Eric Scalf of MindFyre, dropped me a note about a post he recently made regarding his “monetization realization”. I also liked his piece about journaling vs. blogging.

• Moving From Journaling to Blogging (the amateur blogging series link towards the end is broken? I’m getting a 404)
• Amateur Blogger Starts Thinking Money, Quickly Realizes Mistake

AmBloggers should also check out his Amateur Blogging Series. Eric, how about a more prominent sidebar location on your site to highlight this series? Maybe you should do a cute button like Darren did for his beginner series! (Update: he did!) I’d be interested to know how much traffic the series garnered.

I’ve been reading MindFyre for a while now and I believe Eric to be a writer with original thought and perspectives. I’ve avoided doing “how-tos” and “series” about blogging because they often come off cold and instructional when there are so much opportunity to share personal experiences, mistakes and elations. Eric often uses himself as example so it makes the reading more enjoyable.

Eric’s been having some technical problems with the site, but hopefully this will pass and allow him to get back on track with producing some more original thoughts about Blogging!

Warning! Distraction ahead!

I’m always on the look out for innovative blogging subject matter that are great AmBlogging examples! Recently, I got stuck looking at the feeds and posts from a few unique Blogs. Their passion? A yearning for cuteness, things that are cute and things that are nice. For example, AdoraBlog believes that “some part of the internet should be nice, for the nice people”. Awwwwwwwww.

If you are tired of seeing the same old types of Blogs (tech, blogging, web 2.0, politics, news) out there on the internet, here’s a list of Blogs that will refresh your soul. Be inspired by their passion as these Bloggers build a community around a topic that they love. Their feeds have easily become my favourite reads during the day!

Here’s the Blog list. It’s fair to warn you that you might get lost in all the niceness and cuteness, and forget about your own Blogging! I know I did!

1. AdoraBlog
2. Cute Overload!
3. Things That Make You Go Aahh
4. Nice Cup Of Tea And A Sit Down
5. Panda Fix
6. Kitten War
7. The Daily Puppy
8. Paper Forest

Afterthought: If Bloggers are looking for an audience, don’t you think many of us are missing the stay-at-home husbands and housewives that may have the time to surf the web?

InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds weighs in on a TCS article about Blogging for love or money and talks about his own experiences. Good read to print out if you’re on the go like me, that said.. I got to be going!

As part of my midnight reading, I came upon fellow Canadian blogger, Melanie McBride, a Toronto writer and communications specialist. She had written an article a while back on her blog, ChandraSutra, in response to local magazines’ views and articles about blogging.

Her rebuttal revealed some very interesting tidbits about old media journalists vs. bloggers. She also chimes in her views of “pros” vs. “amateurs”. Here’s some excerpts I noted along with my commentary!

Most of the bloggers I know and link to feel compromised at the very idea of advertising. And of the good bloggers who have decided to feature advertising, most have done so with great reluctance and/or embarassment. Don’t get me wrong, I do not have a problem with bloggers who choose to advertise. Particularly if advertising is about paying for your hosting or a blog related cost. And most especially if you are producing content that is not dictated by Google adsense revenues. This is the difference between taste and money grubbing.

Wow! This is very similar to AmBlogger’s theory! It is true that too many people are relying on Google adsense for revenue and quite a few prominent bloggers like Chartreuse are starting to encourage people to look to diversify and be creative with their revenue streams. I do use Adsense but I also regard it as a lazy business model. (more…)

I just signed up to try out BlogBeat.org on the recommendation of a Mark Evans post. It hadn’t been 5 minutes and I’m already dreading the experience! Rather than write full essays about BlogBeat’s deficiences, I will simply outline my observations quickly as I think that’s all they deserve.

Multiple Domain Names
What’s with the .org and .net domain names? Be consistent! I signed up on the .org site and my welcoming message had links with the .net domain. Here’s the link in question:

You may also choose to sign up at any time by selecting the Purchase Blogbeat link at the top of the page.

Hope you had more luck than me, because all I get was a server error page (pictured below)! Very amateur!

Click for larger image

Where Are The Links?
In the link above, BlogBeat states that there is easy access to the purchase page at the top of the page. None were found on ANY of the pages? What’s going on? (more…)

Blogger: I want the truth!
Commenter: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has blogs. And those blogs have to be commented by people with opinions. Who’s gonna do it? You? You on your own Blog? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

[Back from my hullcinating dreams of being Jack Nicholson...] I’m feeling better as the day progressed, and I finally got caught up with my Blog reading tonight. AmBlogger has been my forum to give back and bring to light some of the goodness and ugliness that the Blogosphere exhibits daily. That’s a nice way of saying I got something to get off my chest.

Comment Groupies
Let’s get right to it! If Bloggers were Rockstars, then there are a helluva lot of groupies out there! I love reading Blogs because the information is delivered along with a multitude of different perspectives as different people chime in with their comments. However, once a Blog gets too popular, sifting through the comments for some real meat is like getting a quarter-pounder at McDonald’s; where’s the beef?

Comments are so cordial on some of the Blogs in my read list that I’m wondering are these people kissing ass or is this Blogger really beyond reproach? Comments on many popular blogs start out with “Great post!”, “Excellent article”, “Fabulous Insight”, “You’ve hit the nail right on the head”… (you get the gist of it).

All these phrases are fully compliant with the unwritten Blogger’s comment etiquette. I say “unwritten” because I cannot find any authoritative, popular blogging figure who has touched on this subject (try searching it on Google!). But it makes sense, why bite the hand that feeds you?

Andy Hagans once said that he always envisioned the Blogosphere “as a couple cliques of high school girls with too much time on their hands“. I really like the metaphor when I first saw it. Sometimes, the Blogosphere feels just like a bunch of established people praising each other for their nice hair and make-up while the less popular outcasts try to join the cliques by being nice too!

ProBlogger talked about quality vs. quantity of posting. I want to ask the same question for comments! Even though I appreciate (more…)

Just woke up because I’ve been sneezing all night and this morning. To clear my head, I decided to seek the most mundane entertainment that I could find. I often tell myself that even though more and more people are starting to Blog, the ones that are hardcore can still be pre-dominantly described as geeks or nerds. I decided to prove to myself (by being honest) that I am not a nerd. Why do I need my validation? Because I don’t look like this guy! LOL Here’s my score!

What do you think? Do you also expect the people who make the effort to blog on a regular or semi-regular basis to have a bit of nerd/geek in them? I’m not here to debate the differences in definition (since nerds and geeks are different breeds). If you know of a good geek test, I’d like to take that too!

Most of us will remember the Ren & Stimpy show! Its greatest contribution to humanity were its small fun songs such as “Happy Happy Joy Joy” and the Slinky commercial parody “The Log Song”

That got me to thinking about “The Blog Song”. Do we need an anthem? I’ll put the lyrics up here because god knows I have no creative bone in my body to change these lyrics to something relevant to blogging. Perhaps you can help me? Make sure you contact me!

Here’s lyrics of “The Log Song”:

What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs
Rolls over your neighbor’s dog?
What’s great for a snack and fits on your back?
It’s Log, Log, Log!

It’s Log, Log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood.
It’s Log, Log, it’s better than bad, it’s good!
Everyone wants a log! You’re gonna love it, Log!
Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a Log!

Here’s an audio sample!

Just for interest sake, here’s the lyrics of “The Slinky Commercial”:

What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs,
and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
Everyone knows it’s Slinky.

It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, it’s fun, it’s a wonderful toy.
It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, It’s fun for a girl or a boy.

For those of you who wanted to defend Blogs against mainstream criticism, here’s your chance!