There was a time when many of us had never heard of blogs. We had no idea what blogging was all about. But through word-of-mouth or however we happened to stumble on to blogging, many of us found something satisfying and rewarding about getting our thoughts down and publishing it out there for all to see. Blogging gave people who only dreamed of getting published a venue where random strangers can run across their creation and maybe pause long enough to read a paragraph or two. That is all what most of us could hope for.

Some of us secretly hoped no one would ever come across our writing and peek into our souls. But at the same time, we all had that small niggle within where we hoped someone would notice and actually validate that maybe our writing is worth reading after all. Then a comment or two started filtering in and we were like teenagers whose crush is reading their slam book. Butterflies flutter in our belly as we wonder, ‘Does he get it?” “Does he see the real me now?” “Does he like what he sees?” And we write more, we bare more of ourselves, hoping they will come back and maybe even learn to love us. Blogging is addicting like that.

Then the blogging explosion happened. We heard of bloggers who are now earning lots of money. Some bloggers have turned pro, where this became their full time jobs. We heard of bloggers who gained fame and are now hobnobbing with the rich and famous. We heard of bloggers who became ‘real’ authors because of their blog. We see them now on the book circuits talking about their success from blogging to books. At least one that I know of had their blog made into a movie.

Fame and fortune from blogging. Who can resist? I admit, I have blogging envy. I want to make lots of money too! I want to be famous. I want Oprah to invite me to her show and talk about what a terrific blogger I am. I want to walk the red carpet at least once.

I am not alone in my envy. There are, apparently a lot of us out there. The difference is, I am still where I am when I started. Largely blogging for myself, churning out my own convoluted content and still welcoming every compliment that comes in the comments and still crying over mean criticisms then deleting them. Yeah, that’s still me. I haven’t gone out of my way to reach for more than just having the venue to spout off about me. So no, I’m not rich from blogging yet nor am I famous.

What I am rich in though, and famous with, are the friends that I have made from blogging. I made some good friends that I have never met through blogging. And for anyone who claims that friendships made on the blogosphere are shallow, superficial and will never amount to nothing, they are wrong. The people that I have made friends with are precious and they are as loyal and as loving as the friends we have outside of cyberspace. These friends will be there when you need them… whether it’s a shoulder to cry on or a posse to watch your back, they are there for you. So I guess, you can say, yeah, I’ve got it made as a blogger. I have riches and facebook fame. What more could I ask for, right?

This is just me again, talking to myself. Hope you enjoyed eavesdropping.

Some people never learn. Or maybe they just don’t care.

They start teaching us as early as grade school that plagiarism is unacceptable. This lesson is pounded into us all through our school years and into our professional careers. If you work in certain industries, the consequences of plagiarizing someone else’s work can be disastrous.

Publishing, for instance, is zealous about the issue of plagiarism. Any hint of plagiarism can ruin reputations and destroy entire careers in an instant. In its early days the internet didn’t have as many protocols for duplicate contents but nowadays there are more regulations to dictate what is acceptable  or not. However, it is still very difficult to implement and administer those regulations. It is that difficulty and the facility of anonymity on the internet that gives a lot of people leeway and to some extent permission to steal content that isn’t theirs.

Today when I signed on to Facebook, an issue regarding a fan page for a blog posting photos and content from other blogs cropped up. When we checked out the blog for the said fan page, it turned out that there was not one original recipe on there, every one of his blog posts were stolen from other bloggers. If you’re a blogger or a follower of blogs, you probably already know that they are usually quite nice and accommodating. But don’t ever, ever try to steal their content and claim it as your own because they will come down on you harder than a ton of bricks.

Well this guy had a ton of bloggers come down on him today and just as he treated all the bloggers he stole from, he is not getting any kind of link juice from any of us. His viewership may have shot up today as we combed through his archives looking for duplicate contents, but I hope that his whole blog will be shut down soon so no worries about the increased views. He’s been reported on facebook and on blogger, his blog host, and also on a couple of his advertising affiliates.

