Blogging Behaviors, Blog Reactions and Blogger Personalities Part I
I have posted a few days ago something about Entrecard titled “Entrecard is the New Trend to Get Traffic to Your Website“. The article was in essence for the education of the very few readers who may have stumbled upon this blog somewhere or friends just passing by.
The post gained different views from commentators and I was amazed to find out that some Entrecard member(s?) were annoyed or maybe infuriated by an article which was presented in an impartial way. As a mathematician, thesis consultant and nursing researcher (not a Registered Nurse as many thought I was, which I kept correcting. My wife is the nurse :-) ), partiality and confidentiality are two things that I value most. These two concepts are basic in research. Hence, whenever I write, I try so hard to be impartial and rational. I hope regular readers and friends see that in my posts, if not, then I cannot do anything about it but say sorry if my posts/comments might have sounded offensive, unfair or inappropriate. That is the reason why I provide notices regarding my posts that may sound like paid ads or malicious at first blush. Disclosures in this blog are clear and explicit.
Also, this blog is new and I haven’t spent many years in the blogosphere, which makes me less popular and attractive as compared to old-timers and “hardcores”. Poor me… But, guess what? I really don’t mind. I have spent the last 12 years in the real world teaching college students how to think rationally by way of mathematics and research, analyzing statistical data for private and government entities, and writing computer programs. This may sound like self-advertisement but no. These are just the premises of this article.
Some readers may not find this blog adorable aesthetically or content-wise. It may load at times at a crawling rate due to the widgets (which I have discussed in When Widget Servers Are Down, Loading Time of Blogs Go Down). I really don’t know how well this loads in your browser but in my end, it’s just fine. Not all blogs are created the same since bloggers’ personalities differ. Sometimes the difference is so huge you will find other bloggers who are totally different from you in terms of point of view, blog layout and content, and reactions to articles. From the looks of this blog, maybe some may say it’s messy and I’m a lazy blogger when it comes to the design of my blog. Lol! Maybe they’re right. However, if that’s the case, you as a reader can only do two things as my visitors: directly inform me or never come back to this site again. That simple. That’s just how internet activities work. If people don’t like you, your site, or they can’t relate with your posts, then they won’t come back. But if they are sensitive enough to care, they will inform you if something may be going wrong with your site. They may react positively, negatively or wouldn’t react at all with your articles. And that’s just natural, right?
This brings me back to the discussion of Blog Stress, which is an archived post in this blog. This reinforces my data that our internet activities can be so stressful that at times it brings out the dark side in us. This can be associated with the Fight-or-Flight response to stress as explained in the following excerpt from Wikipedia.com:
In prehistoric times when the fight or flight response evolved in humans, fight was manifested in aggressive, combative behavior and flight was manifested by fleeing potentially threatening situations, such as being confronted by a predator. In current times, these responses persist, but fight and flight responses have assumed a wider range of behaviors. For example, the fight response may be manifested in angry, argumentative behavior, and the flight response may be manifested through social withdrawal, substance abuse, and even television viewing (Friedman & Silver 2007).
Behaviorally, the fight or flight response describes men’s reactions to stressful situations better than women’s (harvardsquarelibrary: W. B. Cannon Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement, Appleton, New York, 1915 ). That is, men are more likely to cope with stress via social withdrawal, substance abuse, and aggression. Some researchers believe that these aspects of the fight or flight response in men contribute to their earlier mortality, relative to women. Women are more likely to cope with stress through social support, that is, by turning to others to both give and receive instrumental and emotional aid. This pattern of responding has been called “tend and befriend,” and refers to the fact that during stressful times, women are especially likely to show protective responses toward their offspring and affiliate with others for shared social responses to threat (Taylor et al, 2000). This can also be explained as being the tendency of men to direct their fight or flight actions in a away from or against manner while women tend to direct their actions in a towards or for manner.
Although the emergency measure of the stress response is undoubtedly both vital and valuable, it can also be disruptive and damaging. In most modern situations, humans rarely encounter emergencies that require physical effort, yet our biology still provides for them. Thus we may find our stress response activated in situations where physical action is inappropriate. This activation takes a toll on both our bodies and our minds. Also, simple stresses that can be acted upon quickly are more easily overcome allowing the body to return to homeostasis, but with the more complex stresses of modern societies, with many, many factors and individuals involved, the danger may seem unavoidable, and stress may continue indefinitely, which ends up compromising the system, rather than helping the system.
