Saturday, March 28, 2009

Inquiring Minds Want to Slap People Around.

Which should have a subtitle of "She Took The Leash off her Brain."

Sorry. It's been raining for four days again and I'm grumpy again tonight.

I want to know from my fellow bloggers, how often do you read through your reader? I mean REALLY visit the bloggers that once upon a time you liked enough to follow or add to your reader.

I honestly try to read through at least twice a day. Now my reader isn't that big and let me tell you why. Because I want to read through it. If you lose my interest I will blip you from my reader and that will be that. I am not afraid to unfollow.
It's not fair to you to have a bajillion followers who never read your stuff. And here's why I feel that way. I have 29 followers on this blog. I think a handful comment regularly. When I check my traffic trackers (yes, I'm spying on you) over half never really come by. Why? Did I suddenly go boring and you decided you didn't want to hurt my feelings by unfollowing? Don't do that! Be real! If I am boring rocks to sleep, feel free to unfollow my beige behind.

And it can't be because I never post new stuff. I post at least once if not twice a day. Except on the weekends. I try to take those off sometimes.

Here's my theory. Blogging is a very narcissistic project. You talk about yourself, your opinions, your "stuff," and to gain traffic you have to promote the fool out of your blog and in essence yourself. I think some people start to become so obsessed with the promotion and in essence themselves that they quick looking around.

Maybe that's why my Show me the Funny doesn't work so well. Because people are only looking at their own stuff for contributions instead of reading and sharing what made them laugh. I have to give a wheelbarrow full of kudos to Jen at TuTu's Bliss because the last two weeks she's been playing Funny with me and she actually links to other people on her blog that make her laugh. She gets it.

So now I ask again. How often are you reading through your reader? Should you even bother adding blogs to it if you're never going to read it?

Maybe I need to add another aspect to my blog - The Weekly Rant. People seem to like to be mad more than they like to laugh. Bet a ranting meme would rock the house. Once again the optimist is trapped in a pessimistic world.

8 comments:

Tasha said...

Amen, sister. I was just talking/reading about this very thing with Queen of the Shake-Shake. I think I went a little too far over the promoting edge, and now I want to get back to my old, hairy armpit organic blogging. Eff the traffic. Blogging should come from within. I think we should start a new bloggy revolution: I blog from my hairy armpit!

I think I feel a blinkie (and a blog) coming on....

p.s. I'm now a toilet bowl follower. :P

Buck Rogers said...

I follow and I read, I might not always comment but I read it in my reader. Maybe I should interact more

Grit said...

ok i will comment too, although i might have just passed by, but since you asked... i am a total tart, i go where i please, read what i will, i mostly never comment, and never leave a tip. i don't follow any blog but i try to be tart with a heart and when i get a nice comment, pop back and say hi. is that normal?

Sarah said...

Hey Grit! At least you're honest about it. A lot of the wrapped up people like to try to say that they want to pop around but just can't find the time. In my book that translates to, you don't really want to take the time.

Cat@3KidsandUs said...

I read. :-)

I totally get what your saying. I've just been so busy lately I read and run. I really need to stop and comment more often.

Laura Marchant said...

Honestly if someone is on my blogroll and it shows they updated that day I read it. Sometimes I can't always comment if I am doing something else at the same time but I almost always do. I also usually try to go back and visit the people who did leave me comments and check out their blog. If I like someone and they entertain me their on my roll :-)

*I am adding you now, don't let me down, lol!

Laura Marchant said...

Oh my goodness I used the wrong there!! I meant they're not their. lol, dang it!

Staci A said...

I read through my reader at least once a day. Sometimes I'm too lazy to click through to a post, or I just have nothing to say. I know that's awful, but no one really wants to read 10 billion "great post" comments right? But I do always read! So that's me-lazy and lacking creative comments.