I started this blog 6 weeks ago even though I had a different blog for over 3 years before that and a few others that were tiny adsense nets, I never read so many other blogs until now, it feels like new blogs that are coming up or are just a few months old are different to the ones that were around last year and the year before.
The people writing them and the reason they’re writing them seem different, a little more real life perhaps. A bit more orientated towards nice people in a nice community willing to help others, welcoming strangers to their tight knit virtual space. A virtual space that could span thousands of miles across the globe in milliseconds, the buzz of a lively conversation spread over different servers just a ‘submit’ button away.
I feel lucky that I have wandered into this community where it’s a lot less “listen to what I have to say, click my adsense but don’t steal my PR!” and a lot more “tell me what you think about this and oh, go visit these nice people”
Take for instance, Sharon of The Diva Network who was one of the first regular visitors here when I started, she followed the MyBlogLogDogg back from her site to here and comes back a few times a week to catch up, she even helps out by answering peoples questions in the comments. I see her regularly on lots of blogs, always taking the time to help or give an insight to someones post. She was one of the first to help me test CommentLuv along with Miss Mira from lalla-mira.com who seems to be able to blog in 3 different languages!. Then SmocknMamma who likes to bake and make quilts helped out with a suggestion.
There’s Chessnoid and his TotalNoid blog, his informative site can have anything on there, the stock market, UFC, MMA, Movie reviews, SEO, Technorati and more. He seems to be part of the same community too, his readers and commenters have popped up here, I’ve seen them on other blogs that had the same ‘feel’ to them and I’ve seen others too…
I’ve seen Pelf and her visitors to her blog about breast cancer awareness and environmentalism among other things, her vistors led me to other blogs where there was another crossover with a like minded bunch of people, links in comments led me to people like Dana Wallert who wants to be a twenty something Stumbleupon queen, she regularly writes informative posts on sites like Stumbleupon and Sphinn. Amongst her commenters are people like Andy Beard who writes a niche marketing and affiliate tips blog (see his post about getting penalized by google), some of her top commentators are again, the same type of people. Chessnoid is there, as well as YC who appears all over the place! he writes about internet marketing and isn’t afraid of the big bad google!.
Brown Baron is a name I keep seeing mentioned here too, he writes about blog networking and social networking, Vegan Momma who makes natural beauty products who made a very nice write up of the CommentLuv plugin.
Bobby Revellian and his lively network of commenters on his blog about ethical commenting and great tips for other bloggers, again, many of his commenters appear on the other blogs above and more! each successive comment click takes me to another part of this ever expanding web of commentluv’ers, link luv’ers, anchorluv givers and such.
And AntiBarbie who has some great short story posts, see how many people comment there! some of those led me to The Passionate Ailurophile who’s rants made me smile at how she writes just like she speaks (I imagine) . hehe, stuph! – love that word now.
you know.. I could go on all day listing names of people and blogs that have made me think that blogging has a different feel to it now.
I don’t know about you but I want to meet the person that changed blogging and shake their hand. Before, in the old days of my elottery orientated blog I would sometimes feel like writing a new post was akin to a doing a chore (albeit a pleasant one like sweeping a big floorspace).
Because of the travel I have to do for work and the (more than) occasional 60 hour week I don’t get much ‘free’ time and used to resent giving some of it up to write another lottery related post on my old blog even though it got up to PR5 and was well known among other elottery people but now it’s much more different! I can find time between projects or slip in a session on google reader at work and wherever I am in the world, whatever I am doing, there is always that same community feeling when I go-a-browsing and comment clicking between these peoples blogs. Writing a new post and responding to someone else’s post have the same feeling for me now, a similar feeling to belonging to something bigger than me.
It makes me feel good, it makes me want to create.
This is an excellent post. I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve made through blogging. I’ve been blogging for almost three years now. This past year I started several other blogs. I’ve “met” most of the people you’ve mentioned in this post. Your plug in definitely enhances that community spirit.
Opal Tribble/Vegan M’s last blog post..Photo Hunt: Smelly
hehe, it’s funny you should comment just now as I noticed the post didn’t have your name and it was because I forgot to close a <a tag
I’m thinking of getting a camera coz I want to participate in things like your photo hunt post: smelly
they look like fun games to participate in whenever I see them!
It’s a great way to connect with other community oriented people. I met pelf through Photo Hunters and quite a few others.
It’s a great way to take see the personal side of your blog buddies.
