Scribbling Scribe

Wish You a Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T09:09:00.000-06:00

Holiday season is officially begun and everyone is in a very happy mood.

We Wish You a merry Christmas!

From our Family to yours. Happy Holidays!

Photo: krisdecurtis

Jodi Number 1 Final Results

2008-12-20T16:05:00.002-06:00

Jodi No 1 season 3 finals was aired last week and the results were revealed this week. huh! people never change. Both the producers of the program and the audience. The thing is, they know that however they direct the program, there are people to watch it. That is what they want. People to watch and get them advertisement money. They really do not care about what they really feel.

Though Micheal is damn good dancer and I am a major fan of him, I can't accept that he is the title winner. Sanjay and Pooja were the best and I think they knew already that the results are fixed and partial. May be that is why there were saying throughout their interviews that they don't mind even if they don't win. C'mon who will be like that? If they have put their 100 percent they do want to win for their hard work.Duh!

Real winners of Jodi no 1 season 3 are Sanjay and Pooja even though it was announced as Micheal and Hema. whatever! I knew something was going to happen like this but with Tinku and santhoshi. Anyways congrats to the winners and waiting for the next season to catch up with the drama. After all it does make a good time pass.

Airtel Super Singer 2008 - Medley Round

2008-12-04T08:41:00.005-06:00

I must say, Airtel Super Singer 2007 was the best! Each and every participant were worth listening to. Extraordinary talent and it was difficult for the judges and for the public to select "the one". Surprisingly, Airtel super singer 2008 is a waste of time. If you are following this program, you would know what I am taking about.

When the media hosts reality programs, we expect few things as audience. This includes the drama. But when it goes beyond our tolerance level, that is were we get frustrated and quit watching these shows. This year's Airtel super singer is one such program. Of course Jodi No 1 stands first in the list!

I am passionate about Dance and Music. I know there will be certain amount of partiality in such programs. But, look at them! Do they even watch these programs themselves? Partiality is the key factor in determining the winner and not talent. Even if we voice out our opinion, we still look to them as pathetic viewers, who bring them advertising money!

Why do they even keep a competition? It is so obvious that among this year's contestants only Ravi deserves to be the Airtel Super Singer! There were others like Deepshika who got eliminated already. Renu's Voice is awesome. But I doubt her progress as Raginishri is still in the competition. Oh wait! It is not because Ragini is an awesome singer. But it is because she is the most favorite of the judges and even if she sings bad, the judges would be more than happy to keep her in the program.

In the last week's contest, which is the Medley round, honestly I felt Raginishri and Santhosh were the weakest. Especially Ragini as she gasped for breath and was shaky in many places. But Aruna, Rohit and Deepshika were nominated for elimination and finally little deepshika was eliminated. Why this partisanship? Yes, Deepshika did not give her best. But Ragini was worse than that! We all have ears! We can find out!

Though this program's judgement doesn't affect me as that of Jodi no 1, it does make me question the need of such programs. Why to waste so much money and time on something which is already decided?

Do you think Deepshika should be brought back? - Which I guess would never happen even if we protest!

When do you think Ragini, if at all, will get eliminated? - Which I think will be in the finals where we need to vote! LOL!

With this note, I would congratulate Ravi for his awesome performance. Especially the Udaya song was an "experience" as Sujatha said!

For those to whom this is like greek and latin, check the official website if interested.

Welcome Home!

2008-12-02T11:43:00.003-06:00

With all the craziness during this Thanksgiving, I calmly welcome my new kitchen friends home. Yey! finally I got my Microwave oven and Rice cooker. Kinda excited. We couldn't make it on Black Friday morning as my husband fell ill. But he was very sweet to take me shopping in the evening. Or may be he knew what would have happened if I was not taken shopping that day. Anyway, I did shopping on Black Friday. Doesn't matter morning or evening.

