Feb 19 2009
Wanderblog
I had a really nice note from someone who reads one of my blogs this morning. Apart from being very complimentary, he asked if I read any other blogs and what sites I frequent: he’d read a few of my various posts and thought it sounded like I spend a lot of time online, wandering around.
He’s right, of course: I do spend a great deal of time connected to the Internet. I’m a geek at heart and my virtual life has almost as much importance as my bricks-and-mortar one. So I thought I’d go through a short list of places I hang out.
As far as blogs go, I maintain three, as you may know. Firstly, there’s Wordophilia, where I talk about writing online. Secondly, there’s this one. Finally, and most recently, I started Daft As A Brush, reviewing films, books or whatever else I happen to be doing to amuse myself. I try to post on them all once a day.
There are only a couple of other blogs I visit regularly because my connection isn’t very good, so I can’t visit loads. I’m a subscriber at Bloggercises, because Chris is an excellent tutor in a lot of the basic essentials of blogging. He’s been doing it for a while and consistently comes up with useful comments, exercises and thoughts on the scene. He’s also a very amusing and friendly guy. I also subscribe to Back To The Eighties, because that’s the period I remember the most from growing up and I just love to drop in and read about things I may have forgotten.
My final subscription is at Sex, Lies and Dating In The City. I came across this one as part of my daily LinkReferral visits to keep Full Time Care reasoably high in their blog directory for a few extra hits. What can I say? I immediately added it to my favourites. SINgleGIRL, the owner and author, writes in an incredibly engaging, honest style. She’s funny, blunt, profound and silly by turns. The stories, advice and ongoing dating battles are intriguing. She always replies to messages and comments, stays true to herself and openly talks about a very interesting subject. I love it. Simply can’t get enough.
Other than those three, I spend a fair amount of time at MyLot. That’s a PTP site (paid to participate), much like a discussion forum where responses earn a cent or two as well as being useful. Some days it’s really interesting, others it’s a bit bland. It’s not the best-designed site in the world - the list of interests and categorisations of conversations is horrible, for example - but there’s some really nice, helpful people there.
I also answer a lot of email. I get about thirty or forty a day from various places, which is significantly less than the hundreds I used to have to deal with (thank goodness for spam filters). A lot of those are project updates from GetAFreelancer, where I keep an eye open for odd jobs to bid on. I drop in at Helium, Associated Content, Constant Content and HubPages when my connection permits.
Finally, I go through the LinkReferral blogs, thirty per day as I mentioned: it takes time, but I take that seriously. Some sites I stay on for a minute or two, others I’ll read a whole ton of posts: it depends how good they are. I’ll also skip through the list each day, not just hit the thirty at the top. I like seeing some of the ones lower down. Hidden gems.
And that’s about it online. I’m a creature of habit, but I’ll wander off elsewhere if one of my regular visiting spots has a link, and sometimes I’ll keep link-hopping. Most days I have too much real life stuff to do, so end up doing the shopping, cooking, looking after my partner, watching a film or reading a book. It’s not a bad life.
