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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Do Blogrolls Screw With Followers?

I took a break from painting my Cadian Company Command Squad because I got a question... Do blog lists screw with followers for your blog?

Now I am not ragging on blog lists. I really appreciate From The Warp, Bell Of Lost Souls and the newly formed Parade Ground for what they do. They promote and display our posts to a larger audience and without them our blogs wouldn't get read nearly as much and for that were all extremely thankful. However there is another way to view this and it's something I am very guilty of myself.

Say your looking down the blog lists, looking for something that catches your interest. You click on someones blog and read it. After your done you go back to the blog list, scrolling up and down looking for the next thing that grabs your attention.

Ok now stop...

Did you make a comment? Did you become a follower of that blog because you saw something cool? Or did you do what I have done on countless occasions? Treat someones blog as if it was just another blog on the list as if it was just apart of the blog list and not someones hard work and effort?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is this... Do blog lists make followers obsolete? Do you follow the blog list more than your followers list? When you do use the blog list do you become someones follower or leave a comment?

Why does someone need to follow your blog? They can just follow the blog list and follow everyones blog. Why make a comment when the blog list itself may just be making blogs nothing more than scattered articles? Do blog lists take the personal touch out of blogs?

The problem with this is everyone gets a kick out of seeing a new face on their followers list. It's cool to see that someone thinks your blog is cool to follow. But this begs another question? Do you really follow your followers list or do you just rely on the blog lists?

I'll use my own blog as an example.

I post something at midnight. Twenty four hours later I see that nearly one hundred and fifty people looked at my blog. On a good day only five people leave comments. Now that means one hundred and forty five people looked at my blog and then went onto another without leaving anything behind but their I.P. address.

Can't tell you how many times I've done that myself.

Another example of this is Club Workshed. Now this blog has been around for awhile and as of late has some awesome Blood Angels stuff. His paint jobs are nice and the writing is interesting and witty...

I can't tell you when, if at all, I have ever left a comment on this guys site even though I'm the first listed blog on his "Who Do I Follow List," and I feel like a jerk for it. Not to mention it shocks me this guy doesn't have more followers. Thirty seven? Seems really small for a blog this good.

I know for myself I thrill at a new comment or seeing a new face on my Followers list (actually I honor my followers with the title "Elites"). A "Do Onto Others" rule should be in effect here.

The flip side could be that people follow too many blogs and their lists are enormous. It would be hard to comment on them all. Except your little icon is on their page. They know you care. They know you give a damn.

Do you give a damn?

Do I?

10 comments:

Akenseth said...

Totally guilty of that myself. I find it just seems to be a way of easily getting to information that you are interested in, to be honest, I find myself hardly ever looking at the blogs themselves anymore, and just using the RSS feeds to get my data when I'm on the go.

Having the Top Ten list is helpful, but sometimes it seems like it is hard to stand out from the crowd.

CommissarHarris said...

I stand guilty of being a long time lurker. Every thing you have said is true of me. I got into blogging as a way of putting 'memos-to-self' up on how I was doing a thing, but soon found positive comments gave me a real buzz. It took me a long time to get around to realising it might work both ways. So here is a comment. I have read your post and agree entirely.

MasterDarksol said...

I'm not sure it does interfere with followers. I've regularly found a blog I liked on someone else's list, followed them, and put them on my own list.

As for commenting, I'm not sure about what everyone is doing as a whole, but for me, it's a combination of time and not having much to say. I may find something interesting, but if I have nothing to add to the conversation (especially if several others have addressed the same thing before me) I probably won't comment, so that I don't clutter their comment thread with my inanity.

Karitas said...

I'm usually quite good about trying to commnet.

I'll admit though even having said that, If I look at 20 blog posts in an evening I might only feel I have comment to offer on five.

I do however use my dashboard "blogs I follow" list for all my blog reading. I treat lists like FTW as a wicked way to find new blogs to follow.

Mainly because these move so fast If I were to rely on just them I'd miss some really good stuff.

