I personally like small support groups for a number of reasons:

- I grow with them and its members
- I know the leaders and can communicate with them
- I can participate, be heard and be noticed
- I like the personal approach

Like any other relationships, memberships in support groups are two-way streets: they support you and vice versa.

Actively participating in your support groups make these groups bigger, more active and more influential. In turn, these changes make you proud, make you part of a community, give you more experience and more exposure. Consequently, you grow more as a person you intend to be.

I have plenty of support groups in my whole life: my family, my girlfriend, and a couple of organizations during my education. I will not, however, mention how I support them as it will sound like I am tooting my own horn.

Since we are in the blogging world, I have listed below a select few of my “online” support groups. (If you are a non-blogger reader of mine, don’t worry, the technical terms are minimal). Some of these you might be able to relate to. After reading, if you are interested in learning more about them, I encourage you to click on their links:

SUPPORT GROUP#1 – Readers, Lurkers, and Visitors

Let us differentiate the three first. Visitors are people coming from various sites. They can be from search engines like google looking for something and somehow ended up here. These people probably will visit once then leave. 7% of this site’s traffic are coming from search engines.

Lurkers, on the other hand, are people who visited and decided to come back. However, they prefer to just read and comment only once or twice (sometimes they don’t). There is nothing wrong with that. Some of these people, I know personally.

Readers are people who are regulars of the site. They read, go through the archives, and sometimes comment when appropriate. Most of the readers are fellow bloggers who know the ethics of blogging.

How do I support them?

One of the reasons this site continues to exist is because of them. So I will continue to write useful information to feed their hungry minds. I read my readers’ blogs and comment when I have something genuine to say. I make sure I link to the post I think others will find interesting.

The top commentators are rewarded by displaying their links on the right sidebar. On a similar note, last month, I had moved the “latest comments” high on the sidebar to easily keep track of any responses.

The following 5 readers commented regularly here: Vic the CaribooPonderer, Jeni of Down River Drivel, Marcus Langford, Frank C of OpTempo – Internet Review Magazine, and Cris.

SUPPORT GROUP#2 – BloggingZoom

If you are a blogger who wants your articles and posts get promoted, BloggingZoom.com is the place for you. In other similar social sites, self-promotion is considered a mortal sin. But the creators of BloggingZoom (Vic Franqui of Make Money Online and Court Tuttle of Internet Marketing) made it known that publishing your own posts is what the site wants you to do, and members will “zoom” your submission as a vote of approval if they found your articles worthy.

What I also like about BZ is that making friends is a lot easier and they comment on your submissions. It means one thing: you get a readership that generates quality traffic and might subscribe to your blog.

A BZ power user, Jason Clark of Inner88 – Review of Internet wrote a very good explanation of BloggingZoom. You’ll find it extremely useful if you intend to be a member of BZ.

How do I support BloggingZoom?

I like the community in BZ; the leaders are approachable even though few sensitive people might find Vic a little bit harsh. My way of supporting them is following the rules especially in post submission. Vic and Court don’t like members copy-pasting their posts for one good reason: duplicate contents. Google penalizes sites that copy others’ information. Vic also explained the benefit is mutual. I do not see any harm writing 4 sentences (approximately 350 characters) to describe your submission.

Also, they encourage you to zoom others’ submissions and visit their blogs so they get traffic as well; I have been doing that already since my first day as a member.

SUPPORT GROUP#3 – BlogHology

A blogging friend of mine – Mert Erkal of searchforblogging.com – has a vision, a vision where selected bloggers are grouped together and their best posts are promoted. I am part of that group. He calls it BlogHology. Below is a blurb of what it is:

… Similar to an anthology, a bloghology is a collection of bloggers, their profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers…

How do I support BlogHology?

Mert is a hard-working person who is dedicated in achieving his goals, and at the same time in helping others. As a result, he inspires others using the “lead by example” technique. Seeing these characteristics in him, it is easy to follow suit. He only wants one thing from the participants: to promote BlogHology to their own readers by putting up a download link on their blogs.

