“I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid.”

Maybe my mind IS going, the long hours of toiling has been getting to me lately, but I still reserve my night time to read my daily Blog feeds. Today, a few mentioning of the topic of “Writing For Humans, or Writing For Computers” popped up in a couple of high profile Blogs.

Steve Pavlina has a long post filled with tips about How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog). Point # 4 on the post was Write for human beings first, computers second. Darren Rowse also asks the question “Should Bloggers Write for Humans or Computers?” on ProBlogger.

After reading the two posts, I’m left perplexed. The thought of writing for computers has never occured to me. Of course, AmBloggers are not immune to SEO desires. There are many who’d like to publicize their writings. Though like Darren said, it can become a huge distraction; one that most AmBloggers would not undertake.

I regularly read and occasionally engage in SEO practices, but only to the extent of optimizing permalinks, meta tags, and other non-content related activities. Seems like writing a post for computers means that you would target keywords. I’ve never done that and wouldn’t know where to start. The furthest I would go is to make sure I highlight technorati tags on my Blogs. Does that count?

When I put my fingers to the keyboard, I’m concerned with how my posts will sound, whether “human” readers will like it. Web crawling robots won’t give writers the recognition and feedback that they deserve. In the end, even if you have many computers liking you, if humans don’t like it… I don’t think AmBloggers will consider it a success.

One of the things I like to do is open any external links (links that travel to other domains) on my Blogs with a new window. For Browsers that are capable of tabbed-browsing, it presents an extremely convenient way to organize your web surfing by domains. Of course, if you are still using the archaic Microsoft Internet Explorer, check out what you’ve been missing and download FireFox!

The reason to open external links in a new window is to retain the old window so that the users can come back to surfing your site, viewing more of your Blog! I blog using the WordPress 2.0 platform as its easily the most convenient platform to customize your Blog and plugins are plentiful to be found. I easily found some WordPress plugins that did the job

Zap_NewWindow plugin for WordPress - opens external domain links in a new window automatically!
Link Indication plugin for WordPress - adds an outgoing link icon to every external link; very customizable and configurable! (I’ve installed this plugin and you can see the difference on this post!)

However, I wanted to strike a balance between annoyance and usability. I wanted to be able to customize even further; to pick and choose which links I want to open in a new window. For example, I don’t mind if users are going to my other Blogs from AmBlogger and don’t wish to subject them to a new open window. The majority of web surfers are still using IE and I know it certainly annoys me if new windows open up without my trusty tab interface.

The solution was simple. Since I don’t use the WordPress visual rich editor to (more…)

Karen Schneider is a unique soul in the Blogosphere. She wrote a piece today that’s sure to give Bloggers of all types, and experience level many tips to incorporate into their Blogging routine. It is important even as Amateurs to constantly be improving on our writing techniques.

Not only is her post note-worthy for AmBloggers, Karen can certainly be an ambassador for the AmBlogging community! Free Range Librarian contains a wealth of information from Karen’s experience. You’d be hard pressed to find any bit of advertising or promotional affiliate links in her posts and Blog design. Yet she keeps churning out posts after posts with consistency and passion in her words. Her topics and content provoke thought and serve to educate. She is articulate and a pleasure to read.

In her Blog design, she focuses only on the bare essentials. Sidebars exist simply to draw out recent posts, comments. The space-saving and useful nagivational menus, quickly invites her readers into the archives. In her post pages. She makes sure that nothing will distract from her words by only having the posts and the comments displayed prominently with no distractions.

I’m sure glad this Librarian has gone Free Range. I found Karen thanks to a LifeHacker post about writing tips, and will be putting her feeds in my daily reads.

Do you know of any Bloggers that exemplifies an Am Blogger? Let me know through the contact form! I always want to learn more about Am Bloggers and perhaps even profile them on AmBlogger!

Subnixus’s Eric chimes in declaring his Blog to be Open Sourced. It’s not that this hasn’t been done by many, that’s what the Creative Commons was trying to solve. Is the CC license an equivalent of the GPL, what are the differences and why the two different standards? Simpletons like me wouldn’t mind a little enlightenment on that question

Eric entertains with some thought about the hypocrisy of copyright. He gives a few examples of how copyright is violated in daily life by many. Not to say that there aren’t people who do not ever violate copyright, but those are the rare and few.