We got Microwave from Kohls and Rice Cooker from Costco. Not major deals but not bad. Started cooking with these and have already become more lazy. These Kitchen electronic appliances do pamper us one way or the other. May be we must ask some one to host a debate on this topic. Hmm...

So here is my new microwave oven. hey! its me taking picture...ha! what a technology...picture in picture..

Mumbai - Devastated!

2008-11-28T14:22:00.003-06:00

When will this come to an end? This is not the first time and it hurts. Situation is worse. Why should mumbai people go through this? Not only Mumbai, it is all over India. India is in Shock and as an Indian I am devastated by this situation and hoping that things will change. To know more about this shocking news do visit BBC/CNN or any news channel and I bet they would be talking about this incident giving more information.

Helplines: Help Mumbai

Hotels(Via Twitter):
Taj: 022-66574322, 022-66574372, 1800 111 825
Trident: 022-23890606
Oberoi Hotel: 022-23890606, 022-23890505

Hospitals:
St. George Hospital: 022-22820242
J J Hospital: 022-23735555,
Bombay Hospital: 022-22067676 (extn 216)

Blood Donations:
J J Hospital Blood Bank: 022-23739400
Cama Hospital Blood Bank : 022-22611648
St. George Hospital Direct Blood Bank: 022-22620344

Helplines for Foreigners:
Canadians:
Foreign Affairs: 1-613-996-8885 from Canada
From elsewhere: 1-800-387-3124

USA:
Help line number US: State Department number: 888.407.4747
Foreign Affairs: 1-613-996-8885

United Kingdom:
Forgeign Office Emergency Telephone Number: 0207 00 800 00.

Brazilians:
Brazilian help line: +919820686143 (C)

Australians:
In Mumbai: 1800 002 214
International: +61 2 6261 3305

(Source: http://vignettinglife.com/shot-through-the-heart/)

Live news streaming @ CNN/IBN
Follow Twitters: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mumbai
Journal @ Arun's blog
List of people injured/dead: http:///mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/
More Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/vinu

P.S: Feel free to use this information and spread the news so that people can be helped asap!

Thanks Sia for Passing on this useful information.

Black Friday - What is your plan?

2008-11-25T11:46:00.004-06:00

Black Friday - The day after 'Thanksgiving'. I really don't know why people call it 'Black Friday'. It must be called 'Green Friday' as most of our greens(money) will be out! This is my second Black Friday and I am looking forward to it. Last time it was more like a newbie excitement. We went to the stores, watched how crazy could people go for a product when it comes cheap. I didn't know the value then. Now you might find me as one among those crazy people.

Last year we did not buy anything big. I just got a sewing machine at Walmart and found out that I could have got it for the same price even after 1 week! LOL! - This is what I call Newbie excitement. Sad that I had to sell the m/c. Sobs! Anyways, this year it is little different.

We have plans to buy few electronic items and few other items which comes for a good deal. You can have a look at this year's (2008) Black Friday Deals here.The shops in our mind are

Office Depot
Best Buy
Costco
Walmart
CVS
Khols

This is the list as of now. Don't know if it will increase or decrease. Some of the items in our wish list,

TV (I have been living without TV for the past 4 months and I can't take it anymore!)
Microwave oven- (My M/W oven broke and it is the right time to get a new one and make me lazy)
All-in-one Printer (Just to show off! and also I love to take printouts of my fav recipes)
Shoes -(Poor Husband, he is wearing torn shoe right now!, a must buy)
Some kitchen items (how can I say a no to Kitchen Items!)

I hope the list grows but it all depends on the budget too! oh lord! when can we all live a financially free life? hmm...waiting for that day to come.

Anyways, for all those who are shopping on Black Friday - Enjoy and I hope you get all you wished for. So what is in your list? Share with us so that we can all be informed with a great deal for that product!

Jodi No 1 season 3 Semi finals - Judgement Sucked!

