Tags
Arts, Blog, Mary K. Greer, Russia, Tarot, Word Press, WordPress, Writers Resources
Right, it’s as if we aren’t sick of ‘keeping up with the Jones’ outside Word Press, we have this FP thing pushed on us… I must admit i do like most of the entries that do get FPed, but of all the blogs i follow and adore, only Dianne Gray and Rian got FP-ed. Mind you, both are unconventional thinkers with genius writing stile, besides, Dianne is a pro writer who had been published (and popular) long before the Word Press craze, so no surprise there.
What does surprise me is the plethora of excellent and popular blogs that in my year or so on WP got zero promotion. Not to brag, but I am a pro writer myself, involved with all kinds of professional writers’ international activities and even happen to be the president of the national jury for EU prize for literature, so i don’t doubt all that much my own taste in writings; being a doctoral student at one of the world’s top ranked Universities specialized in linguistics, i have some confidence in my intellectual discernment too, and i did wonder for quite a while how come the stuff i love doesn’t get any special attention… Ever.
I went through the list of topics i search regularly:
Chinese Philosophy
Daoism
I Ching
Judaism
Russia
Zen
It’s not that i am looking for something socially unacceptable and on the edge of the good taste, right?
Check out those searches for yourself, there are absolute pearls among them – and by academically recognized authorities too (honestly, those are indeed quite sub-specialized, so very few non-experts discuss them publicly.)
The thing is that we have genius Bonnie Cehovet here on Word Press, a published writer, author of remarkable micro fiction and an independent books and Tarot decks reviewer. ‘Independent’ means you can trust her opinion because she’s reviewing stuff she chooses on a pro bono basis, so there is no way you could invest into a wrong, yet expensive collector’s item because she was paid to promote it; if only for that her work deserves all the praise – let alone that her own taste and, thus, recommendations are indeed exquisite.
Mary K. Greer, worldwide known author and scholar, one of the most respected contemporary experts on the philosophy and history of the occult is blogging on Word Press too.
Among us is Lisa Frideborg Lloyd, famed mystic and Tarot educator.
Amazing Thalassa Therese joined WP recently – she’s the producer of the oldest established Tarot Symposium in the world, founder of the Daughters of Divination, and founder/CEO of Beating the Boundaries Life Strategies and Transformative Arts.
I must tell you all of them are stars with international following and have quite an impact on big group of population with certain buying power. Have I mentioned that all of those blogs are amazingly entertaining and educative too?
One of the coolest and most informative blogs on collections and collecting is that of the famed Le Fanu – My Curious Cabinet; author’s writing style and keen observances on life in a ‘far off land’ would certainly be of interest to a wider following.
Yet, we fall in the uncategorizable category of a sub-culture and while the hard working and smart peeps behind FP selection will risk here and there to promote a post on anorexia or bipolar depression, rest assured they won’t go that far so to press any of us. And it’s absolutely fine, what’s socially acceptable changes every fifty years or so, where as those of us who are into the “obscure” occult disciplines have been around ever since the dawn of the humanity and by now we developed powerful surviving skills, like any other guerrilla does.
I’ve written before on subcultures in Skinny Bitches & Russian Ballerinas and, to be honest, i’d be utterly desperate if we suddenly became mainstream, so take this for what it is – not a rant, merely a stream of thought.
Other than that, there is this amazing blog on Russia – let alone all the ‘world’s being your oyster’ of the internet – there are still very few great blogs about Russia in English and From Russia With Love is definitely one of them.
It’s not that there are too many famous public personalities from Armenia writing in English – yet Arlen is around and at his blog you can read (among else) rare stuff on this exotic country, which is hardly available anywhere else.
That being said, mine too happens to be the only Word Press blog in English where you can read genuine stuff on Montenegro, another far off country on which culture and traditions still little is known.
And here is something else i thought of. Rian of Truth and Cake came up with the genius idea to Freshly Press yourself, hope she won’t mind mine borrowing it (ehem, well, snatching would make a more appropriate wording, but anyway ;))
So, let’s do it here as well, if you feel so inclined:
1. Pick one of your posts you take pride in;
2. Link to it in the comments section below, while adding couple of words on the content;
3. If you choose to do so – promise you’ll check out and comment on at least one entry by another blogger who linked to their respective post too. There is no FP police involved at this time, but karma is … well, mean, so make sure you do it ))
4. Comment directly on their blog and, please, don’t spam.
Have fun!

snatched from http://tfunworld.wordpress.com
I agree with this 100 percent. Honestly, I stopped reading “Freshly Pressed” a very long time ago because most of them were boring to me. I like to choose who I want to read — not have someone choose for me.
Some of the blogs I follow are so amazing, I’m like, “The whole world should be reading this!” I’ll send links to my friends who aren’t on Word Press, writing, “You’ll love this!”
When I first started blogging it was a personal outlet for myself in order to write about things I wasn’t assigned as a journalist. Now, a year later, I have almost as much hits as a friend who has been blogging since 2009. I’m very proud of my work because as a fellow blogger pointed out — I’m connecting with my readers because I get “comments” — not just “likes.”
Until I read this, I forgot “Freshly Pressed” even existed! I have enough blogs to read without seeking more.
