(Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes)
Ricky Buchanan is always popping up with something interesting. She’s probably the most well-rounded commenter on Website In A Weekend, having contributed really useful observations on articles ranging from FTP connections (IIRC, “Dave, this article is kind of vague on this point…”), to WordPress plugins (“Dave, this article definitely needs clarity.”) to some really pithy comments about blogging alliances. I made her turn those comments into…
A League Of Ordinary Bloggers
-by Ricky Buchanan
I’m part of a group with two other bloggers.
We originally came together in November 2009 after a posted thread on the ProBlogger forum where one of us was looking for blogging buddies.
I emailed the other three who had expressed interested on the blogging forum and got responses from three, so three of us there are. We decided that four was an upper limit on the number of people we’d want on the grounds of organisation for what we wanted to accomplish so if somebody relevant pops up we’ll probably drag them in.
I’m calling us the League Of Ordinary Bloggers. Not to imply we’re second rate… but to remind you that none of us are anything extra special.
There’s nothing that about any of us that any other blogger doesn’t have. There’s nothing about our group that any other “ordinary blogger” couldn’t replicate with a smidge of effort.
I hate the name “secret blogging alliances” because first keeping it secret seems somehow underhanded but also because it implies those people have some Big Important Secret that you – an ordinary blogger – doesn’t have.
So far we’ve provided motivation, reminding, and mutual feedback about blog layouts and specific posts.
For 2010, we decided our first thing would be to email our goals to each other, and I think we all got motivation and ideas from reading the others’ goals – I know I did! We’ve been intermittently posting shorter term goals for what we want to accomplish in the next week or fortnight as well, and reminding each other to post about the results, and whether we achieved our goals.
I got the courage to finish my first free “ebook” (actually it’s more of a list, but it’s a downloadable PDF with a cover so it counts!), after one of the others posted a draft of an ebook he’s putting together. Reading his draft reminded me that perfection isn’t required and gave me the “if he can do it…” push I needed to have the courage to make it available.
It’s because of this group that I have clear and measurable goals for each of my websites for 2010. It’s also because of this group that I’ve gotten around to doing some of the less enjoyable tasks – there’s something very motivating about knowing you’ll have to confess procrastination unless you get it done!
So I highly recommend finding some blogging buddies for mutual motivation, but don’t be deluded into thinking it’s some Magic Seekrit Ingredient that will revolutionise your life. Like most other things with blogging, it’s a tool you can make use of…
When's not hanging out with her Seekrit Blog Club, you,
can find Ricky Buchanan hanging out at
iTalk Magazine,
a site dedicated to brand new iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users.
Stop by and say hello.
CommentLuv – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Saturday Morning Surfing
(Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes)
Heather Craik blends a passion for 3 dimensional computer graphics with a love of writing. Any such combination served up blog-style is unbeatable. When she’s tired of writing, she can model. When she’s tired of modeling, she can write. Each provides support for the other. Here, Heather continues discussion raised in her almost-but-not-quite-a-blog-post comment from the last Saturday Morning Surfing. Secret or not, Heather surely fits into any League of Extraordinary bloggers.
CommentLuv – We love it so!
-by Heather Craik
Most of us here will know what CommentLuv is and why we use it, but here’s a quick recap to bring everyone else up to speed;
CommentLuv is a plug-in that allows your commenters to enter their own website’s URL and gain a link back to them through their comment. If you happen to run a blog it’ll also look for your latest RSS feed and publish the title and link to your post.
Before we get to the really meaty stuff I’d like to say that I love using CommentLuv; it’s a fun plug-in to have and it’s certainly increased the sense of community/amount of comments on my blog. In fact, since I installed it, I’ve noticed myself looking for links whenever someone else comments so I can go and visit them. In fact, on other blogs with it installed I’m more likely to visit other people I find interesting, or even comment myself.
From a purely altruistic point of view I’d like to think that people (myself included) comment more when it’s installed because:
However over the last couple of weeks I’ve been wondering why we really like CommentLuv, and who actually uses it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’d be fair to say that the people on this site read it because they have their own websites/blogs or are looking to create them. Possibly you even use the plug-in yourself, have used it on another site or you’ve at least heard of it.
I’d like to venture a radical concept (though probably not one that you haven’t thought of before).
Gosh, someone said it. Oops.
Hilarity aside, the only people that’d find it useful are people with a link to share. Everyone else would probably just ignore it, or if the check box is on by default, get bothered with some strange error they didn’t understand. (I’ve had this happen a couple of times to my non-web-owner friends)
I see nothing wrong with this. In fact, I think it can be a very positive thing when used correctly. Here’s why we might be hesitant to own up to it though;
Isn’t that a little insane? We’ve probably all thought something along those lines at some point, so why is it such a taboo subject?
Personally I think it’s because there’s such a stigma surrounding making money online, promoting yourself, and generally receiving rewards for the work you put into your site that we’re all too afraid to own up to it.
People (usually the uninitiated) are going to persist in thinking that bloggers should work for free unless we start standing up as a whole and saying “Actually, we can provide good content and make a living.”
CommentLuv, at least to me, is a passive way of hinting that you know people like to be rewarded for their time and that you expect the same sort of treatment. I see nothing dark and horrible in that statement, so why not bring it into the open?
What do you think?
Is it time for us closet-link lovers to step out?