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I am seeing an increasing trend where many online bloggers are helping and linking mostly to bloggers from their own ethnic background only. This is probably a trait carried on from the offline world, where one prefers and gives better treatment to people depending on their ethnic background. By ethnic background, I am referring solely to the ethnic background of a person, and no other connection.

The blogs in question could be about any topic, but a person, or you, may prefer linking or reading them simply because the blogger in question is of the same ethnicity as yourself, and not because of the topic in question. In the process of doing so, a person is deliberately ignoring people from other ethnicities, simply because they are from a different ethnic background.

Is your favorite blogger giving preferential treatment based on ethnic backgrounds?

Check out majority of the top blogs on the internet today, including all the ones you visit each and every single day. Check out this very site too, and check out your sites too if you have one. If many of the top blogs do not usually link to each other based on the amount of income one makes, then many of those blogs prefer linking to each other based on their ethnic background affiliations. Do you also notice such a trend?

Some people can mix ethnicity to country affiliations too. Americans preferring American bloggers, Australians preferring Australian bloggers, Brazilians preferring Brazilian bloggers, Canadians preferring Canadian bloggers, Chinese preferring Chinese bloggers, French preferring French bloggers, Indians preferring Indian bloggers, Japanese preferring Japanese bloggers, Mexicans preferring Mexican bloggers, Vietnamese preferring Vietnamese bloggers, and so on. Instead of using the internet to be more equal and to do away with racial and ethnic differences, we are using the internet to increase the awareness of such socially constructed differences even more.

A brief view of a brief summary my view on ethnic backgrounds and affiliations

The topic of how much I dislike ethnic affiliations requires a book of its own. I personally oppose any idea of preferential treatment based on ethnic identities. I consider everyone, including myself, to be equal unless and until someone brings me back to my senses by asking me about my ethnic background and by making me realize how different or same of a human being I may be in the eyes of others. For me, ethnic identification is just a stereotype, since every human being is unique and has her or his own abilities that may be similar to the abilities of other people.

I dislike talking about my ethnic background, since in my view talking about such a thing does nothing but give others better ways to stereotype. I am me; judge me, if you must, based on how I act and based on how I think and based on what I feel, and not based on how some specific group out there may act or think or feel. “You are from Japan? No wonder you like sushi. You are of African decent? No wonder you like rap music. You are American? No wonder you support any and all wars. You are European or Middle Eastern? No wonder you oppose any and all wars. You from the same ethnic background as me? We are good friends already! You have the same ethnicity as me? I will treat you better, and you should treat me better too.” All pure rubbish views, in my view, because they are derived solely from stereotypes based on ethnic generalities and assumptions. I do not care what your ethnicity is. All I care is how you have and will act around me and others, and towards me, others and yourself, and why. Thats is it. Nothing else matters to me when it comes to me respecting you. Absolutely nothing.

Do you prefer linking to, or reading things by bloggers who are of the same ethnic background as yourself?

What do you think? Do you support the idea of linking to or reading blogs written by bloggers from the same ethnic background?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

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Many people consider any rich blogger to be a successful A-list bloggers. Any blogger who does not disclose the amount of money she or he makes, or does not appear to be making money, is not considered an A-list blogger by those same people. Similarly, a website given a very high rank through services like “Technorati Popular Blogs” list tend to be called and considered A-list bloggers. How many blogs can you find on that Technorati list that you like reading on a regular basis?

Non A-list Blogs

In contrast, take the ever-changing “The Reasoner Links” list, which is going to receive another fresh review soon. There are different reasons why a site may be listed on that list. I may find some sites interest, while other times the blogger may be trying something new with the concept of blogging. Some of the sites listed are of other bloggers from the original blogging days who helped define blogging and related, yet now they are not considered A-list bloggers by many people, because those bloggers either do not make a lot of money or they are not considered that important by services like Technorati.

Do you prefer A-list blogs over other blogs?

So, in your view, do you prefer reading A-list blogs over non-A-list blogs? Why or why not?

