Last updated on June 12, 2022
That’s the number I came up with, when I deducted the average number of likes, from the number of followers on my little blog.
913 Followers
– 45 The average number of likes on a decent post
= 868 That means 868 followers must dislike everything I write. Bummer!
That’s a depressing number, isn’t it?
Wait, it gets better…
I have between 200-400 daily views on my blog; which means, more than 50% of my followers don’t even bother to look at my posts when they appear in their reader. What mathematical blogging hell is that?
Wait, it gets better…
The 45 likes represent only 4.92% of my followers, does that mean 95% dislike everything I write? Discouraging! How can that be, what am I doing wrong?
I can’t get new followers and readers as quickly as I seem to lose them. Maybe I should rethink everything about my blog, and I should start to write different STUFF, or maybe write in a different style or perhaps be nicer and more welcoming to new readers? (I am such a terrible host.)
I know, now I know what it is. Karma is biting me in the buttock. I politely asked three followers to unfollow me during the last 12 months. I didn’t mean to be rude when I suggested the UNFOLLOW; it was more an act of self-defense because their comments either bored me senseless or drove me crazy. Once again did I rebel against the blogging etiquette. Maybe that’s why I am getting punished now. When will I learn?
I need to be nicer. No more sarcasm, no more bitching. Oh dear, that indeed sounds like blogging hell.
But wait, maybe it’s much simpler…
Just the other day, a new blogger thought about giving up because she felt she didn’t reach enough people. It made me sad. Exactly how many people are enough? Is there a magical number that we should reach in a certain amount of time? I don’t think so!
I remember my early blogging days when I got the first LIKES and how proud I felt when I realized, I had managed to interest ten people in my -then- daily quit smoking rants and vents.
Ten people I had never met, were interested in my blogging future and they wanted to read more. It was a very thrilling feeling.
I still feel that way. I love the interaction with other bloggers so much. I care more about the comments than I do about the numbers of readers, followers, or statistics. There is a group of 20 people that I would call friends now, a special group of bloggers that I would love to meet in person.
Blogging is not confusing, not if you ignore what you need to ignore. Ignore the numbers; they will just drive you crazy and in the end, they won’t mean a thing, as you can see in my above example.
Bloggers appear and disappear on a daily base. Some hit FOLLOW because they like your blog, others just for “political” reasons, mainly because they expect an instant follow from you on their blog, and then they will forget about you.
Don’t fall into the number trap!
There is no rule on how many words a post should have. One day, after I had just published a rather lengthy post, an older lady told me that my posts would be too long. It irritated me. Did she think all my readers and followers have the attention span of a fly? The same day someone praised me for my long and thorough post. Talk about the total confusion on my end.
So what should we do, believe all the blogging myths and get lost in translations, or rather enjoy what we are doing without thinking about the number-consequences?
It’s not about quality, it’s about quantity. There is no rule that you have to post every day, or a few times a day. That’s another myth in the number game. If you feel like it then do it, if you don’t, then write when you feel like it.
Blogging should be fun, don’t let it become a task, don’t let it become a routine. People can read between the lines and what we feel shows. A blog is our voice, some of us will be heard by millions, others just by a handful of people. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many you reach, but how many you have inspired.
So, to the young blogger, who thinks about quitting. Write, write your posts the way you want to. Write from the heart, write with laughter and write with tears. Don’t follow any rules than your own. It’s your blog, vice or virtue…your call!
Update 2022: If you think it can’t get worse, guess what? I wrote the above blog post six years ago. Now my numbers have gone up and down. An average of 3,830 followers are gone. They left and didn’t even say goodbye.
Bumped up today for a fairy new blogger named Robin. Stop worrying! Have fun!
Ohh what a fun topic to discuss!
Indeed 🙂
I have to agree with what u said here because i am new to this blogging arena and still not sure how it’s supposed to be. It effects me when looking at the stats but after reading this, i felt better. Just be myself.
I am glad, because I wrote it for new bloggers. The numbers can be discouraging and a bit confusing. Welcome to the blogging world
Hello there 😊 I’ve been on and off blogging for a while now and honestly I never cared about how liked or dislike, who agree or not, etc. I blog for myself and if people like my content I’m happy to connect with them. If they don’t, well too bad for them. I guess in the end what is important is the reason why you blog. I wouldn’t worry about numbers unless you are trying to make a living out of it. There is a time for everything and everyone. Good luck on your journey, you have come so far I see so you should be proud of yourself.
