January 16, 2008

FAQ

What style of karate do you do?

I train in Okinawan Kenpo and Kobudo of the Heilman, Odo, Nakamura lineage. Kenpo is the open hand karate and kobudo is weapons. So far, I’ve trained with nunchaku, tunfa, bo, sai, nintai bo, eku bo, tekkos and kama.

Why did you call your site “Black Belt Mama” when you were not yet a black belt?

Some people really get their gi all in a bunch about this issue. Personally I think it’s ridiculous. I wasn’t pretending to be a black belt. In fact, I was quite up front about the fact that I was a white, yellow, green, and then brown belt before finally reaching Shodan. I have always listed my current rank/kyu very prominently on the site. A quick read of any of my posts would tell you that I was training for my black belt. It wouldn’t have made very much sense to call myself “Green Belt Mama” which is what I was when I started, or even “Brown Belt Mama” since those ranks were never where I planned on staying. My blog is about my journey to Shodan and beyond, so that’s why the name is what it is. If it bothers you that much, you should probably just leave my site and forget you ever saw it. If my instructors and the head of my style know about it and don’t mind it, then seriously, why should you? You feel pretty silly now, don’t you? Yeah? As well you should.

I don’t know you and I don’t read your blog; but will you link to my site about tigers who eat aloe plants while getting pedicures?

No. I get tons of requests daily to link to other people. I link to sites that I like to read or that I think my readers will find interesting and/or useful. If you’re not on my blogroll now, it doesn’t mean you won’t be in the future. The best way to get me to link to you is to visit, comment, and make me notice you. There are a lot of blogs out there. I work 14 part time jobs which equals like four full time jobs so I don’t regularly go cruising around the internet looking for new reading material.

I also think it’s kind of strange when people email me and put me on the spot by asking me to link to them. I don’t ever do that. If people want to link to me, they will. It’s as simple as that. Oh, and if you do write me and ask me to link to you and I don’t want to, your email went to my spam folder I think. Yeah, that’s it. If I spent my entire day responding to emails, I wouldn’t have any time to blog and then you wouldn’t want me to link to you anyway right?

Do you mind if I link to you?

Not at all. Feel free to link to my site if you have my best interests at heart. You can even use this handy button:

All I ask is that you don’t steal my posts as your own content or to better your search engine ranking. That really irritates me. Linking with reckless abandon by legitimate sites is welcome.

Please don’t email me and ask me if I mind if you link to me with a thinly guised attempt to get me to link to your site. If you want to email me and tell me you like the site and are linking to me. . . great! However, nothing is more annoying than those standard emails that say how much you love my site about “X,” that’s not even filled in, and then you go on to ask me to link to your site about monkey bandanas or something. Not interested.

Can I reprint one of your posts?

This highly depends on who you are and how you’ll use my material. You have to ask me prior to doing so, promise you’ll include a link back to the original content, do 5000 jumping jacks, and then I’ll let you know. I go after people who steal my stuff with vigor. Don’t be one of them.

Can I reprint one of your photos?

No. All photography used on this site is copyrighted. You don’t have permission to use a picture of mine unless you have my written permission to do so.

I don’t know you at all; but will you give me your phone number or IM name so that we can talk?

Anything you need to say to me, you can do so via email, unless of course you want to publish my book, book me on Oprah, or something equally awesome. Then, once I’m sure you’re not a psycho-serial killer, I’ll call you. There is nothing quite as creepy as a 20 something year old guy from half way around the world who emails and bugs me non-stop about giving out my phone number. If you’re trying to pick up a girl who lives a gazillion miles from you, and happens to be married with kids, go join eharmony or something. While you’re at it, you should probably get a life.

I’d like to run ads on your site and pay you for them. Can I contact you?

If you’d like to pay me to run an ad on my site, I’d be happy to hear you out. I have just a couple rules: 1. You can’t pay me with peanuts or ice cream cones, 2. Your product/ad has to be acceptable to my standards, 3. It has to be worth my while. Shoot me an email and we’ll see what happens.

Are you interested in paid writing jobs?

Yes I am! I love to write and getting paid to do it sounds like heaven. However, I absolutely will not sacrifice my own content on my site. If you’d like me to write something on your site, I’m happy to do it. I’m not interested in being paid to write about cat litter or sofa cushions on my site though. Sort of wrecks my credibility, don’t you think? I’m not really into the whole voluntary writing so that your site can benefit from traffic I might send to you either. See the question above, number three to be exact.

Do you have a question that’s not answered here? Feel free to email me at bbm at blackbeltmama dot com and I’ll see what I can do to ease your curiosity.