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…)

It’s funny to see ProBlogger Darren Rowse get just a little bit tickled by Eric’s post at Subnixus titled The Infomercial Blogs. Eric called out Darren’s blog, his own and Blogs like Jensense, comparing them to the annoying diet of informercials that proliferate late night and weekend television.

At one point, Eric writes:

‘And finally, don’t put any faith in Problogger, Jensense, Subnixus, the list goes on… in the end, we just want you for your clicks. Take us with a grain of salt.’

My favourite part of Darren’s post when he responds simply to that assertion with:

Speak for yourself Eric.

My reaction to that was immediately that Darren spoke like a true AmBlogger! Someone who values his work with more passion than simply a source of income. My previous assertion was that ironically ProBlogger should really be categorized as an AmBlog about Darren’s ProBlogging ventures with his other Blogs. (Try saying that 3 times fast!)

I feel there really is a need for a clearer distinction between Blogs for Passion and Blogs for Profit. I will not comment on how I feel about Jensense or Eric’s own Blog because I am not a regular reader of their material. However, I feel compelled to back up Darren’s defense with my own perspective of the AmBlog genre!

I don’t believe that there is any official definition of the words AmBlog and AmBlogger, for that the verdict is still out. I registered the domain as inspired by Darren Rowse of problogger.net. Darren is a professional blogger (problogger) whose full-time profession is about blogging-related activities. So what was the inspiration?

Since Darren is a ProBlogger, I wanted to discover if there are AmBloggers (short for Amateur Bloggers) like me out there writing Blogs about their passions! Therefore an AmBlog is a Blog whereby the intent is first and foremost to share/start a passionate discussion about any subject. By contrast, the intention of a professional Blogger is to eventually be able to monitize the Blog for profit.

How about an example? Again, I’d like to use Darren because he is truly an ambassador for the blogging medium. Darren’s ProBlogger Blog is actually what I would consider an AmBlog. He has a diverse number of Blogs that touch on different subjects. Those other Blogs, in my opinion, are not AmBlogs. The differences are about the (more…)