If you’re curious, here are some blog posts from other bloggers:
Thou Shalt Not Steal Blog Posts
A Thief Was Found
Beware of Scrapers
Beware! Plagiarist from The Peach Kitchen

I was looking through the draft posts I have on this blog this morning. Cleaning out some that I know I probably won’t finish or have passed it’s time. If you’re a blogger, you’re probably like me and start draft posts with ideas then come back to it later. Well I had quite a few saved up. Some of them with just a link to something that I may want to write about later, or short notes or sentences that would spur my memory later so I would remember what it was that I thought to write about.

Coincidentally, I found this draft that I had saved two years ago and never got around to finishing it. It was saved July 10, 2008, and this is what I had written so far:

Is it the weather or is it that I have just been too busy to blog? It’s probably a combination of both but I am almost sure it also has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve started my summer reading routine. So nowadays instead of heading straight to the laptop and the bedroom when I get home from work, I take my book outside in the garden along with a nice cool drink and read until the sun goes down or get hungry, whichever one comes first.

It got me thinking whether I should add a little more variety to my life because I am still doing the same thing! LOL! Well, I haven’t been as religious about my reading as I had been. Facebook got me tied to my laptop most of the time and I was just thinking yesterday how I haven’t read much lately. I have been too busy chit chatting on facebook or being nosy and reading about other people’s lives on facebook. Yeah, I’m addicted to facebook just like I was addicted to blogs. I can’t stay away from it! So much so that I have let blogging fall by the wayside and the same thing with my blog hopping. I don’t visit as many blogs as I used to since now I get to interact with those same people on facebook! How about you, are you on facebook yet? Are you addicted too?

This weekend though, I’ve made a pact with myself to be more regular about my reading and blogging. Especially my blogging obligations. I have agreed to read and review several books and I am awfully behind. Months behind, actually. So today, I am turning over a new leaf and this draft post from two years ago just reminded me.

I love blogging! And now I’m loving facebook too and of course the network or all blogger networks, BlogHer. But lately, I haven’t been blogging much. I have been inconsistent about visiting BlogHer and only on Facebook do I carry on a semi regular schedule. The motivation to blog or rather to just write hasn’t been around in a while. I have been wondering if maybe I have taken on too much on my plate that’s why the motivation has waned. That could be partially it, but the more I read other bloggers, I see now what or where our ‘slacking off’ is coming from.

This article on BlogHer about being “intimidated to write on my own blog” caught my attention today because it said everything that I had been feeling and thinking. I do remember the early days of blogging when we just wrote about what came to mind or what we happened to step on that morning. No one cared about grammar or spelling much less image and brand. We didn’t even know what those were. We just wanted to document the mundane happenings in our life that only we would probably care about. We didn’t think about attracting anyone much less an audience. And we certainly didn’t think we could make money writing about poop and laundry.

But it happened. The mommy bloggers were born and so was blog monetization. Everyone realized there is money to be had in blogging and we all jumped on the wagon. We spruced up our blogs, bought our own domains and started hosting our own blogs rather be on the free platforms. All so we can make money. And we did. Everyone made money; some more than others, but we all made money and we wanted to make more. I wanted to be like the super bloggers who quit their day jobs to just stay home and blog. Now wouldn’t that have been heaven?

As much as I need the extra money though, I just never found the motivation to spend as much time as they did to write copy, promote my blogs and all the other things they tell you to do so you can make more money. Worst of all, I started feeling intimidated to write in my own blog too! I started second guessing myself whether what I’m writing about is worthy of being on my blog. I was now pandering to sponsors and advertisers and I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

So maybe that’s why I haven’t had the heart to blog too much lately. Maybe it’s not that I’m inundated with work and my daughters suck up the rest of my free time with their activities. So maybe it’s not just sheer exhaustion and laziness that if keeping me from updating my blogs. Maybe it’s because I just didn’t think my life is worth writing about anymore. Now if that was the case, that would be truly pathetic because I do love my life and I do love to write.

The solution? I have been thinking about this even before I read the article on BlogHer. Actually, I had already started down the road before I read the article. The road is the one that leads back to the early days of blogging when I simply blogged for my own pleasure. When I blogged to unload some of the junk taking space in my head. When I blogged just to relax and not to work for money. When I blogged for myself and no one else. And if I am too lazy to update or decide to go on vacation for a while, I don’t have to excuse myself or apologize for being absent. I know where I’m going and that’s all that matters. I’m going back.