Digital Scrapbooking - The Competitive Nature

I was reminded this week once again about the competitive nature of the digital scrapbooking world. I feel it destroys its own sense of community and its own business sometimes.

I remember when I first started digital and I visited new sites. I immediately realized that everyone had information in their signature lines. I learned how to add something to my signature line and put in a link to my blog. I felt so much more like I was a part of the community.

It didn't take long though before I was reprimanded. Oh my! There are rules for signature lines! You just cannot put anything in your signature line. In fact, you cannot put a link to your blog in your signature line if you have free tutorials on how to digital scrapbook!

At the time, I did not even have provide any for-cost services. I just loved teaching and gave freely my tutorials. That made me a competitor to sites which taught digital scrapbooking.

I can tell you that I was afraid to post at those sites any more. In fact, I was afraid to participate at all! I was afraid I would break the rules again. Now, they could have had someone contributing greatly to their community, but because of the thread of competition, I was set apart as "not-belonging."

I returned to one of these sites this week and experienced a dé·jà vu. My signature line was immediately edited and I was informed of such by private message. Ah ha! So that's why I haven't been back to this site since 2005!

I have never held it against the site or any other site though. I continued over the years to tell people what a great site it was and send people there.

Part of a message I received stated:

Please understand that this site is a business that supports many families, for some it is their only source of income. When links are posted that take our members off the site to purchase other products you are taking away from their livelihoods.

The message board is a costly service we provide for our members and when the bandwidth we pay for is used by other companies it hurts this business and for this reason we do not allow it.

I understand and put fault on those who do go to other digital scrapbooking sites with the sole purpose of marketing that have caused the digital scrapbooking world to fight off competitiveness. I understand why the sites put these restrictions in their rules and do not fault them.

However, I do think that they should consider how it is also adversely affecting their business. Some people, like me, are too afraid to come and hang around and the loss of our "word of mouth" marketing may be something that can never be calculated. People who design and sell are also customers.

I absolutely hate it when I go to other sites and see a "how do you do this" post and feel I cannot answer. Oh, sure, I could type up a long answer and put it on the page, but I simply don't have the time for that, especially when I either already have it typed up in a free tutorial or recorded in a free video and I could just send them to the link. Now, I would NEVER say "oh, I could show you how to do that, but you have to come and subscribe to my videos." That is just plain wrong. I won't even send a private message to them sending them to my site as that is also wrong, but we know other people do the same. But I just hate it when the teacher-at-heart in me is stiffled because I simply cannot point them in the right direction.

I feel that these rules put in place to inhibit competition from invading are hurting the digital scrapbooking community as a whole. The sites become isolated. They are more like countries in a big world who do things to discourage vacationers from coming to their country and in turn spend a little money while there.

I have heard the other side of the story to this controversy. There are those who will compare digital scrapbooking businesses to physical businesses in our own cities. I am aware of legal documents called "Non-competition Agreements" which are put into place for the very same reason. When someone leaves a business, they must agree not to use their honorable, well-known reputation to influence customers away from the business they are leaving and to a new business.

I agree that people should not enter other digital scrapbooking sites with an intention of luring them away to their own site, but, seriously, what harm could a link to a blog really hurt that digital scrapbooking business? I agree that blatant advertising and marketing by making comments and posts in a forum self-marketing is wrong. I absolutely detest that myself. However, a simple link in a signature line is harmful?

For a link in a signature line to even be effective, a person must post a lot in a forum. Doesn't that activity and participation at the site also help the site? If a person comes to a site and sees it is active, they are more likely to hang around than one that looks dead. If someone does a fun challenge at the site and tells all their digi-buddies to come and participate, wouldn't that also help the site?

Internet businesses are different than physical businesses. Social media is constantly evolving and continues to shape the way internet businesses structure their sites. Isolating oneself in a social media world is not the best practice. I encourage everyone in the digital scrapbooking world to rethink their business model.

