Rory Sullivan has written a great companion post to one that Leo Babauta wrote here at ProBlogger (4 Pillars of Writing Exceptional Blogs).
The main point of Rory’s post is to point out that to build a great blog it takes more than just writing great content – to put it in his words, you need to ‘work the system’. By working the system, I don’t think Rory is talking about manipulating anyone – but rather he’s saying that it’s more than just writing. He gives 4 great pillars for growing exceptional blogs:
- Visit and Comment on Popular Sites
- Point Visitors to Your Site
- Strike Diggers Gold
- Be Prolific, Be Everywhere
To be fair to Leo – the brief for writing his post was on ‘writing exceptional content’ and not meant to be an all encompassing guide to successful blogging and having observed his style and chatted to him I think he’d be the first to agree with Rory’s suggestions. Perhaps he slightly over stated his case in his previous post when he wrote – ‘Content is king, as they say, and that should be the focus of all your efforts.’ I think he’d admit that he’s put his efforts into other activities also.
The reason I think Rory and Leo’s posts are great companion posts is because they do give a more holistic guide to building a great blog.
Leo is right because without great content a blogger doing all the things to attract attention and get visitors will be working on a pointless quest because the visitors might come once but once they see a poorly written blog they’re not likely to return. Rory is right because you can write great content until you’re blue in the face but if you never work at getting your blog into the spotlight you’ll never build a readership. Both are vital aspects of blogging.
Of course there’s probably another 10 or so potential companion posts that could be written as writing great content and finding readers are just two parts of creating an exceptional blog.
Perhaps add to the mix:
- Pillars of Exceptional Blog Design
- Pillars of Creating a Blog Community
- Pillars of Great SEO
- Pillars of Converting First time Readers into Loyal Readers
- Pillars of Monetizing Blogs…. etc etc
Ultimately – blogging is a task that needs a variety of skills, techniques and strategies coming together in a holistic way – something I’ve written about numerous times before (for starters at – There’s a Hole in My Blog – Holistic Blogging and 18 Lessons I’ve Learnt about Blogging).
What other ‘pillars’ would you add to the lists?
How about the Pillars of actually meeting people in your blog niche. There are a LOT of events these days where you can network with people in your blog genre.
Good pointers Darren. I would also add that the site needs to contain real information. I am seeing that most sites pointed to are striclty Adsense sites, with no thought of content.
Great post- I couldn’t agree more!
Self promotion hasn’t ever been a strong point for me… it’s changing though.
Right on the money – or should I say “Write” on the money!
All I’d add would be to keep at it, never give up, keep looking for ways to market you blog. It’s a never ending quest. It’s like going up Everest, you do it one step at a time!
Great post Darren, as always.
I’d add “Pillars of Awakening Your Inner Blogger,” i.e., determining if blogging is right for you, deciding what your purpose will be, choosing a topic, making a commitment, etc.
I find myself using the ready-fire-aim approach (to quote Steve Pavlina) to keep refining both my content and my marketing over time.
I keep reminding myself that it’s not about what I like, but rather about what my readers like.
Perfect post, this post is bookmarked.
This is a great post. Having great content is not enough. You have to learn how to market yourself and your blog. Networking is a must.
http://alltalksports.wordpress.com/
Building promotion skills is a definite must, and for me is climbing rapidly to the top of my priorities list.
Thanks for linking to that article, Darren. I try to do those things anyway, but it’s always nice to have a reminder, and a new perspective on how to do that “same old thing.”
I still have yet to find a really definitive guide on converting first time readers into subscribers.
I loved the quote on his post: “Content is king? But what is a king without visitors to this kingdom?”
Great advice, but people like me who are part time bloggers can’t take that much time to be every where & i dont want to be a pro blogger, i am happy with the earnings which i have ryt now.
For pro bloggers, this was the right blog to visit & can learn lot & can become an Successful blogger.
