IPL, the Indian Premier League has been such a rage in India and around the world since its introduction in 2008. For those of you who don’t have a clue what IPL is, IPL is a twenty-over cricket tournament where top-class Indian and international players play alongside. Why IPL has become such a huge success? Is it the format, marketing, money or glamor, which is making it so popular? What blogging has to do with IPL? Why should I, as a blogger, care about IPL at all? Hold on, buddy! I will soon show you the connection between these two and how much we can learn from IPL and put it in practice while blogging.
1. Be Short and sweet
[credit] In IPL– Due to scientific advancements, everything in the modern world has become instantaneous. Speed is the mantra of the new world. Naturally, it boils down to game as well. Test cricket is already loosing its charm, but now with twenty-20 cricket, even one-day games are turning out to be painfully slow to watch. This fast format has brought out the intense and fierce competition between each team, resulting in quality entertainment for audience. In Blogging– Writing a long, boring post turns away potential readers. Nobody is interested in your philosophy of life or how much you hate your boss. Get straight to the point. Be precise, simple and humble. Focus on the topic in hand and avoid unnecessary discussion. At the same time, be tactful, be wise. Write an introduction which will engage reader attention and then build upon that to keep him going.
2. Be spectacular
[credit] In IPL IPL is all about performance and consistency. IPL is all about class and player’s ability to adapt to the situation. If you can’t perform consistently, you are not crowd favorite. No matter how good you are technically, if you can’t show what you got, Adios! Command performance every time is the key to success in IPL. In Blogging Blogging is an art. Not everyone is born talented at blogging, but one can master it over a period of time. Readers will glue to your blog if you give them fresh quality posts consistently. You got to learn to know what a reader expects and then deliver it regularly. Give something to reader which will touch his life in some way, something that will be useful, something that will help him in his daily tasks.
3. Time it
[credit] In IPL If Hitler hadn’t decided to attack Russia at the start of winter, the outcome of WWII might have been different (and scary too!). If Einstein would have born a decade earlier, future of mankind would have been different. In short, timing of any venture is important. IPL organizers played a wise move and scheduled IPL in vacation time, keeping young generation glued to their TV set. Besides, due to hot summer season, watching IPL in your room comfort is more enjoyable than going out. Had it been any other season, chances are that IPL would not have got so much response. In Blogging Though blogging is not time-bound activity, producing stale content is not going to take you to the top. For example, if you are writing a story about Google’s newly launched service after 2 months, you are losing much of the momentum. This is especially true about technology blogs, but more or less applicable to other niches also. Besides, you have to time your posts keeping in mind where your regular readers are located. If you are targeting for regional users or covering a story specific to a region, you should time it in such a way that maximum audience will be available for your post. Similarly, if you found some breaking news about new application, celebrity, event or just about anything, it’s better to post it early since people would be more eager to know about it while it is hot.
4. Market It
[credit] In IPL It is said that the one who advertise can sell pebbles whereas the one who doesn’t can even sell gold. IPL is one good example of this. At the time of launch of IPL 2008, huge marketing campaign was carried out in the forms of promos, press releases, online advertising, and contests and virtually every medium was used to market it. The hype and controversies this campaign created, attracted big sponsors, celebrities and huge audience base in general. Even after IPL being so successful, huge chunk of money is poured on marketing and promotion of IPL and related events every year to widen the audience. In Blogging It is said that if content is the king in blogging, blog marketing is the queen. No matter how great your blog is and how valuable its contents are, it’s worthless if there are no readers. Bringing in readers and keeping them glued to your blog is the key to blog success. You can definitely go for paid advertising, but fortunately most of the blog promotion tactics are free such as use of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter to invite friends to your blog, submitting blog to sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, leaving comments on related blogs and so on. As is the case with IPL, even after your blog has the reader base, you need to come up with the tactics like giving away free eBooks, holding contests, inviting reader comments along with the usual blog promotion to reach out to bigger audience.
5. Be Regular
[credit] In IPL Have you ever wondered why big tournaments like IPL, Wimbledon or FIFA world cup are so popular? Glamor? Big players? Competition? That’s part of it, but it is also because of frequency of games and advance scheduling. In IPL, each game was arranged in such a way that on every day viewers will have something to watch. Besides, due to advanced schedule, viewers know their favorite games in advance, ensuring audience for every game. Frequency of the games drew the attention of the viewers and made is such a popular event. In Blogging Nothing works in blogging like regular posting of fresh contents. Readers like it, Google like it and in fact, you too like it as it improves your writing skills. If a person stumbles upon your post and likes it, chances are that he is going to visit you again to check for more posts. If you are unable to provide timely posts, you are going to loose potential reader. Having a proper blogging schedule not only provides you with a loyal reader base but also help you at times when you are out of ideas or when you can’t find enough time to blog.
6. Be Different
[credit] In IPL I remember when 20-20 format of the game was introduced, the entire cricket world made a big issue out of it. Biggies in cricket started screaming that this format of the game is killing true cricket, Twenty-20 is not about class, it’s batsman’s game and so on. But the fact is that the format only added to the popularity of the cricket. IPL was all about being different. Short format of the game, auctioning of the players, scope for local talent, cheer leaders, big marketing strategies – everything was different and hence, successful. In Blogging Do you know why majority of the bollywood films are disaster on box-office? Do you know why most of the bloggers fail? Answer is one and the same – they don’t try to be different. Consider this, if you are a reader, would you like to read a post that describes the exact same content that has been said on Google’s official blog or Mashable or NY times? Blog in such a way that it stands out from the crowd. Give personal touch, tell stories, be controversial, and show readers how world looks from your lenses. Don’t be just part of those thousands of anonymous bloggers.
7. Diversify
[credit] In IPL What would have been fate of IPL if it was only restricted to Indian players? May be nothing more than just another cricket tournament. But adding top-class foreign players spiced up things by huge margin. By including players from different countries, it also added viewer base for the game. Mix of regional players with international players has generated mass appeal and worldwide fan following, adding to the success of IPL. In Blogging Blogging is all about focus on specific niche, so how a blogger diversify? There are few options. You can write an occasional off-niche post. You can tell a personal incident or funny story. If followed occasionally, this can even spike the interest among readers. Secondly, rather than writing, you can occasionally provide readers with video post or podcast. You can set up polls, contests to involve readers. Another important thing which you can do to diversify your blog is to invite guest posts. Since every person has his own style of writing, each blog post is going to add more dynamic persona to your blog. Only advice – be judicious. That does not end the similarity between IPL and blogging. What else have you learned from IPL? Please share in the comments below. This guest post was written by Harsh Athalye, a tech blogger who rambles about latest in the field of internet and technology on his blog – Let’s Geek.
