The Common Man Speaks

10 years of blogging, 10 years of addiction

July 4, 2019 by Keyur Seta 1 Comment

I can’t pinpoint any one moment when I felt I should start a blog. It was largely due to the need to get a platform where I can put out my thoughts and views without being answerable to any boss. The job I was in didn’t have enough opportunity to do the same [such was the structure of the publication, so that’s understandable].

At that time, movies was the only topic I was comfortable writing on. After a prolonged strike of the Hindi film industry, finally a big movie released in the form of Kabir Khan’s New York (2009). I wrote its review rather late on July 4, 2009. It was a co-incidence that I wrote on New York on American Independence Day.

I wanted to a put a name that suits me. Just a year ago Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday was released. Apart from becoming a worshipper of that film, I was also mesmerized by the lead character called Stupid Common Man played by Naseeruddin Shah. Hence, it was an easy decision. [Read more about it HERE]

It was just the excitement to see my work published that compelled me to write regularly from then on. Slowly I ventured into other topics like personal experience and current affairs. But soon I found a new motivation to write regularly because of a boost to the new age Marathi cinema, that started roughly in 2004 with Shwaas.

The first month of 2010 saw Harishchandrachi Factory and few other films released in quick succession. The film also played a major role in taking my interest in cinema to a much higher level. At the same time, writing about Marathi films became a major reason for the blog getting somewhat known.

10 years of blogging

Incidentally, the 2011 Cricket World Cup also took place the next year where India triumphed. This prompted me to write on cricket which I have somehow still continued.

As if like a film script, Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption [IAC] movement gained huge momentum the same year in August. After taking part in it regularly, the blog became a medium to cover first hand reports of the rallies. [Read more about it HERE].

Not surprisingly, I have been asked numerous times as to why I don’t monetize my blog. To tell you honestly, I did try doing that by signing up for Google adsense but they kept rejecting my request. Funnily enough, the most common reason given by them is that my blog has ‘adult’ content.

But I did manage to earn some money and a lot of vouchers through a lot of blogging activities and contests on few blogging platforms. I had a ball of a time meeting new bloggers and also earning by doing something that didn’t require much hard work.

But after a point of time, it dawned upon me that this is not the reason I had started my blog for. The aim was to get a platform where I could voice my thoughts. Hence, I decided to stick to the original motto. This doesn’t mean that there is a strict no-no for contests. If the contest is such that it naturally motivates me to write on something, I will have no problems taking part in it.

But co-incidentally, blogs have started becoming obsolete since few years with more and more penetration of social media and video content. This also meant that activities on these blogging platforms have reduced and have slowly become next to nothing.

Naturally the page views on my blog have also started declining considerably. Currently, the numbers I get is way lesser than what I used to get around four or five years ago. So, in such a scenario, I have been asked if there is any point in keeping my blog active if the number of readers have lessened to this extent.

My answer to these questions is a resounding yes without a stroke of hesitation. To answer it in simpler terms, a serious drug addict needs regular doses of drugs in order to be sane. That’s how it is for me. It’s an addiction without any side effects and, on the contrary, plenty of benefits which cannot be measured in monetary terms.

By: Keyur Seta

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Anna Hazare movement, Benefits of blogging, Future of blogs, How to write a blog

Like Us on Facebook

Pages

  • About Me

Categories

  • Bollywood
  • Cricket
  • Documentaries
  • Environment
  • Events
  • Food
  • Forgotten Moments
  • Gujarati Cinema
  • Health
  • Hollywood
  • Humour
  • International Cinema
  • Literature
  • Marathi movies
  • Miscellaneous
  • Mumbai
  • Music
  • National
  • Personal experience
  • Pictures
  • Plays
  • Poem/ Shayaris
  • Regional cinema
  • Rumour Alert
  • Short Films
  • Socio/Political
  • Spiritual
  • Travel
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
  • Web Series
  • Young Achievers

