Thursday, February 26, 2009

Follow The Leader


Several of my favorite bloggers have mentioned that they've lost a lot of followers lately, and most of them seemed to take it rather personally. I can understand why. After all, people follow your blog because for one reason or another, they're interested in what you have to say. So, logic dictates that if someone stops following you, it's because they've lost interest in what you have to say. Whether it's your words, your personality, the design of your background, whatever--you just don't do it for them anymore. And that stings. It's like that guy or girl back in high school who went out with you a few times and never called again.

Fortunately, Blogger.com cleared up the confusion with this explanation earlier this week. There, you see, it's not your breath, after all! Yay! (Seriously though, I lost a follower this week myself, and I thought something was wrong with me, too.)

Anyway, that little wrinkle in the blogosphere got me thinking. Out of all the potential millions--maybe billions by now, who knows?--of blogs out there, how do you decide which ones are worthy of your time? What makes the difference between you subscribing to a blog's feed and you passing on it completely? How do you choose your favorites? Any thoughts?

P.S. Speaking of blog mishaps, a few of you emailed me this week to mention you were having trouble commenting on my page. After checking into it, I've fixed the problem. It seems I changed the comment option by mistake. Silly me! *head desk* Anyway, it should be fine now. Feel free to email me again if it's not.

7 comments:

  1. Yay on fixed glitches!

    I follow blogs that are interesting, pertain to writing and/or make me laugh. (I wonder if we prefer blogs similar to the focus of our own?) TGIF!

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  2. If I allowed myself, I could potentially become addicted to hundreds of blogs - history-related, writing-related, vintage-related, the list could go on and on.

    For me, I tend to pretty much stick to the writing-related blogs with a few others thrown in there for good measure. :-)

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  3. I have a kabillion and three blogs I follow. If I can make it through the first post I find on whatever blog, I follow it. You never know when the connections might be useful, and I can always skim the article on my Google Reader.

    Having said that, there are definitely blogs that I look /forward/ to reading on my Google Reader, and are grouped by "Blogosphere Buddies", and then Writing, Reading, Political, Thinkers, Geeky, etc. (And, yes, I'm one of those people who organize clothes by color and length.)

    And I still think the new Google Connect following thing is a bit overdone. Time will tell, I suppose.

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  4. Angie,
    Yay for fixed glitches indeed!

    I think people do tend to follow blogs that are in some way similar to their own. I know I do! Maybe it's the newest way for us to connect with like-minded souls.

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  5. Melissa,
    I know what you mean! There are so many wonderful blogs out there to choose from, and so few hours in the day. I tend to stick with writing blogs too, though sometimes I wish I could just beam the information into my head so I wouldn't have to be picky.

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  6. Aerin,
    Yep, my blog list is nearing "a kabillion and three" itself :-) There really are a lot of good ones out there and it's practically impossible to narrow it down to just a handful.

    I don't know what to think of Google Connect yet. I still don't quite know what it is! I wish I were as organized about it all as you are. Sadly, I don't think I'll ever be the type to organize my clothes by color and length LOL!

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