Thank you that’s very sweet of you.
Inspiring for new bloggers 😄 thanks XD
Have a great day!!
Butterfly 🦋
Have a great day too.
I sure will 😉
Thank you XD
I understand the feeling of wanting to be noticed. I see you, don’t get discouraged please. If this is what you enjoy doing, keep posting. It is Important that you praise yourself. You got this! Beautiful Soul, Stay Shining
https://aethelhadas.wordpress.com/2022/06/14/80/
Thanks
I love what you’ve said here! I find it to be truthful. It’s the content, the quality and the truthfulness that really matters 😊
Glad to be here 😉
I am glad you are here 🙂
I also don’t get caught up in the numbers game. I prefer to focus on the connections I’ve made with some amazing people that I would enjoy meeting face-to-face some day, if possible 🙂
A blogger get-together, at a cabin in the woods, on a pond. Oh my 🙂
I have often taken followers off my list when I have found them to be offensive or crude and I have also unfollowed some who churn out huge amounts of (to my mind) rubbish. I blog for myself. If others like what they see that is a bonus, but I don’t worry about numbers. Carry on the good work Bridget!
Now it’s official, you are as bad as I am or vice versa. 🙂
We must both be paragons of virtue!
Your comment “… it’s about …how many you have inspired” is the crux of it all for me. I write what I want to say. Period. I’m not try to get numbers or sell anything. I love to write, and someday I’d like to consider myself a successful writer – but at this point, I’m not sure what that means. I enjoy writing; it keeps my mind sharp. Like you, I especially enjoy the interactions and those that have become “friends” through blogging – those I would have never met otherwise. I learn and get inspired by reading blogs. I do have to say though, when I put my heart and soul and lots of effort into my posts, it is satisfying to know others have read. So, in this regard, I do look at the numbers, but they don’t drive me.
Looking back, for me it was different. I started blogging in May 2014, two months after I had given up smoking. “Why was I not trying to kill someone?” “Why was it so easy for me to walk away from an addiction, after all I smoked for 35 years?” “Was I an addict?”
I started blogging because I needed to wrap my head around it. I knew my blog would be uninteresting for most and would not be read my many, because it was all about ‘smoking’ ‘quitting’ and all the good stuff in between.
After a year I got a reward from Healthline “Top Quit Smoking Blog” (one of them) and that’s when my blog took off. Still, I wanted to reach the one smoker who never tried quitting, because, like me, he thought quitting would be so hard. I reached a lot of smokers during my first two years, some of them emailed me their milestones. I got another reward the next year and the same the year after. I got invited to speak at gatherings like AA, where people fight a different demon. Most of them smoke and smoking is the last thing they give up.
A few years later I was ‘smoked out’ and ‘quitting’ or smoking was just not interesting anymore. That’s when I started exploring and writing about other ‘stuff’. That’s when I truly became a blogger.
I love the interaction with other bloggers. I have learned a lot but in all honesty, I always just wrote for myself. “Look at me, I have a blog in a language that’s not my mother tongue!”
It’s an open diary. Me rambling on about what is on my mind. Trying to cope with health problems, aging, work, news, the world and other small problems.
Am I a writer? Nope! Never will be and I am fine with it.
My addiction is diet coke. And while I know it is not healthy, I am fine with it. 🙂
The American soda addiction 🙂
https://purebeautyofworld.wordpress.com/
I enjoy the comments contributed by a small group of regular followers and am fortunate in having received mostly positive reactions thus far. You are right about not getting caught up in the numbers game. After all, who are we really writing for?
We write because we feel we have something to share and the joy that comes with it, grows over time.
Just enjoy the ride! It’s a lot of fun with some wonderful folks out there. Certainly helped us all through the pandemic!
The people we meet, that’s the icing on the cake.
