In a recent note on 9rules a fine fellow who goes by JustinKistner asked the community what we thought about blog self-promotion.
I can respect what Justin says and do actually agree that some level of self-promotion is a good thing in the blog-oh-sphere. However, when I read what he said regarding submitting his own entries to social bookmarking sites:
I also started signing up for every social bookmarking service I could so I could submit my postings to get them in the space
I couldn’t help but disagree and responded in a different note he created:
I think I hear what you’re saying, Justin. And I can’t condemn you for promoting your blog, either personal or professional. I know that I promote my blog in ways as well (I’m in 9rules, right?) Promotion isn’t really the issue in my mind, it’s how one promotes their blog. Submitting your own entries to social bookmarking sites seems silly to me because even though it gets the job done (your blog is indeed promoted) it goes about it by using a service in a way other than intended. Now, I say “other than intended” and I really only mean, “What I perceive as its intended use.”
So the argument could be made that what I see as a site who’s existence is for people to tell others “Hey, look at this cool site I found” as with del.icio.us you may see it as a means to an end and nothing more. From that viewpoint I’d have no argument.
But I think that the use of a site like del.icio.us or Digg or whatever to submit your own posts to is narcissistic. I’m old fashioned that way I guess. 
An old fuddy duddy. Then again, I’ve always been a huge fan of organic growth rather than forced growth. Organic growth seems to have more staying power. I may be wrong in what I think but that is, in fact, what I think.
It’s interesting to see how other people view social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Digg. I’m not saying that I think JustinKistner is evil or unintelligent, quite the contrary, he’s making the system work for him. I just disagree on matter of principle.
But this all makes me very curious, what do you think about blog self-promotion and how do you promote your blog?
Vacations are great. Especially when it will be spent in the presence of family. There’s precious little that can ruin a vacation of this type for me. Unfortunately I’ve found one thing that does ruin it: contracting the flu 3 days in to your 7 day vacation and spend more than half your vacation shivering on your parents couch with a high fever watching marathon Dumbo because your two year old son is ADDICTED to it and insists that it be played over and over again.
This week I’m visiting family for Thanksgiving, staying at my parent’s house; hopefully you’re able to spend this season with family as well. My heart goes out to those military personell who can’t be with their loved ones this time of year. 
Typically I don’t note every change I make on Open Switch as most of them are minor and negligible. But when I make a change that involved the work of someone else I do like to give credit where it’s due. This week’s change — that’s tongue in cheek, mind you — involves my 