I recently wrote a post along these lines pointing to the fact that so many blogs are lacking in real substance. There is a lot of fluff and rehashing of what other bloggers are saying. Lots of talk about how much they are earning, and too little about actually showing and mentoring others to the same success. They are as my article calls them
Blogs, Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing
here is the link if you would like to read.
http://cmansmoneypages.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogs-full-of-sound-and-fury-signifying.html
later all and have a profitable productive blogging day
By following where my traffic comes from I have found where people come to my site when I comment on their blog. In other words I can see which blogs are more effective at sending traffic.
I agree with engtech I still have a hard time understanding how to get new comers to subscribe.
Re: #2 Point Visitors to Your Site… a nice positive spin there Darren but of course there’s always another side to a story isn’t there.
All very true. Done on a consistent basis, the end result should be a blog that is well linked and well visited. What I find is that many bloggers are not consistent — they start off fine, but they give up when other things crowd in.
Make your blog interactive.
Encourage people to comment and participate, and they’ll keep coming back to watch and help it grow
Darren,
Maybe this pillar would fit into one of the others you mention in your post, but I’m interested in:
Pillars of Listening to Your Readers – this would include tips for asking good open-ended questions, providing multiple and complementary feedback mechanisms, and figuring out how to shift your content offerings, or expand them, based on reader requests or comments.
– Mark
Buxr Widget – good one. I think the face to face interactions can really lift the way a blogger is perceived.
Chris B – yeah, I think that’s an essential part of writing good content.
Jeremy S – self promotion doesn’t come easy to many. In fact I found it very difficult in my early days of blogging. I’m naturally a very shy introverted person and tend to hang back on the edges of groups – but learned quickly that there’s a need for timely self promotion. I don’t think that that means you need to not be modest – but getting the balance right can be difficult for some.
Crazykinux – yeah, stickability is another pillar.
Spice Puppy – good reflection. Some of those things are very foundational to good blogging.
JohnPlace – you’re right, keeping the reader in focus is definitely something important to keep in the mix.
engtech – keep searching for the definitive guide – I’ve written a few things on it but one thing that i’ve been discovering is that it’s so different for each blog that I have. For example converting one off readers into loyal readers on some blogs is more about highlighting subscription options (rss or email), for other blogs its more about getting them to comment, for others it’s more about driving them deeper into your blog to read more articles. The mix is never the same. Keep experimenting with it though – you’ll get there!
Dan Cole – very good quote isn’t it!
Sridhar Varma – you’re right, different bloggers will have different amounts of time that they can throw into these different activities. However I’d encourage even part time bloggers to not just concentrate on one single element of blogging.
cmanlog – will check out your post – thanks for the link.
Martin – good strategy – checking sources of traffic is a great idea.
Blog Bloke – I’m sorry but I’m not sure what you mean. I don’t see anyone saying that linking out to sources of stories isn’t the way to go. What’s the other side of the story?
Matt K – you’re right. Many bloggers underestimate the amount of work needed.
One Man – interactivity is important. Of course it’s difficult to create an interactive culture on some blogs. I know of one blog who gets heaps more traffic than ProBlogger but that finds getting comments very difficult. It’s not because he’s not good at writing but because his topic doesn’t really lend itself to discussion.
Well… Darren as you know it was I who offered the alternative opinion with respect to Rory’s post (who also happens to be a member of my community and how you discovered him). But you never seem to link to yours truly. So why is that Darren. Just asking. Anyhow I thought I would take Leo’s advice and create the link myself. Cheers.
Furthermore I’m the one who stirred up the hornet’s nest and if you really believe in blogging transparency, don’t you think that all sides should be presented to provide balance? I know that I do, and I always try to present both sides to a story and not just appeal to the cheering section regardless of what my views are. But you never seem to link to me even though I know that you read my posts and “bounce off” me.
Cheers!
…BB
The key to generating a loyal reader base is listening to what your visitors are responding to, and do more of it. “Listening” is usually looking at traffic metrics for individual posts, search terms and asking them individually!