I rarely look at the numbers. After so many years of blogging, and then taking breaks because life gets in the way, the bloggers who I feel I have “bonded” with, such as yourself, over the years will always come by to take a look. Years ago it was so important to gain followers, then I realized as you have that people follow for the moment but are not “invested”
The ‘number thrill’ was there at the beginning. The first reader, the first ten. I quickly found out that all the numbers are bogus when I followed older blogs with 10,000 of readers, but hardly 20 or 30 likes. That does make one wonder. 🙂
Hey Bridget! Blog how and when you want to. Blogging is more satisfying if it is reciprocal but it doesn’t have to be. If you want to say something in a post that is helpful or contributing to society in some way, then write it. People have different interests and comments should not feel like a duty. If people write meaningful comments, they are worth more. I agree if everyone commented we would have no time to write posts as we would just be responding to comments.
The other thing is the reader. I only go there to discover new blogs. I read the followed blogs via notifications – and if that process has a glitch, I don’t get notified. I was not notified of your posts again until you recently visited my blog. I know that I have followed you for a long time, yet you had dropped off my notifications – thanks to WordPress. Glad that we connected again!
There are many glitches in WordPress, unfollowing blogs we like, is one of them. I noticed it too and ever since I check my reader more frequently.
You are so right, if everybody would comment, we would sit there until in the middle of night and get nothing done. 🙂
My friend, there’s often many reasons people haven’t clicked like that are nothing to do with your wonderful blog. Sometimes the reader doesn’t read all the posts, just peters out into white wall for whatever reason. I always try every day to be out there, reading posts etc but there’s days I am on my knees with helping look after young grandchildren, writing, running a business,a home–one we have well had our work cut out on–spending time with my hubby, friends, even just being away for a day. Kind of hoping to get a blog out there today cos if I don’t, it won’t be this week or next, looking at the diary. Please be assured if I have not seen your post it is NOT cos I don’t love your blog. But cos I sometimes open my reader and think…..just close that again. Don’t despair, you have a wonderful blog and as long as you have followers who see that, that is certainly worth giving yourself a pat on the back over xx
To be truthful, and I hope this came through, I don’t really care about the numbers -at all. One great comment makes up for 100 readers who don’t interact. 🙂
Exactly. You reach who you need to reach actually xxxxxx
I wa just beating myself up for any of your lovely posts I’ve missed x
Still here, still following, still reading… 🙂
Good 🙂
Ha ha, thanks for the math! Just this week I came across a blog with 3 posts, including the famous ‘Hello World’ and each entry had at least 300 likes and around 150 comments. The longer I blog, the less I understand the game. Maybe it’s best to not pay too much attention the numbers
All I can say is a goodly amount of people commented on your blog this time. A goodly amount! I admit I still fall into that trap of numbers. I will work on a photo for hours, not including going out and getting the shot, and I come to the conclusion that it’s a real beauty, then get slammed by only one or two comments. It’s very discouraging. Then I’ll post something I’m not too crazy about and my numbers bounce back. There’s no way to figure it out, so I don’t. I now tend to post images that I like. Then again, I’m one of the worst commenters I know!
No worries, the goodly amount of readers happened before I started bitching about Trump lol. By now I got rid of each and everyone of his supporters -and I like it.
Post what you like, don’t care about us. 🙂
Ha ha! I don’t read my stat’s. Too disheartening. I blog because I like sharing what make and what I enjoy. That’s it really.
Good girl!
I have been blogging less than a year and can also get very discouraged by the numbers. I get a lot of traffic to my site daily but the likes and comments are low…it is disheartening. But I continue on because I like it…you offer good advice..carry on! 🙂
Don’t listen to the numbers, they don’t mean a thing. You will get “likes” from people who don’t even read your posts. Followers come and go. Write, post and blog for yourself.