2008-11-18T10:20:00.004-06:00

I am a big fan of 'Jodi No 1' from the day 1. I have been following from season 1 and will keep following however the quality of the program goes. Mainly because, Jodi No1 and Kana Kanum Kalangal are the only 2 Programs I watch regularly. At times Neeya Naana, but it all depends on the topic discussed. All are Vijay TV programs. No partiality, but only few programs are worth watching now a days. Majority of the TV programs have no quality and is full of crap.

Coming back to jodi no 1. I was eagerly waiting for the semi finals. I watch it in a website where they upload the full episode. Most of the times, I watch the judgment first and then the full program. You see, I am a bit impatient when it comes to the results. But this time when I saw the results, which was 'No Elimination' as usual, I was pissed. People! it is semi finals and we expect elimination! There must be some drive in the program for the audience to watch it and love it.

One of the judges were missing and I personally feel, only she does justice. But you'll never know. The next important factor was dance. As the guest judge said, all the 3 dances in the second round were horrible and especially Tinku's. He never danced and you can't give Bagyaraj as an excuse. This makes it obvious that Tinku did not practice and he accepted that too. After all this, I find no reason for giving a second chance to Tinku.They must have gotten eliminated and should have proved themselves in the wild card to enter the finals.

This is not the first time Tinku messed up the show, I don't know the real reason but when it comes to judgement and if it was a day when Tinku messed, the obvious judgement is 'No elimination' and it sucks to watch such prejudice decisions. Grow up people!

When the judges keep messing the judgement due to partisanship, the program lose its quality. Vijay Tv has worked really hard for proving its quality and incidents like these add to the negativity of the channel and c'mon if it is a competition there must be elimination. Producers and directors of Vijay TV do something before its too late!

I am not a person who is emotionally attached to these kind of judgments and programs, but this really pissed me off! If you are new to this program, this is what I am talking about.

Am I so emotionally attached to my blogs?

2008-11-06T10:59:00.007-06:00

Sometimes I think, what would have been my life if I was in India now. May be I would have become a project lead in one of the MNC and earning may be few thousands with the job security issue always haunting my mind. Coming to the US was good in one way. I had to quit my job, which I don't regret at all. I am able to do something I love - Blogging.

Blogging was very new to me when I came to the US last year. The first few months of my stay in the US was real fun. Get up,make lunch,watch TV,sleep. This was pretty much what I did. But started to feel very useless. So I started to blog about recipes in my food blog. Basically, shared what I cooked daily. When I saw the response from other food bloggers (mainly who were at home doing the same thing as me), I knew I had found my thing!

Oh! there is a whole world out there like me reaching out for poeple. This is when I found Blogging interesting and my cup of tea. Now I have grown pretty much in blogging world. Learnt a lot of things from others and also sometimes shared my learnings. All went fine. But...

One day I realized that I am was completely obsessed by blogging. I started to eat,walk,talk blogging. Started to avoid my regular duties which I am supposed to do as a homemaker. And the worst part is I got very disappointed if I do not get a comment in my blog. Those were days. Now I am pretty much under control. But few things bother me a lot.

As a food blogger, I know how difficult it is to run a blog. Take pictures, cook, post and blog about them with your personal touch. But, there are food blogs out there which just give the recipe without taking pictures OR giving it a personal touch. Makes it more like a website, but a blog? It makes me feel that they are just copying the recipe from someother site/book and sharing it with the rest of the world. Few bloggers copy other's hard work and post it like it is theirs(pathetic).

There are no rules as far as food blogging is concerned, excepting the copyright rules. I know that. But why am I offended by these activities?Am I emotionally attached to my blog? Should I change or Am I right? Can anyone help me figure out?

Note: I was writing few posts in Tamil in this blog and figured it would be more suitable if I have separate blog for Tamil posts so I have changed my blogging style. Anyone who would like to follow my Tamil posts, please follow my Tamil blog.