BB – how do you know how I found Rory? I saw his post because he linked to the post on PB. While he might be a member of your community he’s also a member of the blogosphere (and a blog that I track on my feed reader) and can be discovered in other ways.
If I’d found Rory’s post via your blog I’d have acknowledged that – while I did see your comments on his post I was not aware you’d written about it also until this morning, hours after this post went up.
In terms of me linking to you – I’ve looked through my back end and have linked to you twice in the last 8 months in speedlinking posts. Not a lot but when I’ve appreciated things that you’ve written and that I think they’ll help my readers I link up.
If you inspire a post that I write – I’ll link up – as I do if anyone inspires me to write something. I link up regularly to others – and go out of my way to create opportunities for my readers to get link love from this blog.
You ask why I don’t link up a lot to you? If you want an honest answer it is because I don’t read your blog much these days.
I’m sorry to say but I actually removed it from my feed readers because I found your posts caused negative reactions in me.
You took shots at a variety of bloggers that I read and respect and I found that I left your blog feeling frustration and anger. Life’s too short to feel this kind of stuff over a blog. I did try to express my opinion a couple of times but as we know those conversations didn’t go well. We butted heads and I didn’t feel we really got anywhere or that the interactions were constructive. I felt that the way we spoke to each other wasn’t life giving or helpful for either of us or those that watched our interaction. It wasn’t that you critiqued people – it was just that I didn’t feel that in our interactions we got anywhere or had a good way of interacting.
This was as much my fault as yours – but as I didn’t see us getting anywhere and I continued to feel the frustrations – so I thought that the best way to avoid it being repeated was simply not to read your blog.
Since that time the only times I’ve read your blog on a few occasions when you use keywords that I track via technorati). To be honest, those posts gave me no reason to resubscribe as I felt the same frustrations as I did previously.
If you feel that I bounce off you I can only say that we both write about similar topics and that it’s bound to happen that we cover similar topics.
I’m sure that for many of the posts I write that you’ve written something on a similar topic at one time or another and we could probably say the same things about the things you write which I (and others) have probably written about also. Does this mean we should trawl through each others blogs checking who wrote what first?
You, like anyone else, are always welcome to add to the conversation and point to things that you’ve written about that relate to the topic. I welcome this as it adds to the richness of the conversation.
Well, Rory has launched his new blog not even two weeks ago and caused many heated discussions with his two posts that reviewed a famous blogger. Looks like it’s another way to get incoming links from prominent blogs and get their authors interest. But I have to admit that it would’ve not happened if Rory wasn’t such a terrific writer.
Well… that was quite a diatribe there Darren and calls into question your nice guy image doesn’t it (rhetorical question :) Don’t worry, I can take a punch as well as dish it out.
Let’s take a look at this a little closer shall we. This post was a direct response to my stirring up the pot over at Rory’s blog, but you conveniently left that part out. There is no denying that fact.
In addition, I checked my stats the first time that you noticed Rory’s blog when I took your friend Leo to task for using outside sources and not linking to them. (You should also know that it is proper etiquette to link to sources who inspire our posts regardless if we quote them directly or not). And sure enough, the stats showed that you found him via my blog. Perhaps I should post a snapshot to refresh your memory on that.
With respect to speaking my mind about your friends, so much for freedom of the press. You also seem to have proved my theory that the further we move up the food chain the thinner our skin seems to get. Sad but true.
In my blogosphere, blogging is supposed to be transparent and balanced, enjoining the conversation with all points of view regardless if we are preaching to the choir or not. Otherwise we should all move to Siberia. I hear they are cracking down again on opposing opinions.
As always it’s a pleasure talking to you Darren and I hope we can do it again soon.
BB
– this post was a direct response to a great post by Rory. As I say in the post above I think it’s a great companion post to Leo’s – so I linked to it. It had nothing to do with your comments on his post.
– I don’t remember how I first found Rory. It could have been through your blog – but if it was that was weeks ago. Do you think it reasonable that I link to you because I mention a blog that I found via your blog weeks ago on a completely different post?
