the claims of Mantu and co Nigerians as a whole are anti-third term. There are other news outlets like the radio, newspapers and the internet but being that television is king it’s good that our leaders some of who don’t know better can at least know what the word on the streets is by simply switching channels.

Picture originally available at foolscap

Today Cool FM 96.9 Abuja held an audition titled “the broadcaster” for a new presenter for their station. The candidates (a whole lot of them) were given about a minute to do their thing. And at the end, the panel of judges (consisting of some existing presenters) will pick out the 9 most impressive wannabes. the broadcaster will then be selecter based on highest number of votes received from Listerners. I listened in, it was fun. A lot of the wannabes have been doing the news casting thing. To me that’s too dull. They said they were looking for presenter…broadcaster. Showcasing your news casting skills is too limiting. You should show your brighter side and that can be achieved when you do the free flowing stuff. I mean audition like you’re a presenter who’s playing the jams, giving general gist in between and possible interviewing a guest. To do this it really helps if you have a great sense of humor, a warm voice/personality that can captivate people and make them enjoy listening to you/hearing you talk. You know that larger than life feeling. From the wannabes I heard, two really blew me away. The first was a guy who pretended to interview Paris Hilton and Gwen Stefani. A smooth talker, he sure has a future compeering shows. The other was Violet Ibe a.k.a. Little V. she pretended she was anchoring a text in program. She also spit some radio-relevant rhymes and generally flowed like a true MC.

I was once a wannabe myself (to an extent I still am). I was kind of serious about it that I went online to research on what it takes to be a good radio presenter. But before then I used to cut my own demo tapes at home. As I’m typing this I’m listening to one I made way back, between December 31st 2003 and January 2004 to be precise. I’d go online and source for MIDI files (music files that sound like polyphonic ringtones). A few of those I used on this tape are The Fugees’ “ready or not”, Warren G’s “regulate”, Coolio’s “cu when u get there”, Bone Thugs N Harmony’s “crossroads”, Jay-Z’s “hard knock life”, Jonell’s “don’t stop” and Coolio’s “gangstas paradise”. I’d get my microphone and rap over the instrumentals with my friends, spit some of my old flows, fool around dropping some tight and some wack freestyles, interview as many people as I could and generally just run my mouth till the tape was full. Listening to it now makes me nostalgic. Oh well…I’ve missed the Cool FM chance but if feasible I’ll try and grab the next opportunity because I must admit presenting on radio is kind of cool. It feels good to able to impact positively on other people’s lives and at the same time retain one’s privacy.

Postscript: I love it when a DJ is on air. You know all that scratching and mixing of them wonderful joints. Especially when an old school track comes on or a new one that you’re really crazy about. Kai! Music na de very koko.

Yeah, I love my radio…and Cool FM 96.9

Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m intoxicated with my radio/music as much as Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni is intoxicated with power (but I dey think clearly oh!). So I don’t take it lightly with anybody who tries to diminish the enjoyment I derive from music/listening to the radio. In line with that, this post goes out to Hot FM 98.3, an Abuja radio station because from my point of view they can really do with some improvements. They’re one of the nine radio stations in Abuja; they’re privately owned and have been around for over a year. Other stations in the ABJ area are: Cool FM 96.9, Rhythm FM 94.7, Ray Power 100.5, Crowther FM 104.5, Kapital FM 92.9, Aso Radio 93.5, Vision FM 92.1 and Zuma FM 88.5. The improvements should be in four major ways:

Reading of playlists should be stopped. It would really help if you guys stopped letting in us in on the songs you’re going to play for the next hour before playing them. It spoils the fun of the whole thing. When playlists are left unpredictable, when the songs come up they are all the more enjoyable for the song’s lovers. It hits them like a gift from heaven. I guess that’s why we all love the shuffle/random function on our PC’s media player, CD deck, Discman, IPod etc. But when the playlist is announced and the songs don’t suit a listener’s taste he most likely changes the dial and that ain’t good for listernership numbers.

Presenters should stop being empty. This sounds harsh but for real your presenters are empty. In the sense that most of the time they have nothing to say…dull personalities. E.g.: you just heard “be happy” hope you guys are happy, just heard “show me love” have you should someone love today? Etc. If they ain’t telling us we’re on to Hot FM and they’re playing hot music, they’re asking us if we’re hot, or telling us the time, or their names, or not to change the dial, or what they’ll be playing next. There’s nothing really captivating in their speech, nothing to make you look forward to listening to a particular presenter. Ideally besides the basics, presenters usually dish out facts, give advice, tell stories, jokes, give infotainment news, or say stuff that’s relevant to current societal happenings.

