- Targetting fitness tips to bloggers as if the breed were something special and the advice didn’t apply to the rest of the real world. All together now! Climb those stairs, say hello to Mom, put on shades and suncream, go outside, breathe deeply…
- Nutrition advice for bloggers as per above.
- Worrying about what happens to your blog after you die. Guess what? You won’t care.
- Wait a minute. Maybe you will. I first heard of this via Raincoaster, who pointed out that no matter how successful a blogger you are, there will always be someone out there with more readers and a more loyal following. Even if the blogger died more than six months ago. Not to make light of suicide - far from it - but where do the desperation that drives you that far end, and the obsession to blog forever, overlap? Think about it. If you want to, you can write hundreds of entries, time-posting them so that they publish on the dates and times you choose in the future. After you die, but before pre-paying your hosting fees, if you have them. I don’t know… I think it would make responding to comments a bit of a problem.
- Reading too much into one executive’s move a while back from dusty, crusty old CBS News to shiny, new, hip and happening news blog The Huffington Post. I’d be willing to bet they simply offered her a shitload more money.
- Writing a diary about your blogging habits. Don’t millions already consider their blog to be a diary? I guess it would look something like this: Dear offline diary. Woke up, scratched privates, logged on, blogged. Went offline, wrote this. Went back online, wrote some more. Went offline, wrote a bit more about what I wrote online. Went online… The really obsessives could start a new blog which tracks the offline diary which tracks their main blog.
- Getting bummed out about your blog and generally not having fun. The writer says he has people come to him “…feeling despondent (about) their underperforming blogs.” Lighten up, already! Everyone goes through a slump now and then. When in doubt, go out.
- Like me. I was going to list ten, but have to stop here.
- © 2008 lettershometoyou
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Some people NEED tips to be targeted to them. “Fitness for guys whose name starts with an ‘R’” will get hits. Because some people are self-absorbed and dumb. Honestly, I saw a mommyblog yesterday that had a huge post about how she looked at the ingredients for pop tarts and discovered they were not a balanced breakfast for her children. Like, DUH. It’s not even food; it’s candy!
When in doubt, go out is great advice. I’ve noticed when I work out and get out, my blogging gets better, because my mind simply works better. It has more stimulation.
Then there is this blogger who claims he’s dead
Can’t remember the URL though..
Rain,
Damn, and all along I thought Pop-Tarts were an essential part of a day’s nutrition, along with KFC for lunch, Burger King for dinner and popcorn and cokes at the movies.
Mortality,
If you ever run across it again, drop it by me, will you?
Hi - I found you via the Gimcrack, and just wanted to say I LOVE this post.
Hello Zoom - Thank you! And for putting me on your blogroll.
Personally I’ve always seen blogging as cross between a more therapeutic alternative to talking to myself and a way of broadcasting holiday photos in near-real time.
Do you have some tips on how to do that? Please point me towards Ten Tips on Passing Info Along, For Bloggers Who Wear Cotton Pyjamas to Work.
I’m in school and therefore unable to properly login. Apparantly I’d e-mailed the link to myself^^
http://mylifeanddeath.wordpress.com/ Enjoy xD
Oi, nowt wrong with popcorn, ian.
Yes, writing a diary about one’s blog does seem redundant. Also like someone has way too much time on their hands.
Another thing I’ve never understood is the obsession with blog stats, since most of them seem to be quick google hits. I mean, who cares if 400 people saw your blog for about 15 seconds?
I know what you mean. I was “stumbled upon” a couple of times, resulting in a big stat spike, but not one of them ever left a comment, so who’s to know whether they read anything at all?
writing a diary about your blogging habits? WTF????
nurse - to be fair, I must point out that a lot of that advice is given to professional bloggers - it is from a blog about blogging for bloggers who blog for a living. So I can understand why they might take it that seriously. But the line between a blog and a website start to get pretty blurry if it’s your source of income.
Thanks to all who patiently awaited for comments to appear while I was away in London! Back now and busy writing / reading / catching up on sleep.
Welcome back. This is a thought provoking post that goes to the heart of why we blog. Each of us is different and there are as many reasons to be blogging as there are bloggers. On one hand, I’m not the competitive type who is pursuing stats and obsessing over the numbers of comments I receive. On the other, every comment I get feels like a gift.
haha, got a good laugh out of your post. i just had my first troll, who was really quite hilarious. he was moaning about how he never get comments in his blog, and when i left some tips based on my blogging experience, he responded by saying that because i’m female and talk about my boobs that’s why i get so many comments. the ironic part was, he was craving for comments but doesn’t exactly have original content, and when he didn’t get that, he deleted his blog.
I completely agree. I once saw a blog that had something on the sidebar saying ‘Auditioning for my blogroll’ and listed blogs that were doing so!
How can we take anything called “blog” seriously at all?
Oi, I just realised I hadn’t responded to my last three commenters. Oi oi oi… and what you said, brightfeather, is so true: commenting is like sending someone a gift - even if it’s challenging / negative - it’s feedback, and should be welcomed.
J - Probably too late too ask, but… did those auditioning have to do a song and dance, or just send tons of links back?
Sulz - he deleted it completely? At least if he was trolling, he had the guts to leave a link back to his blog. I got some anonymous crap emails for a while when I was posting about neo-nazis in this country. They usually slink back into their holes if you just ignore them.
And TIV - welcome! Good question. I wish there were another name for blog, but I guess we’re stuck with it for now. You seem to take blogging seriously though. You’ve got a flock of them!
The only inaccurate part about your “diary on blogging habits” section is that you only referenced “scratching privates” once in what seemed like a full day…you seriously under-shot the incidence of scratching privates (I REALLY hope this is not one of those times where the “or maybe it’s just me…” rule applies…that would be extremely embarrassing…
Ian, have you seen this plugin? I thought that was pretty interesting post
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/next-of-kin/
Trent
Trent,
Hey! Can wordpress.com users use something like it too?
I actually sent in a request that they consider it, but since it is about mortality, I am not sure if it will ever be considered