Halloween Boo Bookmark - Crafts for Kids

2008-10-06T09:12:00.006-05:00

When it comes to Halloween, it is all about scaring people! You can either scare with your costumes or with your recipes. But there is a cute way to get involved in this celebration. It is decorating your house or doing Halloween crafts. There are a many sites/blogs dedicated to this.

I have been browsing around and being a crochet lover, I decided to do more crocheting than any other craft. To start with I did this simple 'Boo' Bookmark. The inspiration for this crochet is from this pattern and this pattern for letters.

But to make it simpler for kids, I combined one other pattern and finally came out with this crochet Boo bookmark pattern.

Materials :

100% cotton thread, size 10 Black and white
Steel crochet F hook
Yarn needle

Pattern:

For the Base of the bookmark, Use 'Black' color yarn

Row 1) Ch 24; dc in 4th ch from hook (first 3 chs skipped count as first dc), dc in next 20 ch: 22 dc.

Row 2 and 3) Ch 3, turn work; * dc in next dc; rep from * across: 22 dc.

Fasten off.

For the Letters, use white yarn,

Letter "B"

Bar
Rnd 1: With orange, ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook, join with sl st in first sc. (6 sc made)
Rnds 2-12: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join. Stuff.
Rnd 13: Ch 1, (sc next 2 sts tog) around, join. Fasten off.

Hump (make 2)
Rnd 1: With orange, ch 2, 5 sc in second ch from hook, join with sl st in first sc. (5 sc made)
Rnds 2-20: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join. At end of last rnd, fasten off.
Sew Humps to Bar (see photo).
Sew to Ghost No. 1 as shown in photo.

Letter "O" (make 2)
Rnd 1: With orange, ch 2, 5 sc in second ch from hook, join with sl st in first sc. (5 sc made)
Rnds 2-28: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join. At end of last rnd, fasten off.

Now sew the letters to the base of the book mark and ta-da, your Crochet 'Boo' bookmark is ready.

Make sure that the letters are sewed using yarn needle and they are in a straight line.

Happy Halloween!

The world's most dangerous battery

2008-09-20T09:47:00.004-05:00

No words to explain. Just be careful with these kind of batteries.

Yes, I am Proud. Are you?

2008-09-19T11:28:00.002-05:00

UNESCO announces INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM as the BEST National Anthem in the World! After reading a news like this, name an Indian who will not be proud. Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana Written by Rabindranath Tagore is in Sanskritised Bengali. The music for the "current version" of our anthem is said to be from a composition for the song by Ram Singh Thakur, although some disagree with this. Here is the lyrics of Indian National Anthem.

Jana gaṇa mana adhināyaka jaya hē
Bhārata bhāgya Vidhātā
Pañjāba Sindhu Gujarāṭa Marāṭhā
Drāviḍa Utkala Baṅga
Vindhya Himācala ẏamunā Gaṅgā
Ucchala jaladhi taraṅga
Tava śubha nāmē jāgē
Tava śubha āśiṣa māgē
Gāhē tava jaya gāthā
Jana gaṇa maṅgala dāyaka jaya hē
Bhārata bhāgya vidhātā
Jaya hē jaya hē jaya hē
Jaya jaya jaya jaya hē

Here is more from the Indian government on Indian National Anthem.

What more can you ask for. Every time you listen to this national anthem, I bet you start singing. It has such an influence in every Indian's life.

Once again our National Anthem has made us proud. Jai Hind!

Photo: Asthaparmar

Prodigies, Indeed!

2008-09-18T16:38:00.006-05:00

This may be of great interest to Indian music lovers. Recently, Zee TV conducted the Lil Champs competition where kids under certain age participate to display their talent to the world. Every year, there are new talents brought to our and this year I was lured by two of the kid's talent. One is Aamir Hafeez, a kid from Bhopal and the other is the winner of the Lil Champs'08 Anamika Chaudhary.Wow! they are really blessed! What a talent. Prodigies, without a doubt. I would like to share a song by each one of them from youtube. Spare a minute, you will surely be amazed.

