You might’ve noticed that my post-frequency has gone down for the past month. It’s nothing like I quit blogging (probability zero), but, it’s just that there’s something else that caused it.

I have the habit of relating web to the so-called real world and while thinking of the complimentary action on web, for what we do in real world by helping out others by donating them money or a job, I discovered the Bloggers’ way of helping out (monetary).

Think of a situation where a blogger needs some urgent money for something very important for him or is struck with a natural disaster, and is not getting the required money from his own blog, other bloggers could help him out. How ? Plain simple - just allow the one who needs, to run his/her AdSense code on your blog. So, every blogger, who is ranked inside an Alexa rank of 75K earns decent sum every month and each of them could act as a savior for many !!

So, won’t it be cool if Nirmal T.V. Of Life Rocks 2.0, Saad Hamid of Sizlopedia, Keith Dsouza of Techie-Buzz and the like, adopted this way ?!! Running the ad code for even a few hours could generate needed amount.

After all, blogs are lives, isn’t it ?

This thought came up when, one morning this week, I unsubscribed from some really nice ‘blog tips’ blogs. I subscribed to them when I started off blogging 6 months back without even knowing what actually it was. And now, without any offense, I silently unsubscribe from them and takes the liberty to state that:

“Blog-Tips niche is nearing it’s end”

That’s not an opinion that formed because of the saturation in the particular niche. Saturation (to a certain limit) does not hinder progress, rather boosts it. Here, I’ll list what lead me to this conclusion:

1. A blog in its basics, is NOT a big deal (in terms of guidance/assistance). Anyone could easily do that.
2. I’m not denying the fact that ‘having some tips and assistance helps’. But, this doesn’t need to to be considered as a whole another niche.
3. You read some FAQs and forums regarding your blogging platform, start off with it, gain some blogger friends, make contact with them, get assistance or guidance, increase the network as required and go on.. (That’s the easiest and the straight-forward way of doing it.)
4. The idea of ‘blog-tips’ blogs sounds to me like : “A system with vehicle-owners who comes to refuel their cars, as the audience, and giving out ‘ideas and tips’ like ‘how-to-open-the-refueling vent, where-to-insert-the-nozzle, how-to-pay-for-the-fuel-you-just-bought etc.
5. The big guys in this niche are indeed extremely knowledgeable and are real GURUs in their field. I respect them for being the pioneers in the field that they indulge. It’s not who-does-that that matters, but, why-do-that.
6. I strongly feel that, the existence of so many blog-tips niche blogs and blogging-guidance-blogs have gave the entire concept of blogging a fake profile that really hinders the progress of blogging.

I thank Sumesh Premraj, who with a reply to my tweet, affirmed this thought. I’ve kept this post short and to the point as I want to be sure that you’ve read atleast the 6 points. Now, let’s start interacting right here.

I’ve encouraged all to visit the labs once in a while and very recently, Google launched SMS Channels at their India Lab. This one seems seriously useful and amazing. Though there are established sites like SMSGupShup, which provide similar service, i.e. Alert your friends and patrons in real time on information that they care about through SMS, because of the very fact that this has got a Google label on it, it has got its place on the web and in minds. I’m not going for a review of Google SMS Channels which enables you to create your own FREE SMS Channels. But, I’m going to demonstrate how we’ve tapped the power of it.

Let me introduce to you all, INTweeter : The SMS Channel of Indian Tweeters

• If you are an Indian and if you tweet (and if you own a mobile phone!!), doubt nothing and subscribe to the INTweeter SMS Channel powered by Google SMS Channels BETA. It aims to keep us informed of Tweetups, Barcamps, Events or anything that’s worth sharing. Fear NO SPAM or rubbish messages.
• Since this channel is of the members, the subscribers can post to the channel and the message will be pushed to all the subscribers, thus making it easy to pass on something important or announcements like a quick meetup/tweetup.
  
• As a precaution against spam, the channel is kept “private”, i.e. “invite-only”. You may send your phone number as an email to me/as a DirectMessage over Twitter/as a Comment here. I will send you the invite.
  
• You can be 100% sure of your privacy.

The Tweets that lead to the formation of INTweeter:

Calling all Indian Tweeters : Interested in creating a INTweeter SMS Channel for us ? Suggestions pls

@mixdev @AravindJose How it will work?

@AravindJose @mixdev To be informed of Tweetups, Barcamps, Events or anything that’s worth sharing. Strictly, NO SPAM.

..and encouraging replies from @SathyaBhat @scorpion032, @abhishek, @krishanu_de @iChaitanya @karthiksn

It’s normal that you might’ve got something to ask or get clarified. Write ‘em in the comments. Honestly, I would like to know what you think of INTweeter (and the logo too !!).

Here’s a cheat sheet of the SMS Commands, taken from Google Labs.