Steelpan Blogging As a Labor of Love - Celebrating Our Six Month Anniversary as a Game Changing Steelpan Blog Source

As steelpan and handpan enthusiasts are well aware, online blogs concerning the steelpan and its handpan instrument offshoots that are of good quality and consistent are few and far between in the industry. Suffice it to say, blogging about any topic is no easy task and no less of an easy task when one thinks about the difficulty in blogging about niche topics, such as the steelpan and handpan instruments simultaneously and their relationship to each other and their broader respective communities. When one further considers steelpan and handpan related blogs that do not promote advertisements in order to monetize the blogs in question, despite generating enough traffic to do so, i.e. karibpan.com, one is only left to conclude that steelpan blogging is a labor of love at that particular point. We blog out of love for Pan and steelband culture, this much should be obvious as we have reached our 6 month blogging anniversary. It is said that the first 6 months of blogging are the hardest and many blogs do not last past the first six months. However, during our first six months, it is safe to say that KaribPAN has revolutionized and set new standards for the art of steelpan and handpan blogging. 

In order to stand apart from the crowd in any blogging endeavor, originality is required, rather, stylized originality in fact. Not stylized in the sense that it is contrived, but more so in terms of properly evoking one's own personal style into the mix of originality in order to present new ways of looking at a particular subject from a unique point of view that the readers on the whole have never experienced. This is the mark of an effective blog on the most fundamental level. However, if money or monetizing the blog in question is the ultimate goal of the blog, this is another story entirely. In our view, advertisements cheapen the reader's experience and detract from the focus at hand on any given occasion. While ads may generate a few dollars and cents for the blog owners, ultimately, they tend to give the impression to discerning readers that the blog has literally ''sold out''. 

In our third blog post, ''The Handpan Mafia'', which was our second consecutive article to go viral within the online handpan world after we published ''The Advantages of Buying a Handpan From Traditional Steelpan Makers vs. A One-Dimensional Handpan Maker'', a few handpan haters tried to insinuate that KaribPAN would soon begin to  ''actually start placing banner ad space linked to ad networks up for bids. Especially since the guy's post earlier today generated a lot of traffic on their site.'' 

Aldous Castro comes to mind. 

Aldous, why are you hating? Is it because you are a Flip whose parents literally flipped their lids when they named you Aldous, after the dystopian degenerate, Aldous Huxley? Your parents were surely living in a ''brave new world'' considering that as a Flip you are already carrying a Spanish surname and a totally brainwashed mentality. You of all people should understand white supremacy and colonization, yet you falsely accuse your colonized counterparts from across the southern hemisphere of being likely candidates to sell out by placing ads on our site. How wrong you were, Aldous, and how full of hate you are! 

Nonetheless, hate-filled, cynical sentiments from confused handpan haters like Aldous are the result of a job of steelpan/handpan blogging well done. Needless to say, haters such as Aldous have compelled KaribPAN to go so far as regularly quoting the Bible in our blog, which is something that is unheard of to our knowledge as far as Pan blogging is concerned. 

We have not heard a peep out of Aldous for months, and at this point in time, it would not be premature to say that Aldous, like the rest of the countless handpan trolls who once barked so loudly in our direction have accepted the fact that KaribPAN is the real deal and we are indeed steelpan warriors on the battlefield, tried, tested and proven. 

Negative vs. Positive Inspiration of Readers via Our Blog

Another test of an effective blog is the extent to which it inspires readers, positively or negatively. To keep it interesting, let's first focus on some of the negative, wholly unintended inspiration that KaribPAN has given some handpan characters in the past. Lauri Wuolio, of Kumea Sound, is a devilish handpan character from the Norse pagan tradition who has no doubt been inspired by our past articles. 

Not surprisingly, the fact that Lauri Wuolio actually posted a link to our article, ''Pantheon Steel and Saraz: Leaders of the Satanic Handpan Agenda'' caused the usual handpan hating suspects to rear their ugly heads, such as Danny Sorenson, who has become one of our favorite handpan haters. 

Once a blog develops haters who consistently hate as much as Danny Sorenson does, it has become an effective blog. 

Sticking with Lauri Wuolio as our example, however, some positive inspiration has also struck him as well by reading our blog in as much as of yesterday, November 27, 2016, he has apparently taken up handpan blogging after falling victim to the notorious blogging hurdle of the ''first six months'', as mentioned earlier. In his article, ''What Makes a Great Sounding Handpan?'', he attempts to finally establish himself as a presence in the handpan blogging world once and for all. Lauri, we will check back up on you in another six months! So far you are off to a good start, however, time will tell. 

In closing, blogging as it relates to the steelpan and handpan is a labor of love, which will ultimately prove to be costly if it is done with the intent of performing a community service. After all, it did cost us $1700 to expose Pantheon Steel's now defunct Nitrided Shell Racket, minus the unused shells we sold to Felix Rohner at below cost!