My Birth Year as a Blogger is 2007. This is the year that I was able to maintain a blog for more than a month, and have been able to create and modify templates and codes… on my own.

Let me take you back to the time when I first felt envy of my friends Jetlogs, Waukeen and Anitokid, who were blogging on a daily basis for a long time before I even discovered what a ‘blog’ or weblog is. I then set out to buy a domain and a hosting package. I decided to avail of website services from a local service provider, with the mistaken notion that by being able to call them as often as I like, setting up my blog will be a lot easier. I did say ‘mistaken’, didn’t I?

Me: Hello. My wordpress blog looks funny, I think I f*cked up somewhere in the php templates. Can you help me?

CSR: We don’t provide support for website development, we are sorry. Is there anything else?

I don’t remember which combinations of google search words I used, but I finally landed on the savior of all newbie bloggers, the Asian master of Wordpress design, the designer that provides premium-quality wordpress themes for FREE… Small Potato. And that’s when I really got addicted to themes and templates and ul’s and li’s and div’s. My current site isn’t perfect at all, but thanks to the RSS feeds from SP, I’m getting better.

One highlight of my sojourn in the blogosphere is my discovery of Jessica Zafra’s blog. The author of the ‘Twisted’ books that I worshiped in my teens, and inevitably influenced my current writing style. I blogged about it here as soon as I found it, and have been going back to her blog as often as I can. One secret: Although I joined her blog as a subscriber and have the ability to comment, I don’t, because I am too starstruck. Another secret: Whenever I post something and read the post over, I always ask myself.. “What would Jessica think?”. Fanatical bullsh*t, you say? Go visit her site, JessicaRulesTheUniverse, and find out why I idolize her so much. *winks*

And then I joined Entrecard. In retrospect, maybe this is the “ramp” (see John Chow’s definition of The Ramp) that made my blog at the very least visible to people other than my close friends from Ragnarok Online. Through this social networking site I met:

Antibarbie - who scares me a bit (ok, a lot), but compels me to come back over and over to read her newest stories.

Sam - the controversial marketer whose ascerbic wit and brutally unconventional opinions held me in a spellbound trance for a long time and shocked me to the core (despite my pretense at unshakeability… which he also saw through).

Saphrym - my new paragon of self-discipline when it comes to dieting, blog events and writing.

Manly Policeman - who can make light of things, despite the seriousness of his job.

Gorilla Sushi’s Mr. Jason - who shares my generation’s love for alternative music, and has a thing for funny photo captions.

Buraot - who can dish out romantic posts, strongly-principled human rights activist views, and irreverent humor.. all at the same time.

… and the many others who made the start of my blogging life very memorable in 2007. Thank you.

The dramatic marketing guru listed some reasons why a blogger might be a p*ssy blogger. By context of the term p*ssy, this could mean a lot of inhibitions in blogging, including, but not limited to

• being scared to death of debates because you don’t know how to handle rebuttals (can’t dodge, can’t fire back, can’t make a gracious exit in the form of final statements) [my example]

• only join debates wherein you can predict the move of the next person and have already prepared your rebuttal to the rebuttal, and run or shut up when the reaction is not what you expected [mine]

• whining “People are so mean to me, huhuhu. They’re the ones with the problem, not me. I’m just stating my opinions anyways” to your friends who don’t blog, and of course will give comfort immediately. [mine]

So here is Sam’s list of reasons why you might be a p*ssy blogger. Note that this has circulated for a while now, judging from the blog reactions in Technorati. I have re-read this over and over and still laugh each time, as some of these “symptoms” I see in myself once in a while.

Noob Basics:

Entrecard - installs a widget in your sidebar where people can “drop” cards. Dropping literally means the person will visit your blog, view your content and look for the widget in order to earn credits to be used to advertise on other blogs under the Entrecard system.

Blogrush - installs a widget that contains posts of other bloggers within your chosen category (including yours). Viewers of any site with that widget may see your post title on the widget, click it and go to your site.

Effort Output and Fun Factor:

Entrecard - high. A blogger must visit sites to earn credits and increase in popularity within the Entrecard network. The more active a user is (this includes card dropping and commenting), the more people know of him and visit his blog. Fun factor includes getting to meet new bloggers and their niches, and learning several moneytization tips just by viewing other blogs.