Cheers 🙂
Maryanne, i couldn’t agree more with you! As the saying goes: great minds… 😉
I really love this. It is so very true. I follow so many amazing blogs and impressed daily on what is being put there by different people. And none of them ever get on Freshly Pressed! I have stopped trying to figure out what is the “golden ticket” that makes the powers that be of WP determine that you are considered “worthy” of FP.
So in the spirit of your FP yourself, here is one of my more recent posts that I am happy about.
Elegant and Affordable: Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Tarragon
http://greendoorhospitality.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/elegant-and-affordable-roasted-cauliflower-soup-with-tarragon/
I really love my ‘Elegant and Affordable’ series because it consists of recipes that can be true show stoppers whether you’re cooking for one, or many — without the massive hit to your wallet! This soup is a recipe of my own creation. The use of tarragon and aleppo red peppers work very well with the earthiness of the roasted cauliflower.
Kenley
YAY! Meet Kenley, one of MY PERSONAL FAVORITES!!! Thank you for participating in our little WP coup d’etat! YOU ROCK! xxxx
I had since wondered why FP does not seem to see other amazingly beautiful blog posts that captivated me. I had long suspected that the people behind FP have their own biases and preferences – and this is consistently (or mostly) in favor of the chosen people of God whose mother tongue is English.
Never mind mine. I don’t insist that I can join the ranks of those FP-worthy geniuses. But I do know that I can be one of the participants to this little WP freshly pressed coup d’etat. Here is my small but powerful weapon: http://maxim061156.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/a-100-worth-of-your-time-please/
Woohoo, another favorite – Maxim Sense!!! Thank you so much for taking part! I love your posts!
Amazing post, Lena. I haven’t looked at FP for ages (since they changed the way the page looks) because I find it all a little confusing. I read a comment recently where another blogger said you couldn’t get FP’d if you weren’t American, but I’m not American and I did, so I’m not sure how that happened. I’m think it’s just pure luck…
I don’t know how they choose – apparently they just read random posts and make the decision from there. Some of the post are excellent and others seem a little pointless.
Granted, you get a lot of hits and likes when you’re FP’d, but not many of those people stick with you (which I guess is what we’re looking for in the end – to make friends)
I went over to Kenley, Maryanne and Maxim’s posts and commented. WOW – you are right, there are so many great bloggers out there. Thank you for the introduction to them 😀
Thank you for commenting, dearest Dianne! Lolol, i am ok with everything NOW that i took it off my chest! 😀 I do like many of the FPed posts, and myself i don’t really need new friends (just enough time to keep up with the existing ones ), but it did irk me that except yours and Rian’s none of my favorites ever got FPed… Hence the coup d’etat! 😉 xxxx
So true Lena. I never gave Freshly Pressed a thought and never have looked at it. There are so many fantastic people and blogs {Including yours} that are always interesting and fun! You don’t need to look at Freshly Pressed 🙂
Thank you, dearest Judy! ❤
Hugs!!
😉
🙂
I have no blog , I just enjoy reading other peoples as I no longer watch TV or have any interest in some said celebrities that are ‘behaving badly and pimped in the papers/news etc.
I sometimes wish I had found all this stuff years ago 🙂
Aww, me too, Jim, but it’s i think only last couple of years that Word Press and blogging in general is that big, ’twas forums before and there i think you didn’t miss much… Oh, i don’t watch tv either – in Moscow i don’t even have one 😉
Great insight here. Liberating in one sense as apparently I was spoiled and did not even realize it. I was getting FPd frequently when just dedicating blogs here at WP. I ended up selling some articles over on Yahoo and would then post the links here so people who follow me could see the articles. I have no illusions of driving massive amounts of traffic to the articles but a few hits from here doesn’t hurt. I think WP has taken exception to this as I am no longer getting FPd even on my normal blogs posted exclusively here. Does that make sense? Oh well, the writing can stand on its own. Thankd for writing this…
You do make sense to me, i’ll read your writings with interest!
I meant, thanks to you for writing this….
Thank you for commenting 🙂
I starting posting after writing some poetry , which I still post on my general blog. I’ve seen some poetry get FP’d that I would even find interesting to read or even repost. I still go to FP page thinking I’ll see one of my posts there, but never do. I see some posts that are FP’d that are just total crap, doesn’t make any sense to me what so ever. I even wrote to one of the FP geniuses if they would FP one of my posts ( I worked on one pain stakingly), but never heard anything back from them. I just posted a daily prompt thinking that might be the ticket, never to see it even show up? OK, maybe I’m taking the blogging thing a little too seriously with FP, but I’ve always hated other people determining what is the “best” in wordpress. Then I see people just gawk over how they got FP’d and how they want to thank their followers? Well, it isn’t the followers who FP you, it’s a room full of a few FP geeks who think they know what a good blog post consists of? I saw one post that was FP’d and went to their site. It was the first post to a new blog? Now how do you explain that one? It makes not sense. I like the idea of posting and showcasing as Rian came up with. By the way, I see posts in your blog that could rival any FP post. Cheers!
Thank you so much for commenting! I seriously expected your 8 list to be FPed, it’s wise , well written and leaves room for debate… Dunno, maybe we should suggest something as “bloggers’ vote” where we – by LIKES – get to decide who among is deserving because, the way it is, the selection seems quite random – some great posts and a lot of PC posts…