Tag: blogging

Having copious of followers doesn’t mean a thing

Mia9 Comments
desk with things on its side
Made with Canva

Yesterday when I was scrolling my Pinterest feed, I came across a pin about why companies fail. There was this tip about having followers on social media etc. It was about a business but it’s good advice for blogging too. Having copious of followers on your blog doesn’t mean they actually read your blog. I always say the quality is better than quantity. You can have thousands of followers but you can never guarantee how many of them actually read the blog. Maybe some only collect followers so they can feel good about themselves. Blogging is not only for reading but also for interacting with others. I can understand if you don’t know what to say or you’re shy about leaving a comment. I don’t always comment on other people’s blogs either. Only writing ‘Great post’ isn’t really constructive. A like is better than an unimaginative comment.

There is a lot of tips about how to gain more followers but you can forget that. A lot of those tips are about how to get customers. Not so much about blogging as a hobby. Getting followers is a marathon. It takes time. Some blogs might get more in a short time but for some, it takes longer. It’s not a competition where the person with the most follows in a week or a month gets a big prize. Promoting your blog on social media is waste of time if you ask me. If your blog is on WordPress, only people who also are on it can follow your blog. Correct me if I’m wrong. None of my friends on Facebook or even on Twitter read blogs. I don’t think anyone has found this blog on social media even if I post there regularly. Especially on Twitter. It’s like talking to a wall sometimes. It’s more likely to get readers to your blog through WordPress Reader than on social media.

Having followers and having readers is two different things. Many celebrities have millions of followers but how many of them actually read what they write. Maybe people only follow them because it’s cool. None of these celebs interacts with their fans for real. How would they have time anyway? Sometimes you can see some of them responding to their fans. Like Pink or Stephen Fry. It’s not an issue for them if people are followers or readers. For them, it’s just sharing things. For us ‘normal’ people it’s more important. Maybe not everyone but some of us rather have readers to our blogs than just followers. We want to share things but we also want interaction. You really can’t wait for people to find your blog. You have to comment on other people’s blog post too. This is something I forget about it myself. I try to reply to every comment I get. If I don’t, at least I like the comment just to prove I read it.

Having too many followers and following a lot is a bit superficial. No one has that much time so they could read every blog they follow. I would rather follow a blog if I actually read it. Some people brag about how many followers they have. It’s really off-putting. You got to have some dignity and not sell yourself short. I wonder if these people ever got enough attention at home or why do they have such urge to get noticed. If you want to become an internet prostitute, be my guest. Most of us want to keep our self-respect. Our life is not about how many followers we have. Having copious of followers doesn’t mean a thing. It’s about people who actually care.

It takes a lot to get things out of you

Mia2 Comments
creative mess
Made in Canva

Sometimes things you do feels like psychical labour. If it’s blogging or job search. It takes a lot to get things out of you. You try to figure out what to write but nothing comes out. You stare at the white paper or screen and you get nothing. You need to write that blog post or that cover letter but you can’t find the right words. That’s what happens to me a lot. I dislike writing cover letters because I never know what to write. Blogging is easier because most of the time I know what to say.

Recently though, I noticed in the stats that my posts haven’t drawn that much traffic to this blog. Things like this shouldn’t bother me but I would be lying if it didn’t. Maybe August was just a slow month. Luckily this blog is as a hobby so I don’t have any pressure to blog. I write to write and not make a profit from it. I haven’t really had anything to write about. Maybe it’s one of those dry spells. It’s like swimming in tar. This is my 5th year in blogging and every post can’t get a lot of traffic. Stats don’t tell the whole truth either, remember that. Especially if you only write it as a hobby.

Trying to find blogging tips if you don’t want a living of it, is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. That’s almost forced labour. All you find is how to make money. Maybe one day I should write a post about blogging as a hobby. It’s just that I’m not good at giving advice. I can only give my view on it but I’m not very helpful in that field. If you really search on Google, you might find advice about hobby blogging. Blogging is not rocket science. It’s easy to start one. It’s getting readers and followers to your blog that needs work. It really depends on what kind of blog you have. For me, it took some years but I got there in the end (515 follows so far) Taking part in writing challenges is one way to get noticed. Like this, Ragtag daily prompt. It doesn’t feel like labour at all. On the contrary, it gives you more motivation to keep blogging and fun is the word that should describe it all.

Welcome to my kindom

Mia4 Comments
welcome on board
©Pixabay

Welcome to my kingdom to my old and new followers. I almost have 500 followers on this blog. I never imagined I would even get any. But I guess patience is a virtue for a blog like this. Some followers have disappeared but I got new ones instead. So thank you for finding my blog. It’s still for writing down my thoughts and share my experiences. Even it got .blog on the end of the link, blogging will still remain as a hobby.

I found a post from August 2013 about 5 things I can’t live without. I did post before that too though. I was only testing the ice so to speak. It was only after my mother died in 2013 that I started to blog more in 2014. It’s been good therapy. It was actually The Daily Post (RIP), Zero to Hero challenge that I learned more about blogging. The updating the site is over but there’s still great tips there for any blogger who starting out. Just a free tip 😉 I learned there a lot.

This post is going to be my 855th post and that is a lot. It would take forever to read all of them. I don’t even remember what I’ve written. I rather look at the present and the future. I’m probably gonna repeat many times about the same things and that’s not because I’m over 40 and my memory starts to go. It’s more about the information I have in my head. There so much it spills over. It’s amazing how human brains work. We’re all like walking computers. If you don’t use your brain it will get lazy. It seems some people use their brains even less because of the smartphones. Luckily I don’t have one and I won’t fall for that trend. Unless I really, really have to.

So welcome to my kingdom. It’s been a long run so far. I hope you all enjoyed my blog so far. I just wanted to thank you all for finding this blog. I really appreciate it. This what blogging is about, sharing and caring. Greetings from a hot Finland and it doesn’t seem to stop for a while. This place really needs a cold shower (rain) but that’s wishful thinking even if the forecast says it will come. It better or it will be too tiring to do anything. That includes writing a new post to this blog.