Cooling it with the hype and jingles. The hype you guys build on air (hot this, hot that) is too damn much and the jingles you play are too damn long and many. Can we get more of five seconds or less jingles? And it’s made all the more worse by the fact that minus music and news there’s not much to look forward to. Your presenters are not utilized well/fully thus their fan base is not built. Could we have more programmes and really interesting ones at that?

Presenters should work on their accent. As an on air personality your voice and accent should be pleasant to the ears. It’s good to go natural because if you fake you end up sounding stupid when speaking Pidgin English or pronouncing names in vernacular. I get an earache when I listen to a lot of your presenters. The chick (Shola) that anchors the “flava of Naija” youth programme on radio is a good example of how to balance your flow or keep it real both ways. Her flow is flexible such that she drops her English sweetly (she doesn’t blow hyper phonetics) and flawlessly switches to pidgin/vernacular when the need arises and it’s all pure. Okay now, adios.

Hot FM’s Chaz Bruce doing his thing. Picture originally available here.

Are you the type who has no respect for journalists and reckon they have nothing else to do and so they run their mouth for a living? If you are, then I think you’ve yet to realize the influence they have over our thinking. Because you see, information is what we feed our brains/mind with. And that information is gotten from various media (the internet, news papers, TV, radio etc). And journalists run these various media. Thus we can safely say that journalists control our minds…our lives.

Journalists are constantly on the prowl for stuff they consider news worthy. They get this stuff, work on it and spoon feed it to us babies via the media. We eat it all up, digest it, form opinions in our mind and start talking about it like we’re wise and shit.

Take the case of the 22nd July 2005 killing of a Brazilian man by the London Metropolitan Police. There were a lot of eyewitness but everybody doesn’t run the media. So the very few roving journalists around, who missed the event themselves, get their ass on ground and quiz the witnesses. They harmonize the conflicting statements they get and pass it on to their colleagues who release the stuff as breaking news for the whole world to consume. Commoners, bloggers, and news analyst around the world then start talking and arguing among themselves on the issue. And doing so with some unreliable news statements as their guiding source. In future these inaccurate news statements becomes the reference point for the issue and is treated as truth. Future generations are fed with this info and the life goes on.

So much happens in life but the human mind can’t capture and preserve it all. What is then considered as fact in the future is what is recorded in the various media. But what is recorded is in fact just a tiny fraction of actual happenings. Check out the biography of Catholic Saints and famous people. The Saints are presented as being flawless while the famous are presented as having excelled in their various field of human endeavour. Thus we generations later have them in our minds as super human beings. While in actual fact the rough edges of their life history are sweetened to have nice public appeal. That’s how deep journalist can fuck with our intellect.

It’s plain for all to see they’re the kingmakers. They talk about you positively, we have positive notions of you; they talk about you negatively, we have negative notions of you. Let me come with examples.

The Nigeria you know is basically filled with info from Lagos and Abuja (with little bits and pieces from other famous places) because that’s where a large part of the media is based.

World soccer is centered on the European Champions League (CL) and the English Premier League (EPL) football because it’s what we see, read and hear in the media week in week out. Thus Players in the CL and EPL are the ones we talk about, the ones with the best chance to make their various national teams and the ones most likely to pick up awards. You can’t talk about, pick or give awards to people you don’t see, hear or read about.

The United States controls the world media and so movies, music and culture in all countries has heavy American content. You’ll realize this when you see teenage Nigerian girls discussing about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s break up as if talking about it will put food on their family’s table.

What people in different countries know about other countries is what they get from the media. They thus form strong opinions in their minds from minute news feeds. Example: when we think of the Caribbean’s, we think of scantily dressed women and all day fun on the beach. When we think of Israel, Palestine and the Middle East; we think of suicide bombs and terrorism. When we think of Africa, we think of corrupt politicians, sit tight rulers and illiterate people.

Hence we now know the kind of power journalist (the mass media) possess, we’ll respect them a little more. On the other hand they should go about their business sensible because the mind is a delicate thing. That’s all folks.

Haven’t really read much of son’s work before but I’ve heard him talk on TV. Anyways was looking for a Nigerian journalist to grace my post and Reuben Abati comes highly recommended as a journalist who knows his onions.

Some months ago I read a “how to blog” post by Tony Pierce. The post incidentally helped him pick up a bloggie. Well now with the necessary experience I feel like writing my own for the benefit of my blogging people. I hope who ever reads this grabs a thing or two from it. Happy reading.

