Dear Blogchatter peeps,

I am curious. How did your blogging journey begin? Okay let me go first. Mine started when a friend at college started to blog his thoughts. Inspired by him I opened ‘The Philospher’s Stone’ and in my excitement misspelled the word ‘Philosopher’s’ – leaving out the critical second ‘o’. But that’s for another day.

So back to the same question:

How did your blogging journey begin? And what did you hope for?

I hoped for page views. Lots of page views. And wait, overnight stardom ! 

None of that happened. And on a side note, my friend doesn’t blog anymore.

So now my only friend who was a blogger also decided to drop off the scene. And from the side I would watch these people (bloggers) who had such a great support network, with friends and family all pitching in to share their work, spread word on their blogs.

Jealous much? Yes.

But then something miraculous happened to me. I started writing for a prompt, a weekly prompt with a community. And after a few weeks I got a Facebook message from this woman. She said she would like to invite me to a closed group and would I be okay in accepting her invite.

I still remember, I was walking towards a CSR event in rural area with my then office team, when I received her message. I could barely wait for the network to come back and drop her a huge YESS! From that moment my true blogging journey began.

Blogging is not just writing or creating content, it is a collection of activities that all lead to building a community around your content.

A new set of friends. Those who are connected not by blood or college or even neighbourhood but by only a sense of passion for same line of work.

And I know when I started blogging, I had hoped for page views and overnight stardom but I got something much more. A new set of friends for life.

This personal journey of mine was crucial in how Blogchatter came into being and what it has evolved to now.

I want to reach out to all you Blogchatter members who have made our journey worthwhile. Thank you for being there every Wednesday for our prime time Twitter chats, tweeting with us and helping us all grow together.

Thank you for being our sound board when we needed one.

Thank you for being there. Always.

I would love to hear from all of you a personal story on friendship through blogging. How the love for this internet world brought you close to a fellow human or a group of humans.

Love,

Richa.