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By Maryline, on September 6th, 2010%
The stories and feelings we share online can be widely filtered, altered, or distorted.
I call personal bloggers those who essentially fuel their blog contents with their life experiences. In personal blogging, people share their personal journeys possibly through different lenses — nothing like a business blog (for instance, guided tours in Europe), or meta-blogging (tips on blogging, SEO, social media…).
And within the personal blogging world, bloggers are either
- private bloggers, who do not reveal their identity, their location, photos of themselves or their family — and most importantly, do NOT promote their blogs in their inner circle; nobody really knows who this blogger is. I have encountered the perfect example here: http://www.bloggingdangerously.com/
and
- public bloggers, though they may demonstrate variable degrees of publicity, all share personal information. Often, a lot of information. And sometimes, way too much information! Despite the consequences, I have found a few incredible bloggers who just “write naked”. They are real, and they say it like it is. In a way, they blog as if nobody is watching. If you please take a moment to read http://www.nopointsforstyle.com/2010/08/raw-divinity.html and you’ll know what I mean.
So… I think you know where I’m headed.
It seems to me that public bloggers, in particular high-profile bloggers (the so-called A-list), must be very mindful of what they write because their kids’ teacher, their housekeeper, their landlord, their spouse, their neighbors, their mailman, their friends and otherwise their entire family (including in-laws!) are probably reading, at least occasionally.
And don’t think you cannot be found because you are only partially public. There is no such thing.
I’m afraid this in itself being a public blogger ruins the real-deal expectations.
Consciously, there are areas that public blogger acknowledge will be left alone. They are putting boundaries, absolutely fine.
But unconsciously, the filter of self-censorship settles in every other subject they approach. There is no way around it. It’s too late.
I’ve come to realize that a wide range of people have access to my blog and that could be the reason why I’m very selective with the images I post; self-consciousness may even reflect in some posts.
What if I can’t really say what I feel like saying?
Often I find that I’m most open in my comments to posts from other bloggers where I’m less likely to be found.
Don’t you get too excited here, I don’t have much to hide!
I was just wondering: is it just me?
It's so good to have you back! Share your thoughts, I LOVE comments!
By Maryline, on September 5th, 2010%
I cannot believe my blog is two months old already!
It feels like I’ve been around much longer; maybe due to my new “reduced sleep” schedule?
Or maybe because I’ve met an incredible number of great people in such a short amount of time?
I love connecting with more readers, and my posts are now automatically updated on Twitter and Facebook and sent via email. How convenient, WordPress really makes it easy!
Without further ado, here are my current stats, it’s been a great month!
Stats:
681 visitors (561 in past month)
1,634 visits (1,264 in past month)
4:20 average time on site (3:47 in past month)
5,041 page views (3,363 in past month)
1,069,847 Alexa Rank
344 Twitter followers
17 subscribers
Contents:
61 Posts (27 in past month)
Most views: 11 French Things that are only French in America
Most comments: Lean Cuisine for Babies?
By Maryline, on August 10th, 2010%
I’ve been around just long enough to highly recommend a handful of writers whose blog have already made a significant impact on my life.
No exaggeration.
And that’s enough for them to receive my endorsement, so please let me introduce…
 Best in style: Kris @ Pretty All True
At Pretty All True, you get it all: heartfelt, hilarious, vibrant, obnoxious, inappropriate, sensitive. Not your typical mommy blogger.
With Kris, you never know what to expect. But it is always highly entertaining, and carefully crafted.
Kris has been blogging since 1997 (from what I can tell) and does not seem to have any other agenda than to blog for the pleasure of writing and sharing her stories. She is well-followed and probably doesn’t need (or care for) any publicity. But just in case you don’t know her yet, here is Magic Tension a post that really hit home for me.
Make sure to read through the comments — you’ll see what well-followed means.
 Best creative & photos: Maureen @ Tatter Scoops
Maureen is an expat (like me), “Indonesian by birth, American by heart”. She still experiences culture shock on a daily basis and shares her own slices of life, and punctuates them with stunning, relevant pictures you wish you could print and frame for your home!
I love her stories about toddlerhood, and her son is as photogenic as it gets, see for yourself with Terrible Two, Eat Your Heart Out!
Maureen is also my blog buddy in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge (31DBBB). Her support and advice have been nothing short of outstanding and I feel lucky to have her as my buddy!
