Blogging with Character and Leave Botox Blogging Behind
By Rhett Soveran • Mar 28th, 2008 • Category: Writing
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This is absolutely the worst moment that I should be blogging. I have had a terrible, stressful week. I had hopes of a big payoff—a house for me and my wife. However, all the stress was for nothing more than a learning experience. We did not get the house. So what am I doing? Sitting at my computer, drinking a beer, feeling sorry for myself, wishing that the stress ball in my throat would go away and listening to extremely sad music. Plus the article still isn’t ready. Nothing like a deadline to throw me into a tail-spin of self-doubt and lethargy. It’s pathetic I know. You might be tempted to say—it all builds character.
Prior to beginning this post do you know what I saw? Of course you don’t. A “Make Money Online” blogger linking to us. A linkbait attempt, no doubt. It’s humorous to me because we are the furthest thing from a “Make Money Online” blog. You know why? We are not homogenized, pasteurized or generic. At least we better not be. That might be a bit cocky or arrogant, but I don’t mean it to be. I was watching television earlier and that guy that usually sells some sort of amazing oxygen cleaner was back on TV yelling about an amazing new, absorbing cloth. The cloth was nothing more than a shammy. But that’s beside the point. He was yelling. I don’t want to be yelled at. And I get this feeling, in the blogging world, that I am being yelled at. DO THIS TO MAKE MONEY. YOU CAN MAKE MONEY. MAKE MONEY, MAKE MONEY, MAKE MONEY. Everyone is yelling make money.
If there is anything I have learned from my real estate trials lately is that I want a house with character. I don’t want a cookie-cutter house. I don’t want a house that screams I AM THE SAME AS EVERY OTHER HOUSE ON THE STREET. There are problems with character though. Characters aren’t perfect. They need work. They make mistakes. They disappoint you. They sometimes let stress get the best of them and wallow.
I want to challenge you today to show your gray hair, show your bald spot, show the wrinkles, show the spots, show everything that gives you character. It is absolutely more difficult to read someones blog who writes with character and honesty. There’s no getting around that. It’s easy to let yourself, to let myself, be yelled at and if we listen long enough we just might believe that we can actually make money online without doing much work. Similarly, if we stretch, inject, raise, tighten and augment ourselves for long enough we just might begin to believe all the easy promises. You might say, Rhett you are 25 years old, you don’t know anything. I will tell you right now—you might be right. But I will always be happy to tell you what I think and that, perhaps, is a fault of my character.
Finally, though I will say it is more difficult for everyone if you blog with character, you will be infinitely more interesting to me and I will wager that you will find other people interested to you as well. I am here to share, to blog openly and to blog organically and part of being organic is being honest and authentic. Give it a try or if you are already doing it keep going.
You’ve got a lot of character, I know you do. Show me your character.
Photo by HAMED MASOUMI
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No, it doesn’t always build character to have such crappy days and things happening to you, it’s just stressful and bad. And I share the hate for such useless sites that exists just to LIE and try to make money from others’ stupidity and lack of judgement.
Let’s hope you’ll have some better days from now on, you know .. when you are down, there’s only one way to go: UP
Louise: That sounds like a lot of work and I checked out your blog and I am now sure it was a lot of work. And I hope you do come back.
I really detest make money sites. They drive me crazy. I’d prefer to read about someones life, and their day, and their world anyday over that other mess.
From the beginning my site has always been the raw truth, and I hope to always keep it that way.
Buck up, honey. Things will happen when the time is write. Don’t take something less than what you want just to make do. Trust me, it’s not worth it. Hold on to your dreams until they finally come true.
And it’s okay to be sad and self-pitying every once and a while. Wallow for a bit, then pick yourself up and keep working towards what you want, that’s my philosophy.
-Mark
It is fine to get on your pity pot. We all do it. Just don’t stay too long! Read the comments and see the people who are reading what you wrote. Go read the humor blogs. We don’t take anything serious, we laugh at everything!
Jodith: I am 25 and I have a lot of gray hair too. But that’s mostly because my parents gave me bad genes!
