The Indian blogosphere has been growing tremendously over the past few years and while it attracts advertisers and money, the question is, has the quality increased alongside?

The vast majority of our generation has had a fleeting encounter or passing fancy for blogging. Just as the lure of the internet was one nobody could avoid, a personal space on the Web, to rave, rant and simply air your thoughts, opinions and varied or specific interests was also something too fascinating to turn a blind eye to. According to the report 2013 India Digital Future in Focus by comScore, at 73.9 million home and work internet users, the Indian online population, currently ranks as the third-largest in the world after China and the US. Add to that the Indian blogging audience grew 48 percent in 2012, to 36 million visitors, while 26 percent of category traffic comes from mobile phones and tablets. From the time when bloggers were merely posting one odd update during free time to now consciously making updates to ensure they stay relevant and constant, the rules of the game have indeed changed.

Karthik Srinivasan, National Lead, Social@Ogilvy at Ogilvy & Mather and the man behind well-known blogs such as Milliblog and Beast of Traal began blogging back in 2000. Across his two blogs he receives about 550,000 page views a month. He defines blogging as having a point of view and being able to articulate it in a manner that appeals to the audience. But that said, Srinivasan feels the Indian blogosphere has undergone lots of changes in the past few years, “On a platform level, there’s tremendous improvement – it is easy to set it up and get started. Readership, though, continues to be a problem.”

Adds Shrawan Raja, Managing Editor, Indian Autos Blog, “There is constant pressure to stay relevant and so we do about 16-20 fresh posts a day. But the challenge in this medium is also to keep the reader hooked for the time he is on your page so we keep our posts short, crisp and ensure variety in our content to ensure that there is constant flow of traffic to our pages.” Raja entered the blogging world while still studying in college; his blog has great following (about 50 million page views a year) — both in India and abroad for news about the Indian auto industry.

COMMUNITY EFFORT

But the wheat separates from the chaff, and so blogging has also evolved and now become the fiefdom of a growing yet consciously closed community that survived on the dictum of everybody helping/ promoting each other to grow. Or as wellknown Indian mommy blogger The Mad Momma (http://themadmomma.wordpress.com) puts it, “I know most of the people who visit my blog and we are a community of our own. We regularly visit each other’s pages and like/ comment on posts. And that in turn intrigues our readers to check out those we are following.” She should know, having been blogging for over nine years.

What you have here isn't unhealthy rivalry or outright thrashing, but a well understood crossmarketing scenario where even as one blogger puts up a post, the rest of the blogosphere is helping her transmit to the entire ecosystem and some more. As Shrawan Raja of Indian Autos Blog explains it, “If Auto Blog likes our page, we are viewed as more credible and derive a search engine benefit too. But the biggest advantage is that our page value then goes up, readership widens and increases as we are seen as a serious player recommended by Auto Blog.”

BLOGGING IS MONEY

There’s money to be made in the blogosphere these days; according to State of the Indian Blogosphere, a joint report published by BusinessWorld and IndiBlogger.in in Marketing Whitebook 2014-15, almost 86 per cent of blogs today are monetized. Anoop Johnson, Director – Marketing at IndiBlogger explains, “There is tremendous interest amongst companies and brands about the Indian blogosphere as they feel consumer behaviour can be influenced by a credible and well-liked blogger.” A blogger himself, he and a group of friends sensing the potential business opportunity founded IndiBlogger by mobilizing, what was until then, almost random and segregated Indian blogosphere. A report by Nielsen titled Global Trust in Advertising Survey 2011, shows that less than a third of Netizens trust advertisements, while 92 per cent have faith in peer and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Says Sudha Ganpathi who has been blogging for over four years (http://thatandthisinmumbai. wordpress.com/), “It is not so much about blogs, but the blogger. There are bloggers I trust and they are always my first source of reference. It is also not so much about information dissemination vs. personal opinion pieces for me as it is about sponsored vs. non-sponsored posts.”

IndiBlogger's model stems from the fact that brands see value in connecting with bloggers who can influence purchase decisions of their peer groups. Their revenue comes from connecting brands and bloggers via unique blogging contests and meets, which are organised periodically across the country. With almost 50,000 Indian blogs registered with them on last count, the fact is there is a large percentage of bloggers who benefit from the cross marketing strategy as envisaged by IndiBlogger.