I think everyone who is a regular here knows I have always supported other sites. I am constantly sending people even to other classes and tutorials at other sites. There is so much to learn, how could one person teach it all anyway? I am here to teach. If part of the way I teach is hooking people up with other means of learning than my own subscription area, then that is what I will do. I want people to learn and I don't care where they learn it.

By now, everyone who knows me well and follows my blog knows I am a self-proclaimed person of low self-esteem. Yes, I know some of you may get tired of hearing it. Some of you feel a need to help me fix my problem. I don't need help. I don't need to see a counselor. I share and am open online because I know that many others suffer from the same problem and hearing my thoughts helps others. I wish people wouldn't take my sharing to extremes. It's happened many times.

I learned something in recent months about my ailment. I've been reading Beth Moore's new book called "So Long, Insecurity." The title alone has made me realize that low self-esteem is actually an "insecurity."



I have learned that when I feel insecure, I tend to overreact. My pain reaches deep down into the very gut of my insides and I feel a need to shout it out! I don't want to hold hurts in as that is not healthy, so I tend to immediately release my feelings to anyone who will hear it just so I can quickly get over how I feel and get myself back to normal. It's the way I cope with my problems.

It's not necessarily the right way to cope as it is not actually very professional and sometimes can cause harm to others. Yes, there is some truth to that phrase "hurt people hurt people." I am guilty of hurting others when I am hurt.

When I do, I want to crawl back into a hole in embarrassment. This, of course, does not help my insecurity problem one bit either. My overreaction to a sudden rush of insecurity only causes me to be embarrassed and feel more insecure. Then I have to find a way to cope with the second instance of insecurity. I usually retreat and hide, peering out at the world from a safe zone. I am quiet and afraid to move like a pet dog who hides under a table afraid to come out.

I learned recently what really bothers me about not being able to link my blog in a signature line of a forum.

When I visit other sites, everyone has all this great stuff about them, even cool graphics and blinking stuff, but I don't need all that. I just want a little something that tells about me. A little link to my blog. Not a link to my site. Not a link to a store. Just a link to my blog where I share about me.

Taking away that right makes my posts look as if I am unimportant to the community. I'm naked and bare. My identity is taken away from me. I am a "nobody" once again. I am just a "peon."

Yes, I've shared it before and I'll share it again. I'm a "nobody." I've always been a "nobody." In high school I never fit into any crowd. The preppy popular people would talk to me, but I never invited me into their group. They never teased me or put me down. I was just there. The jocks did the same thing to me. The smokers (yes, we had a place set aside for those whose parents gave written permission could go to smoke) new I didn't judge them, so they just left me alone. The "punks" new I would never join them, but would never give them trouble, so they left me alone. The geeks were too smart for me and I didn't fit in there either. I was just there. I was a nobody who didn't fit into any group. I was my own little sole group of one.

So, I go to other forums and I do not feel I fit in. My identity is stripped away. I look plain. I just do not belong. I'm someone who is a sole group of one. I am no longer "me." I do not feel welcome anymore. I feel as if I have no value. My self-esteem begins to plummet. I begin to feel insecure.

However, as I step out of the box and reflect, I know these feelings are so stupid. I know I'm actually welcomed.

I bet there are others that feel the same way as I do though.

I also know that ultimately I do belong to the best group. I belong to the family of God. I am His child. I DO have an identity!

Hebrews 2:11 Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

This should be the only identity I need! Why do I not rely on that identity?

It sure would keep me humble. I want to be humble. But in all actuality, needing to have an identity to feel secure is not very humble. Why can't I just go into the other forums and be naked, without signature line or avatar? Why can't I just go and be a nobody. As a nobody, I am a peon! I am humble! That is a good thing!

And yet, the enemy attacks my thoughts and my feelings and I struggle constantly with feelings of insecurity.

God knows I'm insecure. He knows I don't need to be. He's ready to hold me in the palm of his hand and protect me so that I feel more secure. He knows I'm only human.

I pray that God gives me and all those who suffer with insecurity the wisdom to know how to be secure while being humble at the same time.