I encourage you to download (by clicking on the BlogHology image above) the BlogHology E-Book, where I was also featured. Find out which of my posts were included in the first edition.

SUMMARY

I believe in the old adage “No man is an island.“. No one should be. Whether we like it or not, we need others to be successful.

In choosing the right support groups for me, I see to it they have the following characteristics:

-They should have a vision-mission
-The leaders support their members
-The members voluntarily reach out to others

How about you? Do you have support groups that you would like to share?

I liked Kathleen so much that I kept enrolling in her class even though I didn’t really talk to her. As a matter of fact, I only talked to her once.

Her course, if I recall correctly, was International Studies. Mine was Computer Application. Huge difference, but what sent me to her class and kept sending me back was her. Always her.

She’s beautiful — my type of beauty to be perfectly honest. Her face was angelic and her smile was captivating. Somehow, her beauty kept me drawn to her. She was like a magnet; I was attracted and I liked it. I didn’t want to last a day without a glimpse of her.

Her class, however, in its entirety, was not as beautiful as her. I didn’t have any friends and nobody reached out to me, especially when there was a group activity. I was alone, sitting in one corner left to mind my own business. I was always near the door so I can sneak out of the room quickly after the lesson. (And after giving this girl one good look.)

Her classmates didn’t like “outsiders”, unfortunately, I was one. So I had to endure their aloofness just to see a girl who didn’t even know I existed. Despite that, I remained in my seat quietly, fantasizing about myself talking to Kathleen. It was like an addiction that I couldn’t resist.

And it was like that for 2 semesters, until I failed in some subjects.

The failures were a wake-up call. I asked myself: “Is it worth it?” Apparently, Kathleen did not and will not give me any positive response. She was just a fantasy, and my failures were real. Staying in her class didn’t benefit me at all. I decided to stay away.

I still saw her in the catwalk, in the canteen, and in the campus. Sometimes she was with her friends, sometimes she was alone. I don’t recall a specific time when my eyes met hers. Because it was more of me looking at her, than she looking at me.

Fortunately, I got over her and never enrolled in her class again. I realized what a fool I was for letting myself get hooked by her beauty, thus, hurting my college records.

There was a reason I was in school: to learn and eventually to get ready for work. Obviously, I wasn’t fulfilling my purpose.

Consciously diverting my attention to my purpose, I enrolled in classes where I knew I have friends who could help me out in case of academic hardships. This strategy was perfect. Everything was easier for me. I also enrolled in Summer classes to catch up. I graduated College, had a job, and lived a life. All because I learned to let go of a fruitless fantasy and served my true purpose.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve never heard anything about Kathleen since, but I spotted her one time while I was watching TV: she was in the commercial. That was before I got my first job as a programmer almost 10 years ago. I chuckled the first time I saw it, but I wasn’t really surprised — she was truly a model-material (One thing I learned from my fantasy is that, I had a good taste!)

The point is, there is nothing wrong with fantasies. But putting it on top your priorities to the point of hurting your objectives in life is another story. Don’t make the same mistake I did by prolonging it and wasting your time getting nothing in return. Let go of it and serve your purpose.

However, when I encounter a foreign word or a Net Lingo, I lose momentum because I still have to research its definition if I can’t figure out what it means in a sentence.

It’s frustrating sometimes when a time-sensitive discussion goes hot and I want to reply to some of the comments. Looking up the words can be a waste of time. How I wished I knew those words at the start because, before I can respond after research, somebody has already “stolen” or written my argument.

That’s the reason why I am going to share with you my top 10 popular internet lingos to help you improve your online surfing experience:

Alphabetically arranged:

• FTW – For The Win – Commonly used in sports forum, particularly in sports game updates where members talk about the player who is taking the buzzer-beating shot for the win.

