Don’t mind the short and sweet posts lately, but there is no reason to re-interpret what has been perfectly written. Here is a great perspective from 2 intelligent minds in the blogosphere!

.[..] The root of the word amateur is love, and someone who does something for love is an amateur. [...]

I wonder if anybody realizes why this site exists? Don’t give up on me yet! When I have something original to say, you’ll be the first to read about it! =D

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?

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’m honestly excited when I came back to find an email from Eric Scalf of FyrePlace.com. Eric wrote a very pleasant piece about AmBlogger and also the new upstart SmackDash.com! One amateur site maybe a fluke. Two amateur Bloggers maybe a coincidence. Three amateurs Bloggers is a phenomenon!

Forgive me if I don’t contain my hopeless optimism. I think each of us is bringing a little bit of flavour into the Amateur Blogging scene. This is how Eric described us:

Where Amblogger is concentrating on the passion of blogging (and blogging, in and of itsself), SmackDash is covering the amateur monetization niche.

And it seems like FyrePlace will be some spectrum in between us?? [Sorry Eric, you didn't elaborate!]. The talks of an Amateur Blogging network sounds interesting. However, I feel that such organization is still too soon as we each have to learn to carve out our own voice in the Blogosphere. Though I will openly invite any AmBlogger with a good idea to approach myself and contribute to AmBlogger!

Finally, I’m more stoked than ever that there is a phenomenon brewing. Increasing number of people are tired of those Chitika ads, talks about heat maps, and generic 3-column templates optimized filled to the brim with monetization techniques. Networks like 9Rules with their beautiful Blogs will experience more and more interest from AmBloggers disenchanted with monetized layouts, all the professional talk going on, the Blogger cruises/conventions and talking about their AdSense Christmas gifts. I’ve got much more to say on this, but I’ll target and focus the discussion in future Blogs individually. Stay tuned!

P.S. I’ve added a Proud AmBloggers section to my side bar! If you are a proud Amateur Blogger, why don’t you let everybody know!

That sounds like an introduction to a pRon site! Though if I were in that industry, I have the potential to make more money! I used to have a friend in University that was a huge operator in the Taiwanese pRon website industry. He’d make very good income, much more than many of the graduates who found great jobs. But again.. I digress.

Getting back on topic now! Seems like I can’t tear myself away from Blogging even if it were the Lunar New Year. I just wanted to point out a curious site that popped up on my radar. The site is called SmackDash, and Justin, the site operator explains its purpose here. It’s only in its infancy but the funny thing is that it also uses the Squible WordPress theme, much like my own personal Blog. SmackDash’s purpose seems to be a resource for Amateur Bloggers as well!

I hear the crowd crying, “the tables have turned!” Well, it’s not even close. I don’t place any personal importance on site design. Squible is a wonderful open theme and many people have used it for their own sites. I welcome Justin to the AmBlogger community and hope that one day his path and mine will cross to help Amateurs out there looking for their voice!

Will some of you kind folks give him a bit of copypublicity? I just want to help him promote! I can see the headlines now, “AmBlogger getting copied?” But I suggest that you don’t use that since Justin IS NOT copying.

Nicolas Garr has a fascinating read on his Blog titled The Amorality of Web 2.0. He displays his perspective of the new World Wide Web, criticising its rampant Amateurism and citing a few examples from Wikipedia in the section called The Cult Of The Amateur.

Though the post has a negative connotation throughout, I’m actually very happy about it because it shows that Amateurs are alive and well. Let’s take back the web! We won’t have it any other way!

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…)