What is a good bloggy friend? Well not just a bloggy one but a virtual one in general. What decides those you engage with on twitter or in a forum or on their blog?
I pondered this question myself and found that virtual life was just like real life, some people I like and some people I do not. Of course the harder thing is that the written word can come across as much more harsh and without heart and that can put me off people. I can read a really popular blog and wonder what it is about and why it has such a big following and then I can read another with no followers and love it and want to read everything they do. Different strokes for different folks they say! and wouldn't the world be boring if we all liked the same.
I have been blogging for what feels like ages now, I started for a very brief moment in 2008 and then came back to it seriously in April 2009 but I did not make my blog public until much later, January 2010. So I have been around and out there for 8 months and like many people I sometimes wonder if I am liked, if my blog is read, if my stats should be better etc but I really have learnt since my blogging break for lent that my blog is for me and readers and commenter's are a bonus rather than the be all and end all. This is not a business, I have never yet done a review (although I will certainly happily consider it if anyone wants to ask me! lol) and my career is not as a PR guru or journalist, which seems to me to be many of the people writing successful blogs.
If I was to compare myself to other people who started blogging about the same time I would probably end up crying as they have higher follower numbers, more comments, re-modeled and gorgeous looking blogs and I do not but it really does not matter. My blog is an outlet for all the crap inside my head and sometimes I feel as if I get to do some good by sharing my stories and life and showing these things happen to other people too and we survive.
My latest post has reached into the 20's with comments and that is fab. When I started out I was lucky to get 3 or 4. Some of the simplest things I have written or posted are the ones that have achieved the best interaction and you know what that tells me? That people do like me for who I am and not what I pretend to be or aim to be. So I will just go on being happy go lucky Mich, the woman with big issues around food, who shouts too much at her kids but adores them none the less and is a bit of a barmy Christian.
Anyway I think I have digressed, I started out writing a post about was what makes a good bloggy friend. I have sometimes recently started to wonder if I am keeping up my end of the deal. Some fab people are continually commenting on my blog and when I do not get to theirs very often I feel bad. I know it should not be tit for tat in this game but the whole thing of interaction and friendship is that it should be two way and of course, where would we be without spreading the blogging love. So recently I have been trying to do that much more, visiting new blogs and commenting, especially for new bloggers who have hardly any followers are are just in the beginning stages of developing their bloggy confidence. I am no Blog Idol (thanks for the fab phrase Holly) that they will want to aspire to be but if I am kind and encouraging, helping them on their journey, that can't be bad - can it?
So tell me this - How often do you get to visit sites of those you class as bloggy friends? Do you have a list of sites you must, should, could, will never visit? Is it pure randomness?
How many people are sat in your google reader? I assume you must have visited them at least once? but when do you go back? What pulls you - in the title? the first line of the post? the picture with it? or is it purely on the person and which blogs you have grown to love.
Blogging is such an interesting arena, where else would we be privy to the innermost thoughts of often near strangers!
