Almost Quitting » Seven Things I Do When Blogging is Freaking Me Out

I told myself not to post rants on this blog, but hey, I first made this for that purpose. So here I am again, writing random thoughts. I don’t know why I am crazy enough to own a blog and spend most of my evenings on this. In fact I don’t really know why I like blogging, but I do.

With millions of blogs out there, I fear I might just fail on this project one day. All of a sudden I feel like I’ve lost all my inspiration, I begin to cringe why I’m not achieving my blogging goals and I wonder what else I can do apart from hitting that “I QUIT” button.

I don’t want this blog to be just another “internet trash” that serves no purpose. No!… I am not going to get sentimental about this. No, not today. 

Really? Then why not get serious and divert these useless rants into something worth sharing!

Ok dear conscience, let’s try diverting this negative energy into something. Let’s try writing this useless, childish rants and try finding some sensible answers to it. This is me talking to myself again.

1. I must define my purpose. Why the hell am I Blogging?

By far this is the most fundamental question I should ask myself. Why the hell I am blogging? I came across some bloggers who say blogging can make you rich in a couple of months. I do some research and found out they are sadly mistaken. I am sure that none of this has happened in the history of blogging. Please do correct me if I’m wrong.   

Lately, I noticed that I’m developing a passion to blog, particularly on topics I like and I find it really rewarding. To add on, I like helping others through blogging by sharing my experiences. Hopefully this will put this blog ahead further.

2. I must do some planning.

What is my blogging plan for the next week? Have I outlined a set of goals concerning the things I want to achieve for the next month? Have I chosen the right topic for my next post and do some extra research or am I just blogging about useless personal rants because everyone is blogging about it?

3. I must learn from other bloggers.

When I am on my way to quit, I do bloghopping. I join forums and comment like crazy. It’s rewarding. Yes it cost me some precious time, but I think if I’m having some trouble, or having those uninspiring moments, all I need is a group of experienced bloggers to help me out. Thank you fellow bloggers, visitors and readers especially those who are sharing their thoughts here. You may not know it but you are helping me in a lot.

4. I must catch up on my reading.

While thinking of my commenting practices, I realized that if I am only bloghopping from one blog to another, looking for posts to comment on every week without actually reflecting on how that blogger can come out with that interesting topic, then I am not doing the right thing. Yes I know it is part of networking, and all that heady SEO stuff but there must be a higher purpose for that activity – it’s the search for inspiration, and of course to make blog envy as my motivation.  

However, this is one sure thing – I will learn much more and share more ideas if I will spend more time reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

5. I must break out, not freak out.

Am I too comfortable in my comfort zone? Am I blogging in that same similar way that I used to 6 months ago? Why do I sometimes fear that changing my blogging style will drive my visitors away?

These are all the questions that are running through my head right now.

But I should not start cursing, rant or whine; although that is a great attention getter for a short period of time. I realized that it is only when I break out with my comfort zone, I will begin to start learning something. I must try some experimenting. Who knows it might propel this blog to greater heights! Yattaaaa!

6. I must discover my own voice through commenting

In the real world, sometimes the best thing to do is to say something instead of just keeping my silence. In the blogosphere, I can do that by commenting on blogs. Sometimes I came across my old comments on other blogs and it’s amazing because it makes me discover my own voice and my own style. I must always remember that in commenting to other blogs, I shouldn’t just regurgitate what the blogger have said on their post. I must ask questions, expand share opinions and ideas. This will not only get their attention but also learn more from the answers.

7. I must take the medicine for bloggers

Let me make this clear - there’s no such thing as a pill for bloggers. Aspirin can cure our headaches but it won’t cure us of our blog miseries. What’s my medicine? Take a blog break. A few days of not logging in to google analytics or checking the webmaster tool or totally disconnecting to the internet. When I do this, I am surprised because that is when ideas come flowing. Some bloggers work better under pressure but for me, time off even for a day or two can turn things around.

WOW, I MADE IT! I diverted my useless rants into something. This really pull me out from the dumps. I think this blog and my blogging journey is worth continuing.

Sorry if I freak out earlier.

Blogging may be for everyone but it certainly won’t bring success to everyone – including me perhaps. But I am enjoying this - that is what matters most. I’m sure success is just a byproduct, and extra income is the side-effect.

Did I miss something here? Let me know your thoughts. I’m listening…

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Blogroll Makeover » What do you do to improve the quality of your blogroll?

When was the last time you do a blogroll makeover? Ok, when was the last time you checked your blogroll for dead links and abandoned blogs?

As bloggers, we know that a blogroll is supposed to be a collection of links to other blogs that we recommend to our readers. Therefore, the usual expectation is that, if you have a niche blog, your blogroll will link to bloggers that cover topics related to your blog, not just any random blog you happen to find cute. However, in my case I don’t consider this blog as a niche blog yet, yodisphere.com is a whatever-is-interesting Pinoy lifestyle blog, so you will find the links in my blogroll are kindda random. Those are the blogs I often visit - bloggers I met, groups I support and blogs that keep me entertained and updated.


