pelf-ism is contagious

I’ve been blogging for about 21 months and I’m proud to say that I’ve only experienced what we call “blogger’s block” a couple of times. But I’ve learned that those blogger’s block existed because I wasn’t blogging for myself. Because I was blogging for an audience, and I was having a difficult time determining what was it that my readers wanted from me.

But overtime, I’ve managed to pick myself up and I started blogging for myself. I started putting my thoughts and experiences down. I started blogging more about myself — my childhood, my past, my relationships, my present and my aspirations — because this is what it should be. My blog should be written for myself.

But, of course, I wouldn’t be able to blog about myself without people who constantly remind me who I was, and who I hoped to be one day.

For example, I’ve been a loyal reader of The I’mPerfectMom eversince I found it, not only because Jenn’s got two very beautiful girls, but also because her girls reminded me so much of my sister and I, when we were younger, and I could almost always relate to whatever she wrote about her girls. An example that stood out was one of her conversations with her daughter on the podcast that reminded me of the recording I did with my Mum (back in 1985, we used the radio and cassette, no podcasting yet, heh) when I was four. Her daughter’s eagerness to listen to the podcast after it had been recorded was similar to my eagerness to listen to the cassette after my conversation with my Mum ended.

Hence, it’s safe to say that I connect a lil’ more with my blogger friends whom I’ve met (e.g. Angie and Bart, Moz Monster and Yvonne, to name a few) or who happen to blog about topics that I could relate to, as well as topics that I’d like to learn a lot from. There are no guides whose feeds I monitor to keep up with the news in my blogging industry, because there isn’t an industry in the first place. With that said, there are mentors whose feeds I pick just so I could learn more about blogging and writing, e.g. Lorelle (both on WordPress.com and The Blog Herald) and Liz Strauss @ Successful Blog.

So who are your guides/mentors? Who, and what are your news resources that help you write your blog’s content?

This is written in response to Lorelle’s Blogging Challenge, and is published automagically because I’m away and will only be back in 2 days.

OK. Confession time I am suddenly reminded of my roommate who was very afraid of confession. My other roommate and I had to practically drag her to church for it.

Now, I used to be a traffic hound because I was influenced by “influential bloggers” when they blogged about how simple it was generating income through their blogs, though I forgot the utmost important point that they were popular and hence had a lot of unique visitors on a daily basis, so that would inevitably mean that the probability of somebody clicking on those ads were higher than I could ever imagine. But that was during a time when everybody was talking (or rather, blogging) about getting paid while blogging and surfing and making money from their blogs, you get my drift..

So I went with the flow. I registered for a couple of paid-to-blog companies and I plastered a number of Google Adsense and Amazon ads on my blog, naively thinking that I could also earn a decent income if those ads were placed strategically.

Boy, was I horribly wrong!

Blogging opportunities from some paid-to-blog companies were either horrible (with due respect to those who write for them) or had nothing to do with me. It need not take a genius to realize that people would eventually stop visiting my blog if I wrote about gold coins or Belisi fashion (whatever was that?!) or some other form of loans I had never heard of. And I realized, the hard way, that incorporating sponsored content on my blog significantly reduced the conversation on my blog in the form of comments. It also need not take an Einstein to realize that people (generally) do not read sponsored content, however personal you made it sound.

Similarly, months passed and my Google Adsense revenue was pretty much stagnant at USD 12.51. Despite the fluctuation in the number of visitors who visited my blog per day, my Adsense revenue did not increase significantly at all.

So that was when I took a turn to how I looked at my blog

I deleted my accounts with most of the paid-to-blog companies, especially those who provide nothing more than paid assignments on “gold coins” and “bust-size increment”. I stopped writing sponsored content for about three weeks, and I removed all affiliates ads but retained the Adsense ads because I thought they weren’t obtrusive (or are they?), and unsurprisingly, people resumed commenting. I realized that people started paying more attention to what I was saying. And a beautiful relationship between my readers (and visitors) and I was born.

So, am I happy now?

Definitely! I have finally gotten back to my blogging feet though I’m still writing paid content and I ensure that whatever I write about benefits my readers in one way or another. And this “little detour” doesn’t mean that it is not worthwhile trying to generate your own income from your blog. It only means that I am not a good businesswoman, and I’m better off writing about charities instead of how to make money

So, in case you’ve just stepped into the beautiful world of blogging (and then stumbled upon my humble blog), there’s this little advice I’d like to put into your pocket:

If you place an advertisement on your blog, it is considered a business, and like all businesses, it should be treated professionally.

- Lorelle vanFossen, in her book Blogging Tips: What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging

This is written in response to Lorelle’s question: Are you a traffic hound or a blog authority? Does it show? How?

… because you don’t have to go by the textbooks, and you can learn whatever you want to learn on any specific day. You can go to “school” everyday, or you can go once a week, or once a month OR whenever you needed help, heh. Whenever you have problems you can’t solve by yourself, pop a question, and the teachers will get back to you. Ouh, and by the way, the “teachers” are always in the school, whether you go or not, that’s how dedicated they are.

You have a problem with your sitemap? Go to school. Problem with your sidebars not behaving themselves? Go to school. Problem with your blog not being popular enough? Go to school. Heh.

I joined the MalaysiaBloggers forum not too long ago (in March 2007) to learn about how WordPress functions so that I don’t have to depend on other people to fix my minor blog problems which seemed to happen quite frequently. I asked whether it was possible to import posts from a WordPress blog to another WordPress blog, I enquired about the 3-minute WordPress upgrade because I thought it was the greatest invention EVER, I asked about the Official Comment plugin because I wanted to make my comments appear differently than my readers’ and I cried for help because when Edrei upgraded my WordPress to version 2.2, one of my plugins caused some problems and I couldn’t save the changes after I edited my sidebars.

And of the many members of the MalaysiaBloggers forum, I received the most help and assistance and advice from two bloggers — GeminiGeek and Cypherhackz. Both of them were there when I asked the stupidest questions ever, and both of them were there to offer me invaluable advice and suggestions and tips on how to get my blog to behave like how I wanted it to. Heck, if I stayed long enough, Cypherhackz might even teach me how to design a cute RSS button like the one he has (on the right), soooo cuteee, right?

So yeah, thank you very much, teachers!