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1. You own an iPod, or something similar.

   Think of the iPod as a luxury. Majority of the world cannot afford to buy food once a day, yet you have an iPod. You could have gotten the iPod as a gift from someone, or you could have bought it yourself. Now, how does this make sure that you are not poor? If you ask someone to lend you $100, while your iPod can be sold for $70, it means you want someone else to be inconvenienced by them giving you their money, while you do not want to give up listening to your iPod. Similarly, if you have something along the same lines, like a new laptop, and cannot part with it, you may not be poor. You can easily sell a laptop and get some money for it.

   Exceptions: Your job may depend on the laptop, or in some very rare cases, the iPod. Someone close to you may have given you the iPod and thus you cannot sell it, or else they will be greatly offended. Your iPod may probably be so old that you can only get $5 from it while you do not have money to pay the rent, which costs a couple of thousand dollars, etc. Of course, I can also say that if you can get $5 from your iPod, it means you are doing your best to make sure you utilize every resource possible before feeling that you are helpless and poor.

2. You can afford to buy a home or pay rent

   Home is another important factor that people and society have worked together to create. If you can afford to buy a home or pay rent for your current place of living, you are most probably not poor. Some ways to save money could be to cut off on living expenses: using less electricity, finding a cheaper place, selling off the home, renting a room to someone, etc.

   Exceptions: Even if you find a cheaper place, you may still not have the money you need. You may also already have the cheapest place anyone could get, unless you had a gun to force the landlord into lowering your rent. However, a gun usually costs money, so a really poor person may not be able to afford that. Unless, however, you use a knife to get a gun, but a knife costs too. Unless you use…..ok, never mind.

3. You can buy large combo meals from fast food places every day

   Food prices are a good way to measure the performance of an economy, and food is also a good way to measure the strength of your bank account, if you have one. If you can buy at least 2 large combo meals at McDonald’s or Carls. Jr.s every day, you are probably not poor. Why? You can buy cheaper stuff at grocery stores and cook things yourself for weeks, saving more than half the money you spend in a month on fast food.

   Exceptions: You don’t know how to cook, you do not have a kitchen, you get gift cards or coupons for the fast food purchase, etc.

4. You can buy the things you want

   The things you need are usually different than the things you want. Wanting to eat food daily is something you need. Wanting to buy coffee and chocolate everyday, in addition to other kinds of food, can be something you want. If you can afford to buy things that can be avoided on a regular basis, chances are you are not poor. Paying for a blog, host, design and extra features for your site just for a hobby also means that you are probably not poor since you can afford such a thing.

   I knew this guy once who would drink coffee 3 times a day, finish a pack of premium cigarettes every day, buy food supplies and also eat at fast food places multiple times a day. On top of that, he would ask from time to time to lend him something so he could pay his rent. I calculated his expenses with him and in front of him, and figured that he was spending around $250 for the things I just listed above. How much did he want me to lend him? Around $100 or so. I told him about this, and he stopped being friendly after that.

   Exceptions: You are addicted to smoking. By addicted, I do not mean that if you do not smoke you feel weird. No, feeling weird for not smoking is an excuse for people who want a lame excuse to keep spending money. By addicted, I mean if you stop smoking or drinking you feel extreme depression, or you get seizures and have to go to the hospital, etc. Also, without things like coffee, you may actually get literal headaches throughout the day resulting in you getting admitted to the hospital. Also, things like blog may maintain your sanity by allowing you to express yourself, and without that, you would be poor and insane, though some can say that such a reason is simply an excuse to spend on your blog while you do not have enough money for offline things.

   Another important exception to this rule is if you are Bes: Bes needs and wants chocolate every single day; no exception to this rule. Period. Bes used to give packs of chocolate to homeless people before someone threw it back at Bes and yelled “I want some change! What the HELL am I gonna do with that?” Bes apologized and moved on, and ever since, Bes has been thinking of never giving away any chocolate, but keeping it in the fridge to devour while writing posts at night.

5. You can buy things for others

   If you can buy things for others, you are most probably the opposite of poor. You may be rich. There is nothing wrong with buying a $500 watch for your boy/girlfriend, but there is something wrong with buying a $500 watch to impress someone and asking someone else to lend you $200 for your car payment at the same time.