I’d be interested to know what ‘stats’ you would have that would reveal how I found Rory’s blog via your blog.
In terms of my friends and what you write about them – I am totally fine with you speaking your mind and critiquing other bloggers. As long as you don’t mind me speaking mine in your comments – or having the right to react by deciding not to read you any more if I don’t feel like our interactions are healthy.
I’m really sorry that we can’t find much common ground – but I don’t find your blog to be where I’m at right now and so I don’t subscribe to it. This is a decision that blog readers make every day and as bloggers we need to accept it and move on.
I also subscribe to a balanced and transparent blogosphere. I work towards it every day. Somedays I’m more successful at it than others but I do my best as I’m sure you do. I try to show balance in the topic I write about by linking out to a lot of blogs/sites, by providing ‘reader question’ posts where readers can have their say on lots of topics and by using guest posts. Via these means many bloggers have opportunity to have their voice heard and opinions expressed.
I’m not really sure we’re going to resolve anything here – obviously we have different opinions and ideas on what’s happened.
I can honestly say that you did not inspire this post – Rory did. While I may have found his blog via you at some point in the last month I don’t remember the specifics of that. If you had been the reason I’d found his actual post mentioned in this post I’d have linked to you – but I found it via other means.
Le’ts be serious is right Darren and I will appreciate you not twisting my words around.
The inspiration for this post was over the controversy that I created and you felt the need to once again come to the rescue of your good buddy Leo. The stats prove you ‘discovered’ the author via my previous posts giving poor Leo a spanking that he most suredly deserved.
So your excuses for not linking to me ring hollow and are just that — EXCUSES. Having worked in law I let the facts speak for itself and no amount of revisionism by you can ever change that.
I gave you the opportunity to come clean here but you have failed miserably. For shame.
And since you keep bringing it up, frankly I could not care less if you subscribe to me or not. Obviously I’m not an echo chamber to your liking and unlike yourself I’m not driven to making hords of money off the innocent and gullible.
So let me see.. ah, there it is… done. I no longer subscribe to your politically correct version of the blogosphere either.
Just one parting word of advice Darren — don’t take yourself so seriously because I certainly don’t.
Cheers!
…BB
BB – I’m sorry, but I’m serious in saying that this post was simply what I said it was in the post. It was a link to a blog post that I thought was excellent – not to a controversy that was happening in the comments on that post. As I communicated in my post above and in an email to Rory when I posted it – I thought it was a great extension of Leo’s post.
In terms of you having stats to prove how I found a blog via your blog a couple of weeks ago – then please feel free to share them. I’m fascinated to know how you track your individual readers and what they do when leaving your blog.
I really find it bizarre that you expect a link because I found Rory’s site a few weeks ago via your blog. I’m unsure what to say about that. If I told readers how I came to subscribe to the blogs that are in my feed reader every time I linked to them I’d need extensive notes on every day’s web surfing that I do.
Do you really want me to add a link to the above post that says ‘I might have found Rory’s blog two weeks ago from BlogBloke’?
Do you do this?
If there was something to come clean about here then I’d be happy to do it – but I quite honestly am at a loss as to what that is.
In terms of whether I subscribe to you or not – I was simply explaining why I don’t tend to link to you. It is difficult to link up to blogs that you don’t read.
I’m very sorry that you see my way of blogging as simply a grab at cash from innocent and gullible readers.
While I’ve never hidden the fact that I make money from blogging I attempt to do so by helping my readers in any way that I can. I attempt to provide content that is practically helpful and also inspiring and life giving. While I’m not a perfect blogger and am happy to be critiqued on how I can improve it upsets me when people accuse me of having motivations of taking advantage of others. This leaves me feeling quite sick in the stomach as it’s so not where I’m at.
I’m sorry, but while you might think that I shouldn’t take all this quite so seriously – I take that type of accusation seriously – you’re making it publicly and so I’ll refute it publicly and heartily.
