Why do you read/blog?
When I first started blogging, it was to keep track of my thoughts & feelings of infertility. To document (for myself) my journey to motherhood. I spoke about my feelings & emotions, made new friends & supported others.
In that time, I went public, private, public, private, public... for all different reasons. I changed homes (blogs) & although I have deleted, merged & moved blogs, apart from here, I still keep my original blog (When's it gonna be my turn???) blog, which I now use as a place to combine all the blog posts I have made.
I had participated in blog hops & memes before, but when I started my Partners In Crime blog, I went all out, I did the Friday Follow, the Follow Me Follow You, etc. My blog traffic increased, but how many people were actually reading?
In the beginning, I read blogs of those who I considered friends. Those who (like myself) were dealing with infertility. My blogroll was tiny & I was able to keep track of who was doing what, where, when & how (just like if they were a friend who you would see frequently).
When I fell pregnant (maybe a little before), I didn't read as much (even of those who I cared for). Then after the blog hop phase, there was so many, that it was just like a popularity contest. I didn't know who was who, where they were from, what they felt. I came to realise that you should only read those who you feel you can support/gain something from & that your readers should read you, because they want to & not because a blog hop suggests.
Where is this going? I came across a blog post via 6 degrees of blogging (click on a link, then another, then another), where they blogger discussed about how her blogging had dropped off. She did blog hops/memes as fill-ins, but wondered if her readers cared, or would be prepared to wait a few days to a week between post, until she actually had something of substance to post.
I do blog hops/memes as a filler. Sure I could increase my traffic flow by actually linking my post to the hop, but I just link back it it. I would like the increased traffic, but would prefer readers to want to read, rather than feel they have to (like I said earlier).
Same goes for what blogs I read. I checked my reader a few days ago & there was 2000+ posts to read. Of course I just marked them all as read. I didn't have the time (or patience) to read them all, but will now start to work out who is worth reading (from my point of view) & who I should unsubscribe from.
I suppose I will keep doing hops/memes the way I am now, but will try to post more meaningful things, considering that's what I started blogging for in the first place.
In that time, I went public, private, public, private, public... for all different reasons. I changed homes (blogs) & although I have deleted, merged & moved blogs, apart from here, I still keep my original blog (When's it gonna be my turn???) blog, which I now use as a place to combine all the blog posts I have made.
I had participated in blog hops & memes before, but when I started my Partners In Crime blog, I went all out, I did the Friday Follow, the Follow Me Follow You, etc. My blog traffic increased, but how many people were actually reading?
In the beginning, I read blogs of those who I considered friends. Those who (like myself) were dealing with infertility. My blogroll was tiny & I was able to keep track of who was doing what, where, when & how (just like if they were a friend who you would see frequently).
When I fell pregnant (maybe a little before), I didn't read as much (even of those who I cared for). Then after the blog hop phase, there was so many, that it was just like a popularity contest. I didn't know who was who, where they were from, what they felt. I came to realise that you should only read those who you feel you can support/gain something from & that your readers should read you, because they want to & not because a blog hop suggests.
Where is this going? I came across a blog post via 6 degrees of blogging (click on a link, then another, then another), where they blogger discussed about how her blogging had dropped off. She did blog hops/memes as fill-ins, but wondered if her readers cared, or would be prepared to wait a few days to a week between post, until she actually had something of substance to post.
I do blog hops/memes as a filler. Sure I could increase my traffic flow by actually linking my post to the hop, but I just link back it it. I would like the increased traffic, but would prefer readers to want to read, rather than feel they have to (like I said earlier).
Same goes for what blogs I read. I checked my reader a few days ago & there was 2000+ posts to read. Of course I just marked them all as read. I didn't have the time (or patience) to read them all, but will now start to work out who is worth reading (from my point of view) & who I should unsubscribe from.
I suppose I will keep doing hops/memes the way I am now, but will try to post more meaningful things, considering that's what I started blogging for in the first place.
