A recent comment I made in Mr Endoh’s blog warranted an answer below. I asked the blogger Mr Endoh if he feels vulnerable meeting fellow bloggers in person when he is not one who is shy about exposing himself naked in his blog. No, I’m not talking about the ‘Penthouse’ kind of nudity. (yeah, I wish too :-P) I’m merely saying he is one who is not afraid to write down his inner thoughts and share his insight from virginity to religion.

This is a portion of the reply he gave me..

I don’t think I will feel vulnerable, since I have been honest with things I have written based on my own analysis and understanding. I could be wrong in thinking in certain ways, but at least it truthfully came from my heart. ……

This has got me thinking. Sure, I write alot of stuffs on my blog. I do open up alot when I’m writing to people I do not know. Yes, you can argue bloggers do in time develop a certain relationship with their readers or fellow bloggers. I agree. But then many would agree with me too that blogging acquaintanceship is still different from friends whom we know in person. Especially old friends who witnessed the ups and downs in our life real time. Another difference I can say off hand is the fact blogging on the internet give bloggers the advantage of ‘conditional exposé.‘

I stole a line from a book I read that best illustrate conditional exposé.

Leornado Da Vinci wrote every painter should begin a canvas with a black wash because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. Most painters do the opposite and start with a whitewash and adding the shadows last. Leoarnado knew the value of starting with the shadows. The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see.

Substitute the word painter with blogger and it still holds true. Personally, I believe it is liberating if I can just disregard the fear of people not liking what they see. The truth is, despite all the years, I still have the puppy mentality in me. Puppy likes to please. They’ll do the darnest thing just to be loved… or accepted. If I can overcome the hurdle, I bet I’ll be a much happier person. Not only in the blogospere, I meant my real life.

Damn, then I think I’ll start debating with my cell leader on the issue ‘are Roman Catholics saved?’ I had hold my tongue long enough….

My blogging friend over at Blogsreview came up with a good question. Why do we blog?

Firstly, Why do I blog?

I wouldn’t be half truthful if I did not say I relish the possibility someone will listen to what I have to write. Honest, in the beginning, the allure of being heard is just too tempting for an introvert like me who don’t exactly have a social life. I am an opinionated individual to begin with. So what is better than getting to voice my opinion on cyberspace? Actually there is… getting paid to do it. OK, OK, its not exactly what the blogging purists had in mind … But then if you want the unadulterated truth, here it is.

Having said that, I still hold on to the notion you can still be true to your postings even if you are getting compensated to do it. It is not that hard. My rule of thumb is, if I don’t believe in the product/service, I don’t pimp it. It is not really worth getting your integrity down the dumps by earning a little extra dollar. I don’t care what other bloggers are doing, it’s their life. I don’t judge and I sure don’t care. This is mine. There is a line I will not cross.

What do I hope to achieve by blogging?

I am really fortunate to have met a few good blogging friends. Some I had the privilege to meet in person, others through email correspondence. This has to be the biggest joy getting to know people who clicks with you. Secondly, I do hope to earn a little side money to foot my electrical and domain hosting bills.

WTH? That’s it for your paid post money?

Not exactly the most ambitious and motivating person around, right? True. That is why you won’t see me preaching the Gospel of easy blogging and good life from paid posts. I’m not exactly those motivating speakers you find giving speeches at those million dollar table. I’m just not that ambitious and I’m not good faking it. That is why I can never do direct sales.
I’m just happy to be meeting great people and making a little to help with the bills on the side through my blogging journey.

How much time do I spend doing blogging related work?

I tell you it’s way longer than what I put in when I was working for people. I comment, socialize, do paid posts and reply emails…. it comes to about more than 8 hours a day. Though I can take a napping break at my whim. It’s not too bad when you’re enjoying what you are doing. It was longer when I first started paid posts. But now I’ve found my balance between paid posts, blogging, personal time and Astro, I’ve pretty much settled in.

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This is one of those post I did spontaneously and enjoyed totally. Anyone wanting to take up on this challenge, visit Blogsreview and write down your post link to share your thoughts.

When I first started this blog, the first thing that came to my mind was is this really necessary? Honestly, is there a point for bloggers to start more than 1 blog?

This is one of the great blogging mystery to me seeing folks starting their own blogs like starting a stamp collection. Really, I’ve been through that before when I started this blog.

Should I start another blog? Do I need another commitment to add to my list of blogging headaches?

Sure, it’s not too hard to start another blog, but then the headache starts when you have to actually update your blogs. The question of quality and content usually comes up. Can I be fair and devote as much attention and love to all the blogs? Yeah, I’m sounding like a parent contemplating should I have another kid. There’s not much difference in that analogy when you come to think of it. Maintaining your blogs are like taking care of your baby. You nurture it and watch it grow. The similarity ends there. While your real kids will stand on their own 2 feet one day, your blogs are going to depend on you for the rest of its existence. So I say taking care of blogs are more time consuming and much harder than taking care of your baby. The frightful thing is this blog baby is not going to wean off your breastfeeding in another 6 months or 12 months…. it’s going to go on forever.