• LMAO – Laughing My Arse Out – Used by people when they read something real funny. LMAO has replaced the old LOL (Laughing Out Loud) and ROTFL (Rolling on the floor laughing). Two things I noticed about LMAO. 1.) It is seldom used by women. 2.) It is frequently used by a top SEO master Vic Franqui. For SEO ranking purposes? I am not sure.

• QFT – Quoted For Truth – I personally like this one. Short but powerful. It simply means a vote of approval when a person reads something honest and truthful and he can’t pass up the chance to quote the author.

• SFW / NSFW – Safe For Work / Not Safe For Work – These terms are often suffixed after a topic title to forewarn a reader that he is about to view a post that contains graphic pictures/videos and his work might be at stake if he tries to view it. By the way, shouldn’t you be working instead of watching videos?

• WTH – What The Heck – This is usually followed by a question mark, to express utmost disbelief. “Heck” can be substituted by another “H” word unpleasant to Christian ears. WTH is a cousin of a stronger term WTF which is normally the choice expression of a foul-mouthed person.

Honorable Mentions

I separated the next 5 because their definitions are pretty much self-explanatory. All of them are used in chats, text messages, discussion boards and forum:

• AFAIK – As Far As I Know.
• IDK – I Don’t Know.
• IIRC – If I Recall Correctly
• IMO / IMHO – In My Opinion / In My Humble Opinion.
• OTOH – On The Other Hand

IN CLOSING

Learning new things is a challenge. If you are a member of a forum, don’t be afraid to ask. Most of the time, members are more than willing to help you out. But if you are too embarrassed, then make sure to bookmark this page and share it with others who are afraid to be branded as “newbie”.

Do you have a top 5 or top 10 Net Lingos? If you still have doubts on certain net lingos, feel free to come back and post them here.

Below is a plan I have developed to accomplish my goal for the remaining days of the year:

1. Spend Quality Time With Family – Christmas, like what Jeni has commented in my previous post, is a time for togetherness. It is meant for family traditions. While my family is back in the Philippines celebrating a normal Filipino Christmas, my father and I plan to attend the midnight mass on Christmas Eve and then watch NBA games on the 25th here in our apartment in Jersey City.

2. Open Gifts Right Away – It may sound unreal, but I discovered that some of the presents I received from last year remained unopened for 365 days. It’s funny, but at the same time, I felt upset for being too lazy sorting them out. Some of the items could have been useful to me the past year. The gifts include: candies and chocolates, neckties, shirt, and other things. Therefore, my advice for you is to not procrastinate: open the boxes and bags on Christmas Day and sort them out right away. Don’t let the chocolates grow some hair!

3. Learn New Things – I am a directionally-challenged person: it would take me several trips to a destination before I can master the roads. That is why I appreciated receiving a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. It is a gadget that guides drivers in directions via satellite. This is the first time I’m using one so I’m more than willing to spend time learning and testing it by driving around the community using my old Honda.

4. Rest and Relax – Are you going out with some friends to watch AVP (Alien Vs Predator)? Do you prefer to sleep or read a book? Perhaps listen to iPod and download music from iTunes? Whatever it is that you plan to do for relaxing, then just do it. The essence of vacation is to rest, recharge, and then….

5. Prepare for the Days Ahead – Chance favors a prepared mind. My preparation before school reopens on January 2nd, includes: tidying up my room, doing the laundry, and doing some work that I brought home. I want to come back looking fresh without any vacation hangover. I want to stand tall so others will see me ready to work, ready for the new year.

I hope you find these tips useful. If you have other tips and recommendations, feel free to leave a comment below.

So, Tuesday morning, during my computer class, I asked my grade 2 students to write in their notebook what Christmas means to them. I required them at least 2 sentences.

When they were done, I collected and read all the 25 notebooks. I was surprised by their answers: none of them wrote about Santa Claus. Zero.

As a matter of fact, Baby Jesus was their main answer, followed by these keywords: Love, Sharing, Caring, Family. (in random order)

Sure there are a few students who also answered “time for fun“, “getting presents” and the like. That’s part of the tradition.