I’m not sure what else to say. Once again we’ve failed to communicate to one another in a way that really got us anywhere. Perhaps it’s time we just agreed to disagree and moved onto getting on with blogging.
Darren,
I think your point is strong that there are posts all over the Internet to link to on almost every topic related to blogging. I hardly expect that you would always find mine or anyone else’s of the most interest to your readers.
You’re a star to say that you don’t have time for blogs that leave you feeling negative. Neither do I. Negativity steals focus and energy. It only breeds more negativity. Postive people make positive things happen. A culture can only serve one group and the other will always fell unappreciated. I learned that from Tom Peters sometime around 1989.
Thanks for a blog I keep coming back to . . . this as I approach the 2nd anniversary of reading your blog.
Oh my Darren, sometimes I really wonder about you. With all due respect you can come across as being thick as a brick.
Let me go over this again (very slowly this time and let’s use point form since you are such a fan of it):
1. You discovered Rory via my post earlier this month entitled:
a) Surefire Recipe for Blogging Success: Guaranteed
2. You came to your buddy Leo’s rescue when I was paddling his behind and left a comment or two of your own.
3. Rory himself acknowledged in his comments that until that point you had never visited his blog.
4. The other day I visited Rory’s blog again and left comments that stirred up the pot with respect to the matter that we are now discussing.
6. Shortly thereafter I also wrote a post with a link to Rory’s post entitled Reciprocal Blogging: Its About Stroking Each Other’s Back. (It’s rather ironical all things considered don’t you think.)
7. Today you left a link to this post on Rory’s blog, once coming again to Leo’s rescue that is in direct response to the concerns that I had raised.
8. The stats also demonstrate this.
9. Just follow the road Darren and do I really need to provide a snapshot all things considered?
Golly shucks, this ain’t rocket science and it don’t take no Einstein to figure it out either.
If you will read your confabs again you will see that you have continually contradicted your story. If I had you on the stand in a court of law they would sweep you off the floor after I finished with you. Criminals have been hung with far less evidence and the further you make of this you will be the loser in the end.
I don’t want to appear as a bully here because that was not my intention, but you started it with the tone of your first response and your silly repetitious meanderings about unsubscribing to my newsfeed as if somehow that would crush me.
So be very careful what you wish for. Do you really want me to post more proof that you have not exactly being forthcoming here? Please, for your sake, you can trust me when I say that I can very easily do that but it will prove to be very embarrassing to you. But if it does go any further than this then must accept full responsibility because you asked for it.
But personally I would rather leave it as is because I don’t think any more need be said. And I don’t want to hear any more escuses either that you forgot, or you chose to ignore me because I’m such a “negative” person… or whatever.
All that I wanted was you to admit that you have not been evenhanded in your doling out the links and that you have been “bouncing” off me and intentionally shunning me. That is all I wanted, I know that I have already accomplished what I set out to do so as it now stands I am very satisfied except to say that I am most truly disappointed in you sir.
And next time for your own sake please do not understimate me and assume that I’m a stupid idiot or as gullible as some of your followers are.
Then again you could offer me your apology and promise to stop shunning me. That would be acceptable and you will find me to be most gracious under the circumstances.
Cheers!
Blogbloke, you have been linked to twice as many times in the last year as I have, and sure there have been times when I thought that Darren might have linked through to me on a particular topic, but that thought pasts 5 seconds and I just move on.
Sure, I have probably also linked through to Darren a few more times than he has linked through to me, but I have also probably linked through to some of my less prominent readers more times than I have linked to Darren, even though Darren is a much more prominent blogger.
One of the biggest problems for users of Blogger and blogspot is being noticed on anything other than blogger and blogspot blogs.
I only receive 10th of the links Darren does on a daily basis, maybe even less, and I already find Technorati overwhelming.
If I am writing something and want someone to notice my opinion, I make sure I am sending a trackback or pingback.