I would love to hear any opinion on this. Thank you for reading.

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There could be several reasons you would want to interact with people outside of a blog. Following is a random list of 6 such reasons:

1. Make online friends
2. Make online contacts to help yourself or others with businesses or blogs
3. Make online contacts to learn about something
4. Make online contacts to help them convert to offline friends and contacts - my favorite
5. Make online friends to fulfill hobbies, like exchanging gifts
6. To promote a weird kind of drama, the one to get yourself headaches and stalkers - this is a personal classic of mine that is revisited more than once every year or so for almost 6 years. I’m hoping to avoid it beginning this year.

6 random ways to interact with people outside of blog comments area

There can also be several ways to interact with people outside of a blog commenting area, like the following 6 ways:

1. E-mails
2. Instant messages
3. Text messages
4. Online voice conferences
5. Online webcam conferences
6. Snail mail - more and more people are giving this up. I think I would never want to give this up

An example of interacting via Snail Mail with online people: Sidney from Bubbles SOC

A good example of this is Sidney from BubblesSoc; Sidney has a very nice habit of sending me amazing gifts in the mail from time to time, and I still have to send her a lot of things that I have not had the time to pack and mail, because of packing and mailing a lot of other stuff. She is very good at it; I want to be as good too. She knows how to build relationships and make good friends that way. Just because of this, I consider Sidney a very nice and considerate person and friend. Maybe I like her gifts a lot?

For another example of this, you can read how Ronald became friends with a few online people by interacting with them for different reasons and through different levels. Ronald is a good friend of mine because of many reasons, including what he wrote in his post.

Do you build relations with others outside of a blog?

If I had not interacted with some people, and vice versa, outside of the blog comments on either my site or other sites, I would not know many of the wonderful and interesting friend that I know now. Similarly, had I refrained from interacting with certain people outside of the comments area, I would have saved myself from a lot of headache, a stabbing, and a few stalkers. Cute stalkers who hate knives and any harmful, physical objects are always welcome, though, I think.

So, do you like building relations with bloggers and commentors outside of a blog? Could the reasons you build such relations affect the level of relationship you can end up with?

Thank you for reading.

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1. DBT keeps me from eating normally every night

   Oh lord! It can be 3 am, and when no other e-mail is coming in, I hope that some DBT subscription e-mail comes in. It is very interesting to read the tips that Daniel has to share with the rest of the planet. I like getting daily DBT subscription e-mails.

   If I had to choose between eating cheesecake in the middle of the night and reading an e-mail, I would prefer eating cheesecakes and talking to a very good friend [ ]. However, if my good friend is not online, DBT e-mails are so interesting, I will usually put off my eating and read the latest DBT posts and any related comments. By the time I get done with DBT posts and comments, I forget about eating. Not good. Really not good. DBT should start writing boring posts on a daily basis, so that I can get bored easily and resume eating my food.

2. Daniel from DBT makes me wonder if I am chatting with him, or if I am dreaming

   Daniel, the owner of DBT, is usually online around the same times. “Why is he so accessible?” I wonder. Daniel is considered one of the finest A-list bloggers by many people, and yet he is always online, ready to interact when he has to. I sometimes wonder “Am I dreaming?” when I find it so easy to chat with Daniel compared to other A-list bloggers. Not nice, Daniel and DBT, for making Bes wonder every other night whether or not he is dreaming.

   “Hey Bes!” He usually says. “Am I still dreaming? He still remembers me?” I think to myself, wondering if forces of blogosphere nature and lack of sleep are playing with my mind. DBT sucks because it spoils me into thinking that all “A-list bloggers can still think about other people and not act too stuck up after getting their blogs famous.” Other A-list bloggers, take note: Daniel sets a few good examples to follow on how to communicate with others based on the topic at hand, and not based on how rich or elite one feels.

