Comments on: Duniya Goal Hai: Sports and the Indian blogosphere

By: Pratyush

Pratyush — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:52:42 +0000

Arzan, you miss the point.

On the traffic talk:

I am not debating that current affairs is the more popular topic and is thus going to have more popular blogs.

My point – even less popular mediums can have exceptional number of hits if they are powered by good content.

After all, the internet is so huge that there are enough people to drive up the traffic of even apparent less populist topic sites.

By: arZan

arZan — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:17:01 +0000

Pratyush

How many other blogs come close to deadspin.

how many of the top 100 blogs deal with sports ?

Instapundit is one amongst at least two dozen blogs that write on current affairs, etc.

So just comparing the stats of one sportsblog and applying it to the whole genre is not a correct portrayl.

By: Sakshi

Sakshi — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:53:53 +0000

Way to go boy Pratyush !!

By: Pratyush

Pratyush — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:06:01 +0000

Thank you Suyog, Sakshi.

Arzan, how can you explain a deadspin getting the hits it gets then? Not that far behind instapundit. The main aspect driving people coming back to a web page is if they like what they see.

So even if the interest area is not that wide for a more general topic with lower interest base compared to other fields, if that small audience like what they see, the audience for a small interest blog can also be large.

Confused, audiences are good but you don’t write keeping trying to draw an audience. You write because you want to put across a point. It should not be the other way round as that would mean shallowness as far as I am concerned.

Vishal, infrastructure for sports in India is improving and even though slow, there is definitely progres..

By: Sakshi

Sakshi — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:42:44 +0000

Confused – The rationale behind DP is simple, it’s there to let us know what good stuff is out there in the desi-blogosphere. News/Views from all the sections/fields/community of the Indian society.

I never said Readership is not valid or needed…in my experience if you enjoy what you write…others will surely see it thru. Its simple as when they ‘Learn to love yourself first and then others would love you’.

There are (some)bloggers who write controvercial stuff just to get more hits…but do they actually believe in what they write, I doubt!

Anyways, its to each its own.

But I am sure our man Pratyush here writes about sports…because he believes in his thoughts.

By: Vishal Chopra

Vishal Chopra — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:50:16 +0000

well…there are lots of sports we play as kids..but they never become a priority…we don’t have an infrastructure where we have big interuniversity level teams…or say Delhi playing Mumbai in a soccer game..we do have clubs which are not so popular among the people..there may be few Mohan Bagan or Dempos here and there but not serious..I think if the universities start promoting sports with more sports scholarships it would be a whole different story…I think we really need a boost from the government in this front too. We used to be the best hockey team in the world, but what happened.. we loose to Australia 4-1..Cricket..only cricket..well thats the one which is so much hyped..see whats happening against West Indies…even Trinidad and Tobago are playing in the FIFA cup..can’t a country of more than a billion people produce a decent soccer team??? Wel the question always remains there….hope for the best though…

By: confused

confused — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:05:47 +0000

Sakshi,
I beg to differ. While one does write for one’s own pleasure, I feel it would unsustainable on a long term basis without readership. Ok,maybe not the kinds of hits Amit Varma gets but at least a decent number of people reading you every day. The very fact that you have chosen to put your thoughts on a public domain means that you want people to read you.

Correct me if I am wrong, but that is the rationale behind setting up DP too.

By: Sakshi

Sakshi — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:03:13 +0000

Arzan – So you asking Pratyush to move on Sex instead of Sports ?

Pratyush this is a really good write-up. I guess as long as you enjoy writing…then blogging is all worthwhile. Good readership…is just an extra bonus but never a necessity.

By: arZan

arZan — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:52:59 +0000

I dont think blogs on sports would get the kind of readership that other blogs get.

Not everybody digs sports. And even if they do, then it might be one particular sport or to zoom in more, one particular team of one particular sport.

That makes it a very small subset.

On the other hand, topics like current affairs, politics, movies or sex have a lot more practitioners, users, viewers and therefore more participation in the blogosphere.

By: Suyog

Suyog — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 12:44:23 +0000

“How many Indian blogs get even half the number of hits a sport blog in the US gets?” — How many ppl in India compared to US do you find blogging in the first place or being on Internet? That explains your dilemma I guess

Secondly, as you said rightly I think the problem itself is that most desis dont get over Cricket (note to other desi bloggers: I dont mean you of course ), and cricket being such a long game (literally – a whole day!), there is little time left for anything else either I guess hehe

Unless the media starts promoting other sports, I dont forsee how we will come out of that mindset though.

Great writeup here Pratyush!

Suyog