Staying true to blogging

Some bloggers use their pages to sell products. Bags, clothes and shoes are just some of the items put up for sale.

So big are these shopping blogs that the sales have even "spilled over" to real life, attracting many young shoppers wherever they are held.

Others blog about their hobbies or interests. Mohd Nadzrin Abdul Wahab is one of them.

He has 22 blogs and they are about silat, a subject he has been passionate about for a long time.

"I started writing about silat long before blogs existed. I also love to write, a passion sparked by one of my teachers.

"When the Internet happened, there were suddenly silat forums everywhere but very little was said about Malaysian silat. I got active on certain silat forums to help correct some misconceptions and to explain about Malaysian silat. This got many people emailing me privately with questions.

"So, after experimenting with a short- lived e-zine and a dedicated website, I decided to start a blog in 2006."

Of the 22 blogs, he says only seven are fully developed and maintained.

"I'm developing them one at a time. I blog about senaman tua, a traditional Malay exercise, silat olahraga, the combat sports version of silat and others."

All of Nadzrin's blogs are hosted by Google's Blogger platform. He gets an average of 200 to 300 visitors a day.

"Not many, but I definitely have a focused and passionate group of visitors."

Nadzrin, who works full-time as a learning coach, tries to update his blogs at least once a week.

"But if there're interesting news, I sometimes blog every day. I never planned to make money off of my blog but it has contributed to my income.

"It has also brought me some recognition. I have managed to encourage foreigners to come to Malaysia to study silat. I was also invited to co-write an entry for the Encyclopedia of Malaysia titled "Seni Silat".

"Most importantly, I have made dozens of new friends online."

Sourced and edited from http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/27blog-3-2/Article/index_html