Friday, July 31, 2009

Reminder ----- Leave your post links here!

Hey guys, this post is to remind you all about the D-Day:)

First of all, we'll like to welcome a new Blog-a-Tonic
Yup, tomorrow we are having the first edition of Blog-a-Ton and I hope you all are ready with your posts, just resisting your index finger from clicking the Publish Post button for some more hours. Ok, ok, I know, I am just hyping it up. So, I will come straight to the point now.

Do check the rules in the previous post before publishing your posts on your blogs.

Once done, do not forget to leave the link to your Blog-a-Ton post along with your names (genuine or pseudo, as you wish) in the Comments section of this post.

Most importantly, return on Aug 2, to get to know about all others who participated and get the code to their names and links for updating your posts. (I might get late in compiling because of the problems I am having with my Internet connectivity these days. So keep looking for the new post on Aug 2.)

If there are any queries, ask them in the previous post; keep the comments section of this post for only posting your links.

Before signing off, a special thanks to Renie Ravin and Indiblogger team for lending their support and making the Blogathon thread sticky on Indiblogger forums:)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

And the Topic for Blog-a-Ton 1 is...

Date for Blog-a-Ton 1 : August 1, 2009

Before we declare the topic, we'll like to welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics

The topic for Blog-a-Ton 1 has been finalised as:
The Cream and Scum of Blogging

The topic was originally suggested as 'The Best and Worst(if any) of Blogging' by Shankar and has subsequently received maximum number of votes. However, the title has been reframed without disturbing the central theme.

Now you all have 6-7 days to write it, as it has to be posted on August 1, 2009; preferably between 0000 to 1800 hours (IST).

Till then, for the sake of consistency and popularising Blog-a-Ton; here are some rules:
  • The title of your post should be the topic itself; i.e. The Cream and Scum of Blogging.
  • The post should start with this text in blockquotes and with proper backlinks:
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 1, the first edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
  • The post should end with this text (Later on, it has to be replaced by the new updated code, I'll be posting on Aug 2, 2009):
The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
  • After posting it, do not forget to leave the link here. I'll be compiling all the links together and posting a HTML code with names of all the Blog-a-Tonics linking to their respective posts, by next morning on Aug 2, 2009. You'll have to copy this code to your post and update it.
To make your job easier, the HTML code for the beginning and ending lines can be copied from this Scribd Window and pasted to your post as it is. It contains all the desired formatting with the required links. Your post editor should be in Edit HTML mode and not in Compose mode while pasting it.


In case, the Scribd Window takes time to load, here is the HTML code. But you will have to replace the square brackets [ ] with the tag brackets < > within the code.
Beginning:
[div style="text-align: justify;"][blockquote]This post has been published by me as a part of the [span style="font-weight: bold;"]Blog-a-Ton 1[/span], the first edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following [a href="http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/"][span style="font-weight: bold;"]Blog-a-Ton[/span][/a].[/blockquote][/div]
End:
[blockquote][div style="text-align: justify;"]The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton can be checked [a href="http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/2009/07/reminder-for-blog-ton-1.html"]here[/a]. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following [a href="http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/"]
[span style="font-weight: bold;"]Blog-a-Ton[/span][/a].[/div][/blockquote]

To confirm your support and participation, just leave a comment;
I Blog-a-Tonic in the comments section of this post. But before that, start following the blog to become an official Blog-a-Tonic.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I Blog-a-Tonic!

First of all, I'll like to welcome my Blogging Buddies;
to Blog-a-Ton. It seems writing about Blog-a-Ton on my personal blog, finally paid:)

Any way, as I have already revealed on my Blog, I've created this cool widget to popularise and spread the Blog-a-Ton Community.

You may add it to your blog by following the instructions given in the following Scribd Window. For choosing the desired text, choose the Text Selection mode (denoted by an I) from the drop down menu (downward pointing arrowhead), second from the right on the toolbar of the Window.


In case, the Scribd Window takes time to load, here is the HTML code for the Blog-a-Ton widget. Just replace the square brackets [ ] with the tag brackets < > within the code.
[div align="center"][a target="_blank" href="http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/" title="Visit Blog-a-Ton"][img border="0" width="100%" alt="I Blog-a-Tonic" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_jKvsNJTH4Sk/SmHNn6cb4GI/AAAAAAAAA2s/814o8hlkjSA/cooltext428949633.jpg"/][/a][/div]

If the button is too large for your blog, then just reduce the number highlighted in red.

So friends, we'll be declaring the topic for Blog-a-Ton 1 on Saturday night, i.e. July 25, 2009. So go to the previous post, Let's finalise the topic to vote for the topic of your choice.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Let's finalise the Topic

Date for Blog-a-Ton 1 : August 1, 2009

In past two weeks, there are some fellow bloggers who joined in
Other than them only Shilpa Garg and Amit Desai, the two who showed interest on Indiblogger forums started following this blog while SM has extended support too.

