November 15, 2014

Blog Roll Thinking

Dear friend Marion B, a personal friend and blogger from Open Diary.  2001

I used to blog at Open Diary (OD).  At this very first blogger hive site, I was lucky to make many personal friends.  We would meet in person, and our friendships grew.  Over the years, OD began burping, and some days it faded away.  I kept writing there, but I opened my Blogger site Postcards.  Pretty soon, I had a blog list of friends here too.

Open Diary died one day, and its blogging family spread out among the stars.  I joined one of the sites they joined just to continue reading their lives, and later I joined another just to keep up with one single friend. Now I find I post on three blog sites with some degree of dismay.

One of my favorite people on Blogger, Tabor made comment this week about blog rolls.  She reads 147 bloggers and can easily find herself swept away reading other’s blogs.  Now after finding one of her photos posted on Pinterest with credit, she comments that “We grow whether we expect it or not.”  She asks?  “How many lurkers read your blog but never comment?     

“Do any of you think about this?”

Yes, I do.  On my Posts page, I find I have 19 to 32 readers every day vs the 40 some I would get at OD.  On the Stats page, I am told that 428 have viewed my page today and 536 yesterday.  The two sets of Stats don’t correlate in my fuzzy brain.  Imagine, over 18,000 hits a month and only 9 notes.  Mind numbing.  Mind boggling. 

‘Does Blogging add balance to your time or do you find it sometimes takes up too much of your time?”

Yes, sometimes it takes up too much time, but without my blogging I wouldn’t remember my days.  Keeping track of life is a very important thing to me of the damaged brain.  Unfortunately Facebook is my biggest problem.  As blogging falters across the web, more folks use Facebook.  I have two volunteer jobs updating Facebook pages....posting and reading there sure takes time.

“How many folks on your blog list?  How many do you "follow."  How often?”

I post my list sans names tho I can recommend them all:

·       Blogger
·       26 people blogs:  10 write often: One has stopped and I keep her listed because she was extra special to me…real creativity.  1 old personal friend writes rarely.  1 hasn’t decided if he will keep blogging. 2 are personal fashion blogs that update often, and I always read them.  1 I don’t like.  Did I say that?  I check the other’s often and read them when they post.
·       20 shipping blogs:  I check 6 every day, Only one is no longer updated.
·       15 History blogs: I read 6 often and the top three all the time: All current.
·       18 Author blogs: I only read those who keep blogs with any regularity: All current
·       15 food bloggers: Read 3 regularly other’s when I can:  All current

·       Prosebox
·       9 old friends 8 write often: I read them all.

·       EWS
·       8 old friend 4 don’t write:  I read all that write

14 comments:

  1. You are right up there with Tabor on the number of blogs. I've only been on this for about 6 months, but I'm enjoying it. I'm sure we all have our favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My brother in law was on Open Diary for a very long time. He was devastated when it died. He lost a decade plus of writing. I back my blog up every month and, like yourself, use it to remember. I don't read as many blogs as I used to and so many that I enjoyed have fallen by the wayside.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have a lot of friends. I keep up with Wordpress and Blogger friends, but not everyday...except you of course. Been here twice today. I check in the AM and PM. Sometimes I am on Facebook, but not often. My kids and several bird and work friends, plus other relatives are on FB. Will check it tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are a good and perfect soul for really thinking about this...even in more depth than I did when I first wrote the original post! There must be a future Margaret Mean somewhere working on all this data!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ack.. I don't fit any of those categories you listed on Blogger so I must be the one you don't like!

    I'm kidding. You visit often and leave such kind comments.. you must like me. ;

    ReplyDelete
  6. I blog every other day, now. That's all I have the energy for. Sometimes, I comment, sometimes I don't. It depends on the subject and the way I feel about it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't seem to make myself write regularly but I have read you, tabor, and Ernestine every day for years. You three consistently inspire me. Mage posts encourage me to be curious, interested in everything, and artistic. Why, I once rearranged my living room because of you! You make me want to live my life flat out! Tabor posts sometimes thrill me with a beautiful phrase or lovely description. She makes me think about all kinds of social issues and occasionally she hits a really tender spot in my heart with her honesty. Ernestine is my virtual mentor as she journals the daily life of a woman who has made courageous choices and has a deep interior life. She lives a simple and beautiful life, sees and appreciates beauty, and counts her blessings every day.
    I know there are hundreds of others I could learn from and perhaps one day I will, but for right now, that's all the blog time I need!
    You three,in your own ways, provide my daily bread and I am so grateful. .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Btw that is one sassy purse in the photo!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mage, at least you get comments. I don't think anyone looks at my blog. Will has gone there once. Oh well, I don't write everyday but write when I feel I need to express something. I look at your blog everyday. I know I don't comment all the time but I enjoy reading it a great deal. Please keep writing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is actually the first time I've read you, I think. Don't know how I stumbled across your blog. I've been blogging daily for nearly 15 years and almost never get comments, though I have about 30 regulars on Blogger (the mirror entry to Funny the World, which has maybe 600 readers, 3 of whom comment regularly! I do love sharing others' lives.

    ReplyDelete
  11. My goodness. Glad I came back to read Rain Treaux. Heartwarming!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry...I guess it was Lonely Rivers!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I used to read about 50 a day. But alas, most have disappeared. I blame Facebook for such sins.

    ReplyDelete

postcards

Celebration of Life