I’ve started a new Blog! I haven’t launched it yet, but I’ve starting to write posts about it. I thought about how I would bring some exposure to the new Blog. Then it dawned on me, how about if I let it remain a secret?

Perhaps I could make it into a scavenger hunt or a contest! I would drop clues, and allow readers to guess where is my new blog. What would the prizes include? This is where my idea begins to break down. A small fish like me could not possibly generate enough interest to make this really work, or could I? Are you a sponsor that can see the potential of this idea? Please contact me!

And should I only reward the first person who guessed correctly? I’m leaning towards putting all correct entries into a draw for the prize because honestly, it would not be hard for the technically resourceful people to find my new Blog.

Will this idea fly? I don’t really know, maybe I’m just ranting. Maybe I’m testing for interest. Your thoughts please!

Oh no! Not another AmBlogger WordPress theme modification involving Darren and Rachel!

Did I have you for a minute there? Seriously, history is not repeating itself. But I thought, since the WordPress theme here used is called Zen Minimalist, why not be a minimalist and reduce the number of timestamps appearing in the comments? I’ll only keep the timestamp for the post for now.

Initial reaction? I don’t miss it. What do you think?

Announcement
By the way, I’m actually working on my own original AmBlogger WordPress Theme that I will let everybody use if they like! Is that a shocker? I don’t know when I will finish, but check back to see the final product when it’s ready!

Month #2 has come and gone for AmBlogger. The participation in February’s poll (19 votes) has been much less than January’s poll (60 votes). But it was a sweeter, more satisfying result!

Looking back at February’s poll. I made mistakes in putting up the choices on the poll. Nobody works a “5 to 9″! I was trying to set that choice for people who worked night shifts. I also should have known better to think people who read blogs don’t blog, it’s not the hottest fad going for no reason.

Here are the results:

The new poll of the month will have simple choices. March’s poll was inspired by my previous post - Bloggers, Journalists, Pros, Amateurs. I want to find out from you, money aside, whether you find advertising and advertisements on Blogs to be tacky and compromising the idea of blogging? Cast your votes!

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…)