We welcome you all to this community. Your blogs have been added to our Recommendations Blogroll. Help us in inviting more bloggers to this platform by writing about Blog-a-Ton 1 on your Blogs or adding the I Blog-a-Tonic Widget to your Blogs.

Now coming to the topic for Blog-a-Ton 1;
  • WE BLOG, THEREFORE WE ARE
  • The Best and Worst(if any) about blogging (The topic has been reframed as The Cream and Scum of Blogging)
  • Blogging Experiences
have received the maximum (just 2 each) votes.

All these topics pertain to Blogging and are pretty general in character. Help in pruning down the list to just one final topic by voting for any one out of these three.

No new suggestions will be entertained.

The final topic will be declared on July 25, 2009.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Time for Blog-a-Ton 1

Tentative Date for Blog-a-Ton 1 : August 1, 2009

Tentative Date for finalising the topic : July 25, 2009

Discussion for holding Blog-a-Ton 1 was initiated about 4 days back. Already 10 bloggers have hopped on and there have been numerous suggestions for the topic.

Bloggers who have shown interest:

  1. Vipul Grover
  2. Amit Desai
  3. Shankar
  4. Parv Kaushik
  5. Shilpa Garg
  6. SM
  7. Adesh Sidhu
  8. Sandeep
  9. Arjuna
  10. Amitabh Mukherjee
Topics suggested till now:
  1. WE BLOG, THEREFORE WE ARE (supported by 2)
  2. What steps would you take to make India a better place
  3. The Best and Worst(if any) about blogging
  4. Blogging Experiences
  5. Any social message (You may see the list SM has given in his reply)
  6. Topics related to blogging, social media or business.
  7. INCREASING KNOWLEDGE ON FINANCIAL FREEDOM (ideas about making money through our blog)

So most bloggers want a topic around Blogging.. Some have given very specific suggestions like making money through blogging.

However, lets have a GENERAL TOPIC on BLOGGING where everyone can give his/her inputs.

More suggestions are welcome in the comments section but if you feel any topic mentioned above is good, then VOTE for it rather than giving a new topic.

But first of all, start following to stay updated.

Vipul Grover

What is Blog-a-Ton?

Blog-a-Ton is a misnomer for the word Blogathon.

This is how The Urban Dictionary defines Blogathon:
A competition between two friends on myspace. The two, three, twelve or more friends each write a blog and compete to see who gets the most blog views, comments and kudos. The person with the most views, comments, kudos etc. wins the blogathon, thus having the best blog. People who participate in blogathons are usually sad, middle-aged men who live with their mothers and teenage girls trying to prove their popularity.
But this is not what we are going to do here as here everyone will be a winner.

As for the second part of the definition, you can judge for yourself if that is true or not. Atleast I am neither of them.

The idea of holding a Blogathon, simply put a marathon of bloggers, came to my mind when I didn't even know that such a word exists. So, I invited bloggers through IndiBlogger Forum to participate in the first edition of a Blogathon, a few days back.

The idea was simple as I posted on the forum:
We'll choose a day and a topic to blog on. On that day we all will write a post on our blog on the given topic
After the write-up, we will include the links to the write-ups of fellow blogathon participants.
This will not only help us in making new friends in blogging world but also give us a lot of backlinks.
It was Arjuna, an interested participant who came up with the idea of renaming the event for the want of uniqueness and starting a blog for the same. I believe these were great suggestions and so was born Blog-a-Ton.

This is going to be an efficient way of reaching out to the prospective bloggers and develop an online community at the same time.

And as the new name suggests, our Mission is to conduct a Blog-a-Ton where 100 bloggers will take part together.

Following Blog-a-Ton 1, this is the general pattern that will be followed in all the forthcoming Blog-a-Tons.
  • Initiating a new Blog-a-Ton by inviting suggestions for the topics : Third Saturday of a Month
  • Declaring the topic for Blog-a-Ton: A week before Blog-a-Ton; Last Saturday
  • Reminder: A day before Blog-a-Ton
  • Blog-a-Ton: First Saturday of every month.
  • Opening the Voting: Next day
  • Declaration of Blog-a-Tonic of the Month: Following Thursday/Friday (The time given for voting will be decided, keeping in mind the number of participants)
So are you a game?
Just start following this blog through the Google Friends Connect (aka Followers) widget on the side bar to become an official Blog-a-Tonic. Also join us on Facebook.

Once, you do this you will automatically receive the updates and notifications on your Blogger dashboard or Facebook News Feed. Beyond that, we won't be intimating you about this event. Please do not leave your email ids as we do not believe in spamming.