Welcome to Concord blogging. I’ve written about technology, social media, business, and even war but it seems I have wandered into the most dangerous territory of all. The local blog scene. Who would have thought this could cause such a stir.This is a long post but I want to clear the air on some things.

Local blogging is the new thing

I figured there was some local blogs but really never looked into it. Thinking that blogs about a city like Concord would have been owned by kids and their Myspace profiles. It wasn’t until I had seen a news report one night laying in bed that I realized there was one local blogger that seemed to be legit. I can appreciate a good blog, I have a few. I started blogging when I was in Iraq, updating my progress so my family back home would know I was alive. Phones were hard to come by and getting 10-15 minutes on my commanders computer was all I needed. I knew that the blog was getting some attention but it wasn’t until I wrote my my last post that the spotlight was on me. After a few reprimands from the Army for writing a blog, I was all good and on my way home with the unit. I was interviewed by some local news agencies and started getting back to a normal life. Writing or blogging seemed to be the best way to adjust. I started developing my personal site and started working on a blog about being a sales person, I now have several blogs that fill about every niche I am interested in.

Writing about the city I grew up in and now I am raising a family in just made sense. Sure I could have just added a new category to my personal site that gets thousands of hits a day from all over the world but it would not have been a local blog, it would be a personal blog with some local articles. Getting it’s own site up and running just seemed like the right thing to do.  I was still interested in the local blogging scene.

Two weeks ago…

I was looking for a new home for my local blog. I was searching through GoDaddy for names that would fit. Almost as a joke I typed in Mayor of Concord, just to see what other suggestions GoDaddy would give me for names. To my surprise the name was available. So, like the last sale item on the shelf at Best Buy, I bought it. Was it weird to own the name Mayor of Concord? Yes, but really, it’s a domain name and the idea is to have it as memorable and easy as possible. If no one owned the Mayor of Concord is was bound to happen and let’s all be thankful some unethical person didn’t buy the name just to put up a porn site the way someone did with the whitehouse.com. I shop at the same Safeway, get gas at the same gas stations and drink at the same Starbucks as most of you. I want to make this blog something the people and the city can be happy with. The blog was barely standing on one post when it started getting attention. Yes, I emailed a couple of the local bloggers to introduce myself, it’s the polite thing to do. Most bloggers love to see new sites come onto the scene. I wasn’t expecting the influx of comments and emails that I received before actually developing the site. The site is TWO WEEKS old. I’m a local blogging infant.

What is a local blog?

Now I could be wrong. As I said, I have several sites and I am sure by now you have Googled me and seen that I have my name in a few places. Based on the other blogs I have, I think local blogging is real simple. Blog about your area, find some unique articles to write and support other local bloggers. It’s the same story in the entire blogosphere. If a fellow writer puts something out there that you feel deserves extra attention like a witnesses safety, it makes sense for me to write something as well, refer back to the source of my post and spread the word. I have no idea what reach the Mayor of Claycord has. It’s an anonymous blog by an anonymous person that happens to have a lot of information. I emailed Claycord and Halfway to Concord when I started this TWO Weeks ago. HTC responded most graciously by putting a post on his blog about me and though many people think I am a machine, I am not. It’s going to take time to build the content I want. There are going to be posts I make that reflect other local bloggers posts, it’s part of building the ecosystem of blogging.

Be friendly to other bloggers

Just like mom used to tell me when I went to school. Be nice to the other kids on the playground. You never want to burn bridges and you never know when you may have a question that needs to be asked. In the blogging world one of the ways to play nice is to leave comments on other peoples sites. Comment on their writing and let other bloggers know you want to be friends. Comments turn into conversations and eventually a small line of trust forms and next thing you know their is world peace.

I left a couple comments on Halfway to Concord which went well. I left some on Claycord and they were removed. Sure, I had a link back to my site and that could have been what ‘they’ didn’t like, again, I can appreciate that. ‘Who the F#^& is this new guy posting on my blog?” So I stopped with the backlinks and started posting comments anonymously and all seemed to go well. I know I am new to the local scene and maybe because of that I have something to prove to the people.

Then I was attacked online

I was ok with the comments and emails from people telling me I was a phony. Honestly these people have no idea who I am. I let it roll off my back and I continued to brainstorm about what to do with the site. I added a job board for people in the city that may need work, posted a couple things when I had time and have seen a decent amount of traffic come in. That was until I got an email last night that really hurt.