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 46 other subscribers

Archives

  • June 2025 (3)
  • May 2025 (4)
  • April 2025 (7)
  • March 2025 (5)
  • February 2025 (1)
  • January 2025 (4)
  • December 2024 (2)
  • November 2024 (3)
  • October 2024 (2)
  • September 2024 (4)
  • August 2024 (2)
  • July 2024 (3)
  • June 2024 (4)
  • May 2024 (1)
  • April 2024 (2)
  • March 2024 (2)
  • February 2024 (4)
  • January 2024 (4)
  • December 2023 (2)
  • November 2023 (3)
  • October 2023 (3)
  • September 2023 (4)
  • August 2023 (3)
  • July 2023 (2)
  • June 2023 (2)
  • May 2023 (4)
  • April 2023 (4)
  • March 2023 (2)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (3)
  • December 2022 (2)
  • November 2022 (6)
  • October 2022 (7)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • August 2022 (2)
  • July 2022 (2)
  • June 2022 (4)
  • May 2022 (4)
  • April 2022 (4)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (3)
  • January 2022 (3)
  • December 2021 (3)
  • November 2021 (2)
  • October 2021 (3)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (3)
  • July 2021 (5)
  • June 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (5)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (4)
  • February 2021 (4)
  • January 2021 (4)
  • December 2020 (6)
  • November 2020 (4)
  • October 2020 (6)
  • September 2020 (4)
  • August 2020 (6)
  • July 2020 (3)
  • June 2020 (2)
  • May 2020 (3)
  • April 2020 (4)
  • March 2020 (3)
  • February 2020 (3)
  • January 2020 (2)
  • December 2019 (3)
  • November 2019 (4)
  • October 2019 (3)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (4)
  • July 2019 (6)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (4)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (2)
  • February 2019 (5)
  • January 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (6)
  • November 2018 (4)
  • October 2018 (4)
  • September 2018 (3)
  • August 2018 (3)
  • July 2018 (2)
  • June 2018 (4)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (2)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • January 2018 (3)
  • December 2017 (3)
  • November 2017 (3)
  • October 2017 (3)
  • September 2017 (3)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (4)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • May 2017 (3)
  • April 2017 (2)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (4)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (3)
  • October 2016 (4)
  • September 2016 (2)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • June 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (4)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (4)
  • February 2016 (4)
  • January 2016 (5)
  • December 2015 (6)
  • November 2015 (4)
  • October 2015 (4)
  • September 2015 (8)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (5)
  • June 2015 (5)
  • May 2015 (10)
  • April 2015 (7)
  • March 2015 (4)
  • February 2015 (9)
  • January 2015 (11)
  • December 2014 (9)
  • November 2014 (10)
  • October 2014 (11)
  • September 2014 (9)
  • August 2014 (7)
  • July 2014 (7)
  • June 2014 (2)
  • May 2014 (4)
  • April 2014 (5)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • January 2014 (4)
  • December 2013 (6)
  • November 2013 (8)
  • October 2013 (4)
  • September 2013 (2)
  • August 2013 (5)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (2)
  • May 2013 (7)
  • April 2013 (8)
  • March 2013 (11)
  • February 2013 (10)
  • January 2013 (14)
  • December 2012 (11)
  • November 2012 (6)
  • October 2012 (12)
  • September 2012 (15)
  • August 2012 (18)
  • July 2012 (14)
  • June 2012 (15)
  • May 2012 (7)
  • April 2012 (12)
  • March 2012 (15)
  • February 2012 (12)
  • January 2012 (17)
  • December 2011 (13)
  • November 2011 (12)
  • October 2011 (7)
  • September 2011 (4)
  • August 2011 (14)
  • July 2011 (6)
  • June 2011 (5)
  • May 2011 (5)
  • April 2011 (11)
  • March 2011 (4)
  • February 2011 (3)
  • January 2011 (6)
  • December 2010 (3)
  • November 2010 (2)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (1)
  • August 2010 (2)
  • July 2010 (3)
  • June 2010 (3)
  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (1)
  • March 2010 (3)
  • February 2010 (4)
  • January 2010 (3)
  • December 2009 (3)
  • November 2009 (4)
  • October 2009 (2)
  • September 2009 (2)
  • August 2009 (6)
  • July 2009 (3)

Copyright © 2025 · eleven40 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in