   Exceptions: You feel your job or some relationship depends on you buying something for others so much, that you do not even have enough money for some personal things, like your own rent, enough food, etc. Sure, such an exception means you do not know how to have a good relationship and are in touch with the wrong people, but it also means that you may be poor and cannot help it. Another exception may be that you are raising a child or someone, and you want that child or anyone depending on your financially to be really happy, and thus you are sacrificing your own financial happiness.

I hope this list helps you realize whether or not you are really poor. Also, if you want to borrow money from someone, you may think twice before asking someone to part with their money, while you do not part with yours.

Can you think of more things to add to this list?

A good next topic could be “5 situations in which you wish you were poor.” Thanks for reading.

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1. Keyboard

   Who talks about keyboards? No, I am not talking about keyboard reviews, or even a post about how a new keyboard is making a blogger happy. How about someone writing about the very existence of a keyboard? What would life be if keyboards never existed? What would life be for one day if our keyboard broke and we could not find another one until the next day? Things like those make you appreciate keyboards more or less, and since keyboards are part of life, such appreciation affects our appreciation for life also. Interesting, isn’t it?

2. Pen

   Aaah yes, the pen. Many poets talk about pen the way lovers talk about their love. I wonder when bloggers will start talking about how a pen would feel, if it were alive, about a pencil? Would the two be jealous about each other? Would we consider a pen to be more influential and helpful to us in our entire life, or a pencil? Thoughts like that about any topic sometimes make ordinary things like pen seem more interesting than a blog itself.

3. The walk from your door to the car, bus, or the grocery store

   This is simply an activity, and for most people, it can be a boring activity if thought about too much. However, from leaving our home to reaching a car, bus or some destination by foot, how do our thoughts change because of the exposure to the outside world? Do we still believe in the same reasons for leaving the house, once we reach a destination, as we did before leaving the house? Even a small activity can be focused upon to kill boredom, or to come up with an interesting perspective about things in order make boring times more pleasing for yourself and your readers.

4. Waiting while putting in gas in your car

   I like smelling gasoline at the gas station. I do not start putting my nose in the gas pipe itself, but if I smell it, I enjoy it. However, during that activity of waiting while filling gas, what do you usually do? Do you always do random things, or do you always do something specific, like getting back in your car and waiting for the car tank to fill up? Who knew the amount of time, spent from putting the gas pipe into your car gas tank to the exact time your car gas tank is filled up, could be analyzed so much!

5. Trying to glance at a guy/girl who is looking at you

   I had a girl look at me today for while, continuously. I also had a guy, a grandmother and a dog do the same to me. I looked back, wondering why they were looking. The dog got bored of me and walked away, which was sad, but the others kept looking for unknown reasons. I tried to glance back, from time to time, wondering if I had a new stalker on the way, or if someone like the girl felt interested in me. Here, for me, the act of looking back and wondering was more important than the reason I was looking back at people who were already looking at me for long periods of time. Maybe Bes is just funny to look at?

These are 5 random things that many people do not blog about. Why? Because advertisors and many readers are not searching for such things, so many bloggers only try to focus on things that bring in more blog traffic.

Exercise: You suggest the most random, strange topic, and I will write about it.

To illustrate what I mean, you can tell me the weirdest thing, topic or idea in this universe, and I will try to write an article about it using a completely unique perspective. Some soul or even souls may have already talked about it sometime in the past, but I will present to you my own unique perspective about that “something” that you point out. I will not talk about it just to fulfill the task of talking about it; I will bring to light something that you may or may not find interesting, but hopefully you will realize how almost anything can be talked about nicely, when done with sincere passion.

Thanks for reading.

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1. Infatuated with Stats

   Your blogging depends on checking your blog stats. If you get a lot of traffic on one day, your whole life seems happy. Otherwise, you feel depressed and may think that you are doing something wrong. For you, RSS feed subscriber count, site visitors, and similar numbers are more important than blogging or your blog content itself.

2. Yearning for Comments

   You write to get comments, even if what you write does not deserve any comments. You think about commentors not to appreciate them, but to get their comments on your site in order to get more comments on your site. You do not care if you get a useful or a useless comment; you are happy as long as you get a comment.

3. Failure to Have a Back Bone

   When you get criticized, you may feel like shutting down your blog. Just as in real life, there will always be people who may disagree with you. Same is the case with blogs; it is very easy to leave a comment that says “I think that’s stupid.” Be prepared; otherwise, you will not last long in the blogging world, which is fast becoming a very vicious, competitive place. You should probably figure out the Art of Reacting to Criticizing Comments, as you probably do not know how to react to criticizing comments.

