Nope, this is not a Britney Spears post. I’m letting Pete do those.

You’ll remember earlier this week, I announced my new weight loss blog.

Well, as if that wasn’t enough, now I’ve gone and started another blog. This one is on anti-aging. So, if you want to live younger at any age, please be sure to check it out! And, those Top Commentator slots are wide open!

I have another health-related domain name that I’ve not done much with, so I may start another blog on there. Then, I think that will probably be the last of the health blogs I start, at least for a while. Er, wait, I have two health-related domain names I’ve not done much with…

You see, while Michelle toils away redesigning her blog, I’m off starting new ones. Hmmm, maybe it’s time I update that vintage blog of mine…

You may be curious as to how I can manage to run so many blogs at one time. Well, that’s a secret I’ll share at a later date; I want to see how it works out before doing a write-up! The difficult part, and one I don’t yet have an answer for, is figuring out how to promote more than one blog at a time.

Oh, and I registered another new domain name yesterday, so I guess you can figure out what that means…

What am I gonna post today?
Post today, post today?

Whatever will I post today?
Post today, post today?

What do they wanna read today?
Read today, read today?

What’a they gonna read today?
Read today, read today?

Maybe they’d like a link today?
A link today, a link today?

I’ll just give’m a link today.
A link today, a link today.

Here is the link today,
The link today, the link today.

That’s all for the day.

You may remember last month that I wrote about the value of eBooks.

Well, a comment spammer thought that post would be a good place to put a link for a website where Tila Tequila is naked. I don’t know if that’s what the website was really about; and I didn’t care to check it out. I’m sure I’d be disappointed either way.

Akismet didn’t catch this one, but moderation did. So, that comment has now been marked as spam, so hopefully Akismet will learn from its mistake!

So, now, the Tila Tequila naked link can take its place among the health insurance quotes, homeowners insurance links and links to car insurance offers. How about some cheap auto quotes? Would you like those? Maybe you’d prefer gambling with the money you’d otherwise use to pay your health insurance premiums?

Thanks to Akismet, you don’t have to hear about any of them in the comments on my blog! Nor will you hear about odd parents that are naked. Or malevolent attorneys. Or hairy girl videos? Seriously? Unmandated outspeakers? What on earth are those? Or bizarre things in unspeakable places; thank goodness those don’t get through!

Jenny McCarthy’s haircut. Really? Would someone really click on that link?

Apparently, quite a few people enjoy browsing through my “well-structured site.” Okay. Thanks.

By the way, if you experience gracefulness, apparently there is medication for that.

Another comment would have taken you to a place where Jenny Gets Naked or where Jenny Get Snaked; hard to tell when the words are all crammed together, but I’m guessing the link would have been NSFW either way.

What the heck are Viagra treadmills? Do we even want to know? They’d never advertise the Total Gym like that; Chuck Norris doesn’t get spam, he gets the spammers! But, no one’s guarding the treadmills, I guess.

Who wants some Hannah Montana coloring pages? Judging by some of Miley Cyrus’ photos, I’m not sure that coloring book would be appropriate for kids!

Here’s one… Kari Byron Mythbusters nude. But, just who is it that’s nude? I’m not sure if anyone wants to see Jamie and Adam nude.

Anyone out there need to acidize their foreboots? Anyone need an accustoming Vicodin picture? How about a chemical structure Cialis treadmill? Need to hire some pharmacology mathematicians? Taking “Vicodin for fun distinctions”? What is the matter with people these days?

Honda. Honda this. Honda that. Does this look like a Honda blog? I ask you, does it?

Warning! Warning! Apparently there is an unprotected doctor in Columbus, Ohio. What does that mean?

Some people don’t have anything to say right now, but they manage to type a page of links thereafter.

I think I liked it better when all they were pushing were health insurance quotes. That’s relatively mild compared to everything else; plus it at least makes sense. I’m really still not sure who has a need to acidize their foreboots.

Haven’t had enough funny spam? Check out Pete’s “The Life of Britney Spears, According to Spammers.”

Oh, Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete…

Today, Pete threw down the gauntlet, in effect challenging me to blend two pictures together.

I’ve been doing digital design work since the early 90’s. Blending two images is so beneath my pay grade at this point.

So, I blended four photos.

You may have noticed I have not been blogging as often in the past week or two. There have been many days where I’ve only fired off a single post, and several of those were just pictures. And, I’ve been running behind on posting some of the things I keep promising, such as what was in that box from Michael Kwan, what the mystery item is, and what tragedy befell Teeni’s meez. And, I’ve also been nominated for an award by Ann and tagged for a meme by Sabrina, both of which I’ll cover in future posts.

Well, I have been busy.

You may have wondered about two of my recent posts on weight loss this month. First, there was “Carrying a Heavy Burden, or Thoughts on the So-Called Obesity “Epidemic”” and then “Slimming Down to Fatten Your Wallet.” In both of those, I snuck in a link to a weight loss site. Nope, those weren’t paid links. Not at all.

I own that site, and that was my sneaky way of building some backlinks to it. I had purchased the website, which was a ready-to-go website and not a site that had already been running. It’s what is often referred to as a cookie-cutter site. The creator only sold a limited number of them.

