Sania tapped me for this thing . I'm not a frequent visitor of sites with slogans like "Create Life In Your Image!", but I do jump at chances to be perverse. Have you ever been to Los Angeles? I live here. If you get the chance, spend a day in Malibu (you know, the city Mel Gibson " owns " - hee hee) or take a walk down Santa Monica's Promenade (try to avoid bearing a passing resemblance to any star - it sucks). When you do, you too may develop the narrow-eyed view of the word "success" that I have. There's self-improvement, and then there's masturbation - the latter often masquerading as the former here. SO, avoiding success-language kitsch, allow me to share my everyday top-5: 1. Fail Upwards I make (among other kinds) a blogging " mistake " almost every day. Huge or tiny, they're all forms of failure, so-called. Regardless, things are still moving upwards (see #2). 2. Don't Sweat Persistence, Just Be Unreasonably Ob...

On the subject of self-promotion and commenting , here's one method: write a comment that outshines the original post (see comment #1 ). Great self-promotion? Read it for yourself and see if you agree. Update : The excellent commenter was Sania Wyatt .

Contrary to (un)popular belief, self-promotion and good karma are not mutually-exclusive. Read on if I didn't just blow your mind: ChrisG - Comment! According to Chris, bloggers don't comment well or often enough . No, no they don't. Additionally, they often miss the point of commenting entirely. As you well know , you can't swing a cat in the popular blogosphere without hitting a few clumsy attempts at self-promotion (e.g., "Hey, check out my blog at www.ignore-me.com" ). These individuals are missing the (evidently) arcane karmic secret: the best self-promotion is about giving, not receiving. Take the advice in Chris' post, and whether your comments are three words or a paragraph, analyze them like any post you would write. Ask: "What am I offering to the conversation, and why should anyone take the slightest notice?" Successful Blog - Truly Unique and Outstanding Blogs - Recap Week 1 Speaking of clumsy self-promotion, Liz's quest to fin...