Aamir Hafeez performing Teri Deewani:

Anamika Chaudhary performing Maiya Maiya:

Do let me know what do you think of their talents.

10 easy and simple steps to set a table, the right way.

2008-09-17T15:55:00.005-05:00

If you ask me is there a right way to set a table?, I would say No. So how to set a table? It all depends on you and your guests. It is relative, a few may agree with it and a few may argue. But, universally there is a preferred rather accepted way to set a table. It is better to know how to rather than make a fool of yourself before your guests. So here I go, with the so called right way to set a table.

1. Place a table cloth on your dining table.
2. Place the dinner plate about half an inch from the edge of the table.
3. To its immediate right, place the knife (blade facing inward)

4. Next to the knife comes the spoon.
5. Soup spoons can be placed right next to the spoon or can be placed above the plate, horizontally along with the dessert spoon.
6. The drinking glass and wine glass to be placed to your right,just above the knife.
7. The forks must be to your left. Fist, the salad fork and then the dinner fork near to the plate.
8. The napkin can be placed below the forks or can be made as a napkin rink or bow, to get your guests appreciation.
9. Bread plate goes above the forks.
10 Salad plates go immediately to the left of the forks.

Your basic table is set. Additionally, you may need to

1. Set out butter and butter knife on a small plate.

2. Make sure that the salt and pepper are at reachable place. Using the trendy hand grinders for freshly ground peppers add a rich look to your dining table.

Further decoration is your choice.

You can place a centerpiece like a flower vase to give your dining table a classy look. When using real flowers, be sure that they are fresh and smell good. You may have guests who are allergic to certain smells and flowers. Do consider!

You can also place candles and make the dinner special. Scented candles are appreciated. A candle light dinner is always a hit. A simple mild music during your candle light dinner is the best way to flatter your date.

Also have access to excess of tissues.

Enjoy your dinner!

Top 10 Social Networking Sites for a Foodie/ Food Blog

2008-09-16T16:24:00.010-05:00

Don't we all love Myspace, facebook and Orkut? Atleast I do. The social networking sites helps me to find new friends not only friends, it helps me to meet foodies. Foodies are people who love to cook, eat, visit restaurants etc i.e those who love to do anything related to food. Most of the foodies share their experience with others through theirs blogs. This helps us gain knowledge on various other cuisines. But, it is really hard to locate a foodie in a large group of social network which lead to social networks for a niche.

Social Networking is the best way to communicate with people of your niche and if you want to drive your blog's traffic. Blogs have become very famous now a days. 1 in every 5 blog is a food blog. Wow! it really is huge. How to get to know these foodies? How to introduce them to your blog? The answer is through social network.

Networking is the best way to increase traffic to your website. Making new friends not only increases your traffic but also you get a "real friend". I know people who have had great friends through social network with whom they even share their personal problems. hmm... now you are getting the impact of social networks. Good. Why wait. Let me introduce you to the top 10 social networking sites for foodies/Food Blog.(Not in any order)

Image from smartmobs.com

Group Recipes
Open Source Food
Foodbuzz
Epicurious
Eats
Chowbound
Food Candy
Bakespace
Tastespace
Menuism

I do not want to stop this post with only 10. So here are some of my favorites.

Must Love Food
Great Cooks Community
Leftover Queen Forum
Food Network
ifood

Some of the other food communities,

Nefood - The Northeast Food and Farm Network (NEFOOD) is a project of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG). It’s a place where people and groups from the Northeast can connect and work together to build a vibrant regional food system.

Friendseat
Starchef
Dancing Spoon
Must Love Food
Garlicoon
Serious Eats

For Indian foodies,

Sulekha Food

For Wine Lovers,

Must love Wine

For mothers,

Foodie Mama

For Italian foodies,

Vinix

My suggestion would be to join in your favorite social networking community. It may be 2 or 3 or more as per your wish and be active in those. There is no point in joining in all and forgetting them, as you forget the chores your wife gives you. You got to be active. Be it for traffic or for friends.