WordPress automatically sends a pingback to blogs that use autodiscovery pingback code, but Darren’s blog has that removed, you have to use a trackback URL, and search his blog for the instructions on how to do it (but it is the standard way for WordPress)
On Blogger you have a few options for sending trackbacks
Haloscan – but that involves a visit to their site
Software that sends trackbacks
A few other sites that can send trackbacks
Using Firefox with a Greasemonkey script so you have trackback built into your blogspot interface.
If your links to various people are noticed more, you end up being linked to more. In addition you end up with more traffic, because people see your trackbacks on the subject, not just the owner of the blog, but also readers.
As an example someone who sent a trackback to one of my recent posts has so far received more than 40 visitors to his site from that trackback. That is significant traffic for most bloggers, actually more than I recently received from a direct link from Techcrunch.
Oh my my. Look what the cat just dragged in. I can’t believe the irony. Talk about putting your foot in it. Another blogger who plays by the same rules. Thanks so much for making my point for me Liz and that’s the thanks that I get for deleting your damaging comments that make you look more than a little silly. Fortunately I should still have an email backup somewhere…
We’re going nowhere BB – ultimately I’ve said what I believe to be true.
I didn’t write the above post because of you – it was because of Rory’s post being on the money for me. It’s as simple as that.
You’re more than welcome to give as much proof as you like – but I stand by what I say and am signing off from this conversation as it’s getting personal and un-constructive.
Ok Darren. No problem.
@ Andy. I’m familiar with the strengths and weakness of both platforms and I use trackback frequently (btw, Blogger also uses backlink technology).
I’m also in the process of migrating over to WordPress and I’m happy to report they finally got the kinks out of importing from Blogger. (I could never get that thing to work properly ;-)
But it is not relevant to what I’m discussing here. The problem is not being seen by Darren because clearly he does read me. The problem is being recognized by him and it has absolutely nothing to do with the limitations of technology.
But I do appreciate you trying to mediate. That was thoughtful of you and I also appreciate your terrific comments over at my blog.
Cheers!
I would definitely agree with “Visit and Comment on Popular Sites”, though you could say that commenting in general should help get traffic to your site and help you make friends and form allies.
Of course once you have the traffic it all comes down to content, but you all know that.
@Blog bloke who said:
Golly shucks, this ain’t rocket science and it don’t take no Einstein to figure it out either.
Lucky for me, I took several graduate level courses in Gas Dynamics (which is used to figure out the thrust out of rockets) so I can report that, no this isn’t rocket science. I suspect it’s also not brain surgery.
That said: it’s pretty darn clear that Darren’s points are valid.
@Andy who said:
As an example someone who sent a trackback to one of my recent posts has so far received more than 40 visitors to his site from that trackback.
I can honestly report that in the past 3 days, 40 of my 50 unique visits come indirectly from my having left a trackback to your site, which ultimately caused you to visit my fairly new blog and post about mine! (Which led to a stumble I could trace directly to someone coming from your blog.) So, it’s clear your advise to BlogBloke is worthy: leaving trackbacks can, indeed, be an effective strategy to get traffic.
Here’s some advise BlogBloke: It is pointless to try to badger Darren into linking you. This is his blog. He gets to link whomever he wishes to link for whatever reason he wishes to link them. You can hold any opinion you like but Darren gets to have his opinion too.
In the end, if someone doesn’t link you, then ‘dems the breaks. No amount of bellyaching is going to change that. Most grown ups just know this.
If you hope to get a link, write a post commenting on someone’s post (possibly Darrents) and leave a darn trackback. Maybe the person you link will link back. Maybe they won’t. It will all depend on whether that post inspired then to write a post commenting on yours. It’s their choice, not yours.
Well… thank you so much for the “advice” Lucia but I think you missed the point entirely. But keep sucking up there and maybe you will get yours. Anyhow, if you really want to continue the conversation then by all means bring it on ’cause like Darren said I’m done here and it’s time to move on. Cheers.
doesn’t really look like you’ve moved on Bloke. I don’t know you or Darren from a bar of soap, this is the first time I’ve been on either of your blogs but I’ve just taken a look through your archives Bloke and I have to say that the first impression I get from looking back over a month or two of your posts is that you come across as a pretty negative fellow.