Opal Tribble/Vegan M’s last blog post..Photo Hunt: Smelly
Hi Andy,
Thanks for visiting my humble blog! I found your good site from Bobby’s good blog. I agree with you. There are now so many good blogs in the blogosphere. It surprises me more and more that all kinds of such good reads and advices are available in the virtual space for free!
I hope to see you again in my humble site. Your comments and advice are always appreciated.
Blessings!
WaterLearner’s last blog post..Now & Then
Hey Andy – thanks so much for mentioning me – am I really all over the place? Lol! I promise I won’t show me face so often now – getting down writing more articles – but I’ll still visit as much as possible all the blogs I like and look forward to discovering – like yours!
Have a great weekend, Andy!
YC’s last blog post..MindMap Linking Weekend: 13 October, 2007
I am a new blogger, and I can tell you, I think I am glad I was slow to get here! I have met the best people! Made some new friends, and it just seems to get better every day
I was warned that the blogging community was rather “uptight and mean” I sure am glad I can tell the people that warned me that i found nice bloggers! 
Thanks for the mention! Those people you mentioned are some of my favorite bloggers. It looks like I found another blog I like. I’ll be a regular visitor.
Brown Baron’s last blog post..Wikitravel: Your Worldwide Travel Guide
Hi Andy,
I agree with you that this blog 2.0 atmosphere seems to be a kind and genuine community. I used to do a lot of reading in forums but would never participate because people seemed so mean and ready to hate under an anonymous name. Having convo’s inside a blog via comments really appeals to me and encourages me to revisit.
You are one of those nice bloggers you write about, just so you know.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
CHESSNOID’s last blog post..Feedstats, technorati, google penalties, MMA update, + stock market update 10-12-07
Andy, you are always so sweet as always. So, I’ll let you in a little *secret*….
The reason why I come by so often is because you have this insight and creativity about blogging that is hard to find elsewhere. That’s probably why you have become successful at such as a short time.
Thanks so much for the link love.
Sharon’s last blog post..What?s Making us Fatter?
Opal: the world turns out to be awfully small eh? almost every time I read a new blog that I like, there is at least one person on it that I’ve seen on other blogs!
waterlearner: “my humble blog” hehe, it’s a great blog! I’ll be sure to visit frequently
YC: I do seem to see your initials on a few places now, you always seem to make a meaningful comment. you’re a good team player!
calamity: I like forums but they can take an awful long time out of your day just trying to keep up and you’re right, sometimes they can get a bit rude! people tend to be a bit more polite when they visit a blog (well, most people!)
ah, Brown Baron, finally we meet! I feel like I already know you !
chessnoid: thanks mate, I appreciate your stumbles and I like to read about what movies you’ve watched. it saves me time when I am searching for what to watch!
as always, thanks Sharon for your participation here, I’m sure it adds some credibility when people see you taking an active part in the comments.
It sure does, Andy. Practice what you preach comes to mind. It just seems appropriate.
Sharon’s last blog post..What?s Making us Fatter?
Dooh! I am always the last one to know that your blog has been updated. I don’t like feed readers, can you please add an email subscription to your feed? And help me add one to my blog too?
First of all, thanks a lot for the link luv. ^^ And make that 4 languages about my blog.
Just like Sharon, I discovered your blog around the time when you wrote about MyblogLogDogg, probably because you released your Dogg who visited MBL’s profile. I then started visiting your blog more often, while I haven’t started Lalla-Mira’s blog yet.
And just like you, I’ve started blogging several months ago, but all my blogs were blogging and adsense experiments, and they never got me into the feeling Lalla-Mira is offering me right now.
As for my CL problematic, Sharon did a great job trying to understand why is that happening. She posted a brilliant explanation on her blog. I hope you pass by and read it, and that it gives you a new path to follow through solving my CL mystery.
When you have time, that is.
By the way, based on your MBL’s profile, you seem to make a full income online, and own some company, so why do you work for someone else right now? Or is it your own company you mean by ‘work’?
I am curious! ^^
Curious *me too!*
Miss the Dogg….