Loved this post! I try not to focus on the numbers either with my blog. I write because I need to write. I really treasure the relationships built in the comment section the most as well. As for not reading posts in the reader, goodness! I simply don’t have the time to read every single post of every single blog I follow and I wouldn’t expect others to either when it comes to my posts. There are some that seem to follow every post I write but I look at it much as you do…I write for myself as well. I am putting it out there in the universe and the comments I am getting are good and kind. To me, that is a win/win. Writing for myself and getting great feedback from others. Sometimes I will simply leave a like on a post as a way of saying “Hey, I was here and read what you wrote and I liked it!”. Thanks for writing and persevering no matter what the numbers say. 😀 Besides, the posts are up here for all to see whenever they run across them…months after the fact (like I am doing now with your post). I like to think of it as a great library that is waiting for me to read it when I can get to it in this busy world we live in. 🙂
I love your post and feel the same way about the number of likes vs followers, etc. But I thought, what makes someone decide to follow a particular blog? I know that for me, something about certain posts makes me want to read more, and reading more, I find I like what the blogger writes in general, so I hit “follow.” I consider it an honor when someone follows me! But don’t change what you write to get more Likes. The blogs I follow are authentic in some way – the work (writing, photos, etc.) is their own and it’s original. It’s true people don’t have the attention span to read long posts. A tip I have for that is break up the post by inserting photos. They can be yours or downloaded (but give credit to the web site you download it from). I learned this in a class on writing online. People read books, yet can’t sit at a computer to read a long post. I think our mindset changes when we read online – the patience we have for books somehow disappears. Perhaps it’s because there’s always so much to read online, or I need to clean out my email, etc.
Thank you for your insight, I appreciate it.
As a fellow blogger, I don’t focus on the numbers: they are meaningless. I prefer to focus on the real connections that I make with other bloggers.
I feel the same way, I love the interaction with other bloggers. I selfishly write for my own pleasure as well. Goodness I am hopeless 🙂
So , where is that love button 😉 ?
For your post and for the comments too 🙂
Turtle Hugs
What a sweet thing to say. Thank you. Ladybug Hugs. 🙂
I love this post! In an age of instant gratification and a focus on numbers it can be easy to forget why we blog in the first place. Like you, I appreciate the interaction and exchange among fellow bloggers. Though there isn’t enough time in a day to visit all of the blogs I would like to, it’s a wonderful feeling to find resources (I learn something new every time I’m out here) or being a resource to others. Relationships, remembering your “why” and doing you are, at least in my opinion, three critical elements to blogging. It drives me nuts when someone asks me to follow them and they don’t even have an “About” page, not to mention making a request to strangers without giving them a reason to follow. Have a great weekend!! 😃
I appreciate your comment, you nailed it. I can’t stand it when they ask me to follow them, just because they read one of my posts.
I call it “blogging by numbers” and I feel sad for them. I get, it’s hard when you start but that’s how we grow, that’s how we all started.
Amen to that!
Love the idea you actually worked out how many people don’t like your posts – very funny. Easy to get stuck on numbers, equating them to your own worth as a blogger – I do it myself. Though having too many followers would be a nightmare too as I’d feel guilty about not having time to reply to comments. Love the post 🙂
I haven’t seen the young blogger who I wrote it for and I wonder if she gave up, just because she thought she couldn’t reach enough people.
I am glad you read and liked my post.
🙂 A great post
I don’t actually know how many followers I have (not large numbers anyway). I find it challenging enough to keep an eye out for the posts of the people I want to follow, so although I take a look at the blogs of new follows (unless I can see immediately that they are not my cup of tea) I rarely reciprocate any more, I simply can’t keep up and I am happy with my group of international friends.
I feel the same way. I like my international friends I can talk to, like you. I love the interaction with others. How nice it is to have a few blogging friend in the UK, I worked their twice an have so fond memories.
I don’t look for more followers either. Once in a while a new one stands out.
I’ve never played a numbers game. I am who I am and I’d love everybody to like me. But if they all do then I can’t keep up and my Inbox goes mental. Where’s the use in that? Most days I absolutely love this blogging life. Now and then I don’t. 🙂
Oh my, imagine all our followers would leave a comment every day, wouldn’t that be a mess.
Your last paragraph says it all. If all my followers made comments, I’d never do anything else but respond 🙂
🙂
I have given up on the stats- I always wonder why if I have close to 800 followers why is it always the same commenters and same average # of likes. I stopped worrying about it and am glad for the connections I have made with a handful of bloggers (like yourself) that I have gottblunt card cartoon- that would be me!! 🙂
I feel the same way, that’s why I couldn’t help but make fun of the numbers and statistics.
What is the point in asking someone to unfollow you? They can still read all your published posts.
True, but they didn’t bother with their comments anymore.
Great advice. I don’t look at stats at all. I have a lot of followers and I follow a lot of blogs. There is no way I can read every post. I don’t even SEE every post. It would be impossible. I just do the best I can and try to keep it fun. People come and go, and as you said, there are a few connections that fall into the perfect fit category. It’s all good.
