Wikipedia defines Stockholm Syndrome as “a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which he has been placed.”

You may have noticed this phenomenon in certain child abduction cases wherein the child strangely starts to bond with the kidnapper, taking on his qualities and purposely avoiding detection from the proper authorities.

What you may not have noticed is the Stockholm Syndrome phenomenon in the context of the online world. The abduction may be in a virtual sense, but the possible ramifications are very real. Are you being held captive without even knowing it?

Capturing Your Interest

Many people dream of the day when they can leave the 9-to-5 behind in favor of running their own business. It’s a proposition that may not be immediately possible to most people, but there is a definite possibility there to start up a successful blog or run some sort of freelancing business.

We are inspired by people like Yaro Starak, Darren Rowse, and John Chow, because we see that they are able to make a very sizable income online without being bound to regular working hours or dealing with less than favorable supervisors. Although they may be honest in their approach, some may be pulling you in and capturing your interest, capturing your mind.

Bonding with a False Hope

Just as it is not impossible to become an NBA superstar, it is not impossible to make half a million dollars a year from blogging. It’s just not likely. Even though he proudly proclaims that he is the root of all evil and that he has no problem gaming Google to make a buck, John Chow has led us to believe that anyone can be as successful as he can.

He has been able to leverage his reputation, making more money because he is known for making money online. As a result, when John endorses a certain money-making scheme or ad network, he is able to deploy his huge following of fans, many of whom have no qualms about signing up under John’s affiliate link.

For all intents and purposes, John has managed to capture all of these readers, in a virtual sense, and these readers have — in turn — bonded with their captor. They defend him from the naysayers. They develop a great sense of loyalty. Meanwhile, John is laughing all the way to the bank.

Breaking Free from the Shackles

I don’t think anyone can blame Chow for what he does. He’s managed to create a very specific niche using a different “hook” than anyone else. He has lured in an ever-growing audience and this audience is hard at work to make him money. Realistically, this is no different than the Oprah empire or any other celebrity. They have their fans in shackles, yet the fans love them even more for it.

Why is this?

According to the psychoanalytic view of the syndrome, the tendency might well be the result of employing the strategy evolved by newborn babies to form an emotional attachment to the nearest powerful adult in order to maximize the probability that this adult will enable — at the very least — the survival of the child.

If you are going to survive in this world, it’s probably best to emulate and latch on to the most successful and most powerful people around you. It might mean that you’ll be a little narrow-minded and it might mean that you will become an online captive. Will you break free? Do you want to?

While previous editions of What’s Up Wednesdays have focused on success and girl bloggers, this week’s mashup is a much more of a mixed bag. You’ve got everything from international fashion to some geeky web code. Whatever it takes to get over hump day, right?

Let’s start off with Richard Eriksson, the guy that serves as the basis for this post’s title. Better known in the blogosphere as Just a Gwai Lo (gwailo, in Cantonese, refers to white people), Richard celebrated his birthday on Monday. Well, maybe “celebrated” isn’t the right word, because he doesn’t sound all that thrilled about turning thirty… even if he doesn’t feel like he’s thirty yet.

Fellow Dot Com Pho member Ed Lau is still partying it up in Japan, going to sumo tournaments and dining on exotic cuisine. Along the way, he has also encountered some rather outrageous hairstyles, like those seen at the Yoyogi Park. These musicians have got plenty of flair, that’s for sure.

Jennifer Mattern of All Freelance Writing describes ways that you can expand beyond freelance writing and blogging to get more mileage. Maybe I should write a book. There’s got to be an audience out there, right?

You may know Chris Bibey from ChrisBlogging.com, but he has now launched a new blog that focuses exclusively on reviewing the content of other blogs. I’m flattered that one of the first posts on BloggingWords.com is a review of Beyond the Rhetoric. Naturally, he says that I rock (because I do).

Even great photos need a little help sometimes, but it can be very time-consuming to go through each one in PhotoShop. Derek Semmler has devised a very simple method to frame images with CSS. This way, every picture you load up on your blog will come with a stylish frame. Now he just needs to deal with the RSS issue.

And that’s what’s up! If you want to be featured on a future edition of What’s Up Wednesdays, be sure to follow me on Twitter and leave plenty of comments here. Grab my attention with good content!

The main reason for this post is to serve as reminder that the make fun of John Chow PhotoShop contest is coming to a close on Thursday night. If you want to win a big box of cool stuff, you’ll want to get in your entries very soon! Be sure to check out the original contest post for full details.

Aside from the reminder, there are three other things that I’d like to mention.

First, I like to extend my thanks to everyone who has entered thus far. I’ve had a lot of fun looking at all the different images that you guys have created, like this one from Joshua Denney and this one from Bleneral. Great work!

Second, I’d like to point out the creativity of individuals like Betshopboy. He was the first one to make a multi-panel entry for the contest. I’m actually a little surprised that no one has made a mini comic strip, an animated GIF, or a short video involving the two photographs that I provide. Be as creative as you’d like! You’re not restricted to making a single image!

Third, because you guys seem to having so much fun making fun of John Chow, I’ve decided to add a second place prize to the contest. I don’t have pictures handy, but the second place prize will be comprised of a trade show t-shirt and a Griffin FlexScreen silicone case for a 3rd-gen iPod nano.

