I was scanning through my RSS Feeds on Google Reader and was reading someone who was celebrating the completion of one year of blogging. While uploading the Christmas 2008 Wallpaper blog post, I glanced at the Archives list on the right sidebar on my blog and realized that this blog has been in existence since September 2005. Whoa! That is more than three years of blogging for aside.
In these three years I have written 196 blog posts on this blog [ including this post ]. Which makes it roughly 65 blog posts per year or about 5 blog posts in one month. I always considered myself as a voracious reader and a similar-adjective writer – but the statistics say something else. In the recent past, my blogging frequency has been exceptionally low due to various reasons.
Business has been slow – sometimes as a conscious choice and sometimes due to general economic conditions across the world. I have been spending more time with friends and family than with clients. For example, currently, I am working on only two projects – my average, otherwise, is about eight to ten projects at a time.
On the work front, I have become more focused on the types of projects I want to work on. When I started and picked up steam, I was taking on almost whatever came my way – web design, photography, print design, brand design, web banners, packaging design, etc. The last six months have led me to focus on design engagements that I truly enjoy – branding design, web design for small businesses, photography and Photoshop re-touching and editing as well as packaging. I am also focusing on clients – whether local or international – typically manufacturing units or businesses who have been around for a long time, who are realizing the value of an image/brand overhaul and want a ‘makeover’ as well as local Indian clients who need a photographer without having to spend a bomb on professional photography.
A narrower focus, thus, means a lesser number of engagements.
Since I have been online for more than three years, I also feel the need to consolidate my web presence. I have a number of domains that are currently not being utilized to their full potential. Changes are under way for my personal domain www.nainaredhu.com, which will be like a catch-all of me on the web and will point to all other domains and links; the aside website, which will focus on brand design and website design and packaging and print will be pushed down to lower priorities; the www.studioaside.com website will cater to my photography portfolio and I will eventually move away from my Flickr account where I currently have a paid PRO account till 2010; the www.emotionvoid.com website, which will take care of my paintings and hand-drawn artwork; www.protoface.com, which is a platform for aspiring models and TV actors to have an online presence without the expense of an individual full-fledged website.
I am also more involved on two platforms that I had not explored earlier : Twitter and Facebook. I am still figuring out the best way to use Twitter – balance – so that I don’t end up being a Twitter-addict, at the same time I want to ensure I generate relevant updates. LinkedIn still remains the online business network that RULES!
I am looking forward to 2009 as the year that defines a turning point in my professional as well as personal life. Like the surfer Steve Addington, from the movie Surfer, Dude who spends almost two months waiting for waves in the ocean so he can get back to his passion of surfing, I’ve waited long enough for the waves to appear. Unfortunately, like the ocean, even in life, waves can’t be created – they either appear or they don’t. The best I am doing is to be prepared to catch the best of them when they do appear.
Bash on regardless.
