I never know how or where I’ll find the next blog to showcase on Wednesdays.

Sometimes it’s someone who commented here, a link left in the Blog Registry, a recommendation from another blogger, or someone who has been blogging for awhile and I feel they need more recognition.

The blog I’m showcasing today started from a tweet – on Twitter.

The tweet said,

Chk out my new post “My Top Five Favorite Pranks to Play on People I Love.” http://bit.ly/67zj4

Curiousity got the best of me so I clicked on the link.

As I read this author’s favorite pranks, I laughed out loud. Then I watched the video and even now, as I think about it, I still laugh.

Laughter is the best medicine, isn’t it?

As I was preparing this post, I started to dig deeper into his archives. What a pleasant surprise.

You see, based on his online “handle”, the name of his blog and the post I had read, I assumed most of his blog was humor.

I was wrong.

When he detailed a conversation he had with a young gal on a bus, I found his words to be so captivating, I felt I was on the same bus ride.  Here’s a sampling from the post titled, Time Interrupted: The Girl On The Bus

Neither of us has to say anything about how it feels to wake up to the truth: the agonizing disappointment and emptiness; the heart racing to keep ahead of the fear that stalks it; the aching aloneness that squeezes the chest and grips the throat, threatening to stop the breath.

I won’t ruin it for you and say what the article is about, but it is a fabulous read.

Mixed throughout his blog are samplings of his humor. In his post titled Five Benefits Of Mononucleosis he starts out by saying,

First the Acute Phase, which feels like

1. You just finished drinking battery acid during a hallucinogenic funk
2. Your head is being forced through the birth canal of a tse-tse fly
3. Every muscle fiber has been flattened like a pancake under a Mack truck then loaded up with valium, minus any pain-relieving benefits
4. You have no stomach.

What an imagination and command of descriptions.

Another post worth mentioning is named, My Son, My Hero. In this post he shares a lesson his young son taught him.

Then there’s his Twitter profile where he describes himself as,

Average Joe just trying to enjoy life’s simple moments. Self-therapy thru a nutty blog. Hoping to help raise funds for autism, mental health & cancer research.

I could go on talking about this author, but since we don’t have time for that, without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Chris of Numb Nuggets.

Welcome to the Blogging Without A Blog community, Chris.

Enjoy your reign. Enjoy your blogging journey.

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As a footnote, I suggest all women as well as guys who have women in their lives, read the series titled, Momma’s Littlest Angel – How A Baby Girl Saved Her Mother’s Life – Part 1, Part II, and Part III.

This guy has been blogging for quite some time now and based on the valuable information he shares on his blog, he deserves to be showcased.

As an example, in his post titled Blogging For Money, What’s The Best Way To Make A Profit” he shares,

The first thing you need to do if you want to generate any real kind of income from blogging is figure out who your target customer will be. Then you may want to consider writing a business plan.

Often bloggers throw ads on their sites with no idea who will be reading their work. If we don’t take time to assess who our readers will be, by placing ads on our sites we may be wasting not only our time, but valuable blog “real estate”.

This blogger is quickly becoming a “go to” person for blog security.

Although he does it for a living, on his blog, he freely shares some on his knowledge. For example, when he wrote Two Easy Ways To Set Up A WordPress Firewall, he starts off by saying,

Question: Is your blog’s security a top priority for you? I bet the majority of you will say, “Yes, it is.” However, I bet 90% of you have taken very little steps to actually secure your blog against intruders.

He then goes on to share some tips to make our blogs more secure.

Too often we become lackadaisical with blogging. We think, “who would want to hack my site.”. Unfortunately, often it’s not that someone wants to hack YOUR site, they just want to challenge themselves to see if they can. Your blog could just be the one they pick.

This site even has a link to a “WordPress” school where you can see tutorials of such things as,

How to Upload/Align an Image to Your WordPress Blog

WordPress Widgets: What They Are & How to Use Them

How to Create a Static Home Page on Your WordPress Blog

How to back up your WordPress database

As I was reviewing the tutorials, I found a few I want to view, as well.

The author of this blog is not only a writer, but a genuinely nice person.

His blog is used in conjunction with his business and his business is web hosting and blog security.

Some of you may know him and some of you may have even used his services.

Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to my blogging friend, John Hoff, author, owner and creator of WPBlogHost

Welcome John.

It’s always a pleasure to have you here.

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Finding blogs to showcase is always a joy for me. There are so many good ones out there, I often have a hard time choosing whom to promote next.

This week, I’m highlighting a blogger who not only has one fairly new blog, but recently added a second one.

I’m not sure how she does it, but she consistently produces fabulous posts. She writes about life and all we encounter.

In her second blog, she is dedicating it to a four letter word called HOPE.

In When Art Heals A Heart, she writes,

…Each day we are given the choice to live our lives. Sometimes we are really living. Sometimes we are relying on others to live for us. Sometimes we are just coasting along, not really living in the true sense of the word. But every day we have the choice to live, to embrace the positive in our lives — however small that positive may seem.

I love how she worded this. We do have a choice how we live our lives, and it’s up to us to make the right decision.

When she shared the The ABC’s of Loving Yourself, I picked out “F” as one of my favorites as it’s so important for all of us to remember, not only in life, but in blogging. It reads,

Forget about comparisons.

Stop comparing yourself to others. No matter what you do, you probably will not ever look like Heidi Klum or Brad Pitt. But that’s okay! You are beautiful in your own way and you will always and forever be you. Accept yourself, love yourself, and stop looking to others to see what you “should” look like.

