Imitation of life pretty much sums up the internet, unfortunately. You’ll find more truth in art and fiction than text and history on blogs. So how do we stay honest as bloggers? When is it okay to use automation in blogging? You may know the REM song “Imitation of Life,” well this post is talking about something similar: automation.  In the song, Michael Stipe sings: “Trying to look like you don’t try.”  How appropriate.  Who do the spammers think they are kidding?

Here’s an example of bad automation.  I have been on Twitter many times and I’ll find a friend with something like “I now get 400 new followers a day. You can too! (some link here)” It’s happened a few times recently and I have contacted the person direct message. In each case, the person knew it was there and was trying feverishly to remove it from their Twitter. In some cases, they were forced to change their password to make it stop. They signed up for a service hoping to legitimately boost their follower #’s through an automated service. Instead, what happened is they got a bunch of meaningless followers they didn’t know and who didn’t want to follow them. These are Twitter pyramid schemes. I found this out recently. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I often feel the responsibility to raise awareness when things happen to me.

Last Friday I posted my monthly blog stats and I elaborated on how I am using “automation” (not the bad kind) to improve my blog numbers. To one reader it was ubiquitous with spam and I think the general perception of that word is the same. I was talking about legitimate routines, passive income (ie; adsense and text-link-ads), and toolbar shortcuts to make producing quality content easier. He read me wrong. So now it’s your turn: What do you think of automation in blogging?