4. You are Blinded by Money Prospects

   You blog for money without caring for readers. Period. You write in order to gain sponsors, and you write in order to gain readers who will click on ads. You value and thank sponsors more than your readers. Whether or not you actually ever earn money is a different thing, though you do not focus on what you offer to your readers. For you, the idea that you can try to make money signifies that you are on a noble path, and that you are a hard working person who wants to earn a living. The idea of making money blinds you with such a misconception.

5. You Think You Will be Famous

   Many bloggers simply focus on getting attention for the sake of getting attention, and if you are one of them, you will do many random, weird things, including posting random things to please people, just to try to be famous. You do not realize that being a real famous person means you do things naturally that result in someone noticing that you do those things, thus making you a famous person. You do not work on becoming famous. You work on doing important things that can make others believe that you are famous. You also do not realize that becoming famous does not mean you did something good; you could be doing relatively evil things, even in your own view, and getting attention. All you want is attention.

6. You Think You Can Actually Make a Difference

   We all want to do something in our lives, hopefully. Many people think that they can change the world or the blogosphere overnight. If you are such a person, you may be wanting to change things right away, without changing yourself first. Sure, it is not necessary to change yourself all the time, though if you do not know first hand what the change feels like, how can you expect to change the world, since you would not know how to achieve such a change. If your blogging relies on making a difference, you may be disappointed. Blogging in order to try to infuse an idea of a change in people is a much more realistic goal, as voluntary change is more permanent and more effective than an overnight, emotional, emotionally manipulated or forced change.

7. You Think You Can Make People Change

   It can be next to impossible to convince many people to stop drinking coffee. Yet, many people think that they can change the entire lives of others simply by giving them a lecture or two. Blogging in order to tell people that they are wrong and that they should change can be a sign that you do not know how human interaction works.

8. You Blame Others for Your Blog Problems

   If your site goes down, you blame your host. If the number of commentors you get on a regular basis goes down, you blame others for not linking to you enough. If your RSS feed subscriber base shrinks, you blame the blogging advice others give you. You never blame yourself. Every choice you make on your blog is your choice, so blaming others all the time for your blog problems is a very naïve thing to do. If someone forced you at gunpoint or threatened to do something, like shutting down your blog if you do not do what they say, then sure, go ahead and blame that someone. Otherwise, stop blaming and start thinking. Thinking while crying is better than crying and blaming someone else.

9. You Rely on the Latest Blog Fad

   If a famous blogger talks about it, you talk about it. If others are using the same gadget on their blogs, you want to use it on your blog too. You follow the trend simply because there is a trend to be followed. You do not follow things because they make sense. You follow things because you are naïve.

10. You step on others to get ahead without realizing the political consequences

    This may be surprising to you. If you use people for your own personal gain, you are probably a naïve blogger. You have to understand that using tactics to manipulate people may result in many people being blinded easily at the moment, but as time passes and new trends and views come to surface, more and more people will start realizing that you used them without appreciating them, or without giving them anything useful in return. You are naïve because you try to use people without realizing how such an action will be noticed by others. You simply want to use people and get away with it.

This list will surely help me focus on my blogging more. I hope such a list will help you also, by allowing you to identify similar traits not only in your own blogging style but also in others. Sometimes, a blogger may simply be naïve and may not want to hurt others intentionally. Other times, a blogger may be naïve because they want to use others and they do not think of any consequences.

What is your view on this? Do you agree or disagree with something? Can you think of more points that may be a signify someone being a naïve blogger?

Thank you for reading.

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I started my site by writing about personal things combined with different topics, and I still try do the same as I feel comfortable writing about things I have myself experienced or learned. Following are 5 Personal Blogging Myths that I see people believing in almost every day; some of these things I used to believe myself too. I hope this list can help you realize why such myths are not what actually happens in the personal blogging world.

5 Personal Blogging Myths

1. “Everyone online will help me with my problems“

   Many people post their personal problems online in order to get emotional support. They assume that online comments mean that all the commentors care. This is sometimes not the case. Sometimes people leave comments simply to gain more popularity. Do not expect emotional help from all the people you meet on the internet, or else you will be emotionally drained and depressed when you do not receive comments on posts that may be extremely important to you.

   People may simply be reading your blog in order to pass time without any headaches. Such people may leave nice comments innocently without thinking about how you will treat such comments. If someone offers to help or know more about your life, consider yourself lucky, the same way you would feel lucky offline if someone wanted to know more about your life as a friend.