I was thinking of how this also applies to blogging. It’s one thing to learn from the A-listers, but when it comes right down to it, being authentic and writing from our heart is what makes us a success

This young girl is on the road to happiness. In her first blog, in a post titlted, 13 Ways To Distort Your Thoughts and How To Stop It Doing It, she shares how to reverse those negative thoughts. She offers (in part), the following advice.

* Be controlling. You can control the way you perceive a situation and the world around you. It’s not always easy, but you have have power to think about things the way you want to think about them — so try thinking about the positive.

* Be mindful. Be aware of what you are feeling when you are thinking. Sit with your emotions and figure out why you are having them. Once you recognize the distortions and can identify them, you’ll be more unlikely to be dismissive of your reactions. Pay attention to what you think.

I do agree. When we take control of our thought patterns, we can often find a way to see positive in nearly every situation.

You’ve seen her here. You may have seen her on your blog, too. In fact, you may have already visited her blog.

She is Dani; the author of not only Positively Present, but is now sharing more of her work in Hope Springs Internal

Please join me in re-welcoming Dani to the Blogging Without A Blog community.

Welcome Dani.

Enjoy your reign

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P.S. Dani can also be found on Twitter

Her dream was to combine her martial arts skills with a blog and teach others how to be safe. With this blog, she is doing just that.

Although this blog is new, the author is no stranger to blogosphere. She blogged for awhile, then went on hiatus. Now she’s back, writing about that which ignites her passion – teaching her audience ways to react in situations we may not have planned for.

In her post titled, Self Defense With Heel Palm Strike she shares a technique that could buy us some time if we encounter an attacker. This basic karate move could,

* Painfully slam the lower teeth into the upper teeth
* Stun a person for a few moments
* Put a person off balance enough to fall backwards
* Knock someone out completely from the impact of the strike
* Make a stunned attacker fall and knock themselves out when they hit the ground with their head

Ouch! That sounds like it would hurt, doesn’t it? The post shares the entire lesson.

Road rage is another situation we don’t plan for. Although some have experienced it, the majority of us wouldn’t know what to do. In No One Wants This Kind Of Relationship she shares why some people feel a need to confront others.

Criminal violence is a relationship. It’s a sucky relationship, to be sure, but the target’s voluntary participation is not required. The bad guys grab control, forcing their will on another so they can quench their need for sadism, manipulation, venting, power, or fulfilled entitlement.

In this article she shares suggestions for how you can react if you find yourself in this position.

In life we meet all kinds of people and her post titled Defense Against the Dark Hearts begins with a description of what “dark hearts” are.

* Friends who frequently sap you of energy
* Co-workers who make your life miserable
* Family who drive you crazy with silly arguments
* Teachers who make you always feel insignificant
* Bosses who make you feel like you have to walk on eggshells around them

I don’t know about you, but I’ve known a dark heart, or two. When she goes on to tell her readers why some act the way they do and how to deal with them, you’ll gain a better perspective on what to do and how to protect yourself from being intimidated or caught up in their web of deception.

With physical, mental and emotional self defense being the topic of this blog, for those who care about their own safety plus the safety of their children, this blog is a “subscription must”.

Many of you have seen her on your blog. Some have seen her here. She can also be found on Twitter.

Without further ado, I’d like to re-introduce Lori Hoeck, third degree black belt, senior martial arts instructor and author of Think Like a Black Belt.

Please join me in re-welcoming Lori to the Blogging Without A Blog community.

Welcome again, Lori.

It’s a joy to have you blogging again. I look forward to all of your future posts on a blog that’s sure to be a huge success.

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Remember when we had the discussion on needing to sell ourselves and our blogs in order to get discovered and read? Well, when I landed on this week’s “Blog of the Week”, I felt I found a blog that could teach us just that.

This author has not only studied how to influence others, but he has also worked for a “well established coaching and training company”. It was there he discovered his passion.

A passion to help others communicate more successfully.

I love what he says in his “About” page.

The most important thing I learned about communication is: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU, IT’S ABOUT THE PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU.

Isn’t that the truth. We can talk and/or write until we’re blue in the face, but if we don’t consider our audience, all may be for naught.

As I was digging through his archives I found gem titled A Million Ways to Make a Million Dollars in which he teaches us several techniques to become more persuasive. In part, he says,

Since becoming successful begins with you, it is important to convince yourself on your ideas. Have you ever ‘pitched’ an idea to someone even though you only partially believed it? What about the opposite, pitching an idea and standing as sturdy as a surfboard behind it? Obviously when you stand behind something with passion and power, you are more likely to get your point across. So now the question is how do we do this? How do we persuade ourselves to be confident, to be irresistible, and to be unstoppable?

What really stood out for me was the part about being passionate about what we’re “selling”. Whether we’re selling others on us, our blogs or on a product, if we don’t believe in it, we certainly can’t expect others to.

In 32 Questions: 20 Empowering & 12, Not so Much, he reminds us,

…Your mind is created to function and tic a certain way. When you ask your mind a question, it will ALWAYS look for an answer. So by asking yourself negative questions, you’ll get negative answers. What I’m about to share with you CAN be something that will dramatically change your life forever. …Imagine if you asked yourself questions like, “How can I get stronger?” “How do I get smarter?” “What should I do to make money now?” Do you want to know the answers to those questions?…

He then goes on to share questions we can ask ourselves. Which ones we choose and how we answer is up to us.

The suspense is over.

Drum roll please.

The blog I’m showcasing today is authored by AJ Kumar and is titled, Persuasive.net

Please join me in welcoming AJ to the Blogging Without A Blog community.

Welcome AJ.

Thank you for leaving your profile in the Blog Registry as that is how I found you.

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P.S. You can also follow AJ on Twitter.