I saw Julie and Julia today. I can't line it up as my favorite Meryl Streep movie but what made me so interested about the film is that it talked of (my) two passions: of cooking and blogging.

(Passion in cooking? Okay, I'm not being true about this: I do dream of becoming a Rick Stein and I do sometimes experiment in the kitchen but I don't think I would regard it as passion. Interest, perhaps, but not passion).

(In blogging? I don't know. It's a notch higher than interest, but it's not yet a passion, I think. The fire within is still flickering but I know, one day, it will soon light up into a glow. Or something to that effect).

While watching the film, I realized something: that in order to succeed in life, in whatever endeavour you choose, you need to have passion and direction (and butter!). Passion to keep you moving and direction to get you where you want to be. (And sometimes too, we need to butter ourselves up and others too!).

This mantra of passion and direction applies most aptly in what we are currently busying ourselves in: blogging.

Blogging, for me, is marketing. Whether we recognize this truth or not, whenever we hit that publish button, we are selling ourselves.

I learned from Julie and Julia, and from other blogging lits as well, that there are two ways -- and Julie did these in her blog -- to sell ourselves: Create a niche for our blog. Differentiate it, too.

Amy Adam's Julie was personal in her writing about cooking Julia Child's recipes. My favorite webdesignerwall's approach is personal but his focus is on one thing: tuts (short for tutorials) on and about web graphic design.

I have been trying to create a niche for my blog and my being an OFW and in Saudi should have been my thrust. Sadly, I just couldn't. I tend to talk about a lot of things not associated with being an OFW nor with being in Saudi. Like this post, for example.

Notice this: most successful blogs are those that focus on one thing, and on one thing only. It can be a personal blog, yes, but the focus should be on something.

The Pink Tarha is one Saudi blog which I find to be in focus. They have the vision of what their blog will be about, and as evidenced by their posts, they're doing it very, very well.

The other Saudi blog that I regard highly is Ed's The Sandbox. His Buhay Buhangin series (his comic strips of and about OFWs in Saudi) differentiates his blog from the rest of us.

On passion, there's no one I regard highly than Kenjie. His dedication to bring PEBA into fruition is beyond words. Okay, that accounts to buttering up!

I will highly regard the movie not just because of Meryl Streep's and Amy Adam's acting -- how funny they were of their characters especially Streep -- but mainly because it taught me lessons about my current passion of blogging.

All I'm looking now is a sense of direction.

It's coming.

Soon.

I hope.