Thanks for stopping by and I never stay in a rut too long.
Mark: Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Nice hat. And you are brilliant as per the usual. Great twist on the idea of character. Being open about your flaws. Let’s you know and everyone else that you aren’t trying to fool anyone.
ettarose: Pity pot made me actually laugh out loud. Usually all I need is a good lolcat (or squirrel) to cheer me up. But all the comments have helped and so did yours. Thanks!
I’m sorry your were having a rough day (and week), and I’m glad things are looking a little better now. Keep living, and those days will come and go…the goal though, is to end up with many more of the good days. But then again, they’re really all good because we’re living and breathing and continuing to experience life.
I have to take a bit of issue with you though, or maybe just need a clarification. As you can see from my URL address, I have one of those “make money online” sites. However, I don’t think I’ve ever “yelled” at anyone, and I certainly don’t condone misleading people or using tricks and other tactics to make money online.
Sure, there are shysters on the net, as there are elsewhere. The perspective that I come from, and what I attempt to guide others to, is that the Internet offers a never-before-seen opportunity for “regular joes” to earn a living, build wealth and have a life free from the drudgery and confines of forever working for someone else.
Is it easy? Of course not, and in my experience (I’m a little older than you), nothing worth having ever is. But that’s not to say it isn’t possible, and that there are many people doing it (making money online) successfully. People find many different ways to make money online. That’s one of the beauties of the Internet. And it’s not all shady, and lying to people.
Do I have character? Of course I do, but it has been built from a lot of “bumps in the road (and if truth be told, bumps on the head). I have successes, but have learned a great deal from many failures, and I hope that I can help others to learn from both.
I don’t want to drag this out, but my purpose in commenting here is simply to let you know that just because an individual promotes making money online, it doesn’t mean we’re out to fleece people. There are many of us who are endeavoring to gain the resources we need to live the lives we desire for ourselves, and for our families from the Internet, but who want to help others to achieve the same and better.
And by the way, I read and visit all types of blogs. Just because one of my focuses is making money online, it certainly doesn’t mean that it is my only focus or that I don’t have other, and quite varied interests. I’m a business woman and entrepreneur, but I’m also a writer, an animal lover, a collector, someone whose attempting to improve my life experience everyday, a charitable giver, someone with interest in the condition of the world we live in, the environment, etc. etc.
Just wanted to offer you an added perspective. I’ve enjoyed visiting your blog.
Take care.
Kimberly
It would be fair to say that I was a little lazy in my stereotyping. The one problem with blogging is that if you miss a post or two, you might miss something crucial and then therefore miss my point. And I am always around for my own posts—plus I know what I think. I absolutely agree that the net offers a lot of great opportunities and I will completely admit that I hope to be a person who can capitalize on those opportunities. Epiblogger is a perfect example. At some point we will put advertising on this blog.
My general problem (and keep in mind that I mean general and not you specifically) is that there are a lot, nay too many bloggers preaching the same message of using their readership. And in some cases, abusing their readership. The end goal is always how to make more money. Those are the “Make Money Online” bloggers that I have a problem with and by the sounds of it you are not one of those bloggers.
There are not enough people offering unique and new perspectives on how to make money and if they do come along they always cost something more than they should. In my opinion, from the those money bloggers I am stereotyping, money always comes before community and that’s a real problem for me.
In any case, I hope I haven’t scared you off. I really appreciate you coming here to keep me honest.
I don’t scare so easily, nor do I have such thin skin :). I appreciate your reply and your perspective as you’ve elaborated it. I realize that your whole point is that while there is money to be made, no one, especially one’s readers, should be taken advantage of. That is something that we both certainly agree on.
Thanks for your reply, and I’ll be back for more.
Kimberly
…Actually, I don’t mind my gray hair. I do think it’s a bit odd that people often come up to me and say things like: “Do you realize you have gray hair?” and then I generally snarl something sarcastic about how I hate mirrors and how a mirror killed my father and so on.
Anyway, it’s important to be able to admit you are wrong Adam, so you are a step ahead of me. I’m never wrong.
at least yer Never Wrong!!
;)) Peace*
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