Ten Reasons Why I'm Not an A-List Blogger

(Author's note: the following is meant to be in fun, so please don't ruin my good post-vacation mood by being all serious, like those people who think Snakes on a Plane is a good action movie -- or those who thought I was serious when I wrote this.)

• I had my book deal long before I had my blog.

• I only write once every 7-10 days, and that's if I'm not busy working. I say something when I have something to say.

• I used to be a newspaper reporter, so I can take criticism.

• I don't Digg, Rollyo, Memeorandum or know what OPML stands for. For at least six months I thought Del.icio.us was part of the Food Network.

• I spell check my posts and my comments on other blogs.

• I don't break news -- as I said earlier, I used to be a reporter. I'm more of a columnist now, which means I get to share opinions without doing any real work.

• I rarely go to conferences, seminars or workshops. When I do, I don't alert the world via my blog (e.g., "Light blogging today, traveling," or "At the Beijing airport, they have wireless in the bathrooms," or "Be back in five, gotta Tivo C-Span -- yeah, that's right, I watch C-Span.")

• My journalism career killed any semblance of ego I used to have (I once worked for UPI, which at the time was the journalism equivalent of having an AOL e-mail address.)

• I link when it makes sense to do so, not just to encourage links back to me and increase my Technorati rank. Don't you agree Jeff, Jay, Steve, Dan and Scott?

• My columns (sorry, "blog posts") have a beginning, a middle, and thankfully, as you are about to discover, an end.

Comments

[Jeremy Pepper]

Nice Gary. But, A-list is overrated. Very overrated. :)

[Andrea Weckerle]

Too funny! So, you're saying bloggers are a thin-skinned, whiny, self-important, tech-driven, grammatically-challenged bunch? Hm, something to think about :-)

[Gary Goldhammer]

Andrea, you forgot "tunnel-visioned" :-)

[scott]

Oh crap -- I guess I have to link back to you now...

[Gary Goldhammer]

Scott, I live for being a "Pick of the Orchard" -- maybe you should create a POTO graphic that the "picked" can put on their blogs. Another way to drive traffic to your site? I'm just so damn helpful :-)

[Mike Driehorst]

Gary,
You worked for UPI? Now, I know (of) two people who *used* to work for UPI. Of course, very few do *now.*

My first job was as a reporter with a UPI paper (in Napoleon, Ohio) because the biggest competitor (a county away) was AP, and the editor didn't want to have exactly the same stories.

Regarding your book, maybe you should e-publish it now that the e part of publishing is possible? Then, you can scratch that first reason off the list.
Mike

[Gary Goldhammer]

Mike -- yes, it's true. I worked out of the Missouri State Capitol bureau covering anything that needed to be done, as we didn't have lots of staff. I worked for AP later on as a stringer (in California), but UPI was where I cut my journalistic teeth, so to speak.

Good idea on the book -- though a lot of the inmates I wrote about have since been executed :-)