These kids are 7ish-8ish years old. They are at the tender age of innocence and will believe almost anything a trustworthy adult would say. So I wondered: How come Santa Claus was left off? Do they “already” have an idea who Santa Claus really is?

My curiosity didn’t end there. The following day, I had the 1st graders, so I took the chance and interviewed random students by asking the same question: “What does Christmas mean to you?”

The answers were basically the same as the previous grade. This time, however, a couple of students finally mentioned the name Santa Claus. Still, it’s just a blip on the radar. And I felt good they are not materially obsessed.

I just had to laugh at some articles that blame the changing times if kids associate Christmas with material things. The point is, we want kids to realize the true meaning of Christmas, but it is us – the grown-ups – who color Christmas with money and attach Santa Claus to material things. The kids are just the reflection of us.

And then we write or talk about how kids today don’t get it.

Maybe we need to look at ourselves at the mirror and ask why.

Bring the kids to church; learn who Saint Nicholas really is and teach the kids why he – as Santa Claus – is a great symbol for this season; give something to the less fortunate without asking for return. These are some of the practical things we can do to teach them the real meaning of Christmas.

I watched my students play in the computer. And I thought: Christmas spirit isn’t really lost yet, but it depends on me and you.

Unfortunately, the physical exhaustion has affected my writing capabilities.

My fingers were stuck at the home keys, my eyes began closing, my head started dropping. I tried to fight it, but failed. I arrived at a conclusion: I was physically tired.

And there was no sense of forcing something that has no power.

So I asked myself: should I continue just for the sake of writing despite my temporary incapability? If so, shouldn’t I be worried that I might sabotage my post?

My main objectives for having a blog are 1.) to express myself, and 2.) share my thoughts, opinions, and observations with others. Writing unsatisfactorily would be a shame and a disrespect to myself and to my readers.

With that in mind, I made a decision: I turned the machine off, took a break and then slept.

Now – fresh and recharged – I am reminded of basketball players when they are not healthy. Basketball is a physical game, and an injured player is not allowed to play until he is 100% healthy or cleared by the team doctor (some exceptions apply).

The risk of aggravating the injury is simply too high if a player forces the issue. Besides, will he be able to give something of significance given his limitations?

Same goes with writers and bloggers.

A writer should also rest if he needs to, because just like athletes, he should be in his excellent physical condition to bring out the best in him.

Based on my experience, it looks like BlogRush (I’ll call it BR from time-to-time here onwards) is trying to unexpose honest reviews that don’t favor them.

In my opinion, I think I wrote a fair analysis when I posted “BlogRush, Have You Forsaken Me?” last week (if you want to object, be my guest ). Did BlogRush intentionally block that post? I don’t have a clue.

Normally, BR would pick up the latest post a few hours after it was posted. However, after 2 days of observing, I noticed that BR was still using an old topic as a “flag-carrier” of my blog when it’s not supposed to.

Why did that happened? Was it a BR glitch?

Despite the curiosity itch, I exercised patience. I wanted to experiment a bit so I waited couple more days before I published another post (“You Love Writing, Does Someone Understand?”). As expected, few hours later, it was sent across sites that run BR widget. It has been syndicated a good 134 times in less than a day.

How come my BlogRush review never made the widget?

To get the clear picture of what I’m talking about, look at the two photos below:

Above is a snapshot of my archives. I published my BlogRush Review On 11th of November 2007

In the picture below, notice that my Nov. 11 post was not even included in the report. Confirmed: BlogRush has forsaken me.

It never happened before. So last Friday, first thing in the morning, I wrote a short email to BR Customer Support asking for an explanation as to why. Even though I expressed my disappointment, I did my best to be polite and professional. When I didn’t get any response after a day, I followed it up. I am still waiting for their reply.

Is BlogRush really that busy to ignore my email? I believe they have people who filtered and purged 10,000 “low-quality” blogs, how come nobody from Customer Support even bothered to answer a simple query?

