Well, I think I'll write on my own blog now. Anyway ... I was visited by OddMix on my An Experiment post. He is doing this little project ... he adopted me into ... and I thought it was a really great idea ... so today I went around and adopted a handful of blogs into my part of the project.

The hope is that you pick five or so blogs and try to visit and maybe comment each day. It's kind of a little bit of a challenge ... but let me give you an idea of what I've learned and how the practice of commenting increases your exposure. And how and why commenting should not always be accomplished on the blog that is inspiring you to comment. Sometimes you should comment on your own blog.

Sometimes I'll go visit someone's blog and they'll just hit a cord with me and my comment on their blog starts to take on a it's own persona ... like story length. So that's when i know it's time to stop, collect up my comment aka story, and go home to my blog and write there. But this is actually a friendly thing to do. It builds community two ways. First, I give credit where credit is due on my blog. I tell my readers where I was, and why I'm writing what I'm writing, and where they can go to read the original for themselves.

Second, I go back to the original and I either give a backtrack ... which is a very under-used, under-understood tool ... or I just add a comment that basically says "I'm talking about you ...here... and here's an excerpt." Backtracking and cross-linking peeks search engines' interest ... they see it as credibility building. So, it gives you both a little boost up on that particular topic.

So ... let's see for my list I picked a few from OddMix's list. I picked a few from the Christian Women Online Blog Ring. I picked one or two straight off the list. I picked one or two by randomizing. I snagged one off of 43things. I picked some that are mommies and some that are through or almost through raising their kids (Like me). And ....one or maybe two who aren't in the US.

I picked a few fathers, OddMix being the first. Fathers who unabashedly write about their children and their love for their children make my heart sing. Ok so nobody's perfect and I don't want you to think that I'm requiring the fathers I'm about to include in my list here to be perfect. In fact ... probably part of my admiration probably comes from knowing that fathers are seldom perfect ... but the fact that fathers try so hard ... and I'm glad some of them actually document this fact.

Obviously there's a more than a few of the blogs that fit into more than a few of the categories. And I reserve the right to play with the randomizer and make comments on other blogs.

In playing with the randomizer and the list, I found two amazing things. Most people are still in. I think maybe it's because we're meeting new people all the time thru this experience. And there's an amazing number who start their posts by saying (whining) "I don't have anything to say ..." And then the let loose with a perfectly entertaining slice of life story and often end with a perfectly-stated, obvious truth that makes me say ... "Yeah!!! I get that!" and then I get to feel normal a little. I like that. A lot. So, Thanks!

Secondly ... there's an amazing number of perfectly intelligent people out there blogging about perfectly amazing things in life ... things that are not business tips!
Ok ok my list:

I reserve the right to add to it or drop anybody who drops out.
Life, the Universe and Everything
What I Learned Today
The Grand
Food & Family
Knitten' Kittens
Imperfect Christian
My Empty Nest
Clare's Dad
And last ... but far from least ... one of the best writers I've ever been discovered by
The Odd Mix

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