How about a community based info blog for kerala?

[jal]

Hey all...

Been thinking for quite a while now. The idea is somewhat like
metroblogs. When I used to live in Chennai, the two metroblogs on
chennai used to be damn useful...

Why dont we, collectively as a community start something like that?
But this should be about whole kerala. A random, but authentic and on
the ground information site.. on places to visit, restaurants,
happening locales, events, culture, etc. I believe it should be the
ultimate repository for two classes of people a). Locals like us who
might need some direction and b). for tourists to effectively figure
out what to do and where to go to in kerala.

tell me what u think of the idea. some real feedback expected.

Thanks....

[.Kenney Jacob]

Are you suggesting something like this ?

http://www.themanipaljournal.com/

Kenney

--
http://www.kenneyjacob.com

Kenney Jacob

[Jaleel Jalaludeen]

Nahiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!..... its something like chennai.metblogs.com/ ...

cheers

--
Jaleel Jalaludeen
Mob: +91-9744551186
jal...@gmail.com

[.Kenney Jacob]

Thats something possible. But we will have to do some amount of marketing to get it done. !!!!
Mobilizing students can be a good approach.

Kenney

[Mani Karthik]

Tell me, how can I help?

--
Mani Karthik
www.dailyseoblog.com
Chennai, India (Time Zone - GMT +5.30)
Mob: +91 9789803171
Skype: mani-karthik

[.Kenney Jacob]

First we need a clear objective....

Kenney

[Jaleel Jalaludeen]

well.. objectives.. lets start with $$$$... ;-)

[Anand Subramanian]

$$ are more of a inspiration to do this than an objective :P

Target Audience and Authors are the only objectives required I guess.

I am game for this. I wanted to do something for Kerala as such through blogging, views and thoughts of citizens. And updates from cities, event photos and stuff.

Are we planning a single blog with multiple authors or a community blog under a flagship domain? I prefer the single blog idea better as I am sorta lazy :) .

Anand
TheAnand.com

--
Cheers,
Anand Subramanian,
www.TheAnand.com

[Jaleel Jalaludeen]

hey.. tks for the detailed reply...

it has to be a single blog with multiple authors.. initially, no money involved.. we need to hit at least 50 authors and get at least a thousands hits per day after which we should consider ads or whatever means of monetizing,....

we initially need a good community of passionate people creating solid city focussed content..

[Anand Subramanian]

A community blog with about 5-7 active authors with 2-3 articles each a week seems realistic. And as the site goes mainstream, we can always invite some dignitaries from the society to blog about their views.

[.Kenney Jacob]

The idea is good. We can find some media school to partner with us so they there will always be some student to update content. The manipal journal is fully maintained by the media students in Manipal, and they are doing a good job with it.

Kenney

[jal]

how does xplorekerala.in sound?

On Apr 26, 8:42 pm, ".Kenney Jacob" <kenney.ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The idea is good. We can find some media school to partner with us so they
> there will always be some student to update content. The manipal journal is
> fully maintained by the media students in Manipal, and they are doing a good
> job with it.
>
> Kenney
>

> On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 9:01 PM, Anand Subramanian <as.subraman...@gmail.com>

> wrote:
>
>
>
> > A community blog with about 5-7 active authors with 2-3 articles each a
> > week seems realistic. And as the site goes mainstream, we can always invite
> > some dignitaries from the society to blog about their views.
>

> > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 8:56 PM, Jaleel Jalaludeen <jalm...@gmail.com>

> > wrote:
>
> > > hey.. tks for the detailed reply...
>
> > > it has to be a single blog with multiple authors.. initially, no money
> > > involved.. we need to hit at least 50 authors and get at least a thousands
> > > hits per day after which we should consider ads or whatever means of
> > > monetizing,....
>
> > > we initially need a good community of passionate people creating solid
> > > city focussed content..
>
> > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Anand Subramanian <
> > > as.subraman...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > $$ are more of a inspiration to do this than an objective :P
>
> > > > Target Audience and Authors are the only objectives required I guess.
>
> > > > I am game for this. I wanted to do something for Kerala as such
> > > > through blogging, views and thoughts of citizens. And updates from cities,
> > > > event photos and stuff.
>
> > > > Are we planning a single blog with multiple authors or a community
> > > > blog under a flagship domain? I prefer the single blog idea better as I am
> > > > sorta lazy :) .
>
> > > > Anand
> > > > TheAnand.com
>

> > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 6:25 PM, .Kenney Jacob <kenney.ja...@gmail.com>

> > > > wrote:
>
> > > > > First we need a clear objective....
>
> > > > > Kenney
>

> > > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 6:17 PM, Mani Karthik <manikut...@gmail.com>

> > > > > wrote:
>
> > > > > > Tell me, how can I help?
>
> > > > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 6:06 PM, .Kenney Jacob <
> > > > > > kenney.ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > Thats something possible. But we will have to do some amount of
> > > > > > > marketing to get it done. !!!!
> > > > > > > Mobilizing students can be a good approach.
>
> > > > > > > Kenney
>
> > > > > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 6:02 PM, Jaleel Jalaludeen <

> > > > > > > jalm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > Nahiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!..... its something like *chennai*.