Disruption of the sexual response and the digestive system are common negative results. Diarrhea, constipation, and difficulty maintaining sexual arousal are typical examples. These are functions which are controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system and therefore suppressed by sympathetic arousal. Prolonged stress responses may result in chronic suppression of the immune system, leaving the sufferer vulnerable to infection by bacteria and viruses. Repeated stress responses can be caused not only by real threats, but also by mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, in which the individual shows a stress response when remembering a past trauma, and panic disorder, in which the stress response is activated apparently by nothing.
What surprised me are some blogger’s rather erratic responses (which is obviously brought about by stress and frustration) to some of the things I have posted particularly that which relates to Entrecard as being the newest trend in increasing a blog’s traffic. If they have read the article in its entirety, they shouldn’t have taken the article out of context. One the objectives of the post was to present two sides of the coin in a mathematical point of view about the good and bad sides of Entrecard. In fact, I said nothing against Entrecard that could personally hurt anyone involved in the system unlike other bloggers who explicitly posted articles against Entrecard and their reluctance to participate in the system. I even recommended in the last paragraph that bloggers must try it to see if Entrecard will help in improving their statistics like page hits, unique visitors per day, etc. This is in line with Protagoras’ Theory of Subjectivity where the outlying principle is “If it’s good for you, then it’s good for you. If it’s good for me, then it’s good for me.” Thus, only the blogger himself can find out if participating in Entrecard is good for him or not, especially if his primary concern is to gain extra traffic. As for me, I’m not really after a lot of traffic, although that wouldn’t hurt 
. My only concern is to write about the things that I love simply because I LOVE writing and blogging gives me the opportunity to enjoy what I love doing since I am able to reach out to people from around the world and share with them information they can possibly use, think about or even attack. I don’t usually get frustrated with numbers (traffic) because I have lived my whole life around them by having 5 engineers and 10+ teachers in the family.
In my observations, a blogger’s too much consciousness about traffic and stats could be detrimental to others and himself, if not unhealthy. That’s my view as a researcher (which is solely mine). We all want traffic for our blogs, I admit. But again, in my opinion (which is solely mine again), the content of my blog is what matters most to me. This is in fact the argument in the circle of blogging gurus, that content is correlated with traffic based on their many years of experience. If you consider content as your first priority, so be it. If your first concern is traffic through networking, so be it. If you can do both at the same time, then that’s the best setup. And I believe nobody can say something wrong about having the best of both worlds. On the other hand, how you advertise or promote your blog is entirely up to you. Some bloggers may find Mybloglog, Blogcatalog, Bumpzee, Technorati and other social networks good places to start gaining traffic. Some optimize for search engines. And with Entrecard’s inclusion the long list of networks, why not try? See, I’m providing options for readers to try (just like in my previous post) if it will help their blogs grow and become more successful. I don’t want to be one-sided and bias against anything. But doubt will always be an element in anything online. Yes, there are people who find Entrecard good for their sites but we cannot discount the fact that others think otherwise. It’s up to you to find out yourself as a blogger which serves you well. This is analogous to choosing between Yahoo and Google as your search engine, between Microsoft Windows and Linux as your computer’s operating system, among many other comparisons. The point of posting analytical articles is to provide options for the readers while maintaining a balance between personal interests and intellectual presentation of opinions. As for my personal take of traffic to this site, as evidenced by rate of readership, high traffic can always bring a smile on my face but do you know what low traffic can bring me? It brings me a bunch of good laughs! Yes, that’s how I view traffic. It doesn’t stress me at all. In fact it makes me laugh when I check my stats and find out that only 40 visitors took some time to view my blog in one day. Sometimes, my wife thinks I’m going nuts but I always contend that this is probably the most sane reaction a blogger can do – just laugh it out and blog another day.
Some rethinking, redesigning and revamping of the site can be of help if traffic paranoia gets into your system. I do not react violently as some bloggers do which prompts the use of the F word and other foul languages like bitch and the like. In my language, stress is simply doing its work on the body, clouding judgment and rational thinking. If this happens, then the best way to combat this is take a walk, get some fresh air, get some rest or do something you love aside from blogging. Take your mind off blogging and things will work out fine. Adopt a positive attitude. Being a traffic freak won’t really help. Like I’ve been telling people particularly in my stress management class, sometimes the most powerful tool you can do to remove a stressor (cause of stress) is to stay physically/emotionally/pschologically away from it and just be silent for a while before things can get out of hand. For bloggers, their behaviors at times get out of hand by way of saying something nasty against the person. Comments are good (positive or negative) but a personal attack can be so damaging not just to the one being attacked but more so to the attacker. All I can do whenever I encounter these personalities is to show empathy and understanding.
