Blog Spotlight: 2:48AM
November 18, 2015 Blogs
2:48AM blogger Mark Makhoul spoke to MediaSource about the decline of the blogging scene in Kuwait, the best way for PRs to get his attention, and that time he got sued for a negative restaurant review.
What inspired you to start your blog?
It was actually a friend of mine who convinced me to start blogging. It was back in 2003 and I originally thought blogging was a silly idea, but my friend convinced me to give it a shot and the rest is history.
What subjects do you cover on your blog?
Anything I find interesting, but preferably subjects that are related to Kuwait.
You were famously sued by a Kuwait restaurant franchise for a negative restaurant review posted on your blog in December 2010. Has that experience put you off writing restaurant reviews or affected what you do and don’t post about?
It hasn’t stopped me from continuing to review restaurants, but it has stopped me posting very critical reviews of restaurants. Now if I don’t have a good experience I simply just don’t post about the place.
How would you describe the blogging scene in Kuwait?
It has slowed down considerably. The majority of bloggers have stopped blogging and moved over to Instagram instead. There are some bloggers, like me, who are still grinding away trying to find new stuff to post about everyday, but the vast majority have just stopped updating their blogs, or now update them on very rare occasions.
If you could offer one piece of advice to bloggers, what would it be?
Don’t stop writing.
Are you happy to be contacted by PR professionals?
Yeah I don’t mind, and I do get contacted all the time, but most of them just send me press releases which is not something I am interested in posting. The majority of my posts are based on my personal experiences and that's what my readers want to read about. So, for example, instead of an airline sending me a press release about their new business cabin, send me an invitation to try it out. Or, instead of a car brand sending me a press release about their new car, invite me to test drive it. If it’s something fun for me I'll definitely be interested in it.
Do you have any advice for PR professionals wanting to pitch to you?
You can send me press releases if you want, just don't be disappointed if I don't post them on the blog. If you want me to write about something then it has to be something I'm interested in like cars, electronics and travel.
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