So ultimately I asked myself, you crazy? Is it worth it?

The truth is, it’s never going to be worth it if you measure it in terms of your time spent. This is where I guess passion comes in. People do things they like without asking for returns. Same here. Unless you are thinking of monetizing all your blogs for making money, it’s never really worth it….. provided you are driven by real passion. Period.

People had been telling me it makes better sense to get my own domain. Something to truly call my own. People are just people, if you listen to something long enough, you’ll start believing. I’ve nothing against free blogging platforms, they serve their purpose just as well. If you want the satisfaction of truly owning something by paying for it, then get your own domain and hosting plan by all means. It’s a personal choice.

So, I have more than 1 blog…. what then? Frankly, the only thing I can think of is to differentiate and categorize my blogging contents into different blogs. My blog contents are less messy when I concentrate each on certain category. The biggest plus is …. blog readers.

Many times we tend to put up the same people on our blogrolls on all our blogs. If, my blog now strive on different content, I would like to filter my readers according to their interest too. Let’s say one blog I write about parenting and the second blog I write about reviews. I cannot assume people who were interested in my parenting blog share the same interest with me on my review blog. That is why, I try to have different people on my blogroll on my different blogs. I don’t just copy and paste the same blogroll and apply to all my blogs.

Hopefully by filtering readers based on their interest, each blog can have their very own community of readers. Of course I’m not discounting the fact there are readers out there who share both my interest. In that case, I don’t mind putting them on both my blogroll. In a way, I do hope I can expand my readership based on my different blog category and not just the same group of readers overlapping each other on my blogs.

I blogged about the blogs that got sidelined by Blogrush during the recent ’sweep’ that supposedly to ensure only quality blogs are included in their system. I found the list of blogs that were sidelined (at the bottom of my old post) and needless to say, curiosity got better of me. I went to check them out.

I’m in awe. Really, I am. Those were some real good blogs there. Heck, I got to say if those blogs do not meet Blogrush ’stringent’ QC, maybe I seriously ought to check out those on their widget the next time I chanced upon it.

Hope I won’t be disappointed with those that met its stringent QC. Is that possible?

I think the dilemma every blogger faces when they have blogged long enough is finding time to visit their commentators and people on their blogroll. Just the other day one blogging friend of mine lamented the said dilemma. I can totally relate to that.

Things were much easier in our early blogging days when commentators were few and our blogroll was practically non-existent. Well, we probably included a few popular blogs we visit on our blogroll just to spare us the embarassment of an empty list, but then I doubt these popular bloggers would care much if we drop by or not.

As our blogging days got longer, so did our blogroll. I believe most people on our blogroll are folks whom dropped by our blogs and commented. In our early blogging days, we felt so grateful somebody actually came to our blog, we felt compelled to include them in our blog list. Of course, we do hope in the dark corner of our mind somewhere these people would reciprocate our deed with a link back to our blog. Well, we’re only human.

As I’ve blogged before, I do think it is good idea to reply to the commentators on your blog. Of course it would be hard if you are those bloggers who are usually blessed with 30 over comments. But then I’ve seen some bloggers with 40+ comments actually replying to all their comments individually. Yeah, I guess this is one attribute that makes them popular. They earned it.

Personally, I do find it hard to visit everyone on my blogroll. It took me sometime to face the fact and draw the line. It’s not like I have much of a choice. Time is really an issue.

My take is, when I visit a blog, I make sure I got my priority right. Why do I drop by somebody’s blog? The only reason I drop by any blog for that matter is solely because I sincerely enjoy my read. I am not doing it out of obligation. Obligatory visits and comments are just lame. Do it long enough, you’ll start to loathe your routine.

No matter how I like blogging, I have to concur there are more to my life than blogging and going around leaving comments. Especially those comments and visits that fall short of sincerity. There are plenty of things out there which deserve my attention just as much. I just hope a balance can be struck and once again peace reigns.

When I switched to this new WP theme, I relished the fact the codes are easy to change. Unlike my previous theme. I had however been told by my husband there is still something lacking about this new look. He prefers my old WP theme.

Seriously, it’s the best thing if aesthetic and practicality can come together and work hand in hand. In the worst case scenario, where I have to take a pick, practicality still rules. I’ve not given up on this new template and I thought I might as well try changing the default font from Georgia to Tahoma. Fonts do matter.

Don’t know about you, I do think it looks neater. Finally, my husband concurred. What a relieve.