Hope this was very useful. If you like this post I appreciate a Digg. You can Digg here.

Is it all? Have I covered them all? If you know any other social network/community for foodie do share it with us.

Fitsugar Health Guide - A Complete guide for health problems/issues

2008-09-16T12:51:00.005-05:00

When it comes to health, it is always appreciated if we can find solutions to all our health problems at one place. Be it Asthma or Diabetics or even pregnancy related issues, there are many blogs/websites pouring information in their niche. FitSugar is one such website. I recently came across this site and they have all that is expected from a health resource.

They have this health guide which answers to almost all the queries we have regarding health. We can search over 3000 health topics there and I am sure we can leave their website with the required answers. Do check out and let me know if it was useful.

Ike skews gas - Price may hit $5 per gallon soon

2008-09-15T09:52:00.004-05:00

When I saw the title 'Ike Skews Gas' in Yahoo news, I thought OK. Now its official. For the past few months, people in the US have been struggling with the gas price. The Gas price in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Hawaii and Alaska is almost $4 per gallon already and now we have this hurricane playing a vital role not only creating major destruction on its way, but also increasing the gas price?

Investigations revealed that the Ike hurricane has left refineries and pipelines destroyed in the gulf of Mexico leading to a major increase in the gas price.

"A station in Knoxville, Tenn., was asking $5.19 for a gallon of regular gas. In Nashville, about 180 miles away, gas was going for $3.50."

says Yahoo news.

Not only the Gas price, due to the aftermath of Ike, people rush to Walmart and Office Depot to get generators, batteries, Ice etc. The very living is affected very badly. Hope Texas recovers soon.

The damage caused by Ike is less than what was expected, says resources. Thank god!

"It's too early to say if it's close to Katrina- and Rita-type damage," Herbst said. By the way, How do they come up with these names? Very creative even when in trouble!

Read more on Ike and Gas Price in Yahoo News

Check out what CNN says about this gas spike.

Indian Map in the Sky

2008-09-15T09:43:00.005-05:00

I was really impressed after seeing this picture. Great talents ought to be recognised. I got this picture as a mail attachment from my friend with the same title. Before seeing the picture, I thought it is yet another Indian flag or may be people holding Indian Map, but never imagined it would be such an amazing picture. Check out the picture and tell me honestly, don't you get chills? Hats off to the great talent!

5 Blasts in 45 Minutes - Delhi horrified!

2008-09-13T11:29:00.003-05:00

Another addition to the serial bomb blasts that are taking place recently in India. Following the bomb blasts in Jaipur,Ahmadabad and Bangalore, here comes Delhi as a victim to this disastrous event. 5 bombs in 45 minutes, with a time gap of less than 10 minutes. 90 people are injured and 20 dead! The number may increase.

Initial investigations tell that this follows the same pattern as that of the other recent serial bombs. These bombs are targeted for psychological damage rather than mere life loss. They have also found that the bombs are of made of similar material as that of the other recent ones.

Government has not yet come to a conclusion about the source for this bomb blast and investigations have begun. They have found that this operation is called 'BAD' - Bangalore, Ahmadabad and now Delhi.

The first explosion was reported at Karol Bagh (Gaffar Market). Second blast was reported in Central Park of Connaught Place near The famous Pallika Bazaar Market followed by a third blast in GK’s M-Block market and two blasts at Barakhamba Road.

3 diffused (Thank god! we have to thank the bomb squad for doing such great work!) which includes one near India Gate and one near Children's Park.

Having said this, there is a untold threat in people living at Chennai, Bombay and Calcutta. They may be targeted next.

When will this come to an end?

Watch the video response for this horrifying event

Mario and the Princes -The famous video game!

