With blogging, we often label fellow bloggers as “blogging buddies”.

But who are these people, really?

Today’s Lesson

In the comments of the The Cost Of Being Heard post Sara of A Sharing Connection said, in part,

One thing kind of bothers me about the subject of “real” friends and “online” friends I don’t see a great deal of difference, except I can’t see the online person. A friend is a friend. Friendship is about communication and sharing. So what if it’s not face-to-face?

Writing coach Davina of Shades of Crimson shared,

The only time when I feel funny talking to my offline friends about blogging is when I hear myself say, “My online friend so and so said…” It sounds like I have invisible friends, lol. …

In real life it’s easy to label someone we know. We’ll say, “my friend…”, or tag them with a descriptive title such as “my sister”, “my cousin” or “a co-worker.” and whomever we’re talking to, knows exactly who we’re talking about.

But what about the people we meet online? Who are they?

A friend? A follower? An online acquaintance? A fellow blogger? A blogging buddy?

Do we classify them differently because we’ve never met in person?

Are they an acquaintance or blogging buddy first, but after we’ve known them for a while, they earn the “friend” title?

Behind every blog, every Facebook post, and every tweet is a real person with real feelings. Real thoughts. Real emotions.

People just like us.

Although we can’t see them and may never meet them, via words, relationships form.

Are they less important than the relationships we have in the real world?

Maybe not.

Today’s Assignment

When talking to your real life friends about those whom you’ve met online, how do you describe them?

Do you think online and offline friendships/relationships can be equal?

Care to share?

I was recently reminded of an old classic sung by Barbra Streisand.

The name of the song is “People”, and the lyrics are:

People,
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world
We’re children needing other children
And yet letting our grown-up pride
Hide all the need inside
Acting more like children than children
Lovers
Are very special people
They’re the luckiest people in the world
With one person,
One very special person
A feeling deep in your soul
Says you are half now you’re whole
No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person who needs people
People, people who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world.

With one person
One very special person
A feeling deep in your soul
Says you are half now you’re whole
No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person who needs people
People, people who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world.

When I hear/read the words,

“A feeling deep in your soul
Says you are half now you’re whole

I realize that’s what fellow bloggers do for us.

Today’s Lesson

When we start a blog, it’s usually a journey we venture on by ourselves and have no way of knowing where it will take us.

Each time we sit at our keyboards, type our thoughts and  hit “publish”, the wait begins.

Sometimes the wait is long.

For some, the wait is so long, they give up.

For others, persistence pays off the we get “discovered”.

Not discovered in a big way, but our words make an impression on another person and they respond.

That’s when magic happens and we begin to feel validated.  We begin to feel we’re being heard and understood.

It’s in that validation process we begin to shine. We being to share more, and are often motivated to reach higher.

In one sense, we may feel needed for OUR knowledge, but more importantly, we begin to realize we do need others as well.

Today’s Assignment

When you receive comments on your blog, or messages on social media sites, what emotions do they ignite in you?

Would you keep blogging, Twittering or partaking in social networks if people didn’t respond to you?

For me, blogging wouldn’t be the same without people. I’m anxious to hear you think.

.

Today’s Lesson

I call that “spikey” traffic.

It does one of three things.

1) It distorts your actual visitors statistics by increasing your averages

2) It may help to bring regular visitors to your blog.

3) It can teach you how to write better posts

To elaborate on each point:

By having a huge spike in your traffic for one month, by month end, your statistics may show higher. (dah!) The next month when your traffic is back to “normal”, or only steadily increasing, by month end, you may show a decline in visitors. This can be discouraging, as your first thought may be “Oh no, my visitor counts are dropping”, but you forgot about the traffic spike.

The second point works to your advantage. Some of the spikey traffic may have found your blog due to a particular post, and a small percentage of those visitors are sticking around.

The third point becomes a learning lesson. Go back to the post that created the spike in your traffic. Determine why it was popular. Did you use keyword density? Did you write about a current event? Was it Stumbled? Dugg? Or, other?

Today’s Assignment

Have you experienced “spikey” traffic?

What was it about the post that created a spike in your traffic?

Do you think you can duplicate that which created the increase in traffic?

Do you notice your traffic leveling off at a higher level, than it was before the spike?

When I first started this blog, I decided to provide a link to all individuals (who had blogs or websites) who commented on, or linked to my blogs. That is when my “Blogging Buddies” page was born.

It was my way of saying “thank you” for visiting my sites. Since, I also believe in “paying it forward”, my hope is, that the blogs of my “Blogging Buddies”, will gain more visitors, as well.

While researching for additional lessons to pass on to my readers, I was studying “linking”. Long story, short….it appears, in the process of setting up links to all of my “Blogging Buddies”, I may be inadvertently, also be setting up a “link farm”.

To quote Webopedia

A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites

Link farms, sometimes computer generated, were formed years ago by individuals who wanted to “beat the system” and gain page rank. Links were bought, sold, and traded (reciprocal linking), and some websites quickly climbed up the Google page rank. Then, Google and the other search engines, caught on to this technique, and started penalizing these sites.

I doubt my “Blogging Buddies” pages would yet be considered a link farm, as it only had 28 links, however, I do not want to risk being penalized. Being penalized could mean I stop getting indexed, and if that were to happen, I would also risk being able to refer others to my “Blogging Buddies”.

I have updated my Blogging Buddies page, and have removed all of the direct links. The names of all of my “Blogging Buddies” are left intact. To visit a “Blogging Buddie” of mine, it’s just a matter of doing a quick search for their name.

It saddens me when I hear stories of others trying to “beat the system”, and undoubtedly, it’s money related. Unfortunately, those setting up link farms, are no different than any other individual (or group of individuals), who are always looking for a way to make a quick buck, cheat an employer or the government, rob from others, and then use the excuse that “it’s owed to them”. I say get a job. Get a life. And quit looking for a free ride.

To my loyal “Blogging Buddies”, I do apologize if I mislead you in any way. It’s still my hope, that my blog, will be one of many referral sites, that helps to get you discovered. I thank you for your loyal readership, and am wishing much success to all of you!

To quote Wikipedia.org

A favicon (short for ‘favorites icon’), also known as a website icon, a page icon or an urlicon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage.

Where do you see a favicon? You will see it at the beginning of the URL (in your search bar), when you land on a page of a website or blog, where one has been created. It’s actually a very small picture, logo, or whatever the author of the site, chooses.

While I was visiting one of my Blogging Buddies, Nelson at Help Desk Geek, I noticed that he had a favicon. Since he is an expert in computers, I asked him if he would share, with the rest of us, how to create a favicon. He graciously complied, and produced an excellent post detailing how to make your own favicon. To read his post, click on this link: How To Create a Favicon For Your Blog

When you are visiting his site, take note of his favicon. It’s a photo of himself.

How cool is that?

So far, I haven’t ventured into the direction of creating a favicon for my blogs, but when the time arises, I know just where to go, to get detailed instructions.

Thank you again, Nelson!