As an example of a blog contest that requires a post, I’m presenting the newest contest I have come across. Why the newest, and not one from my backlog? Because this contest is being run in celebration of a milestone that deserves a post even if there was no contest involved.

Netchick, aka Tanya, is celebrating her 10 year anniversary of blogging next month!

That’s right, 10 years! When I reached the 10 year mark of just being connected to the internet, that made me an uber-geek. To have actually been blogging for that length of time is truly something special.

To celebrate, Tanya is holding a contest to give away a Nintendo Wii. You can enter one of two ways, the first being to post the above banner on your blog from now until the anniversary date of September 30^th; the other is to make a comment on her contest post that meets certain criteria. As always, visit the blog itself for the exact rules; you can click on the banner above to get to her contest details.

I doubt that Tanya even knows I am a reader of her site; but she holds a spot in my Local Blogs folder in Google Reader, one of the few folders I regularly check out even when life is too busy and I shouldn’t be. As I’ve mentioned before, if I am aware of a Vancouver area blog, I will be checking it out; but it has to be a good local blog to keep me reading. Tanya’s content is a well written collection of local events, personal events and dating stories. What sets her apart from other personal blogs is that even when she is complaining about life events or being single, she manages to come across as a happy person. Hopefully my impression is correct.

So pop on over to enter her blog contest, but do return to read what is going on in this net chick’s life.

Oh, and this would also be a Rebuilding My Blogroll post.

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So life through another curve ball that has kept me from posting for a couple of days.  I’ll blog about it this morning, and those who subscribe to my feed already have a hint from the photos that will have appeared already, but I did want to mention before it became too late that you should head over to read and support Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604) on her Blogathon 2007 quest to blog for charity.

I am doing a Blog-a-thon today for the Surrey Food Bank. Every 30 minutes for 24 hours I will be publishing a blog post with the hopes that people will sponsor me to keep going.

It’s for a great cause, and you have to admire someone that can produce 48 posts in a day.  Head on over and support her.

Sorry for the spotty updates, but school took over completely. Maybe taking three courses over the summer was not such a good idea; but I figured it was better than taking them in the fall semester when we have our plans to go to Mexico.

There were several contests that I wanted to make posts about in order that people might enter, but most have ended now. This is fine, however, as more have started and I’ll post some soon.

Additionally, I still need to work on my blogroll. Regular readers will know that in rebuilding my blogroll, I am currently adding the local blogs to which I subscribe, starting with my post about Darren Barefoot. The next blog I had planned on writing about was Michael Kwan’s blog, entitled Beyond the Rhetoric. Michael’s blog focuses largely on making money online, which is the theme of a number of bloggers in Vancouver. Many bloggers around the world seem to be making (or trying to make) their money online by simply writing blogs about online money generation, relying on advertising in their blog to generate revenue. They then visit each other’s blogs in the niche; which creates a giant cycle that I think advertisers will not fuel too much longer. To me it makes about as much sense as buying a “How to make money in Real Estate” course off of someone who makes their millions not by buying real estate, but rather by selling real estate courses.

In contrast, the top “how to” bloggers in the making money niche usually have proven their skills elsewhere online; and their blogs are now just an additional source of income. Michael is one such blogger in that he earns much of his online income through freelance writing.  He is paid to guest blog on some major blogs, write articles for various websites, and write copy for projects; among other things.  If I am going to take advise from someone as to how to make money online, I’ll take it from someone who does rather than teaches.  Michael has the potential to become one of the top bloggers in his niche.

I tell you this as a description of the major focus of this blog; but of course this makes little difference to me as I am not attempting to make money with this blog.    I follow Michael’s blog for the same reason I follow other local blogs; I was attracted to check him out because he was local, and then stayed because of the good writing and interesting articles.  He includes local events and geeky items in his blog, both of which will keep me around.

While Michael was sure to be mentioned within my next few posts since I am now covering the local blogs, he was being pushed to the front because of a contest he was running to win a USB TV Tuner. Unfortunately his contest ended while I was too swamped to blog.

Unfortunate for you, that is. I’m fine with it, because I was the winner!

A few months ago I won a Canucks jersey, and now I have won again. That is pretty good, considering I have not entered that many contests.  I am motivated to seek out contest blogs to pass along for my readers to enter, because they seem to have great odds.  Perhaps I’ll even have to start a contest page to keep track of them all.

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even been able to send Michael my address so he can send my prize out to me. I had hoped to save him the cost of shipping, but it looks like it will be a while before I’m in Vancouver, and so I will have to get him shipping info this weekend. Once I collect it, I’ll have to check out it capabilities. I already have a TV tuner card in my ancient computer, and Karin has been jealous and would probably like this prize. However, we also will both need to replace our beasts in the near future and had planned to both get internal TV tuner cards at that time. So after I check out my prize’s capabilities versus what we had already planned, I’ll see if we’ll be keeping it or if I might run my own contest!

Many of the blogs I read are by local authors. The niche each blog fits can be wide ranging and might not even be something I would read normally; but I don’t read just any local blog. Instead, the fact that they are local causes me to check them out the first time, but it is the style of writing and interest factor that will gain them a place in my Google Reader.

Darren Barefoot is a Vancouver blogger who I would follow even if he was not local. In fact, he’s quite famous on the internet, and has one of the top 2000 blogs according to Technorati. This is an impressive number alone when you realize that Technorati tracks 86.8 million blogs; but even more impressive when you consider that Darren writes simply because he wants to, and does not actively promote his blog like most of the others holding the top spots. His own description of himself on Technorati is:

The personal weblog of Darren Barefoot, concerned with technology, pop culture, marketing and PR, science and whatever floats Darren’s boat.

The description alone should explain why I read him, he is what the modern geek is about; interested in technology, science and the traditional geeky items, but an not introverted dweeb unaware of the world around him. A successful technologist and owner of his own company, he still finds time to find many different interesting items in the news and on the internet; more than I ever find. His posts are brief but informative, and can be quite intellectual without offsetting those looking for an interesting read, a tricky balance that he does quite well.

Darren and his wife recently sold almost everything they had in Vancouver and moved to Malta for six months, and will begin again anew when they return to build a house on Pender Island. Current postings include accounts of travels around Malta and Europe, with a similar interest in the cultures he encounters. He is also an avid photographer, which is a passion of my own in which I hope to soon re-indulge. I have therefore added him as a contact in Flickr in order to both appreciate his creations and to travel vicariously. A geek who is into travel and photography will always peak my interest.

An additional attraction that applies to all locals who stay in my reader is one that likely appeals to all of us; when he writes about the local park’s storm damage, his favorite hockey team, or his issues with a local credit union; we all connect better with someone who is writing about something with which we are familiar. Combine this familiarity with a casual writing style that flows well, and it feels as if you are reading something from a good friend. But in reality, the relationship is more the one has with a celebrity, in that he wouldn’t know me if I walked right up to him, but if I recognized across the room while out at a local establishment, I’d feel like he was a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time and would want to buy him a beer.

Edit: I almost forgot that it is through him that I discovered and won the Canuck’s Jersey contest, and so I already owe him a beer.

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