5 Reasons Why Tags Are Good

The above headline might come as a shock to most of you, considering the fact that I grumble so much each time I’m asked to do a Tag here! Well, the truth is… I don’t have anything against Tags specifically! It’s just that I hate doing a lot of any one thing! And these Tags have a tendency to start a sort of never ending loop! You suddenly wake up one day to find the entire blog-o-sphere around you filled with Tags! However, if used in sparing measures, Tags can prove to be very useful actually. You want to know how… read on…

1. Tags help us get over a Writers’ Block
Those millions of times… when we sit with a blank Word Document open in front of us… and our fingers wandering aimlessly over the keyboard, trying to rub that slightly embossed mark off the letters ‘F’ and ‘J’! (I bet you just tried to do exactly that too!) Tags give us something to start writing about – anything – just so the creative juices begin to flow again and we get into the “mood” to write again!

2. They let us explore our creative potential
Alright, let’s be honest here fellows! Tags ARE usually pretty boring stuff… to write, as well as to read! And that’s where their usefulness lies! As Sachin Tendulkar said in his recent interview on the TV, “we ought to make our weakness our biggest strength”! And the adventure lies in how you present even a drab routine dish, so that it looks like the most tempting item on the table!

Picture Credit: ME - "Atta Maggi" with Boiled Eggs

3. Useful in Link Building
Not all of us here blog for making money, but nevertheless, it sure does feel good knowing that so many people read what we write! And we are constantly looking for ways to increase our reader-base. Tags provide a genuine way to create and promote such a linked network. You link back to the person who tagged you, and you also link (ahead?) to the people you tag. Link exchange, backed with the power of content… clean and honest SEO!

4. Introduce “New Kids in the Block”
I’ve lost count of how many of my blogger friends have been discovered on such “Tag” posts! While many of them were veteran bloggers, quite a few were completely new in the neighborhood! Tags give bloggers a fairly easy way to initiate some interaction with strangers, so that within days, the newbies also start feeling like a part of the “family”!

5. Prepare us for a very bright future (I saved the best for the very end!)
Tags give us practice… for facing “celebrity interviews”. You know, like the kind of interviews Sushmita Sen had after she became Miss Universe! Or the ones that TV Channels reserve for new faces in Bollywood! We'll become so used to answering stupid questions that we won’t have to scratch our head for answers, when we finally become famous! “What's a word that you say a lot?” “If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?” “What did you want to be when you were little?” (OMG! Nancy Drew books will start selling like hot cakes at that!)

As you can see from the (seemingly?) well-researched points above, Tags are a very powerful arrow in a blogger’s quiver! We just need to learn when to use them and how to use them.

However, the above post does not mean that you all bombard me with more Tags immediately! I still have a few pending in my list! Though I have decided I won’t do the “How Dumb” Tag and the “Yes/No” Tag, ‘coz they don’t give me any scope to get creative. You can only answer with ‘X’ marks in one and ‘Yes/No’ in the other. Too restrictive! But if you find some cool Tag with lots of freedom to write about (senseless?) stuff, feel free to pass it on to me! Though I don’t promise I’ll do it right away, ok! :D