Further, I tend to think of my site's followers as my readers, anyone else simply isnt on the radar as they havent declared that they read what I write. I'm fortunate that as many people as do want toread my ravings.

I do my best to pay it on.

That said, with over a hundred followers I still get 5/6 comments a post on average. sometimes none, occasionally it'll break double figures,

it's still better than most of the forums though, as the comments I do get are always worth reading (except the chineese pron spam)

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

Interesting... nice post.

As for me, there's no way I could follow everyone. I have everyone added to my personal blog reader and use the FTW lists to see what everyone is doing a couple times a day.

When I started out, I tried to become a member of everyone who follows FTW but it's nigh impossible to do now.

I try and comment, but I am guilty of not commenting as much as I could sometimes.

I wish I had some better insight for you but I'll give you FTW's stats... and we're not that big.
Just over 550 followers.
Just over 2000 looks a day.
Maybe a couple comments depending on the post.

People are just so busy these days I guess.

Col. Corbane said...

I'm not sure if I should comment, as it seems like I'm trying to defend my bloglist rather than adding my thoughts.

Personally, I use bloglists like FTW and Bols to find new blogs/posts that interest me. If I take the time to read the post, then normally, I'll take the time to comment. If the blog has lots of posts that interest me, then I'll follow it.

I've found the majority of the blogs I follow via bloglists and the majority of my visitors come from other bloglists whether they're FTW/Bols or just bloglists on other peoples blogs.

So, I don't think they screw with followers, more like they bring new potential followers to my blog. Whether they follow my blog depends on whether the stuff I blog about interests them.

The 25mm Warrior said...

Col. Corbane: Comment on man!

Like I said in the beginning of the post, this was not meant to dis blog lists. I love bloglists. You putting together one for us Guard players was a much needed breath of fresh air and consolidated info for us. Nice job.

Not to mention you were even singled out by 40k Radio for being a guy that comments a lot didn't they? So your leading from the front sir!

I was just wondering if anyone out there treated blog lists like I have in the past... as something to view rather as something to interact with.


Akenseth: Yeah dude the top ten lists are nice but you touch on the fact that they tend to be exclusive. It is hard to be a big fish in a big warp

CommissarHarris: You hit it dead on man... it is a "buzz." And you right, other people like to get buzzed too. WE NEED TO START BUZZING EACHOTHER!!!

Master Darksol: Even if I have nothing to say I try to say something (when I do comment... the purpose of the post). I think even a "nice looking fig" is good for everyones soul but you are right... don;t want to just say anything. However I dig everyones insanity so it cool around here yo!

Karitas: We all need to be like you bro, way to set the example!

Schnitzel said...

As I tend to check blogs on my crackberry at work, I make sure to subscribe to any blogs I happen upon and enjoy. I'm not much for commenting on other's blogs as I feel most times I have nothing worthwhile to offer, but I do pay honest attention to the majority of the blogs on my list.
And I of course cruise through BOLS and FTW for new blogs to add to my reading list.

MIK said...

I stick to my dashboard snapshot to scroll through blogs I follow. If I see something interesting, I'll click it and read further. Usually if I've gotten that far, I'll leave a comment, something more than a 'cool' or whatever, but sometimes that's all I can muster.

I take comments left on my own blog to heart though and make it a point to reply to every last one. I like the idea of forming a mini-community across timezones (and countries) of like-minded gamers, friends really.

Papa JJ said...

Looking back on it now, I realize this article of yours completely changed the way I interact with other blogs. Before I was a lurker through and through, happily (and perhaps selfishly) absorbing their content while remaining quiet and anonymous on my end. With this post you got me to see them in a much more personal way and to appreciate the effort and passion that goes into them. I now really enjoy being a participant in the hobby activities of other writers, even if it is just to show interest by becoming a follower or leaving a simple comment complimenting their work. This change in attitude has also benefited me as many of those I follow have eventually found their way to my own blog and taken an interest in it. So thank you very much, you helped make this aspect of my hobby tremendously more rewarding for me. Thanks!