The amount of blogs online grows by thousands every day.
There is no way we can read, or even find them all, but we try.
Over the past year, I’ve read hundreds of blog posts (possibly thousands).
There’s some good stuff out there.
In the beginning, I remember reading posts written by seasoned bloggers. I was often in awe. Their posts were so eloquently written. Some intimidated me.
I would ask myself, “Can I ever be that good?”
I marveled at the dozens of comments they had, the massive amount of RSS feed readers, their high page rank, low Alexa rating (lower is better with Alexa), and their archives which were filled with hundreds of blog posts.
In someways I felt pretty “small”. I had zero comments, zero feed readers/subscribers, a 0/10 Google page rank, an Alexa rating that topped 2 million, and my archives were looking pretty pathetic.
My enthusiasm and motivation were quickly becoming depleted.
Finally I realized what was happening.
I had been comparing myself/my blog to longtime bloggers.
To set myself straight, I figuratively slapped myself upside the head.
I stopped visiting so many blogs, and concentrated on my own. I wrote from my heart and quit comparing my blog/myself to others.
It was then that I found my voice.
Lesson 11: We will always find blogs that are better than ours (in one way or the other). If we continually compare our blog/ourself to others, we will never be satisfied. We will always want more, even if we don’t know what more is. In the process of striving for perfection or trying to be like the “big boys/girls”, we often lose our voice.
Sometimes it’s better to stick close to home and play in our own sandbox.
Today’s Assignment
Do you look at other blogs and think, “the grass is greener on the other side”?
Do other blogs intimidate you and make you feel “less than:?
Do you want to be like the big boys/girls? Be popular?
Or have you already learned this lesson and and write from your heart?
Photo Credit: BlazerMan’s photostream
Words gets a lot of politicians in trouble, with some believing politicians are just blowing smoke.
Hi. I'm Barbara Swafford and I'd like to welcome you to Blogging Without A Blog. Grab a seat, share your thoughts and join in the conversation. 
Photo Credit junkmonkey’s photos
Several comments to my last post, “Comment Luv – Linky Love – NoNoFollow” inspired me to dig deeper into the subject of blog spam (also referred to as comment spam). I wanted to know why blogs get spammed, and what we can do to prevent it.
Today’s Lesson
Wikipedia, states spammers are on a mission to elevate their websites in the search engine rankings. By linking to blogs they obtain more links pointing to their sites. Apparently this method is working. Spammers are gaining sales/income via clicks from visitors. Spammers hit the “jackpot” with the creation of blogs.
According to Wikipedia,
Several of the solutions listed by Wikipedia to block comment spam, include
1) Keyword blocking – blocking words such as viagra (spammers know of this practice and will intentionally misspell words)
2) Using the “rel=”nofollow” code. Wikipedia states the argument against this is:
3) Validation, or the use of a potential commenter to provide an “answer’, such as “is fire hot or cold”, “2+2″ or to retype a series of numbers and letters (CAPTCHA)
4) Disallowing links in post comments
5) Using a spam blocker such as Akismet
6) Turning comments off.
Short of turning comments off, it appears blog spam (comment spam) is here to stay.
Today’s Assignment
How do you deal with blog spam?
Do you use a spam blocker or hand moderate each comment?
Do you have any other ideas of how spam can be eliminated?