Nothing Personal…. It’s Just Business

With the millions, possibly billions of Blogs currently floating out ‘there’ in the Blogosphere, is there any room for yet another Blog?

Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere as: The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions.
The term was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke. It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick, and was quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community. The term resembles the older word logosphere (from Greek logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world), “the world of words”, the universe of discourse. Anyway, happy ten year anniversary to the Blogosphere. Now, back to my Post.

I found I recently had to ask myself this very question before I began the arduous task of building a Blog. First thing I had to ask myself, Why bother? I mean, who on earth would ever read it anyway? That’s when I realized that I’m ‘Old School’ and I’m blogging more for my own ‘release’ than for others reading pleasure. Sure, I’d enjoy knowing that someone, somewhere was able to gain something from reading it but that still wasn’t my main focus.

My interpretation of a Blog is also a bit different than the mainstream Blogs of today. I look at them more through the eyes of a writer than an online marketer. Not to say that one is better or more important, just two entirely different perspectives.

I’ll also be the first to admit that I’m a huge fan of Social Media. Whether it be Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, or the myriad of others out there, I think they have all done wonders in helping the world to connect like never before. Here again though, the Spamathoners and the X~Rated Webcammers have initiated their massive onslaughts on these Sites, thereby continuing their oversaturation of the internet and the further deterioration of the integrity within those Sites. Not that they can completely take away the integrity of every individual on the Site, but the ratio of Spambot to ‘real’ person is being drastically swayed. Truly a shame as it causes everyone to think twice about trusting anyone.

That is why it’s so refreshing when you actually find a real person on the Net these days, a true individual floating out there in the ‘Sea of Spammers’. Lately I’ve been very lucky in this respect as I’ve connected with more than a few people that still believe as I do. Their focus is much more on how they can help others, how they can add value to their lives and help them along through lifes journey as opposed to how can I get them to think that I just made $10K last night while I was on the couch watching CSI.

While both are concerned with ‘traffic’ per se, the Internet Marketer is much more concerned with the new FTC rules and how they will impact their ability to flood the Net with their promises of making a million a month for life overnight while laying on the couch watching reruns of Friends ‘opportunities’ than I am. Which of course makes me wonder if I will even find one person out there that even cares enough to take the time to read a Blog that is all about reality and lifes lessons. After all, I’m no ‘Snake Oil Salesman’ and I surely don’t claim to be.

Back in the ‘Old Days’, way before I even owned a computer, Blogs were basically online diaries. A means of spilling ones guts, in essence a stress reliever of sorts, without any hidden agenda whatsoever. That was until the spammers started trying to devise ways of using them to spread the word about their incredible Biz Opps, which in turn spelled the demise of personal blogging. All trust was wiped away in an instant as readers began to wonder about the hidden agenda behind each posting and was it really Grandma with the knitting needles writing the post or just some guy with greasy hair, in a plaid suit, smoking a cigar, waiting to pounce on them.

Not that I’m against making money, that’s not it at all but when all Bloggers are looked at as ‘Used Car Salesman’ [nothing against those guys & gals, just an example], then that puts those of us with an honest message in a bad light. This was recently brought to my attention as I had an online acquaintance say to me that he didn’t really believe what I had to say and that I had to earn his trust.

Now at first this seemed a bit strange to me. “What’s he thinkin’, doesn’t he know me?” I’m all about spilling my guts, good and bad, no false promises, all in hopes that others might be able to learn from my mistakes so they didn’t have to repeat them themselves. But then it occured to me that he has been experiencing the same thing I have. I am at a point where I can’t trust nor believe anything that I read on the internet. And that’s not a pleasant feeling. Hate to sound so negative but with all of the outrageous claims being strewn about and knowing that only 3% [if that] of the people online are actually making any money, I had no other option but to agree with him.

Even though I prefer reading the Personal Blogs as opposed to the Biz Blogs, I can see where both have their place. And if a Biz Blog has valuable content, then I’m all for it. I hate to see the personal blogs fade away like VCRs and Cell Phones the size of suitcases but that’s progress and nothing we can do about it. But have you looked at some of these Biz Blogs lately? Well, I have and for the most part they have turned in to psuedo ‘pit stops’, nothing but SEO keywords and Links to other Blogs that are full of other content that was ’swiped’ from another Blogger whos post had risen to the top of a Google search. Zero originality, let alone any amount of useful content of their own. After awhile you get tired of scowering the internet, looking for useful information, only to find watered down bits and pieces of the original content that is more or less irrelivent now as it was originally posted some three or four years ago. And as we all know, the internet is growing at such a fast pace that what was new six months ago is more than likely way out of date.

The emphasis seems to have changed from good, useable content to who can find the best software to Spambot themselves to the highest Search Engine rankings in order to sell their software to the next “SEOSPAMBOTKEYWORDOPTIMIZERINGURU” that comes along searching for a way to make 9 Figures Overnight while on the beach in Fiji. While I may sound bitter and I surely don’t want to, I’m more disappointed than anything else.

As a matter of fact, one in particular stands out as she really caught my attention with her content and blogging style. Both are extremely similar to my own, which of course it goes without saying that I’m a huge fan of my own stuff. Needless to say it’s been great communicating with her and regardless of whether or not we share the same viewpoint on a certain subject, I feel as if I can relate to where she’s coming from and therefore how she was able to reach the conclusion she did. Most of all though, it’s the trust aspect. I don’t feel as if there are any ’smoke and mirrors’ involved and that’s just a pleasant feeling to say the least.

All this got me to wondering, could this be a trend and a welcome one at that? Or am I on a ‘Lucky Streak’, just happened to find a few needles in this very large haystack of marketing mayhem? Is it possible that this flood of ‘fakes’ is causing a resurgence in personal blogging or is it just wishful thinking on my part?

When it gets to the point that you have to analyze every Tweet, Comment and Email, looking for the ‘hidden’ message, wondering what they are trying to sell, scam or spam me with, needless to say it can be very exhausting. Not to mention all the doubt it creates when you have to ask yourself who’s really hiding behind every fake avatar and profile pic wondering what virus will be left behind in their wake. Definitely a workout.

While I might be looking at my monitor through rose colored glasses, imagining a spam & scam free Internet, I know that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. But the recent glimpses of an Internet that can be trusted, believed in and one that thrives on bettering the lives of ‘real’ people have brought with them a renewed feeling of hope that somehow the truth will still prevail. Let’s hope so anyway.

Like they say in Business 101, people only do business with people they ‘know, like and trust’. Somehow that principal seems to have gotten lost and it’s floating around somewhere out there, in the Blogosphere.

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Tags: Blogging, Life, Scam, Writing