 Best emotions: Nichole @ In These Small Moments
Nichole’s blog is dedicated to the small moments of our children’s life and how these tiny miracles form memories that will stay with us forever. Every post is filled with true emotions — especially true love.
On a side note, Nichole is a very kind and welcoming fellow blogger that I would encourage you to follow.
One of my favorite posts from Nichole is Bittersweet Changes; it talks about seeing her baby grow a little too fast, as he is getting ready for “solids” despite his mom.
 Best story: Lucy @ Lucille in the Sky
I’ve only “met” Lucille this past week believe it or not. Her blog? Reminds me of mine in more than one way, we have a similar life philosophy and ask the same important questions. If you are looking to pursue your dreams, Lucille will convince you it’s not too late: “Life is not about finding yourself, it’s about creating herself”.
Lucy’s blog is a true inspiration to me, and she needs some comment love — while migrating her blog from Blogspot to WordPress all her comments were lost! Don’t waste another minute, please share the comment love!
I want to know about the bloggers you’d recommend to me, leave a comment!
By Maryline, on August 4th, 2010%
My blog is one month old today!
I wanted to share my stats for the last 30 days, and keep your fingers crossed, I hope to demonstrate some steady growth in another month.
Platform: WordPress 3.0.0 / 13 Plugins downloaded
Theme: Atahualpa 3.4.9
Stats:
152 visitors
369 visits
6:07 average time on site
1,652 page views
11,197,936 Alexa Rank
180 Twitter followers
5 subscribers
Contents:
34 Posts
Most views: http://www.francoamericandream.com/10-email-tips-to-maximize-counter-performance/
Most comments: http://www.francoamericandream.com/no-domestic-diva/
A few tools I’ve used throughout this month:
General blog audit: http://ismyblogworking.com
Audit your blog’s loading time: http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
Stats & keywords queries by Google Analytics + Google Webmasters
Let me say THANK YOU to the SITS and ProBlogger for getting me started with the infamous challenge “31 Days to Build a Better Blog”!
If there are other stats you are interested in, let me know and I will update the post accordingly!
By Maryline, on August 3rd, 2010%
 My blog in a pile of words Wordle is a tool I discovered a few weeks ago but I just got around to testing it today.
This being day 16 of the 31DBBB, I wanted to share my newly-found bits of bloggy wisdom and at the same time fulfill the task of “Answering my reader’s problem”.
Look at that, you have a problem you didn’t know about!
Let me educate you about Wordle!
The concept is simple, you input a bunch of words into a wizard that generates word-clouds with all sort of randomization in the arrangement of the words, the direction and size of the cloud, colors, font size, etc. You just hit a button until you’re happy with the result.
The more often a word is represented, the larger the font to represent it in the cloud…
Which makes Wordle the best-looking cloud generator for your blog keywords! Just enter your URL here.
Note: You may customize your cloud with options such as omit most frequently used words (the, with, a, I… ), define font size and color, choose orientation, and so on.
I’m sure someone very savvy has found a way to make their cloud dynamic and clickable. Hmm… That’s not me! Hello! This is only my first month of blogging & playing around in WordPress.
Interesting to note that I’ve mentioned these words quite a lot on my blog: nanny, work, husband, children, time, care, and house.
Well, it can’t get any more personal than this!
This fun concept can be repurposed to no end: school work, college paper, work presentation, out-of-the-box artwork for your teenager’s room… It’s quite an attention grabber, so use this tool to your advantage and captivate your audience!
Take it a step further if your blog is self-hosted on WordPress: download a plugin called WordPress Wordle. It will output text based on tags in your blog suitable for pasting into the Wordle wizard. Voilà!
So head over to www.wordle.net and post a comment with your link to show me what your cloud looks like!
Disclaimer: You know, the plugin I just mentioned above? Well, I have not figured out where to paste the PHP code so if you make it work, will you please help me back? 
By Maryline, on July 28th, 2010%
Two blank days on my blogging calendar. Just like that.
I feel like an amateur tennis player who almost wins the first set against an all star champ, but ends up losing the game because I gave my all to win the first points!
Turns out, I hardly have time to blog these days, though I “think” posts all the time, I failed to “write” them! I have made peace with the fact that if I cannot blog every day, it’s okay and life goes on!
