Finding Your Identity

by derek on March 27, 2007 · 21 comments

Finding Your Identity

As any new blogger has experienced, part of the beginning phase is finding your identity or niche in the blogosphere. When I started My New Choice, I had a very clear definition that I wanted that site to be focused on trying to help educate people on how to eliminate debt and live below their means to prepare for an early and lucrative retirement.
With Derek Semmler dot com, I have defined a loose identity to discuss a few of the things I am passionate about including money, motorcycles and cars. But as the headline states, I reserve the right to throw in a little bit of everything else as well. This is my venture into the world of the narcissistic bloggers and my digital scratch pad on my journey to become a Dot Com Mogul.
Another new site that is trying to find an identity is David Grimmett dot com. David and I share a bond in that we started our blogs right about the same time and have been working to build some traffic. After jumping in to offer some help with David’s WordPress theme, I liked what I saw and have added his site to my regular reads.
The fact that David is still creating his identity is refreshing as it allows the reader to grow with the site. Browsing through the site, I see similar categories to what I have identified for my own blog so I am sure that I will be finding many interesting posts. One of the first things I noticed about David is that he is from the Vancouver area, which I find interesting because it seems like the majority of bloggers I am *meeting* these days are from Vancouver. I should just move there already so I can actually meet up with some of these people and build an evil blogging empire.
David, thanks for the link and review of my site and here is to all of the narcissistic bloggers finding their identity and following their passions to create a successful blog!

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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

David March 28, 2007 at 1:16 am

Thanks for the links and review of my site!! And I can say that I am a regular reader of your blogs. And I feel honoured that you have become a regular reader of mine!! Thanks!!!
And maybe you should move to Vancouver, its a beautiful city, and a great place to blog from!!!

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derek March 28, 2007 at 1:51 am

My wife has been getting the itch to move out of our current area and did love the Seattle area when we have vistited so Vancouver might not be that far out of question.
Neither of us have ever been there though and I don’t even have the slightest idea what the real estate market is like there right now.

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David March 28, 2007 at 1:57 am

Vancouver is great!! I would highly recommend it. Although I did grow up here, so I may be biased, but I love it!! The real estate market, its not pretty right now, although it has calmed down a bit since a year ago, its still pretty pricey if you want to be in the actual city. Suburbs are cheaper, but then there is the commute.
Vancouver is glorious in the summer, and you have to have a respect for rain in the winter, because its a regular occurrence here.

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derek March 28, 2007 at 6:32 pm

I mentioned Vancouver to my wife and she didn’t seem to fond of the idea but I think she just has it stuck in her head that Canada is brutally cold.
She found a house in Florida that she loves but I’m sure we’ll end up staying right where we are. After all, we are getting quotes on replacing all of our windows so we probably are staying put.
As for commute, I drive 65 miles each way to work right now so I am sure the commute in the Vancouver suburbs wouldn’t be much worse. Plus I would try to arrange to keep my current job and work remotely, unless anyone in Vancouver has a need for a programmer trying to become a dot com mogul. 🙂

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David March 31, 2007 at 12:00 pm

haha…canada can be cold….but Vancouver isn’t so much…Snow is rare… But that would be a very big move for you guys!!
Florida would be nice…I wouldn’t complain about the climate there!!!

Kelly Cho March 29, 2007 at 4:31 pm

You guys aren’t the only ones… I’m on the same boat. It’s hard starting from scratch and finding loyal readers!

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derek March 29, 2007 at 4:39 pm

You’re right. I’ve found it very helpful to be active in my comments on other blogs as that helps get your name out there in front of more people.
Writing good content is a critical piece of the puzzle but even great content is not enough if nobody knows about your site. Hopefully we can all do a little something to help each other out and continue to build up a community of bloggers.

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David March 31, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Yes Content if critical, but networking and community is also…you have to find the balance and be smart about it, just look at John Chow!!

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Melanie March 30, 2007 at 8:20 am

We all have to start somewhere i suppose! I too am just starting out, it’s a total learning curve, but it’s fun and that’s the main thing.

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derek March 30, 2007 at 8:29 am

I’ve been checking out your site since you commented here and I like what I see and I really need to pay attention to the things you are writing as I really need to change to a healthier lifestyle. Keep up the good work on your site!

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Armen March 30, 2007 at 11:24 am

Yeah, I’m a relative newbie and I must admit to the difficulty of knowing precisely what angle I ought to take for the majority of my posts. It’s a challenge for sure.
In my first few months though, I’m glad to say that I have a few faithful readers.

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derek March 30, 2007 at 1:43 pm

Grats on building up your faithful readers. I’ve seen my RSS readership increasing as well and that is always a good feeling!

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Melanie March 30, 2007 at 6:59 pm

Thanks for stopping by my site too, hopefully you’ll find the info useful. Any ideas of what you’d like to read about would be very welcome!

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derek March 31, 2007 at 11:19 am

Sure, I really liked the post about goal setting and would like to see more about the idea of lifestyle versus diet.
Also, I think posts with healthy recipes would be fantastic and maybe posts about how to lead a healthy lifestyle when you are lazy.
Personally, I know the things I am supposed to do to lead a healthy lifestyle but I do get lazy and it seems so much easier to eat crappy food and slack on the exercise. Can you motivate lazy people? 😉

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Leo April 1, 2007 at 12:15 pm

Hmm, I love my deep fryer. What does that say about my lifestyle?

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derek April 1, 2007 at 12:21 pm

It says that you are a lot like me except I am too lazy to do the deep frying myself! 🙂

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Melanie March 31, 2007 at 11:48 pm

So…the challenge has been set!! Stay tuned for tips to ‘motivate lazy people!!’ 🙂

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derek April 1, 2007 at 1:22 am

Looking forward to what you come up with!

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Programming Blog May 29, 2007 at 6:44 pm

That would be useful… I’m still a bit of a lazy blogger

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Christina Kim March 6, 2009 at 4:50 pm

Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.

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