2008-09-12T15:42:00.005-05:00

If you are a video game lover, you must be aware of the very famous 'Mario' Game. The game is all about mario fighting with enimes to rescue the princes.It has many level of difficulties. I personaly own this game and have tried crossing many levels but never ever found the princes!!! But, this video delivers a funny version of what would happened if Mario, after finding the princes, try to make out with her!

Top 20 Songs of this week

2008-09-12T12:36:00.000-05:00

The Top 20 Songs of the Week of September 8th

20. One Step At A Time - Jordin Sparks
19. Shake It - Metro Station
18. Got Money - Lil' Wayne & T-Pain
17. The Business - Yung Berg & Casha
16. Whatever You Like - T.I.
15. Bust It Baby - Plies & Ne-Yo
14. Body On Me - Nelly, Akon & Ashanti
13. Paper Planes - MIA
12. Can't Believe it - T-Pain & Lil' Wayne
11. Cry For You - September
10. Get Like Me - David Banner & Chris Brown
9. Lolli Lolli - Three 6 Mafia
8. Disturbia - Rihanna
7. I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry
6. I Luv Your Girl - The Dream
5. Leavin' - Jesse McCartney
4. Take A Bow - Rihanna
3. Closer - Ne-Yo
2. Forever - Chris Brown
1. Dangerous - Kardinal Offishial & Akon

Source: B96.com

Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld trying to "connect"

2008-09-12T12:31:00.002-05:00

A really cool video!and a great commercial. The real world is different from the PC world!

Blogging Tips to increase traffic

2008-09-10T12:56:00.005-05:00

I have been thinking. We put a lot of effort in maintaining our blog. What if we do not get the deserved appreciation? What if, all our efforts are going waste? Every blogger is blogging with a hope that more people read his/her blog. What if there are only few readers? Of course you will have your friends and relatives to read your blog. But is the reach enough? I was browsing through the Internet for some traffic tips to increase my blog traffic and came across this article written by Australian Entrepreneur Yaro. Great Article and tips. Thought it will be very useful for each one of us, as we all deserve to get more from our blogs.

I personally recommend his Free Blog Profits Blueprint Report. Do have a look at it. We lose nothing , Yes! It is free! Click here to download the Blog Profits Blueprint

Here is a free video training information shared by Yaro with us.

Free Video training

Here is the article for you to read and get benefited.

In every bloggers life comes a special day - the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else''s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader - you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that''s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called "traction", which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major "pillar" articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good "how-to" lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don''t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that''s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger''s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry - it''s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important - it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it''s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it''s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it''s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have - your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your "Resource Box". You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it''s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.blogmastermind.com

Lipstick on a Pig - Whats with this Lipstick anyways?

2008-09-10T12:48:00.004-05:00

Don't know if Obama thought this would happen, but him uttering this 'Lipstick on a pig' phrase as taken his campaign to the next level!

Google Chrome - Is it any different?

2008-09-09T12:02:00.007-05:00

Do you know what is the happening news in Technology this week? It is Google Chrome.C'mon it is GOOGLE's Product! Anything from Google is a news. Google decided to launch a new web browser to compete with Firefox and Microsoft IE. Wow! It is big! Yes. If it isn't for google, Chrome wouldn't have had 1% browser share in the first day! When I heard this news, as every curious individual would do, I downloaded Chrome to check if suits me. Read reviews to support my ideas. But most of them were highly technical which lead me to test myself and come out with something a lay man would understand and help him decide if chrome is the best for him.

Why Google started Chrome? - The obvious question.

May be they were bored creating only applications and wanted to risk it all! But when you ask Google this question, they say

"Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web"

Of course Google deserves a huge applause for trying out browsers. Check out the video in which Google teams speaks about Chrome.

Is Google Chrome really the most wanted browser or is it just a hype?

For this you must know the technical background than just the look and feel of this browser.

