I was sitting in my white Honda car and looking at the cheerful ducks swimming in the beautiful Hamilton Lake in New Zealand. It was a peaceful evening. Suddenly someone tapped at the window. It was Pratap, an Indian settled down in New Zealand. I let him inside my car.
After a few minutes of general chat, Pratap said to me, "I am in depression. I came to New Zealand to earn money and become rich. But, I am not able to get any good job. I am a postgraduate in Economics and am working as a part-time truck driver and earn less than $500 a month. Without $1500 a month it is difficult to have a tolerable standard of living. My friends say encouraging words whenever I need them. But that won't do any good because I have to pay bills. Can you help me?"
I replied, "I am a strong believer in self-employment. You have a lot of free time. If you are willing to take up internet related projects, I can give you some ideas." "That's what I want from you. I know how to browse websites and use email system. I am not sure whether there will be any suitable projects for my humble skills," Pratap was not confident.
"Internet is subtle and is many times bigger than physical world. It offers opportunities for all levels of skills and talents," I assured him and asked, "Do you think there would be other migrants who have problems similar to the ones you have?" "There are millions of migrants all over the world. I am sure at least 15% of them have difficulties," said Pratap. "Well, very well, then we have a hot project," I told Pratap, "If you start a blog for migrants, you can make money."
Pratap was silent for a few moments and said, "That is not possible. These people don't have enough money for survival. Do you think they will pay to access my blog? And I don't know what a blog is." "You pay a few cents to buy a copy of the newspaper, though the actual cost will be more than $10. The major portion of the production cost is borne by the advertisers. So, you get it at a low price. I will tell you how to make money without taking money from your customers," I told him.
"But I don't have any money to invest in the project," Pratap was worried about money. "I will tell you how to make money out of nothing. You will learn to create money without investing any money. But there is a catch. You must work hard." "That makes sense. I am ready to work for 48 hours a day!" Pratap was all smiles and asked me, "What is blog?"
"I got some definitions from a website on blog. A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is 'blogging' and someone who keeps a blog is a 'blogger.' Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently," I told Pratap. "Please tell me more," Pratap requested me.
"A blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent entry at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom. If you start a blog on non-vegetarian cooking, you will publish your thoughts, ideas, experiences, advice, stories, jokes and tips on cooking on your blog regularly using internet. Each thought is an entry. Your readers will post their comments on your thoughts on your blog site. You can start a blog on any topic. But your topic must be useful to others. Only then they will read your blogs." I told him.
"I have heard about bulletin boards and forums. How does blog differ from them?" Pratap asked me. "Any member can start a thread - topic - and others can join the discussion. However, in a blog, only the blogger can start a topic. Others can only comment on the blogger's topic."
"Is it easy to learn how to blog?" Pratap asked. "If you know how to browse internet, you can start your own blog. In fact, blogging is as easy as configuring your email accounts!" I replied. "So, you think I can start a blog about the problems of migrants. Other migrants will visit my blog and read my online journal. How will I make money?" Pratap asked me. "Sponsorships, network advertising, RSS advertising, saleable content, affiliate programs and professional blog writing are some of the ways you can make money from your blogs," I told him and I spent the next fifteen minutes explaining to him about the income generation methods.
"How will people find my blog?" Pratap asked me. "You will have to promote your blog offline and online just like a website. There are blog search engines and blog networks. If you visit websites on blogging, you will get tones of ideas to attract readers," I replied.
"How much will it cost to start a blog?" Pratap asked me. "There are many blog hosting services where you can get a free account. First you start with a free service and learn all the tricks of the trade. Then when you start earning money, you can move on to commercial blog hosting services. This means you can start your own blog without spending any money," I told Pratap.
"I will start my blog within a week," Pratap said with confidence and took leave. I received an email from him recently. " I was able to setup my own blog within a week. I worked hard, did a lot of research and created useful content. Though I did not get even one visitor in the first two months, I kept my blog always fresh. In the third month, my blog attracted a few visitors and every day the number of visitors increased. Now I am in the tenth month and I have thousands of regular visitors. Just now I received my first cheque from the advertisers for Rs.35,000 and I feel this amount will go up and up in future. My investment is my idle time and hard work. I have made this money without investing any money. Thanks."