In line with these, I have outlined some articles I intend to write based on observations on the psychology of blogging, the frustrations of bloggers from monetizing his blog, types of character developed by bloggers and personalities they tend to develop in a Nursing point of view.
I hope you will be there dear readers to see how this blog (of Nursing Research and other fields) evolve from time to time (which is common to many blogs which deal with kids, cooking, computer troubleshooting and online marketing all at the same time or alternately within blog posts). This is I think is how a blog rolls in the virtual world – dynamic. It evolves on its own as interests and priorities change. And I hope the dynamism or wide variety of topics in a blog will not be viewed as stupidity by others who might think they are smarter than us.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
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Tags: Blogging behavior, Entrecard
maligayang pasko!
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I think now, it’s common for those who begins blogging -to write entire articles on this theme. It’s possible to publish entire book from MY articles about it, I think. You are right, it will evolve in other direction with time. Finally it’s not important.
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Hi! With your well written post about Entrecard, I think anything about blogging that is good for someone, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for all. There will always be an exemption.
By the way, I think you should write a book, how about the second part of this post, just kidding! I am just happy to see a fellow “kababayan” who is good in math and writing coz they are extremes I believe.
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@ Kengkay
salamat sa pagbati… maligayang pasko rin at sana pagpalain ka nawa sa paskong ito sa sa buong taong darating. best wishes!
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@ Liudmila,
thanks for the comment my dear friend. i hope ur cats and other pets are in good health. for ur comment, i really think so too because interests of the blogger could change from time to time. hence, the original direction of his topics could go stray… merry xmas to u and family!
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oh you’re obviously referring to me, honey.
It’s frustration, not stress, and I was obviously just wanting to shake you up into thinking less of the cons and just RIDING the pros and take advantage of the hype that is Entrecard right now. You’re the mathematician, not me, and perhaps one day you will say “i-knew-it-will-fail!”. But right now, what’s the point of dissing a good idea and starting the trend of other people thinking the same way?
it’s not actually your article, but the comments that’s frustrating. Like, “i just started in entrecard and napansin ko nga ganito ganun dun”. Then you saying “yeah talaga, content over traffic talaga” as if traffic is a bad thing huh?
I wonder though, why you just didn’t link my article in this post? I would have loved that. *wink* But nonetheless, I get your point that maybe someday Entrecard will turn out to be bad for blogs, and people will soon corrupt the system so much that your mathematical perspectives will hold true. But please consider also that you are among the first to be able to take advantage of the good this system will bring you. Let’s just cross the bridge when we get there (when Entrecard becomes bad for blogs, as supported by your theories).
I was actually thinking that you’d actually like my post because it’s a blog reaction to yours, and that you’d love a nice argument from a blogger with an ascerbic presentation of her stance. I was kinda excited anticipating your comment there but you never did. Obviously, it brought you on the defensive, hence this post…. which prompts the question……
Did I “stress” you out? i’m sorry if I did.
And I’m sure this post says a lot about your OWN blogging behaviors. LOL. And i’m laughing as I’m posting this. Lighten up, honey. Chill.
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@ Guardian Angel
thanks you for your comment, kabayan. actually, i have already written some 300 researches, 3 books in higher mathematics (unpublished up to now
) and around a hundred novels, essays and short stories in English, Filipino and Ilocano. despite these, i don’t feel like a good writer. hahaha! merry xmas kabayan and may you have more blessings to come from this day forward. god bless!
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And another thing…
There’s a very thin line between showing the other side of the coin and being unintentionally patronizing of other people’s blogging.
I was being a bit patronizing in my post, but wouldn’t you say you are too? More so? Think of that.
My YM user is on my mail address, if you have a lot more to say to me, kindly do so. I like your views and your spirit of debate (you did announce your intention to debate on your last comment on my blog), but i wouldn’t want undue stress between us.
See, not all comments start with ‘what a great post kuya, I agree with you’… di ba?
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@ Woobie,
Thank you so much for your comments. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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As a new blogger myself, I have learned that it is important to post what you think and not what you feel. kasi if feelings ang paiiralin masasaktan talaga tayo, if punto ang paiiralin at firm tayo don may mapapatunayan tayo. dati kasi iniiyakan ko pa ito pag di sila sang ayon sa akin or if hindi inaprove ang comment ko hehehe, i blog about it before but now sanay na
it is but natural to react on a post which is against our beliefs right? and as a baby blogger, expect more
welcome to the real world of blogging jessie.