You are a magnificent writer, I always read your post and will do so in the future. I don’t even pretend to play in the same league..if there is a league to begin with.
Yes, it’s all good. Thank you Dianna
913 followers is not too shabby! I thoroughly enjoy your blog so I’m not surprised at all 🙂
What a sweet thing to say. 🙂
I came to the blogging world to write about things I knew about. I write a blog about long distance running (since I like to, you know, run long distances) and a blog about autism (since I have 2 kids on the autism spectrum). I think I limited my following by focusing on such particular topics. I get about 10 views on each for each post I write. And, to be honest, I kind of like my stuff. There are times that I write a piece and I feel like Anthony Michael Hall at the end of the Breakfast Club – when he is proud about his letter he wrote to the principal. I smile and pat myself on the back. I wish more people enjoyed my posts like I did, too. But, I enjoy reading your stuff – sometimes I would like to just write a piece, but I didn’t create the right forum, I guess. Anyway, keep writing! I am reading. I enjoy your posts!
I was a very one-sided blog for about 1 year. I talked about quitting smoking all the time, still do occasionally.
I am very private person, don’t participate at any social media sites, don’t do twitter but somehow during the first year of blogging I opened up a little. I am not just an ex-smoker, I am a goofball, I am serious and I am a fighter. I am fluent in sarcasm and irony and it all just went from there.
But at the end of the day, when I write a post I pat myself on the back when I like the post, the comments and even the likes are just the icing on the cake. The fact that I can writer (in English) is the real joy.
Keep on doing what you are doing, write about what’s dear to your heart…that’s all that matters.
The first half of this post made me go cross eyed with the number game. It’s only because I’ve got the brain of a tad pole lol. Now, when it comes to blogging I do it for my own reasons. It’s a creative outlet for me, however I did get a bit obsessed with views etc. The end of the day write what YOU want, be yourself! I am fluent in sarcasm, don’t put yourself in blogging hell! I enjoyed this post because it highlighted alot of things in my blogging adventure! Keep it up and be yourself!
Sorry for the cross eyes, it wasn’t my intention (yeah right).
Finally…another blogger who is fluently in sarcasm, now I don’t feel so alone anymore. 🙂
It boggles my mind that you figured out all those stats numbers! I’m pretty clueless when it comes to any numbers, and only look maybe once a day to see how many views that day brought. If I put a like on something I’ve read, that means I have read the whole thing, plus all the comments that post got. I don’t get why anyone would push like on a bunch of posts, all in a quick row, and not have even read them. That bugs me, and I say to myself, you didn’t even read it!
I mentioned the numbers, just to show how ridiculous the comparison between followers and readers really is.
I am afraid there are indeed some bloggers who don’t read posts all the way through -or maybe not at all. Sometimes you can tell my the comments and it makes me sad too.
I hear ya. How many IS enough? And why is it so few seem to engage with each and every post? Although, I’m just as guilty of this. I have so many people on my reading list now that I barely have enough time to read them all, let alone comment. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Just crazy. 😛
There you are, my Tony is back 🙂
No worries, I know that you are busy writing all these beautiful poems. I am glad you took your time to comment on this post. As always, good to see you. 🙂
Bridget, I count you as one of the handful of people I call ‘friend’ that I would love to meet one day.
It makes me sad that connections are made and then bloggers simply fade away – people that I had come to think of as good friends.
I don’t pay attention to the stats … it’s not why I blog … and the *following* number is less than meaningless.
But I celebrate each and every *like* and comment 😀
Your comment ended up in my spam box. I don’t know what’s going on, but since a few days I have to check my spam box. Another WordPress glitch I suppose.
I miss a few bloggers too, all of a sudden they stopped and never came back. But I guess it’s their right and I have to accept it.
I think I should go check my spam folder. Wonder what’s in there?
They say there is a glitch at Word Press right now and comments from bloggers you know might end up in your spam folder. I didn’t believe but…well, you know the rest.
Actually I did find 4 comments in my spam folder – one of them from you. The nerve!!
… I rescued you 😉
Thank you 🙂
Well, when I first started reading this post I was going to tell you to knock off doing the numbers but then you beat me to it.
