ê¿êspi20.com — watching and writing

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how people were including stuff on their blogs that were just really kind of stupid. I’ve come across a few more things to add to my list and thought I would share them with you.

Why is it that photography blogs all think it’s cool to have a picture of themselves holding a camera up to their face on their blog? On the first blog I visited, it was a unique and branding kind of image (that would be www.benspark.com), but on the 25th photography blog visited (and there are 93 listed in Entrecard’s photography category), this image “brand” is now trite and tired. Surely there’s something else that would convey that you are a photographer besides this particular arrangement! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t want my blog to blend into the crowd — I want it to stand out (which is probably why I change it around so often — can’t have you getting bored!)

And then there are those who can’t seem to talk or write without using bad language. I’m not talking about poor spelling or grammar although those make me cringe, too, but the people who use the F-word in every sentence. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude and have been known to say that word on more than one occasion, but they are always well chosen occasions where the word delivers impact and isn’t just noise. Maybe you think it makes you cool, adult-sounding or just a bit naughty. The reality is that using it too often just makes you sound juvenile and lacking in vocabulary.

Writing an apology for not posting and then not following it up with a post. Trust me, it’s OK and even expected that you miss a few days or even a week or two of blogging. Life is what it is and often it gets in the way of our more pleasurable pursuits. Blogging is a hobby, a therapy, a sideline — it’s not and never should be the sum total of your life, so we as readers DO understand that there are times when you can’t post or even just don’t feel like posting. An apology is nice, but please get on with blogging after that! It’s what we came for! Unless you’re going to tell us all the down-and-dirty juicy bits, you really don’t even need to mention your absence or the reason for it. Just jump back in where you left off and let ‘er rip.

Writing with self confidence is one thing, writing with braggadocio is quite another. You can write knowledgeably about a subject without coming across as being a braggart. Don’t exaggerate facts — it’s great if you made $8,950 last year off Adsense, but don’t round it up to $10,000 and tell me that was your last months’ earnings! Some facts are too easy to check and being found out a liar is not only embarrassing for you and your reader, but it ruins your credibility on any other subject you write about. And hand-in-hand with this is don’t steal content from other people! You may write about the same subject as John Chow, but for gosh sakes, don’t copy and paste his post (or scrape it from your feeds)! Even if you change some words around, we’ll still know where it came from. Have some integrity!

I’ve noticed the last week or so that Blogger (blogspot.com) blogs are having issues with blogs being shut down, other blogs appear to be hacked and experience pop-unders of pornographic images and other sundry issues. I’m going to reiterate my advice to you if you have a blogspot.com or a wordpress.com (free) blog, do seriously contemplate buying your own domain name and hosting. You will be SO glad you did! Holdfire.org has a blogger’s package that includes 500mb of space and 5GB of bandwidth a month for $1.50 per month. Their customer service is EXCELLENT and downtime is minimal. You can also purchase more space/bandwidth as needed, but this package has been more than adequate for me in the month I’ve been here. Throw in $9 for a domain name and you’re in business for next to nothing.

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