Merry Christmas
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Joanjoyce,
again, it’s a pleasure you posted another comment my friend. you’re right about not getting emotional as implied in my writing. ewan lang kung emotionally involved ang dating ng write-up ko sa makakabasa
. i’m actually cool about it since this is a new field of study i’m conducting for a group of Ilocanos who intend to establish an online business. from a researcher’s point of view lang naman ang sa kin because of my background and work. wlang personalan. that’s why i’m as tactful as possible about things I write or say. i’m a cool guy really, without any remorse about these things. in fact, i haven’t replied to comments in a high pitch if you have observed… friendly lang ang approach ko sa mga bagay-bagay sa totoong buhay at hindi ko hilig ang away. how stressful can blogging be to me while i see people die everyday in hospitals? there is a huge difference in stress derived from blogging as compared to seeing people in great pain and die next to you. i’m only stressed physically in blogging because i’m getting old (lol!). I was trained to care for the sick, weak and needy and i train people in the same area. everyday outside the blogging world, i see injustice, aggression, insanity and death. do u really think, sis, the virtual world can hurt me? not a bit. tolerance is the keyword. like i said, i’m a fun-loving guy with a deep understanding of psychology. a positive outlook is the best way to deal with these since learning the ways of bloggers is honestly fun. i get to see a wide variety of people with different interests and get inside their heads by way of evaluating their sites, posts, comments, etc. i’m not judgmental of the person per se so i do try to stick with the core subjects of my topic/s of interest. in fact, i understand the passion exhibited by bloggers especially those who seem unsatisfied with many things like Page rank, money earned, etc. ako naman eh nago-observe lang and i really don’t mind what anyone in the blogosphere will say against me. i deal with it more in real life. people who read my research findings may not always agree with the results but a researcher’s obligation is to simply lay down the facts and gathered data with corresponding scientific conclusions. if data collected is inadequate, then that warrants another research either to negate or corroborate with previous analysis. that’s why in my field, we have what we call a “margin of error” because it’s possible that we’re not always right. that’s why when presenting an idea, you present both sides (within the context of data gathered). if data are inadequate then gather more and rewrite. as for my previous post, i never did say this system won’t work, don’t try this system because it will fail. on what paragraph can anyone find those statements? it’s not within the context of my discussion if i remember it right after reading the article 4 times prior to posting.
i’m not affected with these since i have a very happy, yet simple life outside my small cubicle at home. my wife is also in the field of Nursing psychology so we work together in analyzing human behavior in the most understanding and impartial way we can. in blogging, our set of beliefs demonstrated through writing is just the tip of the iceberg. our values inside are what drive us to react. if i disappointed you for expecting that you will find aggression here, i’m sori but you won’t. this is one guy who will just smile back at you or say nothing at all. i know you are just concerned about my feelings if i’m feeling bad or not about recent events and i’m sincerely grateful for that. i’m ok and everything is normal. thank you and merry xmas!
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im not expecting any fights but rather explaining that i felt it too before and it is just normal.
and who wants an argument btw
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First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone.
Secondly, i think that it’s a nice thing for you to be able to write about what you think and sometimes what you feel. The intensity of mind and emotion would have to vary depending on what you’re writing about. Now think of it this way, is it not a good thing that you were able to deal with the virtual world by coming up with another post? I’m sure we do our best to keep our writing within bounds..
So Kuya Jessie, keep on writing..
And this my friends is the art of blogging..being able to express yourself, and being able to appreciate and be appreciated..having read the comments above, i think it’s a healthy interaction
Again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!
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@ JOANJOYCE
i understand your point my dear. and that’s exactly my stand. a fight or animosity will never be initiated by this author,let alone sustain it. i’m a peace-loving, simple guy trying to make his way through the virtual world in as mild a way as he could. if i indeed offended anyone, then i would humbly ask for forgiveness. i will not insist that my writings are right and never will i do that. readers can believe what they want and i will still respect them and try to understand their stand from their point of view regardless of the disparity between my opinions and theirs.
thank you for sharing with me your past experiences in blogging and i am deeply moved by such a simple gesture which i take as a show of concern while we may differ in views about some issues. may your blogs be successful and may you attain your objectives as a writer. god bless and i hope we can meet in person when i get the chance to go to manila in January.
