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On Blogging

Nate

Not too long ago, I got a “like” on one of my posts from a blogger I hadn’t run across before. Out of curiosity, I jumped over to her blog to see what she liked to write about. Turns out she’s a Christian. Which is fine — I certainly have many Christian friends, and several of them even “like” my posts from time to time. But I understand why they do it. With this person, I didn’t get it.

I still don’t know what caused her to hit the “like” button, but I’ve started to get suspicious of that kind of thing. I’ve noticed that there are number of people who seem to blog simply to see how many followers they can attract. I’ve been amazed at how many followers some blogs get, especially since many of them are pretty new. How do they get such high readership? And then, I’ll often see that their posts have almost no comments on them. What’s up with that?

I assume that many of them scour the internet for blogs that they can follow, whether they blog on similar topics or not, just hoping that they’ll be followed in return. But what does this really accomplish? Does it really get quality readers? I’m not so sure…

And while I’d love to have thousands of followers, I’m much happier having actual dialog on my blog. I’ve never gone out looking for readers. The people who have come here have usually found me in WordPress or Google searches, or I’ve made an actually substantive comment on their blog, and they’ve come over here in response. This has made the growth of my blog a very slow process, but it feels more genuine to me. I’ve gotten this audience for the right reasons.

I was glad to read two other blog posts in the last two days that kind of echo what I’m driving at here. My friend Nila wrote this post about the merits of having something worthwhile to say, rather than focusing on a writing schedule. And someone in the comments section of that post linked to this article on “slow blogging.” In other words, thinking about what you want to say before you rush to say it. It’s refreshing (to me) to see that not everyone is being swept away by all the meta reasons to have a blog, but are still interested in conversation.

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Published by Nate

76 thoughts on “On Blogging”

  4. I notice this with ‘follows’ as well. Sometimes I can even tell by a blog’s title (name) that I don’t want to go there. When serious writers who are trying to promote their books follow me, then I know it’s a scam to get me to follow them. It kind of makes me angry because I couldn’t care less how many “followers” I have – I want readers, and there’s a difference.

    Thanks for bringing this up, Nate. And Merry Christmas to you! 😉
    C

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  6. You make me think. As it’s the holiday season, I shall steal from Buddy the Elf: “thinking is my favorite!”

    I read here frequently, but respond rarely because your content demands a level of dedication to complex and demanding conversation for which I simply haven’t the time (seriously: when do you sleep??). I’ve learned a lot here, and that’s an invaluable thing. Thank you, Nate.

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  11. arch, you’re a lot of fun. so I checked out COLONstorms nonsense.
    thanks for the xmas cheer. lol.

    isn’t the hate of gay people sickening?
    doesn’t it even make it more vile when they use jeeezzzuuuusss to spew their hate?

    so, i’ll just slap her around until she does ban me.

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  12. lol, so, she already deleted three of my comments.

    xtians get so mad when you spell jeeeeezzzzuuuussss they way they pronounce it
    and they hate it even worse when you end each comment with “HAIL SATAN”

    well, she’s no Nate, that’s for sure.

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  13. So how am I doin’ so far? How did you like the way I turned the tiger and hyena thing around on him?

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  14. “well, she’s no Nate, that’s for sure.” – Well, “she’s” a “he,” so — (Line from the insurance commercial!)

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  15. Just saw some of your comments – and you’re SURPRISED he deleted them? I just can’t take you anywhere without a leash, can I? Just kidding! Let’s see how long it takes you to get banned – think we could get a pool going?

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  16. arch, you’re hilarious. how ridiculous that someone would actually believe that norman Rockwell paintings depict the actual reality of life.

    same type of people that believe that father knows best and leave it to beaver represented actually amercian family life.

    so stupid.

    anyway, fyi, Rockwell had gay friends.

    and fyi, colorstorm has sexual issues, his anti gay stance is bordering on the depraved.
    he most likely is a sausage smoker wannabee.

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  18. You are SO getting coal in your stocking! Yeah I know, you were hoping for Brad Pitt – I used to wish for Mariah Carey until she got fat. In the day, she was FINE!

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  23. Well, coming from you, I take that as quite a compliment! Should you see a fat man in a red suit, standing over your bed tonight going, “Ho, ho, ho!” – enjoy —

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  24. Oh, MY! I just discovered this thread – I know, I know, where’ve I BEEN?? and I am laughing my fool head off — Nate, I think one of the explanations for your blog’s popularity has to be the humorous content. . . I mean it! Not to mention your toleration for some of us.. .:)

    I think you rock!! Happy New Year!! xx

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  25. I”m definitely guilty of this, though I’ve since tried to stop. I’ve found I mainly keep writing for myself. I can’t really figure out what I think until I write something out.

    Thanks for stating these points out loud. It needed to be said.

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