You call it humor but as someone who is looking in from the outside it comes across as something between grumpiness and jealousy. I will say that you do write some really great posts in the mix of it all but that I think people would take a lot more notice if you stopped focusing so much on the negatives of how others blog, how they don’t acknowledge you and how you are being copied and made more of your posts about blog tips and tools like your title says, you’d probably be linked to and respected a lot more.
Darren, you need to stop taking things personally and understand that other smaller bloggers feel a lot of pain when they feel ignored. Now with a blog of your size (you have a lot of readers looking at your feed counter and sitemeter stats) it must be very hard to give personal attention and links to every reader that you have (made harder by writing about blogging, so all your readers will have blogs and be wishing for a link) but understand that we as small bloggers find it hard to get noticed. I guess you know this already and I don’t know how you can ‘fix’ things, but perhaps this is where Bloke is coming from.
I’m going to stay anonymous with this comment because I don’t feel like I want to be anyone’s target.
I don’t give credence to anonymous commenters but I wish to say that on the face of it parody and satire can appear negative to some. Some like it and some don’t, and like it or not that is just the nature of the humour.
But on a more serious vein, let’s just move on from here please. Darren and I have already said our peace and I don’t want to have to keep looking over my shoulder for zingers made behind my back over here.
If anyone has anything to say to me then please by all means take it over to my blog and we can discuss it there, but at least have the courage of your convictions and remove the mask please.
Otherwise let it rest. Thanks.
Sorry Bloke but I’m not sure I want to reveal myself or comment on your blog because the more I dig around in your archives and comment threads the more I see a pattern.
You glowingly respond to anyone who agrees with you (whether they are anonymous or not I note) and a bun fight emerges with anyone who takes offense or disagrees. I’ve read your last three or so months of archives now and I see that pattern on quite a few of your posts.
I still think you have some really great posts on your blog, but there’s a pattern there that makes me feel uneasy about commenting unless it’s to agree with you.
It is a little ironic actually because you seem to want to make it so clear that you are balanced, up for good robust discussion and all for free speech but most of the time there’s an opinion that you disagree with you seem incapable of seeing another person’s point of view and are quite up for a big confrontation.
Hi John Q.
Let me begin by saying that of course I’m going to present my side if someone should disagree with me. Who wouldn’t? And yes, I do have my opinions so if you want to call that a “pattern” then busted as charged. But does that make me a bad person? I don’t think so, but I guess you just see things differently don’t you (rhetorical question).
As I already stated on my blog I had never intended to start a brouhaha here. But Darren came out with both guns blazing and I responded accordingly.
Look, I’m really trying to be nice here. I respectfully let Darren have the last word on his blog and I said my peace on mine. And that should be the end of it. So please kindly MYB.
I’m not sure what your beef is (and I don’t think you do either) but it’s evident that you are intentionally trying to provoke me into a confrontation. And since you are insisting on being anonymous I’m now having my suspicions that you are not as impartial as you let on, and I suspect that you have been sent here for that very reason.
In summary, I’m trying to tell you nicely that I’m just not interested. But if you insist on mixing it up then please be a man, drop the mask and come on over to my blog and we will continue this conversation. I promise not to delete you, but I do insist that you tell me who you are, the url of your blog and to be civil.
That’s not too much to ask is it. So please kindly (with sugar on top) stop wasting Darren’s bandwidth with this nonsense. How more plain and nice can I be?
Cheers and thank you for your anticipated cooperation!
Sheesh, u have a fistfight going on. Maybe i’ll be a mediator.
think-if u two work together, u could do great things for us inexperienced bloggers. Bah, i guess some things will never happen.
Excellent list of pillars. So much to keep on top of.
I’m glad the pillars were posted. It clarifies for me what else I need to do. I already have the content, I just need to reach out more to other bloggers and get involved in posting more often. Thanks for the advice!