2. “I post a lot on my site, so I know how to socialize!! Take that you depressing speech professors!!!“

   Many people think that posting on the internet means they are good at socializing with others. While this may be the case, many people who post a lot of personal things on the internet do so because they are usually hesitant to express anything to others in real life.

   Use your blog to express yourself and try to use your blog as a way to socialize more in real life instead of considering online communication as a replacement to real world communication. Do not assume something you do online to be a form of compensation for something you cannot do offline unless you realize what you lack and what you are comfortable with.

3. “Telling people online to go f%^& themselves makes me so cool and hotttt!!“

   Many people love insulting others all the time on their personal blogs. Just because you can use the “F” word repeatedly does not mean you are cool and strong. The internet enables even the weakest of living things to appear strong through monitors, so it is a good thing to realize whether the power you express criticizing someone online will be the there to back you up if you were to criticize that same individual in person. The trend of insulting others all the time by showing yourself to be more intelligent only shows how narrow-minded and sensitive you are about your own shortcomings.

   Be cool instead of acting cool. Try avoiding insulting other people simply to appear cool. If you really are an amazing person, other people will realize that on their own without you dictating such a thought to them through your insulting and criticizing of others.

4. “Uuu don’t like what I write about?? GO DIE BI%$#!“

   I am seeing an increasing trend where many personal blogs are starting to tell viewers to “get lost” if they do not agree with something. Such personal blogs are run by people who usually complain about not being taken seriously in life while they themselves do not acknowledge that different people can have different opinions online.

   Respect is earned, not taken by force. Show your maturity and open-mindedness by acknowledging that others can disagree with you. Respect people even if you do not respect their opinions. Always try to avoid taking extra steps to insult someone on purpose. If you say something like “i don’t care what u think!! if u don’t agree to what I have 2 say, get lost looooser!!“, it makes people wonder why you get upset over any disagreeing comments. If you really do not care about what people think, you would not be caring about any disagreeing comments you may receive. Do not let disagreeing comments dictate your emotions. Otherwise, you make it easy for people to control your emotions.

   If I can make you so upset by simply leaving one comment on your site, imagine how much control I can have over your emotions if you were to ever run into me in real life. Refrain from taking things personally when someone disagrees with you. If you really get upset over a comment, try to disagree with the comment and not the person who commented. Regardless of people being right or wrong, if you get upset over anyone who disagrees with you, it means you cannot co-exist with people who can think differently than you. That is a handicap in my view, as there may always be someone who will disagree with what you say. Get rid of such a handicap before it destroys not only your blog but your emotions also.

5. “This is MY personal blog u idiot!! I can blog about anything in any manner i want!!“

   The biggest myth that I see floating around personal blogs is that personal bloggers can blog about anything in any form they want. Yes, you can blog about anything in any manner you want since it is your blog, but only if you do not want people to read you on a regular basis. A personal blog should have at least one consistent thing: the perspective which is being expressed to a reader. Your personal blog is your opinion about things. The most important common element on all of the pages of your personal blog is you. Maintain consistency on your personal blog by talking about everything you mention in your own words and feelings.

   Stick to your specialty and keep adding the personal touch to every post that makes your blog your own personal blog. Otherwise, people will start thinking that you are running out of topics to talk about or are confused about where your blog is headed. If you keep abandoning the personal approach on a more frequent basis, you may start losing readers who feel annoyed and confused by the irregularity and inconsistency in the basic theme of your posts.

Hold on to the good things you have on your personal blog right now and avoid the stereotypical trends and myths that are floating around in the personal blogging universe. Keep improving the ways you express yourself and the ways you deal with outside reactions to your expressions, and you can have a successful personal blog in the long run.

Personal blogging is still growing, so hold on

Like a child, the world of personal blogging is still growing. Personal blogging is also the most saturated type of blogging category out there. It is full of blogs that keep doing random things simply because many people relate personal writing to being random, vague and without any clear focus. Since the world of blogging is still new compared to things in the offline world, the personal blogging dust will someday settle and slowly some personal bloggers will either give up such blogging or move on to other kinds of blogs.

Realizing the above myths will help you realize whether or not personal blogging is for you in the long run, and whether or not you are falling victim to the myths which are starting to become real stereotypes that you can find on many blogs on a daily basis.

What do you think about this? Is there any point you agree or do not agree with? Can you think of any other points that should go along with this list? Thank you for reading.

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