3. DBT discriminates, but less than most other A-list blogs

   Wow. I remember getting together with an A-list blogger last year who told me that he only wanted to write for advertisors, so that the readers could click on more sponsored links. DBT, on the other hand, does not care if you look at ads or not. DBT also does not discriminate based on whether or not you link back to it. DBT does have one criteria on which it wants to discriminate: you having a blog. If you do not have a blog and you do not want a blog, you will probably have a hard time realizing the potential of DBT. Other DBT lovers will probably hate you for not having a blog. You will not be able to show your face in the DBT world, for you do not have a blog, while everyone else does, and everyone else learns from DBT about ways to improve their blogs.

   That is bad, since such a discrimination forces all of us bloggers to force ourselves to keep having blogs, whether we like it or not, just because we want to keep DBT happy and we want to keep reading DBT posts. DBT’s business model discriminates against people who do not have blogs, because it does not cater to them. Will I ever be able to free myself from the chains of blogging, considering the fact than if I stop having a blog, I will be looked down upon by other DBT lovers who are not being discriminated against because of having blogs? It sounds highly unlikely. Boohooo!

So there you have it. That is my list of 3 random reasons why Daily Blog Tips sucks so much, that I like reading it everyday via e-mail to learn about different tips and techniques, or to see what Daniel thinks of different ideas and concepts that I am already familiar with.

What do you think? Can you think of some more reasons? Did you find anything interesting in this list, or does TR [The Reasoner] suck for not being able to make you smile even a little bit? Now if you must excuse me, I must do something which I have been saying and doing recently in many of my posts: eating, I have to go eat now.

Thank you for reading.

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1. Getting into arguments with other bloggers

   Arguments in the offline world can result in married couples and best friends hating each other forever, so it is no surprise that even the smallest of online arguments can result in powerful grudges. Just like any argument, just because you argue logically or think you are right does not mean you will be appreciated for voicing your opinion. An argument itself should be avoided, since forcing someone to agree with you contradicts the idea of making someone believe in something voluntarily. Also, bloggers should try to disagree with arguments, not with people who argue.

   If you argue online for business reasons, it is better to end the argument as soon as possible and to move on, since continuous arguments about something mean that either the issue should be ignored or the business deal should be reconsidered. Getting into an argument with someone, where the blogosphere sides with your “opponent“, can result in you and your blog being sent to the blog hell, resulting in you getting less attention, fewer blog comments, and even fewer ways to find inspiration to build back your affected reputation. Sometimes, it is very hard to improve a damaged reputation because of the way the online world looks at how or why you argue in arguments.

2. Punished by search engines

   Search engine optimization [SEO] is something that many bloggers, if not most, focus on. If you pay close attention to many prominent blogs and their bloggers, you will realize that they usually focus more on SEO than their readers or even their content. While such a thing may seem evil, consider this: if a blogger upsets one reader, that blogger can rebuild that relationship, or replace it with another relationship with some other reader; it happens regularly, even if that sounds evil too. However, if you upset a search engine like Google or Yahoo, you may end up losing most readers forever since it is hard to rebuild good relationships with search engines.

   Some blogs get more than 90% of their readers and commentors through search engines, because many people find those blog through their search engine searches. If a search engine bans or punishes your for any reason, you may be in a blog hell because you will have to start depending on other sources to bring in more people to your blog. Imagine having a bookstore on a street where the only way you find new customers is through newspaper ads. Now imagine all newspapers not placing your ads anymore for some reason. You will probably worry that you might run out of business. That is how your blog can be if you upset search engines for various reasons.

3. Being criticized by a famous blogger

   For many bloggers, there is nothing more shocking than having a very famous blogger criticize them in public. If you are a blogger who is suffering the wrath of some prominent blogger’s anger, you may have said or done something on your blog that the other blogger may not like saying or doing themselves. Take the issue of MyBlogLog banning Jeremy Schoemaker, aka ShoeMoney, because he posted MyBlogLog security exploits in public. Arguing about something or having issues does create tensions, though when the entire blogosphere joins in, reputations can go either up or down really fast. Overall, MyBlogLog was criticized more heavily than Jeremy, and one of the reasons for that was because the criticism was started publicly by Jeremy first. One way for you to avoid such a scenario is to avoid telling someone that they are wrong.

