Do You Really Want To Become A Blogger?

Writers were what bloggers are. An archaic scene, maybe, but writers were often depicted as wearing smoking jackets with an ascot. Holding a martini in one hand with a cigarette in the other, sitting in front of a typewriter and maybe there was even a piano in the room. Wait a minute, that would be a songwriter.

A stylish man, even a genteel graying gentleman who wasn't really doing anything at all would sometimes say, "I am a writer, and I am working on a Civil War epic." And, of course, any bookstores near-by would have shelves full of how-to books on writing.

But do you really want to become a blogger, and what is a blogger? If you want a good definition go to http://www.becomeablogger.com/ There you will find a basic course on what blogging is and what the successful blogger does, and it isn't all just about business. The program is so basic you may not want your peers to know you used it, maybe you don't want your friends to know you took special ed. But I took it and it is free! The whole thing is introductory to a for-pay program, but I hardly knew any of it so I figure myself ahead, at no cost to me. Plus there is a blueprint of what all the smart people already know, in PDF, handed out at the end, again, gratis. Don't let "blueprint" concern you, it is as simple as the mall diagram that helps you find Sears.

I want to know when I finally achieve blogdom. When I am fully functional and can truly consider myself a blogger. Maybe I will get an ascot and a smoking jacket. So I need to know what a blogger is, what one does, and has to continue to do to stay in the "trade." I know a blogger has to write and there is more to it than that because you can outsource the writing and be like crazy J. Jonah Jameson in "Spiderman."

BecomeAblogger. Note that it is a video format with a written synopsis at the end. It operates much like the kid's board game, "Candyland." You are pressed to stay on course with each move and can really go only forward or backward. The guide stops regularly and recaps. You are a winner if you finish the whole game and the game is played without money (did I say free?).

A blogger needs to write. And it is important that the content is as original as possible. BAB teaches from the experience of a successful blogger. Using examples of a successful blog. BAB is a component of a larger enterprise, but by itself will get you started into being a successful blogger. Even if your purpose is not revenue, to be widely read should be. You will find help with that too.

During the 1950s any young man worth his duck-tail hair cut understood basic electricity. Especially if he had his own car. The high school shop class would teach it on a lamp board made out of plywood with at least three low voltage lamp sockets, wire, and a battery. Success in understanding the principles was evident, the wiring was on top of the board where you could see it and thus understand its route.

If you are going to operate a successful blog you are going to need to go through a basic class in blogging. In shop we learned positive, negative, series wiring, and parallel circuit wiring. The proof was in lighting the lamps. BAB shows you how to light the lamps. BAB didn't invent basic electricity (blogging), that is something that required discovery. But in a documented procedure, like we learned in shop class with the wiring exposed, BAB can show you how to harness and use blog power.

So when are you really blogging? I just started and visualize three lamps. Reading other people's stuff, writing my own stuff, and commenting on other people's stuff and having peer relationships. That is about all I can handle for now and I understand that all three lamps should be lit at once. Now, if these lamps are in series and one goes out, they all do. But with a little more wire and some basic instruction I can create a parallel circuit. Even if one bulb fails the others continue to burn. While I change the failed bulb the rest stay lit. There is the benefit of BAB's blueprint. It is basic circuitry and if I stick to it I can troubleshoot the entire system of lights. Become a blogger that can light your own lamps.

I am blogging if you are reading this. But what are you doing if you are reading this and not writing? It is as simple as "Candyland." BAB explains the rules on the inside back of the box, you must check it out if you want to play well. And I want to see you in the blogosphere.

StumbleUpon And Its Passing Parade

I am trying to get my blog-muse to arrive. StumbleUpon seemed a reasonable catalyst for the task. But surprise, it did something else. The visual nature of the website (photographs, videos, artwork), provided a catharsis. So maybe it is a cleanse that is needed before a muse shows up. An intriguing contributor to the effect is to have music playing in the background. I used Blue FM on internet radio.

StumbleUpon is an act of evolution as one uses the downloadable tool bar's "stumble!" button. Thumbs up, or thumbs down? While the internet slides by like a huge Starwars cruiser, it is morphed into the user's preferences. It is doubtful the user can ever finish this task.

A tag cloud begins to form on the user's front page as the user prefers some and dumps others. I put art and photography in among my many preferences and I have seen images that trigger emotions before I fully realize what I am looking at. Landscapes, fantasy images, art work, people. Even though the adult content feature is on, the safe filter; some rather striking women passed by. Hit the thumbs up on them and there are more to come. Be careful. A positive tag puts the image in your "favorites" gallery.

I used the search feature to look for blogs and then the "stumble!" button to keep them coming in procession. Just to see a cross-section of blogs. Some of them really stink. The foul language gets past the filter. Sometimes the whole front page is an invective. Hitting the thumbs down icon dumps it down the reject chute. I have yet to see one show up again.

The creativity of the web is astounding. And for the most part comes in short burps. Yes, the best ones seem to be loud and just a little rude. Followed by an "excuse me" and a giggle. But, of course, that could just be the way I see things. I just watched a chicken snatch food away from a kangaroo. Now I don't care what you say, that is funny. It happened without any ads or comments. But the kangaroo looks ready to say something.

I am looking for the stimulus that begets original content. And original content is celebrated by those in the know as good content, even SEO content. I like charlieii.stumbleupon.com
for its ability to give me that stream-of-consciousness view of the blogosphere.

Yaro Starak, Blogger M.D.

If you are suffering from the schizophrenia of having started a blog, talking to your writer-self and then your marketing-self; and the voices are telling you to do odd and conflicting things. It may be time to visit Yaro, Yaro Starak that is. His office is at www.becomeablogger.com He has a very soothing demeanor and can probably phase you back into one person again.

Of course with a bit of his coaching you will again be able to do two or more things simultaneously and still be of one mind, and you will know why. It helps to know why you must write and why you must market, without either taking over your personality and business. Mr. Starak provides a great many of his treatments at no charge. And he will explain why he does so. It will be part of his marketing treatments. You really must have them if you want to stay in your right mind, and make some money.

I am in a recovering blogger program. I am not sure how many steps are in the program. I just started the treatments in Mr. Starak's office. I am speaking of this as part of my therapy and as a public service. After the several videos of my first treatment I noticed I could drive home without talking to myself.

Previous to the treatment I was completely confused and disoriented. I did not know who I was writing to, why I was writing; and what money had to do with any of it. I also wondered, why should I spend my time commenting on other people's posts? All of that is much clearer to me now. Mr. Starak had an eye chart and a pointer and as he went down the chart, those items; as he explained them, were easier to see.

I am not affiliated in any way with Mr. Starak or his office, which by the way, is a walk-in clinic. I am just a grateful patient having received one treatment, a free one at that. Even my phobia about AdSense is beginning to abate somewhat. Well, maybe not.