If you will indulge me, I will let you know how this happened!
I have sacrificed quite a bit of sleep to get this blog going over the past three weeks, and I am so excited to have reached over 1,000 page views (yay!). Bu this week my sacrifice went to my friends, in particulat two of my dearest girlfriends who have just given birth to three babies in total.
On another note, my company is going through a reorg and we are being told great changes are ahead. What I see is that more work will continue to be done by a too small number of people. I will however admit, I am a little out of it this week — I have not felt very concerned or interested because newborns are far more intriguing, and seeing my friends go through this life changing experience has been a real treat.
On yet another note, I have notified the family we share our nanny with that upon her departure in less than 4 weeks, I am looking to find a home day care for T instead of hiring a new nanny to come work out of my house for both their child and mine.
The dad got so upset, he was taking it very personally. I’m afraid he may never talk to me again! I explained it had nothing to with them — I just can’t handle a day care at my house, that’s not what I signed up for; beside T will really benefit from hanging out with more children, and a bit older too.
There are two contenders thus far, out of which one is already getting me a little worried. Might as well say I have only one prospect right now.
Finding child care can be such a hassle! Without word of mouth, reputable home day cares are really hard to find — when a spot opens, it gets filled from the next child on the waiting list.
When I am so tired that I can’t keep my eyes open, I know blogging can wait. Tonight, I was able to keep my eyes open long enough, but I’m nearing the end.
I will need to refocus and plan my next posts a bit better, another thing I learned!
Off to bed or else I’m never going to make it to my 6AM run.
I’m curious to hear what others are finding is “getting in the way of blogging”. Please share your experiences in the comment section below!
By Maryline, on July 23rd, 2010%
R, my husband has not said it, but I can feel he wants to ask.
Look, I am not sure about anything. I just learned what a hashtag is, and there are 26 days left in the 31DBBB challenge. I will certainly find out about many more directions this project could be taking – and it is so exciting.
Whenever R asks me what I’m doing on my laptop, I just tell him “I’m reading”. It is true!
I enjoy every new connection I make with total strangers that share the challenge with me. And through their blogs, comments, questions and tweets, they become familiar faces. Soon I will have made friends.
Over the past 2 weeks, I have visited more blogs than I have in my entire life.
Just following a gut feeling that tells me this is where I need to go. And this, my friend, is how I end up cutting many nights short; because I just can’t get myself to go to bed — this is so much fun!
For example, I’m loving WordPress. Whenever I try to figure something out: there’s a plugin for that! And that can be anything you want!
There are so many tools out there to make your blog better and improve your reader experience. So many metrics to look at to evaluate your blog (I used to be a math major, I’ve found a new heaven!)…
The only question I’ve come to ask myself is not why, but rather, why not sooner?
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Comment Love from Spammers
Quick Sunday confession, you’re ready?
After spending most the day away from my laptop, I was lurking tonight at my blog’s comments moderation box. But to no avail.
Not much to moderate, sadly.
Let me take this opportunity to tell you (or remind you) that I appreciate every relevant comment, whether we agree or not, as long as you bring in some insight, I’m thrilled to engage with my readers!
So when I write that the the lack of comments from my readers makes me a little sad, you aren’t that surprised now, are you?
If you care to tell me why, other than Sundays are busy, and we all have errands to run and events to go to, and friends or family to hang out with… I just hope you didn’t find my post on triathlons too intimidating.
Meanwhile, I took the opportunity and little time on my hands to visit my spam comments folder (those that were already pre-moderated for me), cause you never know, right?
And, yes, spam doesn’t spare blogs; just like in emails, enhancing drugs, unbeatable retail outlets, highly profitable inheritance schemes, and the latest technical gadgets rank high in the random garbage I manage to keep at bay.
Nonetheless I have found some spam comments rather entertaining, how about this one:
I like it! I like it a lot. You know exactly what youre speaking about, precisely in which other men and women are coming from on this concern. Im glad which i had the fortune to stumble throughout your web site. Its absolutely an important problem that not ample persons are talking about and Im pleased which i acquired the probability to view all of the angles.
Well, isn’t this one eloquent robot?
Pick your smartest 5 words, now, and write a beautiful comment, no prize or awards, just the opportunity to brighten my day and yours as you read an exchange of witty and pompous comments!