Don’t forget to get your entries in before the deadline! That’s just two days away. Good luck!

No matter what kind of article you are writing, one of the most important factors you should be considering is your target audience. As you can imagine, producing a research paper for your university psychology class is distinctly different than writing a sketch comedy skit for a local talent show. Blog posts are no exception to this rule.

With that in mind, there are generally two schools of thought when it comes to the opening sentence (and opening paragraph) to any given blog post. You can slowly introduce your topic before diving into the details or you can open with your main idea right away.

Method #1: The Inverted Triangle

This could be a result of my educational and academic background, but I was always taught that you should start broad and narrow your way into your primary argument. This is the methodology that is commonly taught when it comes to writing an essay.

The thinking behind this strategy is that your reader has no idea what to expect when they first glance at your piece of writing. You must ease them in. After introducing your “thesis”, you can go into your supporting statements, finishing off by re-iterating your main idea and opening the topic for discussion.

By and large, I subscribe to this school of thought, but in a simplified version, for the majority of freelance writing and blogging that I do. Not everyone agrees with this strategy, so…

Method #2: Get to the Point Already

There are many reasons why you may choose to do so, but several bloggers choose to get right down into the nitty-gritty right from the first word. In talking to John Chow, he believes that readers don’t want to wade through any superfluous fluff. Internet users inherently have a short attention span, so if you don’t grab their interest right away, they’ll move on.

Another reason why you may want to get topical as soon as possible is for search engine optimization purposes. Google and other search engines place extra weight on the first section of each webpage to determine the nature of the rest of the content. Unless you specify otherwise, the first sentence is usually what shows up on the search engine results page.

Journalists typically get right to the point as well, for the same reasons as many bloggers: they need to grab your attention right away or you’ll move on. This is also why the headline (or title in the case of a blog post) is so important.

So Which Method is Superior?

As with most things, there is no right or wrong answer here. It’s not a black and white issue. For most of my blog posts, I largely adhere to the first method, but I make sure that the title is interesting and descriptive enough that someone will want to read further. I also try to introduce the brunt of my argument by the end of the second paragraph (first paragraph, if possible). Having a relevant image at the top can work wonders too.

How do you introduce your blog posts? Do you ease your way into the topic or do you jump right in?

The video for Dot Com Pho comes a little late this week, because Stephen Fung was waiting around for Tyler Ingram to send him the video for the gadget of the week. You see, the Flip Mino that Stephen brought ran out of storage before we had a chance to record the gadget of the week segment. Thankfully, Tyler had his trusty Canon point-and-shoot.

This week’s Dot Com Pho was held at Cuu Long on Knight and Kingsway in Vancouver. Cuu Long is located about a block or two away from Pho Thai Hoa, which still holds the title for the best pho to date. It may not be as happy as Cambie (Vancouver) Vietnamese Restaurant, but maybe that’s a good thing. Brian (Bryan?) kind of scares me with his overly enthusiastic and cheerful ways.

Remember that everyone is welcome to join us for our weekly lunch gatherings. The best way to keep track of our dining locations is to follow me and Stephen on Twitter. Next week, we might change things up and hit up a place for sushi, tandoori, or burgers. Maybe.

Enjoy this week’s video. Oh, and don’t blame Leo Chiang for hating on The Littlest Hobo. He’s just upset that he didn’t get to work as the stunt double for the famous Canadian pooch.

I’ve still got a little catching up to do when it comes to these movie reviews. As you may or may not know, I made a promise to myself at the beginning of 2007 that I would review every movie that I saw on Beyond the Rhetoric. Seeing how that went reasonably well, the trend continued into 2008. In the interest of brevity, I’ve started to lump the movie reviews into small batches of no more than three.

In the past, we’ve looked at everything from Hard Candy to 21. This week, I present to you a couple of heartwarming comedies. Both are now available on DVD, so you don’t have to bother with lining up at the cineplex and getting overcharged for stale popcorn.

Lars and the Real Girl
Some guys get pretty lonely. Others just aren’t particularly social. You aren’t really told what’s wrong with Lars at the beginning of the movie, but you immediately get the sense that he is quite the strange boy (at the age of 27). Seeking some form of companionship, but avoiding the complications of a real human relationship, Lars decides to order a life-like sex doll from the Internet. He’s not interested in the sex, though. Instead, he treats “Bianca” as if she were a real girlfriend and for the sake of his sanity, the rest of the town plays along. In fact, you almost start to believe that she is a real person. Almost. This movie was quite endearing as you witness the maturation and growth of Lars. It’s definitely different and well worth a rental, but despite what others may have said, I still don’t think Lars is as good as Juno.

Definitely, Maybe
After seeing the delightful performance by Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine, I almost looked forward to this romantic comedy. Ryan Reynolds plays a political consultant (he works on the Clinton presidential campaign at one point) who has to explain his upcoming divorce to his 11-year-old daughter. As such, the vast majority of the movie is told in the form of one extended flashback, so we don’t really get to see much of Breslin. I wouldn’t say that Definitely, Maybe is a bad movie, but it’s running pretty much par for the course when it comes to rom-coms. I did enjoy Isla Fisher’s character, though. She served as a “fun” counterpart to Reynolds’ somewhat stiff performance.