I’m interested in the concept of Open Source Bloggers or Open Source Blogging as it smells very Am to me! One of the key criteria I talk about with Am Bloggers is that they are not obssessed about commercialism. As such, they may have similar thoughts like Eric does about what their contents or containers mean to them and to the world. Just thought I’d quickly write this out before I dissappear for the day!

First, a tangent! My apologies to those who find the non-capitalization a distraction! I do too! The problem with rushing to substitute an adequate theme is that you don’t know what that theme will do. The theme on this site currently is Zen-Minimalist and it makes every letter lower-case. I wonder what the looks were on the commenters who typed their comment only to see that they themselves did not capitalize! I’m looking to modify I’ve modified and will look to evolve or use a new theme in the future. (Beware! just kidding!)

Without the need to keep beating a dead dog, I believe my future actions will speak louder than written words in the Blogosphere! Those who have judged will keep judging and will be judged as well. The comments remain as is for all to see. Some people suggested privately that I start moderating these comments. There’s no point. AmBlogger strives to remain open for all willing to discover more about blogging for passion, rather than blogging for profit.

So I’m going to write about actions? No… I’ll be talking about inaction. Specifically, my experience with this avalanche of comments. I woke up early in the morning, made one final comment and was going to be unavailable for the whole day. Believe me, it was too tempting to peek at this site while I had proper work to be done. And that’s a problem!

Many amateur bloggers do not have the luxury of a flexible time schedule. Most week days, we are busy doing many work, and some of these work demand that we do not abuse the time paid for our services. Have you ever found a conflict of interest between work and Blogging? (more…)

Due to the ProBlogger / AmBlogger fiasco, I’ve no doubt made many people unhappy by my decision to peek into Darren’s stylesheet and applied some minor changes. Yes, it seems weird and stupid but I was looking for the “Bizarro ProBlogger” look. The color change of blue was the exact hexadecimal opposite of his color orange.

I’m not offended by the comments posted on both Blogs. Long ago before the internet revolution, I remembered this medium called BBS where much harsher words were spoken. An old fashion flame war was fun to some, stressful to others. Nothing I haven’t seen or heard.

How did I feel through this ordeal? I wasn’t phased by the peer pressure, or the colorful languages. Did I learn a few things? Certainly! I hope others learnt some too through the observation process. (more…)

ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, contacted me through my Contact Form a couple days ago and I’ve been too busy to respond to him until now. I’m honored to receive his correspondence but truthfully I’ve been expecting him to come calling anyday now!

Darren wanted to approach me about the design of AmBlogger.net which is very very similar to his ProBlogger.net. You would not be inaccurate to consider this a copy or spoof of his website. I’ve informed him of my pending response and will definitely offer him a forum to respond on AmBlogger if he so desires. In fact, let me iterate my interest in getting fellow AmBloggers to join in and contribute to AmBlogger.net. This site is here for you!

Where should we start? Why do I choose to respond in a Blog? Simply Link Bait? (Update: If you think that’s the case, please don’t link to this post) I think there are a issues here at play here that are begging to be examined. What are the copyright issues? Darren himself has been a fair reporter and has written a few posts on this particular subject:

• Clipmarks and Copyright
• Using Other People’s Content
• Copycat Blogging - Open Mike
• Copyright and Blogs - 14 Guidelines
• BlogStars - Infringing CopyRight since 2005
• Are Explicit Copyright Notices Necessary for Weblogs and Web Pages?
• What to do When Someone Steals Your Blog’s Content - Blog Plagiarism

To formulate my response, I decided to re-examine why I adopted this design in the first place. I also wanted to address the issue of web site design copyright? Lastly, I should be accountable and let Darren know about my response in simple terms. (more…)

Andy Hagans (whose blog makeovers I enjoy reading to pick up tips!) wrote at Performancing that the people involved in building Blog networks are getting frustrated, voicing back and being very self defensive about criticisms being thrown their way.

Everyone wants to be “Blog Overlord” nowadays, controlling and building a diverse network of Blogs all in the pursuit of the almighty dollar! If you are an Amateur Blogger looking to step into the world of generating revenue from your Blog, do yourself a favour and rein it in a little bit. The fact is that most Bloggers make insignificant amounts of revenue and enjoy it purely as its own activity!

It’s not unlike the gold rushes of old; where the success of the few, when widely publicized becomes the desires of many. But if you are like the minority of people that are in it solely for the money, you’re not a true AmBlogger anyways. I can only hope that at least one out of the many Blogs that you will spawn will meet some success enough for you to keep at it! Good luck!