Blogathon advice

I decided to spend some time this afternoon checking out various Blogathon sites, to see if there was anyone I wanted to follow, or anyone I wanted to sponsor. Sharing the wealth, as it was.

Wow. Sturgeon was right. There are a lot of interesting sites out there, and tons of good causes, but … well, you might want to consider how you’re approaching the Blogathon (or why you have $0 in donations) if …

• You start up a new blog for it*, with just one tiny article dated three weeks ago saying, “Hey, I’m blogging for XYZ, support me,” and that’s it. C’mon, throw me a bone here!
• Your comments are borked. Or your page 404s. Bad news. (I suspect that’s why the overall blogger count went down today, as the monitors started hitting sites.)
• The charity on the Blogathon site doesn’t match what you say you’re blogging for.
• Your site doesn’t actually mention the Blogathon, or the cause you’re supporting. (Hello? Are you really doing this?)

Those are all “too late to do anything now” kinds of things. How about some more concrete advice?

• Daisybones has some good ideas for blog, workspace, and thematic prep.
• This 2007 advice (also routed via Daisybones) is similarly useful; some things are too late to do now, but others aren’t.

It’s quite possibly unfair, but it’s tough, sometimes, seeing through the blogger to the cause. That is, if a person’s blog is unattractive (in design, content, whatever), it’s hard to say, “But Saving the Blind Puppies from Ear Cancer Foundation is a fabulous cause so I’m going to sponsor that blog.” (I suppose one could just directly donate to the SBPFECF, but, then, there are so many causes out there that are worthwhile that you could bankrupt yourself over them.) It’s similar to the whole question of knowing an actor is a serious jerk in real life and letting that color how you perceive their performance. As I said, unfair, but very human.

Anyway, I made it through about a third of the list, and have about twenty blogs flagged to go back and check out during the ‘Thon. I left “good luck” wishes on them, and a few sponsorships, too. Lot of creative energy is going to be flowing on the Internet tomorrow, and for good causes. We’ll see you here.

*I’ve considered, in passing, doing a separate blog for the ‘Thon. But, then, this blog is eclectic enough that having 50ish posts of comic book reviews and the like (and the innumerable Blogathonning chit-chat beforehand) doesn’t particular stand out as weird. I hope. Besides, I don’t generally care for Blogathon-specific blogs, myself: it makes the effort feel too compartmentalized, and takes away the chance to read more by the person doing it.