Day 6.1: Am I a Spammer?

I hate getting spam. I hate the idea of spam. I especially hate the idea of my being associated with spam, with those creeps who sit behind their computers sending out mass emails every day. I prefer to think of myself as a young entrepreneur, trying to see if I can make it big time on the internet--or at least, trying to see if I can make it small time with a decent income. I use methods that I have learned from experience or that have been advised to people in my predicament. I try not to go too overboard with my advertising... but have I already blown it?

Ok, let's see what's happened. Reddit is awesome. I got an account only a few days ago, and it's a fun site to explore and get a good laugh out of the latest meme. Really. It's also a good place to get your voice heard on the internet and to share your views with others... isn't it? I've been told before to take advantage of Reddit. Honestly, I thought half the point of Reddit was to share your thoughts... but I guess I was wrong. I was banned from one of my favorite groups, Writing. No reason was given, but the only one I could think of was "blogspamming." Is that what I was doing? I only submitted each link once, and for the most part, they've been positively reviewed if anything. And only one or two were even addressed to writing. But two have also been voted down, and my views dropped substantially yesterday. I've lost my favorite audience. Why?

What constitutes spam? I usually think of it in terms of junk mail or excess "newsletters" that no one wants to read, or annoying tweets by robots. On the internet, I think of it as posting the same thing over and over again on forums and sites. On Reddit, I would have thought that submitting the same link two or three different times would count as spam. I didn't think there was any problem with "harmlessly" promoting my own work, my own thoughts and ideas. I only wanted to engage a community of interested readers.

I was almost in tears as I went to bed last night, thinking about the ban. Why couldn't it have been just a warning instead? I had no idea I was doing anything at all wrong! But apparently, the misunderstanding was on my part. I have decided that until further notice, I will not post anything I write to Reddit. Of course, I'd be honored if someone else did, but that will be left to the readers. I never intended to bother anyone at all with this blog, and I can take a hint if I'm not wanted.

Will I keep blogging? Of course! Will I keep trying to engage online communities? Yes, if I can. Will it be a success? I'm very doubtful right now. Losing Reddit means losing most of my publicity, and without publicity a blog dies. I don't want it to die. Help me, Internet! Please... just keep reading. And I'd love if you could follow me on Twitter or join me on Clixsense or Swagbucks while you're at it!