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The future of The Delhi Walla, and ‘The Delhi Walla’.

[Text by Anonymous; picture of The Delhi Walla by Rajesh Thakur]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a blogger investing incrementally larger amounts of time and resources on his blog must be in want.

It has been close to three years since Mayank Austen Soofi started the blog The Delhi Walla. I’m guessing he did it on a whim with no particular purpose, or aim, in mind. Since then, however, the site has grown to carry a reasonably large and frequently updated compendium of stories on and about Delhi (and its resident – Mr Soofi).

In the same time, I believe, the site has also accrued a reasonable sized readership, whose passion for Delhi surpasses Soofi’s, and whose exacting standards and criticisms prod him to work harder. Along with all of it has come a substantial commitment of his time and resources, and perhaps a realization that for him to continue to do this, he will need to make some choices, and those choices will be dictated by the shape and nature of this venture.

But his problem must be money. Since advices come for free, here are my two-penny suggestions for The Delhi Walla.

(Beware: some of the following has some tacky marketing jargon).

In the longer term : Soofi could (should) prepare this blogsite as a media asset and try to sell it to a media company. This would require that he treat The Delhi Walla more as a media asset, than as a personal blog which means expanding, redesigning, etc. He must keep in mind that this site will probably get another level of traffic around the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Perhaps he can make this blogsite the ‘one stop place’ for getting information on Delhi. That probably has too much of a commercial ring to it but it doesn’t need to bankrupt the site’s eclectic charm in any way or form.

In the short term: There are changes that Soofi can make on the lines of putting up more ads – in more prominent places. If it is done well, I am fairly sure that it wouldn’t detract from the readership experience.

Putting a donation box: Soofi can ask people to sponsor good blogging or he can make his amazon.com wishlist public so as to allow people to buy him books (one of his more significant expenditures if I go by his personal blog Ruined by Reading).

Using more platforms: There are other ways by which Soofi can allow people to share his blog. It is high time he should start using technologies/sites like twitter/buzz/facebook/etc.

Looking for a sponsor: Yes, why not? I think Soofi should seriously search for a sponsor, corporate or not, who could fund his site and still let him do what he wants. But I am unsure whether he will get any response. It is doubtful if there is any commercial f**k in charge of whatever who might be reading The Delhi Walla. But it is worth a shot.