Blogrush - low. After you have installed the widget and submitted your RSS url to the Blogrush system, you do nothing, except perhaps hope that people are actually seeing your posts in their widgets and getting interested enough to clicky. I guess the fun part comes with the notion that you just sit back and concentrate on posting, and don’t clutter your mind with popularity or other people’s recommendations, while your post titles are getting circulated worldwide.

Traffic Results:

Entrecard - High. When you make the effort to be active and at least make sure that you comment on others’ blogs, post in the Entrecard forums and drop your card regularly, people start getting curious and visit you more often.

Blogrush - low. I have tried refreshing the Blogrush widget several times (actually, more than several times) and my posts did not appear. The BR dashboard tells me that “yes, it has appeared a lot on others’ widgets! See this number?”, but traffic is still very poor.

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Can you guess who just won this battle?

I hope you don’t mind if I pour myself a cold one while writing this post. You can grab one too and share this one with me.

I’ve been blog browsing because I haven’t found any Entrecard credit contest that hasn’t ended yet. While it’s nice to find out what other bloggers are talking about, there’s a side effect to this. I am now unashamedly admitting that I envy themes that other bloggers use. That once again, for the nth time in my blogging life, I feel the urge… to change my site’s theme.

*sighs and drinks*

I won’t bore you with the details of how I was with every new theme that I installed: like an ecstatic babe with a new toy. Messaging my friends and inviting them over to view my new theme. From the moment I fall in love with a theme, I download it, modify it, install it and then worship it for a month or so until … I tire of it. This theme now is Abstractshylock and I adore the compact look. My only trouble with it is, since it’s a “fixed width 2-column” theme, my readers (and I) have to scroll down, down, down to view my sidebar accessories.

I click my bookmarks to browse ewebscapes.com and think of buying a custom theme designed by Becca Wei, but then again, what if I tire of that too? If anyone wants to design a theme for me ‘free’, you can advertise on my blog for 3 straight months. *winks*

On a positive note, being discontented might be a good thing as this shows how I’m growing as a blogger. I’m getting exposed to others’ work and my blogging knowledge improves.

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No, this I-feel-the-urge-to-change-my-theme is not a metaphor for some other urge I might be feeling now. Though, it could be. *evil grin* But seriously, there are some envy-worthy blogs that I really like and here are some of these:

jdonuts.com - Japan life and culture

Sam freedom - I followed his Entrecard how-to, and voila, visits increased

Girl Geeks Do It Best - I feel physical pain due to envy when I read this blog, primarily because I wasn’t the one who thought of this domain name (afrogtokiss.net…it’s just so cool), and secondly because she proclaims the sentiment that geek girls all over the world have known for a long time… geek girls do it best. Visit her and get hooked, too.

And I wouldn’t have known of these blogs if it weren’t for Entrecard.

:D

I’ve listened to conversations like this since I started blogging, but this time I’ll let you eavesdrop…

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*prepares to post the entry of the day*

• A: She can’t post that, it’s too scandalous! The family-oriented people will unsubscribe! Are you crazy?
• D: The title is all the warning they need, dum-dum. Does it say ‘angelic woobie’? They know what to expect, and THAT’s why they subscribed!

*starts to type…*

• A: Ah-ah, it’s a little too naughty if you ask me. (brings forth all the Terms of Agreement Woobie agreed to)… it says here that she cannot post pronograffiti material while she’s running those ads…
• D: Just let her write the first sentence, for grudge’s sake! Then we’ll work from there…

*starts to type again*

• A: (coughs) what is she doing with that photo? Oh, I’m sure she knows how people can just right click and copy all the things that she places here… Be warned…. hmmmm?
• D: No, no, no! That’s perfect! People will be coming in just to view that. Alexa rank, baby! We’ll get tagged and linked to all over the net, bwahahaha! Technoratied, favorited, nominated, digged, stumbled upon… Awooooo.. (dances around)
• A: Too… much… cleavage…!!! Photoshop it now! Her little brother surfs the net, you know….
• D: No one will find this website if.. she… has… no…. page… rank!!…. We need visitors, gadernit!

*pulls out hair by the roots and screams*

• A: Now you did it, she’s not going to post anything anymore. Your fault.
• D: It’s your fault, you prude. Who signed you up as moderator in this blog anyway? Are you even evil?
• A: (sniffs) hmp!

*turns off the monitor and goes to bed*
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Every single day, this conversation occurs. :D