The Pros:

- It is most appreciated that chrome uses Javascript engine to power the next generation of web applications

- It uses Isolated Tab Process. What is this anyway? Most of us would have faced this problem. When opening a lot of tabs in a browser increases the memory usage and also if one tab crashes the entire browser crashes and we need to restart to continue working. However, Google's thoughtful process saves us from this highly irritating crashes. According to Chrome, if one tab crashes, only that tab crashes. You still can work with the others. This feature alone makes me love google more!

- Easy Installation Process: I downloaded chrome and there is no complications at all. This is one browser which can be downloaded at ease and you do not require any technical knowledge to download.

-Less CPU usage : I checked with my task manager and I am really impressed with the CPU usage that chrome requires. Unlike other browsers which increases the CPU usage when more Tabs are opened, Chrome uses less space which should be given credit for.

-Fast : Compared to other browsers it is fast. But the tech gurus says that it needs to be even more faster. But for me, I am OK with the speed chrome is giving now.

- The combined search box and the URL box is really catchy. You can type your searches and the URL bar comes up with related sites and makes the browsing easy.

- When you open a new tab, chrome comes up with your recent viewed websites, in a size bigger than thumbnail to make it easy for you to visit your regular sites. Though it is a good feature, sometimes it does intimidate you. But, who can say a 'No' to visit your favourite sites just with 1 click.

-Chrome uses a platform to run the browser which minimises the need of OS. This is really a good start. We are not far away from OS free system!

The Cons - These are my personal problems with chrome and most of them are functional. But if you want to know more technically about Chrome, just check out the tech guru's review about Google Chrome.

- Unlike other browsers, when you close the browser, it doesn't ask if it can close all the tabs. Sometimes I lose my work because of this.

-Bookmark facilities: May be because I am so used to IE and FireFox bookmarking facilities, I am not happy with Chrome's. More importance is given to Google Bookmark (So Obvious!) but what happens to the previously bookmarked sites with other applications?

-Find feature: The CTRL+F is not very efficient as in other browsers. Sometimes it misses to find!

-Security: More personal information is stored in chrome which might be a security problem.

There are more problems that were found and workaround are already provided. Just check out Google's help page.

A Must Do Activity:

I would suggest you to read this comic book released by Google explaining Chrome and its features.

Why should you download Chrome?

You need not. It is completely optional. But, if you really want to know what Google has come up with, I would say give it a try after all, it is free!

It is really difficult for Google to make people download chrome and use them. Most of the people are already comfortable using IE and FireFox and it would take a great deal for them to change to something new. Google needs to put forth more easy and luring features to make people believe that Chrome is the best!

Will Google achieve this?
Will Chrome survive the Browser world?

I do not know!

About

2008-09-08T19:54:00.007-05:00

Thanks for stopping by. I am Sangeeth Raghunathan. I am an Indian living in the US. I started blogging in 2006 but I somehow could not continue. After an year, I started a food blog Art of cooking Indian food which lured me into blogging and now I am a full time blogger. I love sharing my views to my readers.

My food blog restricted me from writing anything non-food related. However, I wanted to share a lot of things with my reader and to make this happen I started this new blog Scribbling Scribe.

I am an B.E graduate and was born in Chennai,India. As it has become a trend to join the IT field after completing the engineering course, I did not want to be a trend breaker and so joined WIPRO Technologies and served for 4 yrs. After getting married to the most wonderful person in the whole world, Mr.Kumar, I thought why waste time going to office, when you can do wonders from home? Yes! I quit my job and now a full time homemaker trying out new things. I love cooking and crocheting. They have become a part of my life.

Hoping to share a lot through this blog and if you do not want to miss even a single post, do subscribe to my blog. You won't regret.

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Mainly I have categorized my blog topics as,

Blogging Tips - Both Technical and Functional

Money Making - The different ways to make money online. Mainly work from home.

Blogroll - Here I list all my favourite links. If you want yours to be listed here, do link back to me and send a mail with the link details.

To Advertise here,

You can contact me via email. My id is scribblingsangeeth@gmail.com

I am planning to write a FAQ column soon to address more queries. Wait for it!