Blogroll linking errors and etiquette

When I am on a blog-hopping mode, I find too many blogrolls became link exchanges to the point of being obnoxious. Zombie blogs usually have an annoying note on their sidebar headline saying “Link to me and I will link to you.” Of course, it is an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that if a blogger puts a link to your blog in his or her blogroll, you should reciprocate and add that blog's link in your own blogroll. Since it is unwritten, I often violate it. And I do link blogs even if they didn’t link mine: no hurt feelings. 

Bloggers who are using these link-listing strategy usually has five-page long scroll-down blogrolls – making the page cluttered and messy. I find such lists intimidating rather than inviting, and I usually ignore it – not click on the list.

I committed that link-exchange error during my early blogging years – until I happen to find my link listed beside a gay porno blog. WTF! SEO gurus say it is good for SEO. Yes, blogrolls equate to publicity and exposure across the blogosphere, but I don’t want my blog to become a copy-paste-SEO-zombie listed beside porno sites.

We approach this with our own blogging goals in mind. Sometimes I may not like a blog that links to me through its blogroll and there are many reasons why I may decide not to reciprocate a blogroll link. But as a good blogging etiquette, at least I review each blog that links to me to determine if I’d like to add that blog on my own blogroll or not.

My blogroll makeover

I lost my blogroll links during my blog transition and currently I’m looking for those blog links again. I consider my blogroll not only as reader recommendation but also as my personal weekly-sites-to-visit.

Here’s the makeover I did on my blogroll:

• Remove the long list on my sidebar (it’s like crazy long laundry list already) and transfer it on a dedicated page

• Retain a short list on sidebar (Yodisphere’s Radar) which serves as my “recommendations”

• Now, my blogroll page (via blogger pages) serves as my personal blog link list and blogs-to-visit, which could also serve as link reference for blog-hoppers.

To monitor who’s updating their blog on my blogroll and monitor abandoned blogs, I’ve added a few RSS code tweaks to show their latest post-with date and time under the blog title (you can automatically do that on sidebars via Blogger's Blog List gadget, but not on separate blogger page.) I’m thinking of doing a separate post for that trick.

Alright, that’s all for now folks! Should this blog got a space in your blogroll, let me know. 

Any blogrolling experience you might want to share? Thoughts… comments?
Do you really click on blogrolls?

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External Related Links

» What is a Blogroll and How Bloggers Use Blogrolls to Boost Traffic to Their Blogs

» It’s Blogroll Cleaning Time

» The Importance of a Blogroll

» What Type of Blog Hopper are You?

A Review of My Blogger Domain Transition

Image Source: "Alternative Links" Surreal Art

After winning the Enervon Hapontukin contest and noticing that search engines are giving me traffic for the past few months, thus giving me a  few dollars on my Adsense account, I finally decided to have my own .com domain. Since I'm spending most of my weekend writing articles for this blog, I thought why not try making money out of it. The $10 investment is really worth it, because I'm enjoying this and I'm learning a lot from it.

I'm really glad the 3-day transition runs smoothly. All links are perfectly re-directing now. I had no issues with my Adsense account, sitemaps are being indexed again and traffic is going back to normal. However, I spend my whole Sunday evening editing my account links (Facebook, Ezine, Intensedebate, etc.) Although the old URL doesn't need to be revised (which I changed just to make sure), it bears the old site title and description. So, to avoid the confusion, I painstakingly edited my account on those sites one by one. 

I also added a separate blogroll page, because during transition, some of my widgets got lost. Check it out to add your link.

 

For those who have blogs at blogger who are planning to have their own custom domain, here are my 3 tips:

1. Before moving to a custom domain, read a lot of articles and forums first. Check out the pros and cons, known issues and guides. Losing access to your blog is really frustrating. 

2. Decide which domain name to use. Have a list, check it's availability and register the one you think is best. Remember, once you register it, you can't change it. Online domain name generators can help you in deciding cool domain names (because chances are, that name you badly want was already taken). Be creative.

3. You don't need much technical knowledge to have your own domain, so you should not be afraid giving it a try. Setting up custom domain through your blogger dashboard is easy and user-friendly. Specific instructions and guides are there, plus you can always check the blogger help pages. 

I think, that's it. Of course, the advantage of having a custom domain for our blog is simply because it gives a formal name and a more credible identification on the web. It also serves as an investment, the domain's value becomes higher if its targeted with high traffic and ranking.

All is set! More articles coming soon!

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You might want to check out: 

• How to set up custom domain on blogger 
• How do I use custom domain name on my blog? 
• Illustrated Guide to Set Up Blogger on Custom Domain 
• Top 5 Domain Name Generator

 

Is Personal Blogging Policy Important?