It was up to me to find a domain name and get it up and running, which I did. The original site was done in straight HTML. After about a week, I decided that, in order to make future updates easier, I’d convert it to PHP. Then, I could make use of include files so that stuff like the navigation sidebar could be updated from include file, rather than have to update each page separately as I would have to do with HTML.

I did some promotion of it, but really didn’t get anywhere with it. I decided that I really needed to make it my own. So, over the weekend, I went whole hog on it and did quite a revamp. If you happened to take a peek at it before, which I doubt since it never had many page views, it’s different now. It still has some of the feel of the original design, but it’s much of my own thing now.

I’ve been keeping it updated, even though I haven’t officially announced it. I was finalizing some things on it and now I feel it’s ready for its “official” launch: Weight Loss Assistance Center dot Com.

As you can see, the Top Commentators spots are wide open!

Also, you’ll note the blogs listed at the top. If you have a health or fitness related blog and would like to be listed there, please let me know. You’ll have to link back to me in some fashion. Some of the blogs listed there currently are just placeholders. Any of them that are not health or fitness related will be removed as I get new links in!

Feel free, of course, to jump in with your thoughtful comments!

Somewhere along the roadside in Michigan.

For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Blogging is not terribly unlike gardening. Like a gardener tending his crops, a blogger spends a lot of time working on his or her blog. That may include tweaking the theme, writing new content, commenting on other blogs, and so on. Let’s break it down, shall we?

Soil. Any good gardener will know that a good quality soil is an important start of a successful garden. Your blog needs soil too. In blogging, the soil would be your niche. What niche are you going to “plant” your blog in? Is there room for you? Will it be too crowded for your blog to stand out? And, if you can be the first to jump into a niche and start tilling, that may be all the better for you too!

Roots. Your blog needs to have some good roots. You need your roots to reach into the soil. They need to grab hold for stability and also absorb the nutrients around them. Your blog needs good roots too. You need to establish yourself by defining the basics that will form your roots. You’ve decided on your niche; now, how will you reach into that niche and grab hold? Your blog roots are your blog concept and fundamentals that will set you apart and keep you grounded. What makes you different from all the other bloggers out there covering the same topic, and how will you continue to differentiate yourself from them to maintain a firm grip on your niche?

Water. A garden needs the right amount of water, and most crops will do well to have a consistent watering program, whether it’s daily or weekly, depending on the crops’ needs. For your blog, the watering will be the frequency you post. This can be daily or even weekly. The important thing is, whatever you decide, to maintain that frequency. Neither blogs nor gardens do well to have long periods of drought interrupted by brief and sudden floods.

Weeds. Like weeds that need to be pulled from your garden, you’ll also need to deal with spam comments on your blog. Need any more be said on this topic? The fortunate thing is, unlike gardening, there are automated tools available that can help stop most spam from ever even posing a problem.

Fertilizer. A garden will do better with some regular feeding by way of fertilizer. Here is where we deviate from the garden model. To help feed your blog, you’re going to need to spread the fertilizer on other blogs by way of quality comments. Here, spreading manure around isn’t going to be helpful. You’ll want to stick with the man-made fertilizers. You want to participate on other blogs, really interacting with them, in order to earn that kind of interaction and feedback back to your own blog. Here sharing your fertilizer with other bloggers is really a good thing for you and your blog.

By understanding the soil, roots, water, weeds and fertilizer in your blog garden, you can really help your blog garden to grow and produce bountiful crops!

As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

Deftly combining Pete’s negative week with his distrustful brain, here you can see the adult Luna Moth, perched on a black walnut tree, possibly in search of a mate. Negative above, positive below.

Nope, these aren’t açaí berries. Sorry.

These are good, old-fashioned blueberries. Or, rather they were blueberries. They have since been consumed and are no more.

Why am I posting blueberries? Well, it did seem appropriate for a Monday, plus what I was going to post about isn’t quite ready yet, so I’ve had to make a substitution. But, it is a clue as to what I was going to post.

And I know how you all love it when I drop clues and then keep you waiting for an answer. Teeni, for example, just loves that! Plus, no photo from Pete yet today, so I’m fulfilling an unfulfilled need for a photo this Monday. It’s not a camera phone picture, but it will have to do for you photo junkies out there.

By the way, you did get your free eBook I offered yesterday, right?

Interesting question, isn’t it?

Take John Chow dot Com, for example. No more Top Commentators are listed, reportedly due to “database issues.” No more monthly blog income reports either. And, Friday came this guest post by Bob Jones trying to dissuade newcomers from starting new MMO* blogs.

While it may be true that 90% of the MMO blogs out there are garbage, that’s probably true in just about every niche. There are countless blogs out there and many of them aren’t worth reading.

Likewise, something like 9 out of 10 new businesses fail. Should we discourage people from starting new businesses?

Why discourage people from starting new MMO blogs, unless you’re worried about competition? Could that be the ulterior motive here? It’s anyone’s guess.

If you want to start your own MMO, go ahead! The thing is, though, don’t just try to do what everyone else is doing. Check out the other MMO blogs and figure out how you can do them one better.

*MMO = Make Money Online