I certainly won’t be checking to see whether he becomes useful (again)…

But as you can see, I don’t do that. Instead, I engage in the conversation – just like I do through my blog. Truthfully, other than link backs on lists, I don’t ever leave a ‘nice post’ comment. I never think about it. Why would I waste my time?

No, Vivien, my friends still don’t know my blog. They keep on asking me from time to time if I am really sure I don’t want their help. Even last week, when I answered one of them that he could help by writing an article for me, he said “No, I just wanted to click on your Google stuff”.

1 : This is an important question, as it allows us to realize why we blog. Do we blog because we want to convey some message, or do we blog because we want to impress someone? Sometimes people blog not to impress anyone but to convey a message, though they do present their blog and content in a manner which impresses readers.

At this moment, however, I am noticing that many prominent bloggers are bragging and showing off a lot, and more and more people are appreciating them because those bloggers make money along the way. Also, the perception of bragging can be relative. One may not be bragging and talking about useful things, but people who have never realized such things or do not want to may feel that someone is bragging and showing off through their blog.

2 : It is probably the idea of money or some reward that is making many people become loyal followers. People do not notice that something big is happening, even if a blogger claims that he or she is “evil.” People simply follow because that word, evil, sounds so cool, even if one isn’t evil at all but a good sales person.

Like Paris Hilton, it is the “famous” status that is making many people focus on the person instead of what the person does, and consider his or her every action as being something intelligent or unique. Like Ronald said, the current mentality by John Chow is that readers or people are not important, and money is. Sure, money is important, but allowing only the privileged to prosper because of putting the money factor in everything is not something evil; it is simply being a sales person in every way possible without thinking of the quality of the product one is selling, or even the existence of any product.

3 : I have been myself all this time, showing different tunes and different perspectives along the way. I am nice on my blog because I think I am nice outside my blog. I want the readers to see a version of me that I want them to see, and that version is indeed part of the real me. I am just presenting the things I want, while keeping away the things I think are not necessary and just for me or not for the blog. Pretending is almost out of the question for me, even in extremely formal question.

I usually think of paraphrasing my own long comments on other blogs and posting the revised versions as articles on my own blog. Sometimes, people use the excuse of “I do not know what to say” or “I do not have anything useful to say” as a way to not comment on blogs because of various other reasons: wanting the other blogger to comment first, focusing on more prominent blogs to gain more traffic, etc.

4 : Good question. I think I will post something about this soon. ;) I try to use the same avatar, since many blogs usually display my Gravatar profile. As for the name, it has changed a few times from nicknames to the site name to my name, though currently I have a hybrid of my name and a nickname, and it is starting to be a brand in itself (or I think it is, :p ). Sometimes, people pretend to be something they are not by showcasing one fake character, and they show that fake character everywhere. For example, one can pretend to be a person who cares about readers, and that someone can showcase that fake character everywhere online in order to build a brand name. You can notice that on many prominent blogs.

Many bloggers do not care about branding, though as more and more blogs start focusing on making money, people are slowly finding out that branding results in more money and thus people are focusing on branding now. The funny thing is that many bloggers have been branding their identity for years, even if they blog for personal reasons and do not want to make money. Branding, among many other things, in its simplest form is being able to recognize products or services by a certain identity, allowing people to quickly associate a purchase or a sale with that identity. I wonder how different bloggers think of integrating that idea into their blogs.

5 : I personally try to be informed of a lot of things. It is just my character of trying to find out reasons for different things, even if those reasons lie in the unrelated realm of things, when compared to the relevant perspective in question.

6 : In my view, expecting something in love should be mutual, yes, and love itself does not need to be mutual. I can love someone and that someone doesn’t need to love me back. Just because that other someone doesn’t love me does not mean I have to start hating them. I am guessing many people feel they love someone without actually loving someone and they expect the other person to love them back.

7 : I am guessing in today’s world creativity can become a skill, and one can market and sell that skill. The price or the way pricing occurs, like the number of hours, can depend on the person in question. Number of hours, the type of output, the type of creativity, demand in the field, they can all come into play in pricing something that a buyer will in the end agree too.

8 : This can probably be the same as writing for a search engine. The only difference is that the writer or the blogger is focusing on Digg instead of Google, Yahoo or other search engines. I think it boils down to what each blogger things; do they think writing for a search engine or a source of traffic is ok, or do they think writing in order to express something is more important? If one thinks writing for Google is all right, which is what many bloggers do in order to come up with a blog that ranks high on search engines, I think that person can also think that writing for Digg or something similar like Magnolia can be ok too.

Again, nice roundup. :)

Thanks for the mention. I can’t believe the post about John Chow, unbelieveable, everyone should unsubscribe, although I guess he’s getting what he wants with everyone talking about him again :(