Four years, on blog, one directory, multiple proxies, and a hundred designs, that is how long I have known Syed Balkhi. Over the years, if I have learned anything its that working online changes a person. You may not notice it, but the people around you certainly do. So for all of you bloggers out there, here are twenty signs that shows you that blogging can influence your day to day life, and change your personality. These might not be somethings that you have, but it is just a funny story that Syed and I were talking about, and I thought I will share it with you guys and reveal more of his personality.
1. Wardrobe with 25% Sponsored Clothing
25% Shirts, and other clothings that you own are from conferences or other blogs/companies online. Syed has alot, alot, and alot of shirts/caps that are sponsored from different companies and websites. So when he goes out somewhere it is very likely that one of these companies will be advertised. He is asked questions by people around town what is this company and it makes him sound so geeky lol.
2. You google yourself and your site multiple times a week.
Syed got an authority status for Balkhis at the end of January. He checks his name and sites that are ranking for his keywords atleast multiple times a week. I have asked him why, and he said that it helps me see how well I am doing with advertising my own site. Or which sites that I should advertise on.
3. Your family has to go to your blog to see photos of your vacation
Syed never updates facebook. Majority of his pictures are his friends tagging him. The only time his families can check his pictures are when they are on the blog. And that is not the only time, but it is the only way. (For proof of this see our Tennessee Vacation and more on Balkhis).
4. You regularly speak to and about people who you met online
Syed talks to insane amount of people online, and I can’t keep track of everyone. A good number of these people he has never seen before, but he talks to them online. And he tells me often what happened in someone’s life later on the day, and I have absolutely no clue what he is talking about, so I have to ask him who was so and so.
5. You ask for social media for breakfast
One day Syed asked me to wake him up, and I went over to his apartment in the morning. After waking him up, I asked him what is he going to have for breakfast, and the answer I got was “Social Meda”. Syed is a deep sleeper, so it takes him a while to be fully awake. I still tease him about this one and this was a long time back.
6. Your Girlfriend is Now Blogging on Your Blog
Seven Posts and counting. Yup that is me. I have learned so much about blogging from Syed that now I consider myself as a blogger. I have blogged at Balkhis multiple times.
7. Your nightime routine includes checking your email thrice, twitter, and other stats.
You cannot get an exact time to sleep for him. He might say he is going to sleep at 11 pm, but he ends up going to sleep later like 12 p.m or after that. The reason is that he checks his emails, reply to them, tweet to his friend, check other stats on his blog. And from these, other tasks come up which he tries to get done. Which results him being tired the next day, and I have to deal with that.
8. You check your comments more often than your voicemail
Another true fact about Syed. He checks his comments more than once a day otherwise his spam folder gets huge. Answer I get is that he wants to make sure none of his reader’s comment went to Spam which now is a problem. But he does not check his voicemail this often even though the phone shows you on the top that you have a Voicemail.
9. You make your own theme song
Syed asked his roommate to make a theme song for Balkhis. And another Rap song that he made will be on soon also. The sad part is that I have to listen to these songs in our long drive.
10. You know the URLs of at least fifteen other blogs off the top of your head
I am being modest when I say this about Syed. He knows too many sites off top of his head. I personally keep a bookmark selection, Syed just visits them without using the bookmark tab.
11. You would sacrifice food for an internet connection
Syed never have his meals on time. Which often gets unhealthy. I have told him multiple times about this. He even wrote a post about it once when I insisted him to do so because this was suppose to change his habits 7 Unhealthy habits that affect your Productivity.
12. You email your girlfriend “Hey, woudn’t this be a good post?”
I have gotten too many emails asking me for titles / ideas. Sometimes I think why does he ask me when he has more experience in this industry. [Edit by Syed: That is because I like to hear other people's opinion]
13. Your relatives are scared you will put them on your website
Family times yay fun. Embarassing times around friends yay fun. When it is with bloggers, you are afraid when they will blog about it. I mean he blogged about his cousin’s face full with cake. Specially now since Dina from Market Leverage sent him these multiple shirts in different colors saying: I am blogging this, it has become his favorite collection. He wears these to events and people than are scared to be on his site.
14. You use abbreviations in real life
Syed uses f9, btw, brb more often then I can count. I think that is all from his little chats and tweets that he does online. But it has seriously affected teh talk time. If you know Syed well, you would understand these terms.
15. You buy a new computer as a backup
I told him that he didn’t need this new computer, but he got it anyways calling it a backup. Like four external hard drives are never enough for your primary computer. This is when you make BS excuses and hide behind your online life.
16. You still bid on auctions even when your overseas
He recently went to Pakistan due to his Grandfather’s death. But he kept bidding on this Power Mac G5. Knowing that he won’t be able to pick it up as he is out of the conuntry. He won the auction in Dubai and asked me to pick it up for him.
17. Your uncle, girlfriend’s family member, and other family and friends subscibes to your rss feed
I know two person I can think of right off the top of my head that has subscribed to Balkhis. His uncle and my mom. They both have sent him emails in the past commenting on his blog posts. Alot of our friends are subscribed to Balkhis as well just to check out what crazy scheme he is working on.
18. You have a stock of 5-hour energy drinks for late night sessions online
Have I not seen this one before. He has a stock of these unhealthy drinks that he use if he has to work on some big projects online or to pull late night sessions.
19. You were on Twitter before Tweeting was cool
Twitter is becoming cool and a very hot phenomena recently as Oprah and other stars are entering. And alot of its exposure on CNN and other media networks. Well it really makes me feel weird that he was on it before it was popular like any other services. Now that all of us friends are joining twitter, he has been there, so we ask him questions. Before when he talked about twitter, we used to call him crazy. By the way I am on twitter as well. I joined during Izeafest but I am not very active. But you can check out his Twitter Profile.
20. When You have Crazy Dreams about the Web
One time he was sharing his dream with me that how he was telepathically connected to his website. His brain was functioning as internet. He could move through his site using his brain FTP so much faster. Uploading was done alot faster. Also he could use wordpress with touch screen moving everything with his hand. And he didn’t have to type because his thoughts were being typed by wordpress.
Well this is a life of Syed Balkhi. I did share alot of insight moments in here so you can know more about him. I wrote this post because I won an argument with him and the bet was I would get to share this on the web. And so I did now. Anyways you would not believe that being on the web as a webmaster, blogger, SEO, or any other profession really influences your day to day life and your personality. Often you would deny it, but ask the people around you because they see it more than you do.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