Personally, I think BlogRush is a good idea that will benefit both Mr. Reese and bloggers, and I really hope that the censorship is just a glitch. But if Mr. Reese and his team don’t even bother clearing up this situation, then it is like saying they really monitor and auto-block honest reviews against them. If that’s the case, then we don’t know what kind of posts they will block in the future. Next thing we know, they’ll control political issues (I know it’s a stretch, but a possibility).

For BlogRush members who are reading this, kindly check your BR dashboard and see if some of your articles got blocked – particularly the ones that have honest reviews about them. Make sure you are not filtering your own post, otherwise, it will not really appear in the report. Let us know if you had been censored without your knowledge.

My hope is BlogRush widget somehow picks up this post and sends this article across the blogosphere (I will know in the next few hours upon publishing). However, if BR censors this, I won’t mind. This post will still find its way out.

Mr. Reese is probably laughing his butt out, thinking how a small site like mine could hurt his project. All I can say is everything becomes bigger by the power of the internet. And with your help, we can send this message to the intended parties so they can avoid this kind of mistake again — whether it was accidental or intentional.

And you don’t even notice it.

When you are taking a shower, and an idea suddenly hits you, you want to rush out of the bathroom and sit down in front of the computer and start typing.

Because when a writer starts to think, he feels his ideas are unique; or at least feels he has found a creative way of presenting old thoughts. It’s hard to pass it up. A passionate writer wants to finish writing in one sitting because he feels when he loses his grip, a big chunk of himself is gone. When that happens, the writer feels restless. I know. Because that’s how I feel.

That’s why sometimes, I feel I write better when I’m sleepy. Or should I say, “still sleepy”, because the only time I feel sleepy is when I wake up abruptly from a slumber. I don’t feel sleepy at night. I feel tired. And when my eyes feel tired they automatically close and I fall into sleep.

When I’m sleepy, the quietness of the dawn and the freshness of my mind combine to form a unique thought — at least to me. A thought that I feel could inspire others. Or teach. Or help. Or anything useful. A thought that I think could change the world. And wonderful thoughts deserve the best choice of words.

I always think I’m alone when I’m in this state. Is that weird or lonely? I don’t think so. I just think most people do not understand when a writer begins to dwell in his own world and why he has to do it.

So I did the logical thing. I asked the person who I think will understand me best. The person who I want to be with for the rest of my life.

“Andie?” I asked my girlfriend. “Will you understand me when I am writing?”

“What do you mean?” she asked. And I said, “when I’m like this.” and I described my state to her. She likes it when I am talking to her. I think most girls do when their guys open themselves.

She understands, and said. “Yes.”

I was happy, but I really do hope she does because writing is important to me. So I chuckled, and told her, “You know this won’t be the last time, right?” I didn’t expect or need any answer.

My fingers tapped the keyboard as my thought wandered in the quietness of the dawn, as the rainy morning of our 3rd Anniversary arrives.

Free traffic? Music to my ears!

I was excited, so I signed up and installed the widget. I categorized my blog under “Personal Diary.” (The categories back then were limited.) I was one of the many people in the first batch, thanks to John Chow’s post.

I monitored my site’s stats on a regular basis, and checked whether BlogRush was true to its words because I didn’t want only traffic, I also wanted readership.

The first few weeks, I saw people coming to my site via BlogRush. I was happy. Some passers-by even commented on some of my posts. Some awesome bloggers like Vic Grace, Jeni Hill Ertmer, and Awannabe came from BlogRush. That was great. What’s marvelous was when I visited some sites, I saw my blog on their widgets! (In some cases, in mine, too!)

When BlogRush recently launched Phase II, it talked about more promises. But since then, my traffic and click through rates from BlogRush appear to be declining. From experience, I knew that if I leave my latest post on top for 3 or 4 days, it would be syndicated (or picked up by other widget-carrying blogs) at least 800-1000 times with 1 or 2 clicks. However, the last 3 weeks were really below par.

