Changes: Blog Upgrade

CHANGE: It is inevitable

Changes is actually my favorite hip-hop song by the late Tupac Amaru Shakur. However today I’m writing about a totally different type of change. A change that reflects how I write and how that writing will be conveyed to my readers. No, I didn’t just unveil a new form of handwriting or font type.

Two weeks ago I silently rolled out my biggest upgrade, call it a milestone in my blogging life. I even silently made a quick comment on the ranking of KOT (as Kenyans on Twitter are fondly referred to). I registered my domain and got a webhost. This is something I’ve been dreaming of doing since early 2010 and I am very happy I managed to pull this one.

My blogging journey has been long, very long. I remember writing my first blog post while still a form four student at Maseno School on 24^th August 2009 at a backstreet cyber café in Kisumu. Back then, it was merely for experimentation after I had read an article in the Sunday Nation of the growing influence of blogs worldwide. Back then, I didn’t know what WordPress was. All I knew was Blogger since the writer of the article had been shortsighted enough to overlook Automattic’s great blogging platform in preference for Google’s then dominant Blogger platform. Coincidentally that is the same day I created my first ever Twitter account, @realvicar (then it was @emmanuelchenze), the precursor to my now popular @echenze. In other words, I blogged before I tweeted, or better still, I blogged before I microblogged. Let it end there. Ever since, I’ve never looked back and I’ve grown from strength to strength thanks to the online exposure and interaction with various influential bloggers.

echenze Blogspot

My WordPress Blog

From the amateurish posts I wrote in 2009 to the personal experiences I blogged about occasionally in 2010, the year 2011 found me more mature and to put it casually, ripe for the moment. My time had come, I had come of age. Indeed I am today of age. Writing to me has been both a passion and a gift since I joined pre-school. I’ve left a mark in all the institutions of learning that I’ve attended and graduated from in terms of being the best writer. What do you do when you are out here and there are no essays or what have you to write? Write a novel? No, no yet there. There’s blogging. Where I can clearly articulate what is in my mind and make quick comments about the happenings of the day. That’s precisely what I’ve been doing. I like speaking my mind out. I like politics and all that happens in political circles. I’m a great admirer of gadgetry and all the geeky stuff in the computer world. All these are clearly captured in my writings, well call them blogposts. So much that in February last year (2011) I decided to launch a new blog where I could articulate my tech experiences, thoughts and comment on what is happening in the ever-changing tech scene. Well, this is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The blog is today very popular. In fact, widely popular even though I’ve made little or no effort to market it to my social media followers or even on other platforms. People doing quick Google searchers usually stumble on it and become loyal readers and refer it to others even though I rarely post on a regular basis. In fact many are the times I normally feel that I’ve consistently let my loyal blog followers down by rarely posting new stuff. It is this WordPress blog that inspired me to take the next bold step, this one of unveiling my new, no, not-so new, blog: http://www.emmanuelchenze.com

This new (or otherwise) blog is actually a major upgrade of my two existing blogs on the WordPress and Blogger platforms. It will therefore incorporate content topics covered previously in the two blogs. Apart from continuing with the popular tech stuff, it will also incorporate the rants, random thoughts and political commentaries from my Blogger blog.

What happens to my two other blogs? Well, they continue to exist for as long as this blog continues to exist. However I will only be posting links to new content hosted here to refer all my loyal readers, followers and everyone else here.

As I start a new chapter in my blogging, all I can say is that it will be challenging, very challenging but going by the influential role bloggers continue to play in our world today, I have no doubts whatsoever that I am doing the right thing at the right time. In the Arab world today, bloggers, both anonymous and well-known drive national conversation and have been at the center-stage of the Arab Spring protests that led to the ouster of dictators and the restoration of social freedoms and democratic rule. In our very own Kenyan Twitterverse, though hated and loved in equal measure, bloggers continue to be opinion shapers and many-a-time the voice of reason in the rowdy marketplace crowd (don’t throw stones at me) that is social media. I am not saying that that is what I aim for but I am simply stating my desire to shape both opinions, constructive national discussion and possibly development through what I blog about not only now or this year but even in many years to come.

Many thanks to participants of last year’s WordPress bloggers meet-up in Naivasha at the WordCamp Kenya who actually raised such crucial points to effective blogging as “identifying a niche and sticking to it” and “hosting your blog.” To my friends and followers on the various social media platforms I am active in, thank you very much.  It is by interacting with you folks on social media that I’ve got to interact with the best of the bloggers out there and I’ve learnt a lot from them. To all bloggers under the banner of BAKE (Bloggers Association of Kenya) led by Kachwanya thank you very much, I’ve learnt a lot from you guys and your blogs and blogging journey. Even though there is no gold standard as to how we should blog, there are always those people who you look up to in any field to offer guidance and direction. They may not be perfect but hey, they’ve been there. They’ve travelled a road that before the advent of Web 2.0 no one else had.  As I always say, I learn from the best and indeed though far from perfection, watch out I’m on my way.

Welcome to emmanuelchenze.com. Opinions, criticisms, comments and all feedback are highly welcome.