Head on over at Sal’s to read my first ever guest post over at Everyday Thoughts From Life where I have the honor of being Sal’s first guest blogger.

If you’d like to know what a nut case I am these days, head on over and read Sometimes, You Just Gotta Breathe. The post is personal, unlike my posts here. Since Sal’s blog is personal and more about his life than his work, it seemed appropriate to write something along similar lines.

Sal has also given me one of the best introductions I could have asked for. And he’s linked to all three of my blogs! 

In short, the man is amazing. And not just because of the awesome introduction or for giving me my first guest post. He’s awesome for reasons that I’m saving for something special.

Till then, enjoy the post and do leave a comment on his blog! 

P.S: If you find any errors in the post, they’ll be all mine. Sal payed me the ultimate compliment by publishing my post as is.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, guest post, personal

You know how everyone says blogging requires passion? Well that’s not the only thing blogging requires. I’ll be expanding on this thought sometime later. For now, here are the links for your reading pleasure for this week.

The Writing Journey came back around the end of March writing about blogging. Bob tells us The Number One Rule of Blogging  and then went to takes on Copy Blogger. Nah – nothing that scandlous. Don’t Blog If You Suck At Writing disagrees with a guest post on copy blogger about how to be a successful blogger if you can’t write. Both sides raise valid points. Whichever side you agree with will largely depend on your experience of blogging

Daily Blogging Tips answered a question about blog commenting. Daniel responded with a detailed answer. Interesting read: When Do You Stop Commenting on Other Blogs?

Blogging without the blog went Smashing The Myths About Blogging for its two year anniversary. Barbara got it right on all counts. If there are other myths that you discoevered, do tell!

Blogopolis BluePrint is my new favourite blog. Apart from the usual content, Eric and Sean do videos – which is nothing new. But their videos are conversations. They’re two guys talking business and having a ball discussing their favourite topics. Doesn’t get better than that. In this video, they’re talking about The Highs and Lows of Blogging.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, commenting, link love, Writing

Dubai at Night. View from Dubai Marina.

Photo Credit : Faceymcface1

I was wondering the other day how many of you know that I’m based in United Arab Emirates. Then I got wondering if you guys know what a great place it is? Sure, it’s a middle of a desert and the temperature hits 50 degree celsius in peak summer but it’s also a beautiful and extremely picturesque country. 

It’s extremely ‘green’ for a country, is home to beautiful mosques and amazing architecture – especially the older buildings. Their corniche is beautiful and easily accessible. On any given day, you’ll see yatchs out and people jet skiing. The people are friendly and UAE is a nation of picnic lovers. The minute the weather turns slightly cool, you’ll see hoards of picnicers at the corniche. So much so that finding a parking space is going to be a problem!

Of course, it has some serious issues, but what country doesn’t? 

I’m not much of a photographer, (actually, I’m a pretty lousy one) but I never tire of taking pictures whenever I’m out.

Beginning today, I’ll be posting a picture every Friday that I either took myself (Yes I’ll put you through the torture of mediocre pictures) or came across online. I’ll be adding a little info whenever I can about it and generally give you a glimpse of my life in UAE. 

If you’d like to take a deeper look into my life in UAE, you can follow Cuppa Life where I blog about life as an expat.

Technorati Tags: Dubai, Dubai at night, Dubai Marina, UAE

Trials:

The past two months have seen me at two ends of the spectrum. February was the driest month work wise I’ve had so far. So much so, that I was pretty down in the dumps for a while. That’s pretty much all that happened in February.

In March, the only trial I faced was a lack of a proper workspace. Sometimes, in search for perfection, I come in my own way. So for now I’m still working off my dining table till I find the perfect desk.

The toughest part however was setting up this new place and scheduling a month’s worth of posts. I’ll be leaving for India on the 8th and won’t be back for three weeks. Combine it with the regular work I was getting, along with my idiosyncrasies related to The Base’s maintenance in my absense and I was a bundle of nerves!

Triumphs:

Even though February was bad work wise, somehow I was able to keep my chin up. Yes, I count that as a triumph. In March, the freelancing gods smiled on me. I got regular work thanks to a fellow freelancer. I also got my first post published for another blog and got a bunch of work inquiries.

Even though they didn’t work out, I knew people were noticing me as a freelancer and considering me enough to contact me. That’s a triumph in my book.

It’s been uphill ever since and I couldn’t be more thankful. 

The important thing to remember is that dry spells will come again. Next time however, I’ll be prepared.

Technorati Tags: freelance business, Freelancing, Freelancing report

Welcome to The Base! We finally have our own place!

Before we get to the important stuff, I’ll bore you with a few basics. I’m a freelance writer/blogger and have been writing since I was an anguished teenager pouring my misery in a diary.

But we’ll save the rest of my life story for later. Till then, enjoy the other, hopefully useful content and stay tuned!

Of course this place is nowhere near complete. The header and footer are dismal, I probably made a mistake in uploading the favicon (if you’re seeing a {p}, that’s not my favicon, it came with the theme) and I need to clean up the copy of the blog too. All this will take time and I was too eager to get this place live.

Feel free to leave encouraging comments!

Without further ado, here’s a round up for new and up coming changes.

Weekly Features:

Photo Friday:

In addition to Sunday Link Overdose, I’ll be introducing Photo Friday. You’ll find out what it is on 3rd April ‘09 when the first one will go live. I hope you like it! Feedback will be extremely appreciated.

Pages:

The other change is that of additional pages. You see the 125×125 banners on the right? Those are products and services I endorse because of my experience with them. The added benefit of being an endorsement is that they get a page all to themselves. My Endorsements will be like a sales page – only with a user’s view.

Then there’s the FAQs page. I read this awesome post on Freelance Switch about the benefits of having an FAQs page on your website. It’s one of those insanely useful things to have on your website that just offer a ton of information to anyone looking for it – particularly people who may hire you.

Changes in the works:

Here are a few things that will be introduced in the following months:

Website Reviews – Probably once a month. There are no bounds to the kind of websites I’ll review. If it’s interesting and useful, I’ll review it. I will be concentrating on blogs and websites that are new and have a relatively small readership. As or if the request for reviews grow, I may be doing them more frequently.

Freelancer Gold – Possibly a once a month feature, highlighting freelancer(s) who go out of their way to help other freelancers. They won’t always be mad successful or famous. The only criteria to be featured in is that they help. 

What you can do:

Here’s the ‘call to action’ that all successful bloggers keep saying must be in a blog post to make it work.

1. Submit your websites for review

It can be a personal blog or professional blog. If you want to improve or want to know how your visitors see and perceive your virtual real estate, send it in for a review! I will be preferring lesser known blogs that really need the review for technical and promotional purposes.

I will be pointing out areas they can improve in (design and content both) and suggest places they can learn how to fix them. If it’s out of my league, I’ll be recommending someone who could help them.

2. Nominate people for freelancer gold

Unfortunately, you can’t nominate yourself. Spread some freelancer goodwill and nominate others. Those who send in a nomination will get a mention and a link to their website when their nominated freelancer is featured at The Base.

Tell us why you think your nomination should be featured. How do they help individuals? State an example of them going out of their way to help. Anything that sets them apart.