🙂
I’ve always written ‘for me’ and I remain shocked that anyone else even cares to read it, let alone comment time to time. I’ve never paid much attention to the numbers, but saw on a recent zip through the stats page that I have 140 followers. My goodness!! And I’ve had people approach me too and ask about blogging and it was for gain. I tell them that my blog isn’t that kind of blog, I don’t do it professionally but because I enjoy it and I enjoy writing a lot. I agree…blogging should be fun, not a task! If it IS a ‘job’, why not get paid? Not that I’d have any idea where to start either. And I suspect you did the title “868 Don’t Like My Posts” as tongue-in-cheek, because you obviously aren’t doing it ‘for the numbers’ either. For me? I enjoy what you write very much!
The last sentence of your comment is the actual reward and the reason why I continue to blog.
Yes, the title was a sarcastic statement, a tongue-in-cheek, because I just don’t get the hype about the numbers.
I do love my followers, the ones I got to know and the new ones who just start to interact with me. To me it doesn’t matter if 5 people or 50 interact with me, or read my rants and ramblings. I have so much fun writing either way.
The day I will start to care about the numbers of followers, or the amount of likes will be the day when I quit blogging.
Likes vs visits vs. views. vs. comments. IMO It’s so much more rewarding when someone reads your post and comments on it, not just “nice.” or something equally vague, but something personal. When I see someone “liking” five posts in one minute, chances are they didn’t read them. When I come across a post with lots of comments, or even few comments, I read them. If they responded well, I check out their blog. After all they had something to say beyond the ‘like’ button.
I wish we would have a “love” button and a neutral button as well. Not liking a post doesn’t automatically mean I disliked it, it sometimes must means it wasn’t my cup of tea -what would be my fault I suppose.
BTW. I say “Nice” or “nicely done” when I am mentally bored, just don’t tell anybody.
I’ve said nice and nicely done too. Sometimes its all that comes to mind. I agree, a love and neutral button would be great.
The vast majority of these people don’t even read your posts so you can’t assume they dislike them. What I find more interesting is the folks who follow me and then never, ever, visit or like a post.
You know, now that you mention it. I got a like on my post 30 seconds after I posted it. I was hoping it was just a fast reader but you just burst my bubble. 🙂
true enough..
Absolutely spot on! Numbers of likes can be a good way of judging our content, but they need to be seen in context, as you say. My own figures are that I have 255 actual followers of my blog, as distinct from my 1500+ Twitter followers. I’ve been doing this nearly 4 years, and last week got the WordPress badge for a total of 1000 likes on my – so far – 190 posts. The most I’ve ever had was last month, when a post received 27 likes, and I count 20 page views as being a very good day. But I write because I want to, and I value the interest and views of anyone who chooses to read what I write and even to pass a comment or two along the way. Like you, I view some fellow bloggers as friends, and look forward both to their own posts and to what they say about mine. As long as I enjoy my writing I’ll keep doing it. Writing by its very nature is a creative, qualitative act, and we shouldn’t be using quantitative measures to judge it. Having said that, bigger numbers are always nice to have 🙂
Thanks for making me smile… 🙂
My pleasure 🙂
Hmm, is this in response to my post last week, “8”? No, I’m not really that paranoid, but I did chuckle to/at myself at one point while reading this (or the last half) 😉 I do post the posts I want to post, but I also spend too much time with the numbers. Oh well, that’s just because I’m a stats nerd….
I am not sure if I read your post last week, I had bed-rest for my thumb for a few days…didn’t read or write.
No, Trent, it’s not about you. It’s about a conversation I had with another blogger who thought about quitting. She is good writer and it made me sad.
I didn’t know you were a stats nerd…:-)
I’m a terrible stats nerd…. Last week I had 8 views in 24 hours so I posted a silly poem. Of course the post generated a couple of dozen views, so it was worth complaining 😉
Yeah, I really didn’t think it was me. I may obsess over the stats too much, but I’d never think of quitting or anything drastic like that over them. It was just funny that you posted this a week after I had complained.
So do you decide what you write and post based on your stats?
I am glad you don’t think about quitting.
No, I write what I want to write about. I do have a bit of a schedule I occasionally try to keep (most media posts Monday, poems on Tuesday, smile on Wednesday, occasional throwback Thursday, short story Friday, coffee Saturday and smile reminder Sunday), but if I have an idea, I just post it.