I guess with blogs and online journals, ordinary peeps are overwhelmed by the sudden power to be the center of the universe in their little blogging world. Many times bloggers are just so consumed with themselves, it ’s like nothing else matters. The world revolves around them and their blogs.

The recent Google shuffle saw many blogs losing their PR. This of course led to much dissatisfaction and lamenting because of lost revenue from paid links or paid posts. I would know because I’m one of the people affected. I do paid posts and my main blog lost 1 or 2 notches (different data centers have different readings).

Will I see less paid posts opportunities?

You bet.

Am I mad about it?

I am not happy about it but I sure as hell not mad. Don’t get me wrong. No, it’s not like I’m such an exceptional being I can transcend beyond human emotion and remain nonchalant about my dwindling paid posts income. I’m not that good. I’m merely being logical about the whole thing. I try not to just stand from my alpha position looking out from my little world and expect everything to revolve around it. I just took a step out of my private zone and look at the whole thing from another perspective.

Like in any everyday business agreement, there has to be someone selling, and somebody willing to buy. There has to be a certain element of mutual benefit to the agreement. Nobody in their right mind will enter into an agreement if they cannot derive any sort of compensation from it. Unless somebody is pointing a gun at you…

In the paid posts arena, advertisers are purchasing your blog space and you are selling yours. I used the word blog space or blogs. Not the blogger. That is an important distinction. Many people had argued PR rankings will not affect the quality of the blogger. I agree 100%.

If a blogger writes good posts, they’ll continue to do so with or without PR ranking. The crux of the matter is, bloggers are not selling themselves to advertisers. They are selling their blogs or blog space. The commodity of the blogger here is their blog. If, the PR rankings of your blog drops, the value of your bargaining power drops. Simple. Nobody is less of a blogger if their blog rank goes down, but then your blog is less of a value if it does.

On a neutral note, benefit of an agreement should be mutual. Not just one sided. You cannot measure merely from your own standpoint. Advertisers have rights too. If, I cannot offer to my buyer/advertiser something of value, of course I won’t get the deal. Nothing is just about me.

What is there to be mad?

I’m finally letting my previous WP Mandigo theme go. The theme has been giving me erratic alignment problems. It would have been easier had it been consistent. The thing is, I never know when the theme goes out of alignment. One minute you see it, the next, you don’t. Sometimes it looks fine on Firefox, it goes haywire on IE.

While I don’t condone constant changing of themes, I have to concur blog templates are like relationship. You’ll save yourself alot of heartbreak knowing when is the right time to let it go. This current theme is much more easier to handle and I’ll still have much tweaking to do.

OK, It might be an exaggeration for you. Not me though. I just made my first conversion from Blogger to Wordpress in this blog a little over 3 months ago. Needless to say, it was a no-smooth sailing relationship. The tweaking was crazy. I’ve no clue at all.

The current Mandigo theme this blog is using is not a bad-looker. But then the codes are pretty confusing. I had always an interest in designing banners. So, I started a new blog to showcase my work. Needless to say, the hunt for another WP continues. It took me the whole day to find one that thrill me to bits. Love it to death.

After installing 3 or more themes, I finally found the love of my life. Daily Digest 3.0 has to be the most beautiful WP theme in my books. OK, it looks like a newspaper and I won’t want it any other way. I love banners, so, the generous banner-width of the theme is a plus for me. Not to mention the satisfaction of having my post looking like something out of the newspaper.

To the Wordpress theme author, Joni, bless you!

I’m not talking about this blog. This one has yet got rated by Google and judging by the looks of things, it won’t be anytime soon. Well, you know what they say, when you are at the rock bottom, you can’t go anywhere else but up. Let’s hope this blog here will not defy the nature of gravity and will go up within the next 365 days. I wanted to say this lifetime but then that is not exactly motivating. I’ll just stick to the conservative 365 days.

My other Blogger blog has at the time being, remain unscathed. It’s still sporting a PR4. Up there with the big names like Problogger and Dosh Dosh. Now, I’m not disillusioned. That personal blog can no way compare with the big guns in terms of contents and hits. So it just shows PR is no real indication of true traffic… or importance.

Now, the knee jerk reaction is great. Finger pointing is everywhere.. from paid posts to text links to leaking PR juice. I do have a long list of blogs on my PR4 blogroll. These blogs are mostly blogs whom I know in my 3 year blogging journey. Most of these blogs started off together with me and I know they are no splogs.

In view of that, I see no reason why I should drop them off my blogroll because of unfounded rumors and fear about leaking PR juice. Honestly, just enjoy blogging for what it is.

Wait, what about paid posts? PR is a factor…..

I know, will talk about that later.

My blogging friend over at Blogsreview has something interesting to add.

Update: Oops, maybe I spoke too soon. My Blogger blog is hovering between PR 3 and PR 4. There is a possibility I’m losing one notch.