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@ RJ,
thank you darling… i need not say more since we’ll be seeing each other in Baguio in a few weeks. i might be there to get spend some alone time (without my wife, of course
) prior to going to manila for some supplies. let’s discuss your thesis in greater details in person. i hope you know the combination of your bank’s safety deposit box. holdapin kaya natin? hahaha! see yah and merry xmas!
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ang taray talaga pala ng lolo ko heheheh akala ko baby ka pa, family man ka na pala.
ang masasabi ko lang? di ko magets kasi ingles e lol!!
well for me, traffic means a lot for a blogger kasi dun mo malalaman kung may readers ka o wala e, like me nalulungkot ako kapag matagal akong nagpapahinga sa blogging, kasi nagpapahinga rin ang mga visitors e, but what excites me is not the bloghoppers actually though nakakafrustrate din if bloggers don’t visit my sites kasi parang sampal sa mukha ko na they don’t like me or they don’t like my entries. What strucks me the most is those anonymous readers that search engines leads into my blog specially that if you realized that they are those students who researched for certain topics..o di ba ang saya?
hehehehe sagwa ko talaga mag ingles oo!
masayang pasko brader
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@ Manilenya
hehehe… natutuwa tlga ako sa yo manilaneyang maganda. ang ganda ganda mo sa paningin ko kahit di pa tayo nagkikita. “baby”? have you seen my picture? yung picture in my About page na matandang hukluban?
first off, i never said traffic is junk. in fact web traffic is what all websites need. that is an established need online. whether you want to be famous, recognized, or simply read is out of the question. the amount of traffic you think you need is indeed the question here. in addition, just like you, i feel happy anonymous researchers/students stumble upon this blog online because of the Nursing-related contents (most of the time).
you’re comment is in line with my the article i’m writing, sis. i might finish it after a short while then i’ll post it for you to evaluate… thanks for commenting and sorry kung natarayan ka sa write-up ko hehehe
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We really can’t win them all Kuya. Happy New Year po!
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@ Jennie,
Well-taken my friend… happy new year!
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Hi! I am one of your avid readers and I enjoyed reading all ur entries as well as the different comments from bloggers. I am a neophyte in blogging and I think I am learning so many things from different people’s blogs.
It is important to keep in mind that we are here to express ourselves. And you are obviously one of the few bloggers that I admire for you have that rare “gift” in writing. I know not everyone here are endowed with that gift. Some have tried and have failed (in trying to express themselves well), but many bloggers have improved. But for sure, we blog NOT because we wanted people to admire or worship our brilliance in expressing ourselves but because we want to satisfy our passions.
I appreciate you for sharing all your knowledge in research among many other things that you love to share to your readers. Just keep on writing coz its a passion that reflects in ur person. You can not please everyone and I think it’s just healthy that you get different views from different people. In my opinion, it just means you are effective as a writer, hehe! Keep it on!
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@ Scotty’s Princess,
No words can describe how grateful I am for your very kind words. Maybe a simple and humble “Thank you” would do the trick.
I love your line “we blog NOT because we wanted people to admire or worship our brilliance in expressing ourselves but because we want to satisfy our passions.” I hope you have the same passion for writing as I do. If not, i hope you will develop it. Writing is not a popularity contest. It’s about sharing what you know. It’s about self-expression. We post articles in the hope that people will learn from us, not love or adore us. I am not a perfect guy but I will try to come up with useful articles that people like you could possibly find useful. May you have a great new year! Take care and God bless!
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mwahahahaha!! ulanya brader wag mo na pangarapin na makita ako ng personal okay…tama na yan na maganda tingin mo sa kin hehehhehe gusto ko yan gusto ko yan
jowk lang kita
di ka mataray ….kasi gwapo ka 
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@ Manilenya,
hahaha! cge kung ayaw mo kong makita eh ok lang. ingat lang sis… thanks for the compliment.
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hi Jessie, I was one of those who thought you were a RN, buti nabasa ko ito, hehe. Anyway, kaya pala ang galing galing mong magsulat ang dami mo na palang research, novels at essay na ginawa, meron pang unpublished books ha. Tama yung sinabi ni Scotty’s Princess, you have the gift in writing. Mabuhay ka! Jessie!
Happy Holidays!
May God bless you more!
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@ Amor
Thank you so much, dear friend. Yeah, kala nga ng madami RN ako eh. Nakakamislead kung minsan sa tao. hehehe. Thank you for the very kind words. Mabuhay ka rin at ang lahing Pilipino!
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hello amigo!
howdy! i thought you’re THE nurse.)
happy holidays to you and to ur family!
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@ FT
Not me my friend…
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