   If you get criticized by a famous blogger, you may feel the blog world crashing on you. Your reputation may be on the line, and you may feel the need to either accept all blame and apologize, or to go out fighting like an action hero or heroine. The way MyBlogLog tried to correct the situation was by Eric from MyBlogLog posting an apology to ShowMoney online, and by explaining briefly how his action was justified, and how he could have done some things differently. Sometimes, accepting a criticism after fighting it for a while can be a good thing also, if you feel that not giving up on something may be hurting other more important goals in the long run. If you are worried about a small criticizing comment left by someone, you may want to refer to the Art of Reacting to Criticizing Comments for further guidance.

4. Technical issues resulting in loss of the site or readers

   This is something that allows many people to regularly visit the blog hell for a few hours or even for a few days. Such technical issues can range from your domain name expiring to you accidentally deleting all your older posts and comments on your blog without having a backup. Sometimes, your host could also simply go down for even a few days, resulting in many frustrated readers and commentors of your blog to never come back.

   Technical issues can also result from sites getting hacked due to exploits in software like Wordpress. Whatever the reason, your site may be down and your blog readers may not be able to access or comment on your blog. It can be a nightmare for you, and the time you spend trying to worry or fix the problem is actually the time you are in a blog hell. You just feel the heat more mentally than physically, unless you have the heater on.

5. Losing interest in your own blog

   This is the point that allows most bloggers to be in denial that they are not in a blog hell. Many blogs that you see today will have their owners losing interest in blogging within a year. After a long time of staying away from blogs or even posting random stuff just to fulfill the obligation of blogging, they will start gaining interest in blogging again. Many other priorities in life result in many bloggers focusing less and less on blogging, and many bloggers could simply be having writer’s block for a long time, resulting in loss of interest in blogging or even writing. By the time a used-to-be-a-blogger wants to reclaim the blogging fame that he or she once had, it may be a hundred times harder to regain the same success as before.

   It depends on each blogger whether they feel they are in a blog hell when they are losing interest in blogging, or if they feel like being in a blog hell when they try to bring their blog back up to its former glory and it just is not happening easily. Either way, the offline world plays a major role in deciding our interest in the online world, since even if we blog all day, we still sleep and eat in the offline world, thus giving some kind of an unconscious preference to the importance of the offline world compared to the online world.

That is my list of 5 of the many things that result in many bloggers getting a train ticket to Blog Hell. Some people are lucky and get a round trip ticket, though many people are not so lucky and get only a one way, first class train ticket to Blog Hell where it is hard to bring the blog out of some specific misery.

What is your opinion on this? Please let me know if you can think up of other things that result in people experiencing the scorching fires of the Blog Hell. Thank you for reading.

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Sometimes bloggers hide their interest in getting incoming links behind the concept of linking to useful posts

If you link to others with the assumption that you will get a lot of benefits in return, including the benefit of being linked back, you should sit down and figure out if you are actually looking forward to the sole benefit of being linked back to by someone else. Maybe you are only linking to get links back, and you are using a myriad of other reasons, like “I’m linking to a great article” or “My readers should find out other sites too“, simply to feel better that you are not linking just to get attention.

Example: many prominent bloggers tag or link to other prominent blogs only

You can see this a lot in online memes. Many prominent bloggers tag only other prominent bloggers for different memes. Such prominent bloggers will also link only to other prominent bloggers in their blog posts. These bloggers are only linking out in order to get more links pointing to their own site. That means these bloggers care more about the concept of incoming links than the concept of sending visitors to good sites, since their visitors trust them by clicking on links pointing to other sites.

Figure out whether you will link to others if you get nothing in return

The next time you want to link to a blog or a blog post, find out if you are writing a quality article or abusing the concept of link baits, by asking yourself this question:

“If that blog never links back to me, and the blogger never visits my site, would I still link to a blog post by that blogger?”

So please tell me, my dear reader, what are would be your reasons for linking to other blogs in your blog posts?

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