I was thinking about a schedule on my blog, but never got around to it.
Sometimes it helps if you are wondering what to post, but sometimes it’s best to ignore it…
Well, I guess blogging can be a different thing, to different people, as for what their motivation for writing is, and there can be so many reasons why someone writes.I even heard of people who don’t even care if they are even read, but believe most we write because we want to express an idea , or tell a tale it’s worth to be read at least by those people who are lucky to find us, or the other way around, we are lucky to be found by them, and that they took a moment of their busy life to pay attention to what we like to say.
If you have too many followers it’s more like a lottery that someone will open their reader’s page and there you article appeared, and called someone attention, and took the time to read it, like it just happened to me finding your post.
We also have a few people who look regularly for our posts, because you have made them your readers, and they are interested in what you have to say.
Bottom line we are overloaded with information, and if someone took the time to read you, count it as a blessing! 🙂
Too many followers…goodness is there such a thing? 🙂 I was one of the people who started out not caring if my blog would be read. I don’t participate on any social media side, don’t do twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
I started blogging when I gave up smoking. Writing and blogging was my daily therapy session…if that makes any sense.
Then, after I was “smoked out” I started writing about everything and anything and had a ball. Still do. Some days I have too much to do and can’t find the time to blog, on others I can’t shut up. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by and reading my little rant. (See I can be polite).
Well, now days people follow you not necessarily because they want to read you, but because they know if you follow them back they will appear in your Reader’s page, and therefore they will have a better chance of being read by you, that of course if you care to open your reader page, in order to read what your followers are saying, I figure some people don’t even bother to do that, and have a different way to look for what they want to read.
There is people so self centered do not care to read anybody else but themselves, or bother to correspond giving you a like as acknowledgment.
So having a lot of followers means little now days.Through the few years of blogging I have noticed a tendency for many bloggers to threat their blog as a twitter account posting random stuff every time something comes to their head, some I had to unfollow due to the fact I had to scroll down, and I mean way down my reader’s page, in order to find a post that didn’t belong to them!
Well, maybe I should make a post about my experiences with other bloggers!
Thanks! 🙂
I start to read every post in my reader…but I don’t always read everything to the end, especially the ones who post multiple posts a day.
I enjoy reading as much as writing.
However, I don’t believe in “I scratch your back if you scratch mine” politics. I don’t automatically just follow a blog because they start to follow me.
Once a month I sit down with a gigantic glass of wine and search tags that I like and find new material and new blogs I like. Gosh, I suppose I am weird.
When someone posts a personal response like this, I tend to check their blog out. It is like a lottery in a way, sometimes you win and find a gem and sometimes its just someone blogging for the sake of numbers. 😉
I think it is all about the relationships you make and cultivate. Yes, I still get excited when I see my numbers go up slightly because it means I am connecting with someone new. But, I take it with a grain of salt knowing numbers go up and down. Having been doing this 4 years I see very specific trends in my blog each year. For me highest numbers from September through January and lowest numbers May through August every year. I hope your friend keeps on going as long as she is enjoying it. It gets more fun the more you reach out to others and create a little network.
I love the interaction with other bloggers. It’s like an open house in my living room every day for about an hour. 🙂
I find the discrepancy between followers and actual reader so interesting.
I like the idea of having my own little network. 🙂
I find WP numbers to be weird too in the way they “count” things. I may read one blog page in my reader and another on the blog and they are counted differently even though I read them both. Numbers can be twisted to mean what we want them to good or bad ( I am an accountant in real life).
Glad I checked my numbers twice. 🙂
I never look at the stats. Don’t care. I started this to please me, not others. If I were asked advice on blogging I’d say the same as you: do what you do and do not try to please people. 😃
Amen. I felt so bad when the young blogger wanted to quit just because she felt she didn’t reach enough people. What a shame. I hope she reads my post and I hope she reads it all the way through.
Blogging should be fun, not a task!
True. And, for me at least, it’s for me, not for anyone else, not to get likes, and not about money, though I’m not even sure how one makes money doing this. If they’re doing it for stats, they are doing it for the wrong reasons, I think. But that opinion and $5 will get ya a terrible cup of coffee at Starbucks. 😃
I second that!!