Dear Colleagues! Today is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #144. Pharma Veterans shares your wealth of knowledge and wisdom with others for the benefit of entire Pharma Community. It aims to recognize and celebrate the Pharma Industry Professionals. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please share your stories, ideas and thoughts. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.
Continued from last……
I decided that I would write about Pharma Industry. I had been in this industry for over forty years. I had been privy to evolution of the industry. I understood its challenges and opportunities. Unlike most people, I had the opportunity to work in diverse segments and that gave me deep insight.
The next step was to choose the most appropriate site to publish my blog. I had previous experience of WordPress®, but I reviewed top publishing sites again and found that WP was still the best choice. I thought of several names for the new site and finalized Pharma Veterans. I checked on Fatcow which I use for buying domains. It was available. Next, I checked WordPress®, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and the name was available everywhere. So, I picked up Pharma Veterans. I purchased a domain (http://pharmaveterans.com), and booked a paid site at WordPress® for Pharma Veterans Blog. I also booked a site at Google Blogger (https://blogger.com) .
Because I was going to do blogging on a regular basis, I needed to understand the needs and nuances of blogging. I share my findings with you.
- Writing a blog post is both easy and difficult. It is easy because it is a short post; recommendation is to keep a blog post between 600-800 words. Writing post of this length should not be difficult. It is difficult because you have to keep your message precise and focused.
- Regular blogging must follow a schedule. I decided that I would write and publish blog three times a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is rigorous. Come what may, the blog has to be published.
- Blog must bring information which is of value to its readers. If it is only my thinking, for my consumption, then it may not be of much usefulness for the readers. Bloggers do run the risk of losing themselves in their ego because they have the right to write and a space to publish. Bloggers beware.
- Blog must remain progressive and evolving. Past is a reference, but the direction must be future. While past may be interesting, it is not valuable if it does not give a direction for future. I thought that I would trace my journey through pharmaceutical profession, but it would be to draw inferences for the future.
- Blog Posts must remain universal in approach. It should not become writer-centric. One person’s experiences even if highly diverse are still one person’s experience. If it does not translate into wider application, it loses its wider appeal.
Some things were specific to Pharma Veterans Blog.
- Pharma Veterans Blog was/is intended to be a shared space. It was designed in a way that it would be possible for any Pharma Veteran to share her/his thoughts there.
- Who would be a Pharma Veteran? Anyone who had reasonable length of experience would be a Pharma Veteran.
- What would be the future direction of Pharma Veterans Blog? I considered several areas in which it could/would evolve in future.
These were initial thoughts about blogging.
I started writing Blog Posts but did not publish immediately, for two reasons. One, I wanted to get into the rhythm of regular writing before committing to it; and two, I wanted to build a small inventory of posts so that I would not miss any publishing date even if I could not write a post for any reason.
After this preparation, I started publishing Pharma Veterans Blogs.
To be continued…..