I got a call requesting to delete one of my blog post here. The call was from one of my family member, saying that our town Mayor didn’t like this blog post: The Sleeping Town. This post is about the political and economic state of our town. Of course the request to delete, from the mayor, is not a request but a threat. 

But, hell no! It’s the truth and it’s my opinion.

The best defense is a good offense, so the saying goes. Accordingly, I realized that this blog should have a disclaimer or some sort of a personal policy for those dumb readers who got the nerve to threaten me and also for other idiots in general. When messy situations occur, I can just refer them to my disclaimer page. That will save me time and effort in arguing and explaining.

This README page is now my blogging guidelines, a way to let my readers know my standards to which why I blog, and what they can expect from me. I'm not a lawyer so my disclaimer doesn't have any legal brouhaha in it but more of a  personal statement. This is a personal blog anyway.  

In our sue-happy, complaint-infested, onion-skinned people in the blogosphere, it’s important to make it clear that our personal blog is for informational, entertainment and opinion purposes only and when in doubt, readers should just post intelligent counter-comments or do more research on the field in question. I believe a simple personal disclaimer will somehow address it.

Spend much time in the blogospehere and you will come across bloggers who are being maligned, threatened and badmouthed because of their post [viz. a blogger who shut down his blog because of a negative comment he made against the OFW bloggers, an employee being fired because of a blogpost, relationship ended, etc.]. Well of course we must always consider responsible posting because being in the blogosphere is being public. That is one of the dangers of blogging.  

That’s why it’s important to not only write a personal blog disclaimer, but to post it on your blog and link in via the footer or sidebar or menubar for reference.

Happy and safe blogging!

By the way, I’ll appreciate your comments on the contents of my disclaimer page.

Alternate Comment Forms for Blogger

The default comment form of blogger can be replaced by alternative JavaScript based commenting systems to give a better and professional look.

The popular alternative commenting systems are:

1. Intense Debate –

I find my old commenting system dull, so I changed it using intense debate commenting system on this post.This is now owned by Automattic, the makers of Wordpress.

2.DISQUS - This is another Commenting system – It is the same thing that Mashable.com uses

3.JS-Kit – This is also another JavaScript based commenting system.

When you try to revert to any of these commenting systems,make sure that you backup your template and keep a copy,so that you can revert back if it didn’t work out well.

These are the three most popular commenting systems.They come with threaded commenting with Gravatar based profile images,which can make you commenting system look more professional.

So if you want to remove the default blogger commenting system and get a better commenting interface,then you can opt for any of these commenting systems.

Inspired by: Aneesh of bloggerplugins.org

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Image Source: BLOGGERPLUGINS , used with permission. Licenced Under the Creative Commons Licencing Read - [CC Licenses Attribution-SA 2.5].

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Blogger’s-block – The Evil of the Blank Blogpost

The angry rain decided to punish Metro Manila last night, sending its army of billion droplets zipping like kamikaze pilots. The deluge caught me while I was on my way home, but I was not frustrated because my mind was busy writing – trying to record the conversation of me and my mind, myself talking to myself. Out of nowhere an idea kicked-in, it makes me excited so I hurry up not minding the crazy rain.

I immediately grab my laptop and dried myself while its booting. I changed into comfy and warm clothes and face my laptop, ready to fire up all my ideas into written words.

But… Damn, I can’t get it out. I lost it! My cursor was blinking for hours and I haven’t written anything. Surely a case of a mental-block, or writer’s-block or should I say “blogger’s-block”. Maybe the mad rain washed it out.

It’s really goddamn awful how it feels not to be able to write or get your ideas out of your fucking head or, in my case, losing it. It’s frustrating, for crying out loud!

Tired, cold and frustrated, I decided to grab a book and sleep.

Today, I woke up late, the sky is clear and the sun is suspiciously shining, mocking me - as if saying, “Good morning, Loossser!”

But hell no! I have to do something about this blogger’s-block phenomenon that haunted me last night. I think about it all day and came up with this theory:

The best way is always to stop when I am going good and when I know what will happen next. If I do that every day … I will never be stuck ... That way my subconscious will work on it all the time. But if I think about it consciously or worry about it, I will kill it and my brain will be tired before I start.

I also checked the know-it-all Mr. Google and gave me some unconventional tips such as:

• Drinking a little whiskey before writing -- (like a drunken master eh? Or drunken-blogger, he he he… maybe I should try it.)

• Make a list, or a draft -- (well, mind-mapping technique works well for me.)

• Have sex? – (this one is suggested to clear your mind before writing, but I guess If you are writing about clitorology and kama-sutra, you should write your article before having sex… ha ha. No other human being willing to share your frustration? Well, just do the “do-it-yourself” technique. Wash your hands!!)

• Read something you hate – (suggestion to generate more ideas… a-huh, will not work for me I guess.)

• Run like hell – (suggested if you’re really burnt-out, sort of like taking a break and having fresh air.)

Any other personal tip? I will appreciate if you can share it in the comments section.
Let’s blog, Vamos!