Sakshi Nanda (http://www.sakshinanda.com/) took to blogging in December 2013, but became a full time blogger only in May 2014 with close to 12,000- 15,000 monthly hits. According to her, “I did begin with the sole intention to air my thoughts, but feeding my blog quality content has helped me develop a source of income too – in the form of commissioned book reviews, paid writing assignments for popular magazines and news websites and exposure to bring in contracts for beta reading.”

While relatively new entrants such as Nanda are also doing well, the majority is making decent money. Blogging can even become a comfortable source of income with many of them choosing to go full-time. Today over and above Google, Amazon and their affiliate ads, there are companies from different industries such gadget makers, auto component manufacturers, beauty and lifestyle product companies and consumer majors and the entire gamut that is finding its way onto the blogging platform in an attempt to be seen and bought. Companies are willing to work with bloggers and see the sense in having a blog as part of their overall marketing strategy. IndiBlogger has big ticket clients such as Lakme, Castrol, M&M, Dove, Samsung, Surf Excel, Fiat, Vodafone and Cleartrip.

But the challenge for the independent blogger is to remain free of favour or fear and not do commissioned posts. As some bloggers put it, there is lot of demand from PR agencies and companies wanting bloggers with a dedicated audience and high traffic to work in tandem with them, and as some let on, there are offers of free family holidays, new iPads and sometimes even exorbitant money for one single post.

Adds The Mad Momma, “I blog about my children and that is not something that I will make money out of. I am against corporatizing my blog. I have done book reviews when I received free copies, but other than that I will not do pointed or ondemand posts recommending anything.” That said, however, there are people who see no harm in indulging in a small give-and-take deal when it doesn’t affect them too much personally. And as one blogger told me anonymously, “I like the freebies. Why shouldn’t I take them? Everybody has an opinion and so what if mine is a little coloured? It’s a free country.”

THE MORE THE MERRIER?

From platform advances to specialized blogs and company blogs, the Indian blog has come quite a distance. The same State of the Indian Blogosphere, a joint report published by BusinessWorld and IndiBlogger.in in Marketing Whitebook 2014-15, claims that in India blogging is the fastest growing medium across the web.

So has the whopping increase in the number and nature of blogs led to better content? Many claim that the growth of this medium is purely on the basis of quality of content. IndiBlogger’s Johnson foresees that going forward, blogs will become as powerful a tool of information dissemination as any other in the social media space, given this is the only form of matter devoid of any coercion.

Bloggers today are getting more specialised and compartmentalised in their offerings to ensure that interest remains high. Add to that, blog posts now include additional material such as photos, videos and even links to actual press releases and other company material to ensure that the reader doesn’t lose interest. “A blogger cannot just put his thoughts online and expect the whole world to be aware of his post – he needs to be a content marketer to help spread the word. Platforms such as Facebook help him pay for reach, but few bloggers do that,” explains Srinivasan of Milliblog and Beast of Traal. There is a growing voice that feels that blogs are losing a battle against social media platforms as online destinations to share their views. But there are others who feel that the unprecedented increase in numbers is merely taking the shine out of the trade.

INDIAN VS WESTERN BLOGS

Quite like most online inventions and adoptions, the West has led the charge on the blogging front. What differentiates the Western blog from its Indian counterpart is the sheer awareness and know-how that the average blogger and reader possesses about the blogosphere. Even when we talk about blogging increasingly becoming a tool for marketing amongst corporate, it was General Motors in the US that took to the blog first when trying to include customers in its culture of innovation rather than simply talk about a particular product/ launch.

The quality and credentials of bloggers from the West far surpass those who are taking to the medium here. For instance there is huge academic populace on the Western blogosphere; there are also far more serious opinions and research made available by writers in the market there. There are those that contend that the difference in the cultural settings and the sheer freedom offered to the average citizen to voice his dissent is much more in those markets – and it’s true. And that is possibly why we are yet to see any forthright political blogs coming out of our country.

It’s not to take away anything from Indian blogs’ popularity, however, which have an overwhelming audience both in the US and Europe for inherently India-centric topics and other areas of expertise. Topics such as travel, culture, food and technology find takers; a prospective tourist relies especially on a blogger’s review and suggestions when planning a holiday.

Despite the glaring discrepancies and differences, blogs have seen a great degree of maturing in the past few years, from the novice personal one-off posts of 10 years ago to serious conversation starters and even opinion makers/ givers in their current form. Credible and honest opinions never go out of fashion and as long as a blogger can navigate the impatient vagaries of today’s readers, blogging will overcome and survive another social media scare.