12 Step Program for Blog and Forum Addiction

It’s time to get back to work.

Hello…my name is Todd, and I’m helplessly addicted to blogs and forums. I thought I would start a 12 step program for those who have become information junkies with blogs and forums, and any other trendy new variations like blorums (or perhaps even splogs). It started with just a single forum…then a couple…then bookmarks…rss feeds, forums that watched forums, and finally bloglines. It has become uncontrollable. Even with aggregation and feed snippets I can’t keep up anymore. It is too much information. I realized it was time to take control of my problem.

12 step program for beating blogs and forums

1. I have admitted that I am powerless over the draw of forums and blogs. Work has become unmanageable and will never get done if I worry about the opinions of forum trolls living in their parents’ basement.
2. I believe that there is a higher power (than Blogger, Google, Feedster, Technorati, and Bloglines), that can draw me back to working rather than reading why 30 people think the value of H1 tags has decreased in the last two days.
3. I made the decision that I will only check Bloglines once a day, and reduce my hourly forum checking to mornings and evenings. I guess I really DON’T need to know about every new product, joke, or employee of Google and Yahoo the second that it happends.
4. I’ve taken inventory of my favorite posts and bookmarked them all for weekend reading.

I am admitting to everyone the nature of my problem, and that I can no longer read EVERYONE’s blog.

I am sure the invisible web will naturally engulf all defective characters, and they will be flamed into oblivion on any forum post by other newbies who understand marginally more than them for how incredibly stupid they are for asking a question.

I humbly ask that you do not ping me anymore good posts, or your bloglines feeds as it will only detract from my recovery.

I’ve made a list of all people I’ve wronged by no longer reading their blogs. I will someday try to link to you all.

If I cannot make direct ammends with you, I owe you drinks at the next conference and you can tell me about your favorite cat posts or tin foil hat theories.

I will continually inventory and monitor my forum and blog use, and refrain from “me too” posts, extensively long winded responses, discussions on directories and reciprocal linking, or ever stepping foot into a Google update thread ever again.
I’m sure I will sacrifice some sites to the Google gods in order to better understand my own SEO. This is to be expected by not living intraveneously through the mistakes and successes of others on the forums. Fortunately, by begging and pleading with engineers – I know that the important sites will come back. I will only re-enter forums and the blogosphere to tirelessly grovel and whine about the sites in which I was powerless to not get a ban lifted and repeatedly ask the same question and vehemently insist that I did nothing wrong until I am banned from the forum or beaten with a large virtual trout.

I will carry this message to other SEO’s…to get your ass back to work and quit reading stupid stuff like this when you could be link building, writing, or editing HTML. These principles of realizing that working on sites is more important than any blog or forum will help to keep SEO’s away from aimless chatter and developing new mindnumbing words like blogosphere.

There is help. You can have moderation to your procrastination. You too can reduce your forum and blog reading.

Inspired by Graywolf’s post about a nice rant on SEO Rockstars about forums, and Oilman and SEguru’s commentary. I’m sorry I can no longer read your blog Michael;)

Tags: Blogging, Blogger Tools, Blog Tools, Search Engine Marketing, Productivity, Blogging Tools, Forums, Blogosphere, Made up wanker words, Forum Addiction

Todd Malicoat

More information about Todd Malicoat aka stuntdubl.