Amongst these bloggers, many people treat their blogs as a personal journal; others try to cater to a wider audience in an effort to generate some money on the side while others want to share their experiences with the internet.
English is by far the most dominant language in which these blogs choose to communicate, which is understandable since it’s the one of the most widely understood languages and easiest to manage.
However many people amongst us would prefer if that content were available in Urdu. The validity of that statement can be verified by the fact that for every person who reads an English newspaper, seven people read Urdu newspapers.
So to cater to that audience, many blogs have come into existence which provide all their content in Urdu. Such blogs are needed because firstly, Urdu is our national language and we need to promote it. Secondly, there is a large market for people who just aren’t comfortable with or don’t understand English.
The challenges for Urdu blogging are numerous. Firstly, you’d be providing for people who understand Urdu. For the rest of the world, your site is irrelevant and might even be in Chinese for all they care. Because of this, unless you are offering standout content, your website might get off to an extremely sluggish start which can discourage people who intend to generate revenue from it.
Another thing is that you’d have to have a good grip on Urdu if you want to start a blog in it, because nothing would kill you faster than going to the trouble of starting an Urdu blog and using incorrect grammar or expressions.
Writing in Urdu (with not much fluent keyboard styles) is another hurdle to be tackled. Indexing in search engine isn’t possible, so one can’t count on search engine traffic.
(A detailed article regarding the problems associated with Urdu Language on Internet can be found here)
The prospect for such blogs is good however. There are many examples of successful Urdu blogs such as Dufferistan, Cricnama, Abushamil to name a few – a detailed directory of Urdu blogs can be found here.
One only needs to analyze what they’re getting right, and keep that stuff in mind when you’re starting your own website/blog.
In the end what it really comes down to is this: Urdu is our national language. Unfortunately many people just lose touch once it ceases to be a compulsory subject.
That is worrisome because a language is supposed to represent the culture of a people. There is also an inferiority complex amongst students in schools, colleges and universities as well as among people in offices etc; anyone who can speak English is considered superior.
Already, our official language is English and if we choose it over Urdu when we go online too then it will just bring its demise closer. Steps need to be taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen and providing content in our local language is the step that can be taken right away.