Sharon’s last blog post..Mondera New Coupons – Fine Jewelry
Mira: the problem started with your feed when I switched from using fopen and file in the script and moved to using the wordpress fetch_rss function. on the new version that I tested here, every single feed got shown from those that didn’t before except 2 , yours and another person that has the extra bits on the end of their feedburner url so I definitely think it’s a problem with the feedburner side of things.
as for foreign characters, they work fine. there is a trackback somewhere here that shows japanese characters in the last post bit and I know Joomla-junkie tested it on a japanese wordpress and Japanese feeds and it worked on them for her (thanks Joomla-Junkie!)
mira sharon: I do make an equivalent FT income from online and have done for a couple of years (a standard FT income though just like an ‘average job’), my company also uses some online revenue streams like hosting, traffic and some networking packages and also distributing consumer electronics. The company is doing ok and it’s nice not to need lots of space for stock, almost all of my orders go direct from my supplier to the customer so I only have to make a sale and take the order.
my job? it’s a fantastic thing to do!. It’s similar to the line of joint ventures, I research products that can be marketed here in the uk and help to organize a local company to import and distribute them. It’s a lot more ‘jack of all trades’ that any other job I’ve had because it involves everything, getting the website ready for ecommerce, organising supply lines, customer bases and so on. Luckily I have some very knowledgeable people that I do it with so it’s not that hard, it just takes a lot of time to get a deal to go smoothly.
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Oooh, some linky luv. Thanks. I really need to update my version of CommentLuv, you know, in all my spare time.
I even think I could have some fun with that picture thing too. Hmm? This afternoon has a few open minutes.
SmocknMama’s last blog post..Lottie?s Lap Quilt
smocknmama: it’s definitely worth upgrading CL to the latest version, it picks up a lot more feeds now and can let the user specify a feed url on the end of the comment, I hope you can get to play 100 meters, at least you don’t have to go far from home
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I finally have time to respond to this post. I had a super busy weekend and just got home but thanks so much. I’m touched that you chose to include my wee little blog among those you’ve listed.
Interacting with my readers is half the fun of blogging for me. If there wasn’t a community feeling to blogging, I would hate it.
AntiBarbie’s last blog post..The Missing Muse
Thanks Andy!!!!! Welcome to the world of friendly, caring bloggers.
I started blogging 9 months ago and things have changed A LOT in these few months. I tell people I meet that if they want to meet some great folks, meet my friends.
I have become friends with the nicest people in the blogosphere. These people are becoming the biggest force the blogosphere has ever seen.
The future superstars are going to be people with class and integrity. I am here to make sure that happens.
Friendliness and cheer are contagious. I am so glad I found you! I met Dawn from Antibarbie only a few weeks ago.
Since that time she has become a good friend of mine. I go where my friends take me. There is no better way to blog.
You have a great site and great content. I wish you endless success!!!!!!!!
Bobby Revell’s last blog post..Ethical Theories of Social Networking
antibarbie: I see how much effort you spend responding to your readers comments, I’m surprised you even have the time to visit other blogs like mine!
bobby: thanks for your kind words! I would have thought you had been blogging a lot longer than 9 months!
you know, there’s mot much difference I can notice with my blogging now compared with just 1 year ago, it’s jsut that now I respond to every comment and I keep up to date with other blogs with google reader. those two things have led me on to participating on other blogs, meeting loads of nice people and feeling like a ‘proper’ blogger.
if only I had known this 3 years ago…lol
Andy:
I make time.
Even if it means I have to finish some of my work at 11pm when I am half zombie. I just can’t imagine having all these folks come visit and chat with me on my blog and never be bothered to visit them. To me, that’s just rude.
AntiBarbie’s last blog post..I Will Not Be Assimilated by Google
This is a nice post, nicely put avoiding monotonous list style.
Jalaj’s last blog post..Drive Slowly : Google Ahead
antiB: writing posts is easy, it’s replying to all the comments that takes me away from working!
jalaj: thanks, I just started writing and ended up with this. Lists do my head in! I know everyone says to do them for backlinks and such but after doing a few I find them a bit boring to write so I’ll stick with this. thanks for visiting
You’re embracing that friendly blogger thing and giving the link love back – way to go! Cool post. And like the domain name!
mcrilf’s last blog post..Google gets you talking
thanks Mcrilf! interesting post about Jaiku on your blog.. it’ll be interesting to see what Google does with it
I digged your post
David’s last blog post..Christmas Presents Niche Is Saturated
Loved your post. I am leaning about blogging every day …. and you had a lot of great information, tips and more importantly — you’re humor and great writing style showed through! Best wishes!
Caut’s last blog post..Sassy Lassy Pinup Girl Tampon Cases
yeah i have recently started blogging for my company and i have to say it is a real joy. I found that its important to get out there and see what other people are talking about and then trying to engage in that conversation. It takes time but once you have a blog community its a great feeling. I provide info on beauty products and general beauty advice. http://blog.heaven-spa.co.uk/