> > > > > > > > metblogs.com/ ...
>
> > > > > > > > cheers
>
> > > > > > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 4:34 PM, .Kenney Jacob <
> > > > > > > > kenney.ja...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > > > > Are you suggesting something like this ?
>
> > > > > > > > >http://www.themanipaljournal.com/
>
> > > > > > > > > Kenney
>

> > > > > > > > > On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 3:46 PM, jal <jalm...@gmail.com>

> > > > > > > > jalm...@gmail.com

>
> > > > > > > --
> > > > > > >http://www.kenneyjacob.com
>
> > > > > > > Kenney Jacob
>
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Mani Karthik
> > > > > >www.dailyseoblog.com
> > > > > > Chennai, India (Time Zone - GMT +5.30)
> > > > > > Mob: +91 9789803171
> > > > > > Skype: mani-karthik
>
> > > > > --
> > > > >http://www.kenneyjacob.com
>
> > > > > Kenney Jacob
>
> > > > --
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Anand Subramanian,
> > > >www.TheAnand.com
>
> > > --
> > > Jaleel Jalaludeen
> > > Mob: +91-9744551186

> > > jalm...@gmail.com

>
> > --
> > Cheers,
> > Anand Subramanian,
> >www.TheAnand.com
>

> --http://www.kenneyjacob.com
>
> Kenney Jacob

[Nirmal T V]

Hi All,

I can also contribute in with some articles. :)
We need to plan on hosting expenses as well as getting the domain name.
Also we need to plan about what all are we going to cover with this blog?

Regards
Nirmal

--
Thanks & Regards
Nirmal T V
www.nirmaltv.com

--
Thanks & Regards
Nirmal T V
www.nirmaltv.com

[.Kenney Jacob]

Yes, we need a detailed plan, as to what all topics we will cover.
Hosting and domain expenses wont be a problem. We all have servers, can host on anyone of them.

Lets decide on the topics and a few writers also.

Kenney

[Anand Subramanian]

Here are a few topics which I think a Kerala Blog will require. Do we need "Politics" since I have added "humor" already? :D

  
    Business    
    CitizenSpeak
    Engagements
    Entertainment
    Features    
    Health    
    Humor
    News    
    Religion
    Shopping
    Travel
    Photos
    Videos

[.Kenney Jacob]

Thats cool. We can get some ideas from citizenmatters.in
Its a well maintainted portal.

Kenney

[Derick Cyril Thomas]

Is this going to be a community blog or portal? From the topics mentioned above, I get a feeling that this is going to be a portal. Also, we should not discuss money in this context. Money makes problems ;-) Let this be a community initiative by a group of bloggers who want to bring some changes in the way Kerala is perceived outside. I  agree that there are some expenses  related to hosting and all, but we will get good sponsors and coverage once we make an impression.

--
Regards,
Derick

[.Kenney Jacob]

Ya for this to be a success what we need is a team of dedicated
bloggers who will write something of good quality every week

[Jaleel Jalaludeen]

oh oh.. oops...

mates, didnt anyone check the metroblogs?

at least have u read ma first post which went " ....random, but authentic and on

the ground information site.. on places to visit, restaurants,
happening locales, events, culture, etc. I believe it should be the
ultimate repository for two classes of people a). Locals like us who
might need some direction and b). for tourists to effectively figure

out what to do and where to go to in kerala...."

anyways, but since u guys got to talking abt it.. this idea is also good.. we can get a lot of pple for this, because it is almost like a portal...

and, yeah, money can be made later to cover expenses.. for now it is wiser for us to shell out...

jal...@gmail.com

[Anand Subramanian]

jal, thats how ideas flow...they have a life of their own once initiated. :)

I am confused with Derick too. It is a blog as in it runs wordpress, but its a portal with all the information it will contain. Guess the line is blurred. Can we get some volunteers from Malayalam Blogging Community?

Hows KeralaDarbar.com for a name?

So, will the writer volunteers raise their hands?

1. Anand :)

I would love to chime in some 3 articles a week and help with the moderation.

[.Kenney Jacob]

2. Kenney

[Mani Karthik]

What sort of articles are we looking at? Places description or photos/ travelogues kind of ?

Domain name - I'd suggest you go for an exact match, not a desi version which may be good for branding. But if you are looking for traffic, one thats a KW match like "kerala travel" will help more. Got to check what options we have although.

Well my two cents.

If you are looking for search engine traffic

- a KW match domain name.
- a travelogue. (good deal of traffic )
- wordpress (it can be turned to a portal/cms/blog no big deal i guess)

If you are looking for a brand

- A nice name like keraladarbar (well get a few clicks for "bars in kerala" :) )
- Wp or anything else, nothing matters