Hindustan Times
The top Indian blog of the moment?
My colleague Yashwant Raj has written about the mystery blogger who writes an often spicy but always an insider’s account of the goings on at one of the Indian Premier League teams. Lacing his posts with behind-the-scenes gossip and generous helpings of dressing room politicking, the blogger whose identity is still unknown, has become the talk of IPL Season 2. Many of his posts get comments running into thousands, something any blogger would give an arm and a leg for. Those who comment on a blog are actually a minuscule proportion of those who actually view it, so the fake IPL player must be getting visitors in numbers that would turn most bloggers green with envy. I even know of people who don’t follow cricket at all who check his blog daily! That’s the kind of stickiness bloggers would die for.
There’s a huge potential for making money out of a blog of this kind too.
Or as my colleagues in marketing will doubtless like to call it, in “monetising” the blog. In fact, I am a bit surprised the blogger hasn’t signed on to Google AdSense. He’d have likely made more than just beer money. I mean just consider that Huffington Post, which calls itself an internet newspaper that tracks and aggregates news from multiple sources and is adjudged to be one of the world’s most popular blogs (at least by Technorati), rarely has a post that garners more than 100 comments. With the fake IPL blogger, we’re talking about 10 to 15 times that.
On Technorati’s top 100 blogs, on most days, the top 10 spots are dominated by tech blogs (if you leave out HuffPo and a couple of others) like TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, etc. One non-tech blog that seems to consistently get high ratings on Technorati is called Stuff White People Like, which is a kind of a self-deprecating blog that is clearly aimed at, yes, white people—it’s full of trivia and quite silly posts if you ask me where white people ostensibly make fun of white people. The point is the blog is regularly highly ranked on Technorati and gets huge hits and each post gets comments running into several hundreds. Another blog that gets a huge rating on Technorati, and not surprisingly so, is TMZ, the celebrity gossip blog, which is laden with paparazzi videos and photographs besides risqué accounts of what Hollywood celebs have been up to.
I haven’t been able to find a comprehensive list of top Indian blogs yet—most of the lists I have seen have some bias or the other—but I do think Fake IPL Player is probably ruling the Indian blogosphere at least since the IPL began.
(3 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Sanjoy Narayan on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Filed under Blogosphere · Tagged bloggers, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL Player, Technorati
(4.67 out of 5)
I seriously grudge the Fake IPL Player blog. The guy has done in two days what I could not do in two years. And my blog is no fiddle-faddle, at least for me. It has got mentions in The Times (London) and the International Cricket Council.
Still as my tracker tells me, the following I have is not even a fraction of what the Fake IPL player has managed in such a short time. I derive some consolation from the fact that every meteoric rise is actually followed by an equally metoeric slump and I’m looking forward to see how many people follow the Fake IPL PLayer post IPL II.
At the same time, I have to doff my hat at the Fake and say, great job mate!
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Sanjoy Narayan Reply:
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Yes, he’s got an amazing response. But yes, I am sure the interest will wane after the IPL is over. By the way, your blog is great. I liked http://gonewiththewindies.blogspot.com/2009/04/in-pursuit-of-imposter.html
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Hi Sanjoy,
Check this out:
http://stricter-gun-control.blogspot.com/
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Sanjoy Narayan Reply:
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Thanks, it’s a nice read http://stricter-gun-control.blogspot.com/
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The Fake IPL Player blog is thoroughly enjoyable. But what I find not a little disconcerting is the kind of comments it is attracting. Truly, some of the comments full of vulgar language (the ones left after scores others are deleted by the moderator) point not only to to the warped mind whose production they are, but the Nazi mentality of intolerance. I mean, come on, how much harm can a mere blog do. Yet, its detractors insist on getting on and inserting comments which are sometimes too stinky to read - just check the latest one. It’s a pointer to the kind of mentality that hero-worship can sometimes foster. If it’s the supporters of one of the protagonists (turned-antagonists) who are indulging in this type of regrettable behavious, then God save the country and the actors themselves from such fans!
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I like this list http://www.indianeye.org/top-indian-blogs/
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Sanjoy Narayan Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Thanks, Adesh. Yes, it’s a nice range but I wish there was one that ranked Indian blogs according to views or hits.
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ram Reply:
May 25th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
mate, the indianeye list does not include greatbong.net, krishashok.wordpress.com etc…two of the most popular and best indian blogs..
not good enough..
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Sanjoy, it’s embarrassingly flattering to know that you’ve visited my blog and even liked a post! It’s a double whammy and I would require a fortnight to recover completely
Thanks and happy blogging.
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Sanjoy:
I stumbled on this interesting entry because of the interesting query in the title. With Indians in the blogsphere already in the global ecosystem, it will bet harder to keep a desi perspective alone.
Indian blogger or not, the fake IPL blogger perspective is certainly worth watching.
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Sanjoy Narayan Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Thanks, Mohan, for your comment. And thanks too for linking me in your interesting blog: http://www.globalizationandme.com/
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Hey friends,
Few days back, in this forum, i got to know about a new site by the name: INDIANEWSUPDATES(.)COM
It’s quite good site. You guys too should have a look at it.
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hi sonjoy
i have read the fake ipl player blog though not regularly but i find it very hialrious..the best part of the blog is that the blogger has a uncanny ability to give very suitably funny nicknames for the players based on their attributes….Bhookha Naan, Kaan Moolo, Sheikh of Tweak are notable ones…if u read thru the comments u find whom r they referred to. Many guesses are being made as yo which team he is fromand who is but no one has been able to fix him, fortunately.
Well, u can check my blog , http://shyamsdesai.blogspot.com and let me know your feedback please.
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I like one blog which is pretty underviewed but has best analysis on politics around on Indian related issues - http://www.drishtikone.com
manish
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Interesting blog, i fully enjoyed to read it.
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jamesforest21
sapience
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Amazing, i say - in my case ,4 months of hard for with hardly any sleep got me Google PR of 3/10 and an Alexa rating of 1,90,000 which by no means an achievement for a person ,who wrote first article in this blog only but look at this fake guy who even today is commanding a Alexa rating of less than 9000.
Hats off to him !!!!
Warm regards
Abhijit Kar
http://www.abhijitkar.com
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It is an interesting article
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