Blogger Appreciation - You Had Me at Blog!

The internet is overrun by blogs and that‘s an understatement. Blogs are available for every subject from humor to politics, cooking to photography, and contests to making money. Unfortunately these unique highways of information are clogged with so many abandoned blogs that it would make rush hour traffic in New York City or Los Angeles look like the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse at 2 in the morning. Yet so many great active blogs exist and thrive. The problem is this: How do you sort out the winners from the deadbeats?

One way to spread the word is with blog-to-blog awards. These “awards” are handed out from one blogger to another. They usually require you to list a link back to the blog who passed on the award to you. You then include links of blogs that you think deserve the award. It’s a pyramid scheme, sorta like Amway without having to buy anything. Yet it does work, to some degree.

The problem with awards is that there are too many of them out there. Everybody and their brother has won one award or another. When I received my first award, I was naively gushing like Molly Ringwald at the prom in Pretty in Pink. Since I’m a very hairy and out-of-shape 48 year old gay male, the thought of me in a pink taffeta party dress frightens even me! (But not as much as Sarah Palin did wearing f@*k me pumps and a sprayed on business suit during the VP debate) But when I received my second award, I began to realize the real purpose of the award: To Get More Readers for The Winning Blogs.

I know I want more readers. And if you have a blog, so do you. I also want you to read all of the wonderfully funny, exciting, thought-provoking, and encouraging blogs that I have discovered during the past few months of my blog life. I’ve discovered over 150 blogs that intrigued me and I’m having a hard time following all of them. I’ve included some of them in my side bar but I can’t include that many. So I’ve come up with my own Un-Award, the You’re Appreciated Un-Award. It’s kind of like an Un-Birthday but without the mad hatter and the mouse in the teacup. Come to think of it, didn’t Alice wear something sort of like pink taffeta? (I bet she didn’t have to contend with a hairy chest.)

Anyway, I promise that my next You’re Appreciated post will not have the long-winded introduction that is so customary with every single post I’ve ever done. (or so it’s been pointed out to me by a self-proclaimed blog critic over at blogcatalog.) Here are the rules: There are no rules. This is not an award. I simply provide you with a window to three blogs I think worth reading. If the blog sounds interesting, all you need to do is click the link and check it out. And if you feel like letting the blogger know I sent you to his or her blog, who am I to stand in your “feeling obligated to my blog” way?

I will start with only one blog but future posts will include three. My first You’re Appreciated blog is called A LITTLE OF THIS, AND A LITTLE OF THAT. I stole the You’re Appreciated image from this blog so it’s only fair to give credit where it’s deserved. Blog owner Kavita is a self-proclaimed loud mouth multi-blogger with a soft-spoken heart. What started out as a blog about poetry turned into a blog about everything. It’s similar to my blog but without the infusion of an aging gay man’s sardonic whit. (humor me, please?) It’s consistently inconsistent and hey, I’m all about that.

I hope I’ve whetted your blog appetite and have left you hungering for more. With over 150 blogs to go, I know I have some doozies to share with you. That’s the hook kiddies. Just keep reading my blog. You know you want to.