The challenge of being a personal blogger is keeping it that way. I enjoy the added challenge of building my site and traffic and seeing it grow. I understand that most people are going to be lurkers, I don't comment on every single post or blog I stop at after all. So having a web counter gives you that little boost to see that it's not just yourself and a few friends reading your blog.

But, once you get traffic others want to benefit from it. People seem to expect they have every right to perch like a cow bird on my blog. I don't understand their attitude. It seems very arrogant to think I should want them here. I don't.

I get at least 2 or 3 emails each week from someone "writing for a client" or themselves telling me what a great favour they can do for me by putting ads on my site. Do you see ads on my site? Other than the one text ad thing which says I will make $1.91 eventually, there aren't any ads here. I could understand their attitude that I would want their ads if I was running an ad farm. But, I'm not. So clue in and try another blog.

What really really does peeve me, far more, are those who want to be my friend. Do you even know my name? No. How can you be my friend when you know nothing about me. You wouldn't miss me if I was hit by a bus an hour from now. The only impact my absense would have is the worth of having a link to my blog traffic. So peeve off and befriend some rock or something. I only want to be friends with people who at least have the interest in making a return visit and actually reading some of my blabbering.

I use my Technorati list for blogs _ I _ read. Yes, me, not you. I do not use it as a way of trading links. I do not expect anyone on that list to link back to me. It is nice if they do, I don't check into it. That list is for me. It is a list for me. Hope that helps some of those people who think they are my friends and should be added to my blogroll because we are such great friends. I don't trade links on my blogroll. Of course, it would be nice if any of those friends would read this. They won't. They don't read blogs they just use them.

Anyway, that is my little rant except for one last point.

The problem with having a personal blog and the ego to find traffic is that you put time and energy into promoting it and don't always have time and energy to post to it. Kind of silly. I aim to post each day but some days I am cheating to get content. I would prefer all my posts to be real blog entries and geeky looking stick figure drawings. But, I work, I have laundry and I like to sleep at least once every 24 hours or so. Some days a cheat is all I can do. But, I try to make them interesting cheats, not just another cheap cheat. :)

So there are my thoughts about blogging today. It's not easy being a personal blogger in a world of monetizing mania. But I'm not forgetting what I liked about blogging in the first place and I'm sticking to being a personal blogger, with pride in creating for myself and those who wander in for a look.

I've been trying to read the blogs as I drop cards through Entrecard. That's why I am commenting more and then coming back here with it when I think I wrote something I'd actually like to remember myself. This comment I posted to Temerity Jane, in a post about lying to your blog readers and trying to make yourself out to be a blog star. Makes me think of someone (more than one) who began calling himself an "Internet Personality". What does that really mean? It's just BS, designed to blow up their own ego. At the end of her post Temerity Jane asked her readers to post their best advice for bloggers and readers. Mine follows:

*I think we need to remember that we are people, both the readers and the bloggers. When you write be true to who you are. Don't go too far with the idea of writing to an audience. If you aren't writing to yourself it's going to be meaningless.

Readers are looking for all kinds of things when they come to a blog. There is no way you can be what everyone wants so don't try. Organize your content so it is easy for readers to read and find. Try to declutter your sidebar and keep the blog looking clean. Keep the content as the focus not the gadgets. (I'm not the best example there cause I enjoy the gadgets and avatars for myself).*

Lady Banana selected me and this blog as a Treasured Blogger. The Treasured Blogger idea came from Dancin' Fool as a dedication to a blogger she will miss. I've also had a few people who I came to know through their blogs only to have them disappear one day. It is sad. For some you think of them years later but have no idea how to ever find them again, even if they did start blogging once again.

So thank you to Lady Banana. It really is an honour to be someone who would be missed. I think a lot of us write these personal blogs as a way of being heard, getting some feedback and maybe as a way to feel connected to the world and all the people in it. That isn't something you can always find in the day to day daily grind where people often don't even know their neighbours. It really is more than nice to be a voice out here in the world who would be missed. Thank you to everyone who comes along this way, thanks for listening, even for a short time.

Bloggers that I miss are Happy and Blue (Glenn) and Skye. Skye has a new blog but posts pretty rarely.

Bloggers I would miss if they disappeared would include Lady Banana but she sent me the award so I will mention her but not have her create another list for her blog.

The grrls as I think of us, from my Ontario Rural Ruins group. I'd hugely miss seeing photos from The Navigator, Kate, Lee Ann and msDeKay. Not only do they find great things but they take great photos too.

I only know him as twintam44 on Flickr but I have wondered if he knows b13fotographica, then there are The Useless Men, Terry aka Latte Girl, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Jade who has the best newsletter with quotes, Bev Walton-Porter who has several blogs but I still don't keep in touch as I'd like to, Rainy Pete and others who I have known in the past and lost track of in the now. I hope you know who you are if you wander this way.

Taking this one from Don Mills Diva

How long have you been blogging?
I started in 1998. The current blog was started in 2004.

What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
Not sure who my mentors would be. Debbie from InkSpot, though her site is long gone. There was a lady who had a beautiful blog template with a ladybug but I doubt I could find her again, if she still has the same blog or any blog at all. I think she was Canadian too.

I was inspired to blog because I loved the creativity, the spirit and freedom to publish anything my heart and mind could dream up. As long as I could find a way to get it to work.

Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
Making money from blogging just doesn't seem right to me. I'm from the time when the Internet was a free exchange of information and personal publishing was just for the sheer joy of being creative in a new medium.

What 3 things do you love about being online?
Finding new things. Whether it is a new blog gadget, a new form of art or something else I had never thought of, I love finding something new to explore.

I like the whole area of personal/ indie/ diy publishing. It's a great freedom and adventure to be able to put something up in a blog and find other people actually caring or being interested enough to read it, comment and even come back for more.

I love that it is available. Better than a city that never sleeps, being online is like being part of a whole world, an entire planet that never sleeps.

What 3 things do you struggle with online?
There are times when I don't find anything new and I feel a bit jaded, like there just isn't anything new to find. If I am addicted to being online it shows during those times.

Giving too much of myself, making too many commitments and promises. I see so many things I would like to try, to do and to take part in but there is no way I can do them all and still have a life outside of the Internet.

Loneliness. Surrounded by virtual people I sometimes feel really alone. I often blog with the TV on to have noise or something else to connect me to the rest of the world. I really enjoy KoL Radio for this same reason. It's live radio while you chat on the site.

Not passing this on to anyone specifically. But let me know if you do it. I'd like to read how others think and answer the same questions.

One thing I have learned to watch for when I look at free web scripts, gadgets, widgets and such for adding to my blog are hitchhikers. Before you paste the code into your HTML paste it into Notepad first. Read the code. Do you see a link to a third party URL? A site not your own or the one you are using the code from.

Some of the sites offering freebies are also making a buck by using your blog to spam another site. Watch for it. You can remove that part of the code or just choose not to use the script, find something else.

Why does it matter? Well, not a big deal, but do you really want someone else using your blog to make money for themselves? Whether your blog is completely spam/ ad free or not, do you want people getting away with piggy backing on your work?