I hope you burn in hell.

I didn’t think too much of it and was about to let it roll off and I saw I got another email from the reporter from the SF Chronicle responding to my email and post on his article about Matt Garcia. I checked into Claycord to see if he had posted anything about it and saw the comments on his post had increased a lot so I checked in. I saw a comment on their blog from “Pissed Off Claycordian” that said…

Has anyone seen mayorofconcord.com today? The guy who runs it (Koka Sexton) is an ass! He stole The Mayor’s whole concept and is now stealing his stories and our comments and is using them to make money. Look at his ads on the top right. He also runs several other sites such as sextonenterprisemarketing.com that specializes in getting internet advertising.

He posted this story almost verbatim and also posted some of our comments. Can’t he come up with an original idea of his own?

The Mayor of Claycord has been working his ass off on this site for a long time and it pisses me off that this loser is stealing all of his hard work and using it to make money.

I wish Mayor Shinn would go after him for using his title too.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of this plagiarizing loser?

Claycord saw it fit to leave this comment up for their readers. Sure a stab at best but the comment still made me feel bad. Coupled with the email from anonymous wishing for me to burn in hell, it was becoming clear. The city I have grown up in and have an entire family living in seemed to be holding torches and pichforks at my virtual door. Did I do something wrong? I read my article again to make sure I gave credit where credit was due. I had, and decided I should at least respond to the comment in my defense.

OMG. Glad I checked back in. Let’s be clear. I have not plagiarized anything. I read this site (like thousands of people) and I felt that the Claycord article deserved some extra attention. I gave FULL credit to the site and the comments and added my own opinion.

I have made EVERY effort to make it clear that Claycord was the inspiration for my site and I would think that having multiple blogs with separate articles on the same topic is something readers would want. I in NO way want to defame or otherwise compete with Claycord. Referring to other blogs is like referring to news clips. I, like Claycord run a site for the pure enjoyment of writing.

As for being an ass and a loser, really, learn about the people you try to bring down before resorting to name calling.

Yes, I have SEVERAL websites, more like dozens. I’m a blogger, this is what I do. I started blogging while in Iraq and it’s carried me through the past few years. I have sites related to comic books, social media, and technology and everywhere in between. I never thought of writing about local issues until I came across sites like Claycord. Yes, I even do web development and marketing for other websites. I happen to be good at this and why not help others that want it? There is nothing wrong with doing what you love to do and getting money for it. I would think that this is the dream of most people. I love writing and I try to do as much as I can. Is that something to be faulted for?

On a side note, since I am writing a long comment on this already and I am sure Claycord appreciates this, I was contacted by the reporter who wrote the story and I am sure Claycord was as well. I will let Claycord explain further if needed.

I hope the internet is big enough for two Concord bloggers. I’m shocked at a community where this is considered foul play.

The Claycord site may be lacking in areas but their content is beyond reproach. Yes, they have links to things locally that I added to my site. If for nothing else so I can dig into the link on my own without having to go to his site to click them. They’re links…that’s all. How can using the same links be stealing? Is it wrong to have ads on your blog? I guess that’s a personal decision but I don’t know of many sites that don’t have ads or Google adsense on them to make a few bucks. Has the Mayor of Concord made any money yet. No. Though some people have asked about paying for an ad space, I have not gone that route yet. The ads you see on the site were put there for free.

So it appears the city me and my family call home is against my site, and me personally, is that going to stop me? No. I am a blogger, and I’m interested in local issues, have a knack for getting the word out and can leverage my other sites that get thousands of hits based on their own niches to help the cause, so I am going to write about the ones I see fit like the amount of sexual offenders in Concord. Yes, there will be times that Claycord writes something that gets me thinking and I write about too. I will always link back to the source. I’m not trying to piss people off but I have done a great job it seems.

Again, I am a n00b when it comes to local blogging but I have some things I want to say about Concord and this is where I am going to put them. The site is brand new and I appreciate the support from a couple of people that have helped point out this site for new readers. This is not a competition, its a blog with 4 posts under it’s name. I can only hope I can grow this to the level of my personal site and only focus on local issues and not the state of the internet.

bookmark to:

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!