Category Archives: Blogging

Blogging

BenSpark: The Human Behind the Avatar

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BenSpark: The Human Behind the Avatar, originally uploaded by BenSpark.

The other day I posted about the FuelMyBlog book ‘The Human Behind the Avatar’. Well today I have my submission. This is my submission for the FuelMyBlog Book. I had Allison take it for me as, well, you can see that my hands are quite full. This image will appear in the FuelMyBlog book that is being created. The theme is The Human Behind the Avatar. It shows that behind each blog there is a human being who is working hard to make that blog the best it can be. It is so easy to think of people online in terms of their avatars but with this book we (the FuelMyBlog Community) aim to show that there is a Human behind that avatar. More submissions are coming in each day. Check out the photo pool. Below is what I’d like to have inthe book but I only have room for 100 words so I have to cut it down.

“My name is Drew Bennett. I have been blogging for 4 years. I started my first blog as a way to have a creative outlet. It was also a place to document my travels across the world. It quickly became my outlet for everyday happenings.

In the past 4 years time I have created 5 blogs and each with a different focus. The BenSpark is where I talk about things from my life as well as where I showcase my photography project of a Photo-A-Day. I’ve been doing this project for nearly three years. Benspark 2: Electric Boogaloo is where I talk about all things pop culture that I enjoy. Flatwater Tech is my gadget blog. The Wired Kayaker is a blog about kayaking and gadgets and it is host to a fledgling "On the Water" Video podcast. Read to Me, Dad was started as a way to include my daughter into my blogging. The blog is for new dads and a great resource for children’s books.

Visit my blogs –
The BenSpark – https://benspark.com
BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo – http://benspark.blogspot.com
Flatwater Tech – http://flat-water.blogspot.com
The Wired Kayaker – http://www.wiredkayaker.com
Read to Me, Dad – http://www.readtomedad.com”

That was 201 words so I cut it down to this. 100 words exactly.

“My name is Drew Bennett. I have created 5 blogs and each with a different focus. The BenSpark is where I talk about things from my life as well as where I showcase my photography project of a Photo-A-Day. I’ve been doing this project for nearly three years. The Wired Kayaker is a blog and podcast about kayaking. Read to Me, Dad is for new dads and a great resource for children’s books. BenSpark 2: Electric Boogaloo is where I talk about all things pop culture that I enjoy. Flatwater Tech is my gadget blog.”

Blogging

Who is behind the Avatar…

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FuelMyBlog, my favorite online community, is creating book and you can be part of it. the book is called “The Human behind the Avatar“. This fits very well into the mission and theme of FuelMyBlog. Here’s a little history of FuelMyBlog. I feel I can tell it because I was around soon after it came into being and have written about ti many times, I’ve met Kevin, Ian, and Marcus and I write for the FuelMyBlog Blog.

FuelMyBlog is a site for bloggers, new bloggers and old bloggers and everyone in between. The main thing behind FuelMyBlog is the people, Kevin Dixie and his wife Sylvie started FuelMyBlog so they would have one easy place to go to read all the blogs that they liked and to discover new ones. In the time since it was created FuelMyBlog has had many incarnations. It started as a large page of avatars that were clickable. You could click the avatar and “Fuel it” to give it votes and you could also visit the blog of the user behind the avatar. I started getting some decent traffic from FuelMyBlog and wanted to know more about it so I began writing to Kevin and we became friendly. Which if you know Kevin, that is the intention for reading your blog, he wants to make a personal connection because he cares. Both Kevin and Sylvie go through each blog submission to FuelMyBlog to make sure that the blog is a real one, not a splog, no porn and not just a rehash of someone else’s work.

FuelMyBlog has had a couple major overhauls and right now is working great, there are quite a few categories, users can add other users to their FuelRoll. This is a list of the blogs that the user reads and considers the writers of those blogs as friends. You can see it on the right hand side of my blog. That idea of showcasing your friends on fuel came out of an online discussion I had with Kevin about what I thought FuelMyBlog to be and I guess he agreed with me.

Now FuelMyBlog is working on something new. It is a book project called The Human Behind the Avatar, recognizing that each blog is written by a living breathing person and not just an anonymous avatar. Each member of Fuel is encouraged to print out their avatar and take a picture of themselves with their avatar in front of them. Many people have chosen to put it in front of their face. I printed out the Avatar for both me and Allison and we’ll be taking our photos later today and adding them to the project. They will appear in this slideshow below.

The proceeds from the purchase of the book are going to Doctor’s without Borders. FuelMyBlog is an international blogging community and what better organization than an international one that can benefit so many.

so, if you are a member of FuelMyBlog then print out your avatar and submit your write up to the project. If you are not a member of FuelMyBlog, why not? Sign up today.