This follows on from my last post on blogging. I'd be really interested to know what makes people decide to follow a particular blog. There are an awful lot of them, from the brilliant/funny/inspiring to the weird and the downright mad (I've just happened upon one of the latter, and can honestly say I have no idea what the blogger is writing about). It's impossible to be a "follower" of every blog that takes the eye, but the ones I choose are:
Not too long. Very lengthy posts take a lot of time to read, and while they may be good to dip into, it's hard on a regular basis.
Funny. Entertaining. Light relief.
Literary. About books and writing, especially writing (this for obvious reasons).
Zany. I love eccentric people (a certain layabout cowboy springs to mind)
Varied. Blogs that concentrate on a single topic can be tedious.
Horsey (Titch likes to feel involved).
What about you? And how do you feel when you gain or lose followers? Honest answers, please!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love it when I gain a follower and always go check out their blog.
ReplyDeleteI do follow quite a lot of blogs and although I don't read and comment on every single post I do look at as many as I can. I like funny posts, or useful ones or interesting or quirky or with pretty pictures ...
Yours fits some of those categories which is partly why I'm giving you the sunshine award.
Thank you kindly, Patsy!
DeleteI like short blog posts, and humor is never wasted on me.
ReplyDeleteAs for losing followers... I don't take it personally. We all change so there's always the chance we could grow apart from one another. If we're lucky, we also find each other again.
Yes. Short posts are good, Maria. Although I do see that some subjects require more.
DeleteI also live blogs about books, but if they're too wordy I tend to tune out. Also, I love blogs with humor and blogs about crafts with tips. I guess it depends on the certain inexplicable essence of the blog. Just like with people, some click... others don't. ; }
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point, Sonia. I suppose it is a kind of relationship, and you have to take to the person writing.
DeleteProblem for me is that in term-time I hardly have time to check others' blogs, so feel bad if I expect them to check mine, and then during holidays I can indulge myself and read, read, read. I love funny blogs, booky blogs and writery blogs. Losing followers? One at a time isn't too bad. If I lost twenty in one day, I'd have to think about my vocation in life.
ReplyDeleteAs one of your followers (and the widow of a very overworked headmaster), I understand the term time thing. We'll let you off!
DeleteI have no criteria. My Blogworld is small. I know that my New Zealand blog is read by many more than my Scottish blog but it is the small band in my Blogland that is important to me.
ReplyDeletePS I'm very sorry but I've just posted a long read but it was you who 'inspired' it!
Plagiarism is welcome, GB (so long as you don't pinch my books as well!).
DeleteI have the usual blogs I follow. I do like a variety too... from informative (about writing), the witty ones to the amusing ones. I often go in search of new blogs; these I find from the the comments of the blogs I do follow. :-)
ReplyDeleteI do that too, Diane. Perhaps most of us do?
DeleteIf I see a comment on my own, or another's blog, that has a point of value, or an intriguing signature. I visit to see if they have a blog and if I will like it.
ReplyDeleteLife is demanding these days and time is limited. My bloglist is always tempting but, if I am limited, I first visit those in need of support, for whatever reason. A comment can be a form of outreach. I sure appreciate when followers make that effort for me.
Yes, time. I could happily spend all day visiting blogs, but life seems to intervene somehow...
DeleteMost of the blogs I am following today are on my dashboard either because they started following my blog and I found theirs interesting enough to return the favour, or because I came across them via comments on someone else's blog.
ReplyDeleteOver the past two or three months, I have lost 2 followers, but they weren't "active" in the sense that I never had any comments from them, and so I suppose their dropping out of my blogosphere had less to do with me and more to do with generally moving on to somewhere else.
My post "Dear Dashboard", where I have introduced all the blogs I was following back then, still is listed as the all-time most popular post of my blog, statistically speaking.
Yes - the most popular post thing is very odd. Mine is still "in love with a horse", by a mile, but the window-cleaner one is rising through the ranks. I've still no idea why.
