This blogging thing is an ever-changing hobby for me. Each day I learn something new, change my look, or simple decide that what I did yesterday isn't what I want to do with my blog today.
Recently, I wrote about how events like Fun Follow Fridays are a great way to promote your blog and get new followers...and it is. But, just like everything else I do, I'm pretty sure I read too much into it.
The concept is that I add a link to my blog to a list of blogs using a tool like Mr. Linky. Everyone that participates see the list, picks a few blogs and becomes their newest follower. Usually, they leave a comment along the lines of "Hi! I'm your newest follower, follow me back!" On occasion, the reader will make a sincere comment on one of your posts but everyone knows the purpose of this event is to get more followers. And it actually works pretty good (thus the reason I've promoted it before).
So what's my problem? Well, it's like this - sometimes I don't want to follow you back. If I read your blog and it doesn't engage me, I really don't wanna have to look past it in Google Reader everytime I am looking for new posts from blogs I DO wanna read. Not to mention, maybe I don't want people to know that I am following your blog because I don't necessarily endorse it. But, if I don't follow back...well that would be improper etiquette for the event...and then I feel guilty and I'm afraid that blogger will come back to haunt me saying "I followed you and you didn't follow me back!" and leave nasty comments on my blog. And that would suck.
So do I drop out of the events altogether? Do I just simply not follow the ones I don't want to and hope they don't get too offended? Do I email them back and say thank-you for the follow, but I hate your blog?
What should I do...what should I do!?!
So, I'm going to ask you - my followers, and followers-to-be what do you do? Do you follow everyone back? Is there a way to make a "favorites" folder in Google Reader so I don't have to really sift through those I don't wanna read? Do you participate in these events, or just bypass them altogether? Do you have good luck promoting your blog in another fashion? If so, how?
Looking for feedback on this one!
Thanks!!
6 comments:
I have the same issue. I end up just not joining the event (posting my own blog via Mr. Linky), but browsing through the participants anyway to see if there's any blogs of interest. :-)
So you want people to follow you, but you don't want to follow them... necessarily.
I would say the spirit of the event is a follow for a follow and if you don't want to do that then don't participate. Just my take. That's why I never participate in those types of things.
I'd like to clarify as it seems I may have offended some people. No, I don't want people to just follow me and then I'm too good to follow back. I'm saying that sometimes the people who follow you are there only because of the blog hop, not because they enjoy your blog and their blog is of no interest to me so I don't wanna follow back. I don't want to clutter my google reader with blogs I'll never visit again. I think the blog hops should be used to hop around blogs you've never been to before and find ones you ENJOY. If you don't like it, move on. I would sincerely hope that if you didn't enjoy reading my blog - you don't bother following me. That's like saying you wanna be my friend, but never speak to me. What's the point? I'm just sayin.
I agree with your point because I would like to find new followers that are active readers of my blog, versus someone that will follow but only for the sake of following. I've started to be picky about the "follow" type events that I get involved in--trying to participate in ones that are more suggested to follow if you like what you're reading, versus an expected follow regardless of what you think of the blog. I do know that there is a way to create folders in your google reader. I haven't done it myself (although I should). I think you could do a google search and find out. I know that I probably only actively read about a third of my reader, so I need to do some organizing there :)
You know-I said something similar on my blog once...and people didn't like it. Sorry, but I only want followers who truly like my blog...and I only want to follow those blogs that are truly engaging. That's part of why "facebook friday" came about. Hold your head up girl--and do what makes you feel good! ;-D
I agree with your point completely. I've never done those "events" or done follow for a follow, but still...I get it. There are just some blogs out there that you don't care to read. I don't think it's bad NOT to follow someone if you're not interested in them. No need to waste your time.
Not to mention....there are SO MANY blogs out there, and not enough time in the day to read them all. Just sayin.
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