Below is a snapshot of the report since I installed the widget. The posts are arranged from oldest post to latest. You will see that the last 3 weeks, I only received a staggering 2 clicks!

This led me to thinking: Are bloggers already blinded by BlogRush? Do they still pay attention to the widget? Or does my title simply stink and doesn’t sound interesting? Is BlogRush a scam that many bloggers claim?

John Reese said that bloggers should put the widget on a higher location, to get more credits and clicks. I put mine a little higher. As a matter of fact, it is on the upper half of my sidebar, but I see no difference. So I don’t think location is the case here.

A quick query on Technorati, I have only read black and white stories about BlogRush: it’s either bloggers find it useful or useless. Nothing in between, unlike my story. A certain Rich from Ohio says he’s been “a booster of Blogrush eversince it went live”. On the other hand, Caroline Middlebrook was not thrilled with the 14 clicks she received despite thousands of impressions.

I was wondering if there are others who share the same sentiments as mine: huge traffic rush at the beginning that is now gradually trending down.

To end, I still want to thank BlogRush and still intend to use it. Somehow, it brought me fantastic bloggers whose blogs I also enjoy reading.

But the recent downward trend of blogrush click-rate has led me to ask: Dear BlogRush, have you forsaken me?

——–

If you wish to try BlogRush, get an account here to drive more traffic to your site.

To view more BlogRush stories in Technorati, click here.

If you’ve been reading PlanetSaedel for quite sometime now, you will notice that I’ve changed the posting layout of my page. Each single page now consists of 5 posts in FULL read, unlike before where you have to click “Continue Reading…” to read the rest of the topic. I know this will sound a little selfish but the reason for this is because I want my blog to be accepted by PayPerPost. One of their requirements is to have the post displayed on the page completely. If I get accepted, I only plan to write reviews related to my interests or niche. PayPerPost (PPP), in simple words, is a company that pays bloggers to write reviews. If you want to learn more about PPP, you can read my previous post here.

Traffic

In relation to to that, If you are a subscriber – either by RSS Reader or Email – my post will be delivered to you in Full Read as well. A lot of bloggers utilize RSS because it is extremely useful and time-saving. And that’s exactly the reason why I turned off the “Continue Reading…” feature. Most bloggers are busy but they want to keep updated to other blogs, so they subscribe to a lot of sites that offer RSS. I’ve read that the only time they visit the site to read the entire post is when the title and the first few paragraphs are interesting. So I figured, why not give them a chance to read the complete post via their reader before they completely skip my post?

Enabling FULL READ is a risk, as far as my traffic is concerned. As much as possible, I want readers to go to my relatively new site and give me a “hit”. But then I thought, one way to do it is to write insightful, useful, and interesting posts. So that’s what I’m going to do.

So how am I going to send traffic to my 9-week old site?

Enter the Feedburner.

RSS FeedBurner and its FeedFlare Feature

I use FeedBurner to burn my posts and deliver them to my readers. It has a feature called FeedFlare, which I found out allows interactivity to your site. If you have an RSS reader, you can check that I am able to show the following: How many Comments are there in my posts; Links to Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon; and many more. For my non-technical readers, these simply mean a way to encourage the readers to click on my site to generate traffic, and to share my posts/articles to other social sites if they find them interesting and discussion-worthy.

How cool is that?

However, I am unsure if FeedFlare only works for WordPress or other blog software installed in bloggers’ OWN domain. Therefore, bloggers whose sites are hosted by blogspot.com and other similar free bloghosts, will have to verify on their own if they are able to avail of this service.

MORE

I’m thinking of a better site description to replace my current one. Right now, it reads: “Beginner’s guide to practical things and more“, but the more I write, the more the description becomes irrelevant. My girlfriend Andie, thought so, too. So if you have suggestions, kindly post them in the message box below; or if you are too shy, you can simply shoot me an email at: saedel@planetsaedel.com ( saedel[at]planetsaedel[dot]com ). All suggestions will be appreciated.