DeleteI have to restrict the time I spend blogging/reading blogs or I'd get no writing done, so I go for short and to the point, funny and/or informative. I like interactivity so questions that make you think are good (like this one) and people who comment or respond to comments go up the 'regular visits' list. Interesting blog/post titles attract me, or funny/interesting/thoughtful comments on other blogs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of that, Clare. I like silly competitions, too...
DeleteI blog because of all the nice people on here. Some I know personally and others I have come to know over the last two years.
ReplyDeleteYes. That too, Keith. So many reasons, so little time...
DeleteI visit bloggers who write regularly, and more importantly, reply! I tend to go for short, humourous, witty posts, which is why I follow you Frances.
ReplyDeleteI'm short, humorous and witty! That's made my day ( although I was 5'9" before I broke my back ...).
ReplyDeleteI like bloggers who are literate, bloggers who are literary, artists, talented photographers, bloggers who are interested in wildlife and conservation, bloggers who love animals (individually and generally) and bloggers who are amusing.
ReplyDeleteI don't like "I followed you so please follow me, too" requests, and I don't like bloggers whose purpose is to shock, hurt, or otherwise annoy their readers.
K
Kay, you sum it all up beautifully for me!
DeleteAn eccentric layabout cowboy? Hmm, I wonder who that could be. Okay Frances, if it’s honest answers you’re looking for, Honest Valance is your man. (When you’re done choking, maybe you’ll read on.)
ReplyDeleteIn the early days when I had few visitors, I used to click the interests on my profile page to view the blogs of others listing a common interest. In theory there ought to be some common ground, but the reality is a high percentage of the blogs listed were abandoned, and the common ground theory just about curls up and dies when you find someone – with a declared interest in dry humor – blogging about flower arranging. For all that I did register myself as a follower here and there, with mixed results. I don’t care to see people alone, especially when they’re alone and talking to a world that ain’t listening. If ever I saw someone with no followers, I always found something to say. (Saint I ain’t, but some things just ain’t right.) Well, sometimes it worked out right – I gained a couple of followers who became friends that way. But the flip side of that is going back to a blog to see if the person’s replied and finding out the blog don’t exist anymore. That’s happened to me twice. The second time it happened I said to myself ‘Valance, you gotta stop doing this. You’re scaring people away.’ So I stopped doing it.
Truth is it ain’t easy for me to stray far from home in Blogsville. Folks don’t see a character, they just see a nut.
Now I’m older and wiser and I know what oils the wheels around here, I don’t actively seek blogs to follow anymore. In Blogsville everyone’s an attention seeker, you, me, everybody. Course some might find the term hard to swallow, but why beat around the bush when it’s the plain simple truth. Show me a blogger who says they ain’t looking for an audience and I’ll show you a liar. We just go about it in different ways. Follow and be followed – that’s how it works. Most people understand that are happy to abide by the rules of courtesy and reciprocation, including me. If someone follows me, I’ll follow them and I’ll make the effort to comment if and when I can. And if I’m lucky, I’ll get to share a few smiles. Course I ain’t counting the varmints whose interest in me ends just as soon as they’ve left their sorry looking faces on my blog, like a whore leaving a card in a call box, but hell, what do I care?
Honest enough for you, Frances?
Quite honest enough, thank you, Valance. And what made you think the cowboy was you? And more to the point, where have you BEEN all this time? I've even missed the soup (and that's saying something..).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou’re welcome, Frances. Oh, I never thought the cowboy you were referring to was me. Not when you called him an eccentric layabout. I just wondered that’s all. Where have I been? Well, a man can’t be a man of mystique if he don’t do something mysterious once in a while. Besides risking my life doing things I’ll never get any thanks for, I’ve been here and there. Mostly there, since it ain’t safe for me round here yet. It ain’t all bad though. If absence makes the hard grow fonder, I just might be gone long enough for folks to start liking me. Could be I’m right too, if you’re hankering for my soup already. If I ever make it back the first thing I’m gonna do is make you some. Promise.
ReplyDeleteNot hankering exactly, just feeling a touch nostalgic (if you can be nostalgic for soup...)
Delete