Why am I an Ugly Blogger? Over Zealousness!

How am I an ugly blogger? Did you see my picture? I drive my wife crazy. Looks are not the problem. My problem is my ugly past.

Quick background: I started the blog SEC Football Blogger last year. During the off season, I started NESW Sports. I caught the blogging bug and wanted to spread my innate blogging goodness to all sports. My problem was Over Zealousness. NESW Sports climbed the Ballhype ranks. In just a little over a month, I was like a Ballhype top 50 blog. Wow! ( That means something to sports bloggers that pay attention to rankings )

I got there by pimping/emailing my blog posts to everyone that had a blog. I was putting out good stuff and wanted to spread the word. I emailed popular bloggers without a care. I did not even have a second thought of how my begging looked, because I knew that my posts were good. I was not really begging, but one could easily perceive it as such. 

One good example of how my antics worked is when I was the first blog to get the “Michael Jordan Shatters Backboard Video” . That video hit the internet like crazy fire. I knew how good it was. I have a nose for good videos. It is my “Thing”. I sent out emails to tell everyone about my find.   I got a ton of links for posting that video.  It is not a bad way to spread word about your blog, but one day I took it way too far. Gather round the computer closely, as I tell you how ugly it got.

I found another video just a few days earlier. It showed Jose Canseco hitting homeruns in a softball game in Florida. I saw the vid on Youtube. I posted the video within 10 minutes and emailed 10-20 bloggers within 20 minutes. I wanted to sit back and watch the stats. I was so proud of myself. Among the bloggers I emailed was, and I hope he does not mind me telling the story, Chimpanzee Rage from Deuce of Davenport. It is easily one of the top 50 sports blogs in all the web. It is some peoples all time fav. That means a lot considering the tens of thousands of sports blogs out there.

He posted the video the same night. He gave me a link under the video. The next day, blogs linked to his post instead of mine. I could not understand it. How could this be? I am the blogger that broke the video. WHY ME? I deserved the credit! I deserved the links! I know I did not post the video on Youtube, but I was the first to post it on a blog! ( Wah Wah Wah! Blah Blah Blah! Things are getting ugly, as you can see, but I am the only one that knows what is going on)

I was not smashing anything, but I did not like the way things went down. Here is where the story takes a turn for the worse. I emailed Chimp Rage back. I wrote something to the effect of “ I am not being unkind but I would not put a link to a tip like that under the video” . ( Can you imagine my cockiness? Can you imagine my stupidity? I took a huge step from being proud of my blog to being a complete self promoting moron. ) He swapped the link to the top and then wrote me a very nice email about how he hopes that I get traffic from the link. He was nothing but a gentleman.

I immediately realized my error. This was the first and only time I did anything like this. I emailed him and apologized/begged for forgiveness. He had seen my ugly side. He accepted the apology and never said anything else about it.

I have learned so much from that night forward. My blogs are not ranked in the top 50 anymore. I have learned that the top blogs are there because of the fan base they have built up through countless hours of putting quality content on the intraweb. I am not there and should not be there yet. I am glad I got this off my chest. I hope someone can learn from my mistakes/over zealousness/ugliness.

This is my submission to HHR’s contest for the ugliest blogger.

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