Ok, it’s hard to say it.  My name is Kathie and I’m a blogaholic.

There!  I’ve said it.  I just can’t help myself.  You see, I get an idea that germinates for awhile and then I realise that perhaps others might like the topic too. And then I’m just playing around you see, looking at themes, experimenting with domain names and then before I know it, I’ve purchased a new domain name (or 2 or 3) and found a template I’ve fallen in love with and then suddenly I have a new blog.  I just can’t help it.  I’ve lost count of how many.  My kids say to me, ‘oh mum, have you got another NEW site?’  And I have to admit I’ve done it again.

I started a gardening one for that reason and another on photography (which I write to every single day).  Another about my home city, another about dodgy photos.  I have 3 that are potential holding bays for books in the future. And that’s not to mention the business ones I own or the ones for clients that I set up. And now a new one as of yesterday all about favourite places for coffee.

It was my eldest daughter’s fault this time. She started the idea when she took me to this fantastic place 2 weeks ago that was a cafe/restaurant/nursery and formal gardens.  Just gorgeous and the food and coffee is really great… and home made!  She was telling me about her favourite coffee places and I said to her without thinking, ‘you know that would be a good idea for a site’.  I kept squashing the idea everytime it popped up after that but yesterday morning (Saturday) because I didn’t have to rush out of bed I let my mind play over the past week or two and then it popped back in my head again!  Before I knew it I was on my computer and looking for a suitable domain name and found a fantastic template and voila!  The site was born.

Tell me, do you think I need help? 

Anyway, have a look and tell me what you think? MyFavCoffeePlace Perhaps you could indulge me and tell me about yours?

My husband spoilt me with a a brand new Digital SLR Camera for Christmas. It’s a Nikon D90 and takes lots of photos in quick succession (up to 100 which it buffers then saves to the memory card) so it now means I can take action shots without having to wait for my camera to catch up with me and be ready.  I found that most frustrating when out at Mountain Bike Races with my husband.

Anyway, I have a photo blog so I won’t post many photos here, but thought I’d share a small number with you, to give you some idea of what I’ve been doing.  If you click on the image below you’ll see an album of shots I have loaded at Facebook. This picture is of Shadow, one of our cats. Amazing what you find in the garden, isn’t it?

I’m thinking I might print some of these and frame them or see if I can put them on items such as mugs, cards, posters and such and sell them. What do you think?

Photography is something I’ve always enjoyed and I used to belong to a club many years ago – before I started my business.  I’m hoping to pick it up again soon.  As our children fly the coop and Graham and I become ‘empty nesters’ I find I want to spend more time outside and in the country.  And my new camera will become my constant companion – after all I have to show hubby just how much I appreciate his gift to me, don’t I?

I wanted to go ask a specific question the other day on two writer’s forums I belong to but both were closed. Both were with Ning and I was in a fix because I wanted to post my question now!  So, what should I do?

• I posted at Twitter

• I sent an email to another forum

• I did some research at Google

• I kept revisiting the Ning site waiting for it to open again.

What do you do when you can’t get into the group you want to participate in?

I’m a member of Aussie Bloggers Forum and one of the members, Kin, organised a Secret Santa gift swap.  Well, my secret santa gift has arrived and someone knows my vice.  I’m a stationary junkie!

I wonder how they knew?  Thanks Secret Santa, whoever you are!  All I know is that you’re another Melbourne Aussie Blogger.

This will be a constant companion for notes for those blog posts I think about when not in my office!

Wish I’d thought of this post! At Aussie Bloggers an excellent post called “It’s Just Like A Party” has been written by Jeanie about participating in forums and it’s real commonsense stuff. And yet I see so many breaking the often ‘unwritten’ rules of etiquette when it comes to forum participation.

I love being involved in forums – a great way to network with others in a casual way and really get to know people. Perhaps further down the track you might do business with them or socialise with them face to face, who knows where it will lead, but it’s important to start off on the right foot first.  Otherwise you could end up being branded a spammer or troublemaker when it’s possible you’re just being enthusiastic and didn’t think. Especially if you operate a business – all business owners want to let others know what they do and where to find them, but it’s best to play down that enthusiasm and get to know the lay of the land first before linking right, left and centre and being accused of spamming a forum.

Why not read through this list and think on it when you’re next in a forum? It might just help you to have a lot more fun!

I hadn’t really thought about what day it was just recently but then the jokes started coming in – some quite elaborate. My radio station got outted by an IT guy early in their hoax.

And the blogger’s forum I belong to made members feel like they’d become dyslexic or that they’d typed the wrong words – took me a few seconds to realise why that might be happening. Very disorienting and strange to read.

I particularly loved these ones!

Baby Calf grows inside Award-Winning Giant Pumpkin

LinkedIn to End Free Service

If you know of others, why not share them here?

Addendum:  Here are some more

gDay™ with MATE™

Yahoo 7 News has a list too

I am listed in the Top 100 Australian blogs list with my Virtual Assistant blog so hopefully that means I’ve learnt a thing or two. Perhaps the following might help you.

When I first started blogging I had to set my Outlook calendar to remind me to write a blogpost on a weekly basis and even then, I didn’t know what about. That was 2 years ago. I began reading through other people’s blogs, leaving comments on their’s and then adding posts on mine that would further or complement a post on someone else’s and link back to them – it brought me more traffic. I always looked for blogs on the same theme or topic as mine. But one of the best things I did was use Google Alerts – it’s free and you can get it to email you ‘as it happens’, daily or weekly a list of blog posts and websites that publish the keyword or phrases you want monitored. That brings me heaps of material to write about.

And just today I’ve written two posts for my VA blog (one is published and the other is pre-set for 2 days’ time) because of things that have happened here this morning. These days I have little trouble finding things to write about – it’s just getting into that mode.

To find blogs on similar topics to your’s just go to www.technorati.com and use the search feature – and then click on the links that come up – that should get you started. KMT