1) One of the secrets to blogging well is starting well. You don’t want to start a blog and then after making some posts, getting publicity and gathering a fan based suddenly realize that your blogging software package/blog hosting site sucks and you have to change. Do the necessary research before picking a blog software package/blog hosting site. Changing can be very tiring and at times lead to a change of URL. Blogger is a good software package/blog hosting site for a beginner, Xanga really isn’t. Cos on it commenting is restricted to Xanga members only. A blog post should be such that ANYBODY can read and if he/she so wishes leave a comment.

2) When blogging go for original posts. There’s no need of making a post about “SixApart buying LiveJournal” or “Yahoo increasing its e-mail storage to 1GB” when everybody know you copied it from the Wired or CNET News. You‘re not the fucking BBC or CNN, so you don’t have to pretend to be. It’s better if you give us your reaction in detail to such stories then making your post 95% the copied news and 5% your own view of it. 10% the news and 90% your view on it is far better.

3) As concerns making a blog post if you don’t know what to write shut up! Silence is far better than filling your blog with junk and making it crappy. In other words a small blog with very informative and entertaining posts is far better than a voluminous blog with stupid rants/boring stories of one’s everyday life. Example, a dumb post like “hi, I don’t know what to write today, bye”. Crap art is totally out of the question for blogging.

4) When writing your posts put links when necessary. For example you’re talking on an issue and you refer to something which half of the people don’t know about and will seriously hinder their understanding of the point you’re tying make, a simple link will solve the problem. Thank God for the inter-connectivity of the internet a simple link (the underlined/clickable words you often see) saves one the stress of going out to buy a book/make an inquiry as is done in the world of book/magazine-reading. Also respect other people’s work, when you use someone’s material be gracious enough to say so/put a link to the original…if need be.

5) Make generous use of pictures. A little imagery works wonders in putting a point across or at times it just adds a little humour. Don’t be all uptight and just fill your blog with text, text and more texts, you’re not writing a fucking constitution for Christ’s sake.

6) Let your readers get to know you. You could start with a catchy caption/title for your blog which really spells out the true you. Mine is “TRAE days” (I got that from “Dre day”, a favourite phrase of Hip hop artist Dr Dre). Also put a little text (something like a book’s abstract/synopsis) which in a few sentences summarizes what you and your blog is about so that prospective readers will decide if they want to read your blog or not, and put themselves in the right frame of mind to do so if they wish to read it. For example mine is “A diary of the days of…”. A little pic of yourself or an avatar is also welcomed to make your blog unique and more personal and not just some ranting by an anonymous. A link to an “about me page” is also good were readers can learn about you possibly in a paragraph or two. Leave your email for feedback. You never know what people will want to put across to you in private.

7) On your blog’s side bar leave links to your favourite sites or blogs. This will help your readers get more in tune with your world by checking out the stuff/sites you also dig. Also do get HTML and if possible CSS knowledgeable. You can only get a good looking blog if you know how to design one. And you know what they say: looks (and arrangement) is everything. Don’t be shy to ask for help at any point you get confused. We all make mistakes, nobody knows it all.

Get your archiving right, it’s the key to allowing people surf through your blog in and out and thus hear all what you have to say. If you post between of 1-10 times in a month archiving monthly is your best bet. If you post more frequently weekly archiving is preferable.

9) Publicity, publicity, publicity! Get people to checkout your blog. Paraphrasing the Bible “men do not light a candle and put it under a bed, they instead put it on a candlestick so that all might see the light”. They same thing with blogs, you don’t produce write-ups for yourself only to read. You do so for the world to read and learn from. Spread the word about your blog at every opportunity. Including your blog’s URL in your e-mail’s signature and that of your forum profile (if you’re part of any) is a good idea. Also add yourself to as many blog directories as possible. When commenting on other people’s blog or anywhere on the web leave your blog’s URL. When you write posts on particular issues and you feel the world necessarily needs to read them advertise them by sending e-mails, offline messages (via chat) and making posts about them in forums.

10) Get a site feed; you know the RSS and atom stuff. People who hyper-blog sure do find them necessary, so it’ll be good if you could spread the word that way.

11) Get a statistic counter. It’s an icon you place on your blog which tells you who and who is checking out your blog and from what source; be it from search engines or web pages. It helps as it tells you what people hitting your blog really want to know about so that you can work on that aspect. It also tells you what people feel about you online on the different web pages that link to you. statcounter has been a good choice for me.

So good luck to you as you implement what you’ve just learnt, comments/feedback is highly welcomed. Don’t forget to check back for more tips and cool posts. Peace!

I blog therefore I am!