Book Blogger Confessions #18

Book Blogger Confessions is a new bi-weekly meme hosted by Karen @ For What it's Worth Reviews and Midnyte Reader. It was formerly co-hosted by Tiger @ All Consuming Books

Are there blogs you visit and comment on because you like their style, voice etc.(maybe you even converse with the blogger on Twitter & Facebook) but those comments are never reciprocated on your blog?. Do you get a bit offended or do you understand that they may be busy? Or do you comment just because you like a post not expecting anything in return?

There are about 3 blogs where I visit and leave comments and the bloggers reciprocate by visiting my blog and commenting but beyond those three I don’t expect other bloggers I visit and give comments to also come back and visit me and leave a comment. 1. Because the blogs I usually comment or follow are rather large and they get at least 10 comments per post and I know it would be extremely time consuming for them to visit every blogger who leaves a comment on their blog, so I don’t expect them to visit and don’t feel “hurt” if they don’t. 2. I just don’t have that kind of relationship with them probably because I don’t visit them often enough to establish that sort of connection. On the other hand there is one particular blog I visit and comment on regularly though that I don’t even get replies to my comments on the blog itself which at first had me feeling indignant and thinking (I am going through all the trouble to read your post and leave a meaningful comment and you can’t even reply?) Because well it’s not like the post had a large amount of comments but after a while I notice the poster doesn’t reply to any comments, which I find to be a bit odd but I no longer take non-replies personally :P.

Do you comment just because you like a post not expecting anything in return?
This is me most of the time – commenting just because I like the post but I do leave a link under my name like a sort of signature just because it doesn’t hurt to give the poster a little incentive to visit your blog xD. The only times I comment expecting something in return is on posts like Blog Hop, Follow Friday and Waiting on Wednesday when visiting other people’s blogs and commenting is a part of the meme.

Read More

Book Blogger Confessions #17: Following

Book Blogger Confessions is a new bi-weekly meme hosted by Karen @ For What it's Worth Reviews and Midnyte Reader. It was formerly co-hosted by Tiger @ All Consuming Books

How do you follow blogs? Do you use Google Reader? Are you on an e-mail list? Are you more apt to follow people who have less followers? Would you follow a blog to enter a contest? What makes you unfollow a blog?

How do you follow blogs? Do you use Google Reader?
I use google reader and on a much lesser note Bloglovin. Google reader because I use blogger and it’s just super easy for me to scroll through my dashboard and check updates from blogs for the day. Bloglovin is for the blogs I find the most interesting and who I want to keep up to date with so I get a daily digest of the blogs’ latest updates right in my email inbox.

Are you on an e-mail list?
 I am only on email lists for a couple of author blogs.

Are you more apt to follow people who have less followers?
Mostly I follow who ever I find interesting but when it comes to memes like follow Friday I do tend to focus on following blogs who have a small or smaller number of followers because it indicates to me that they are new and I remember being a new blogger.

Would you follow a blog to enter a contest?
I have followed blogs as part of entering giveaways, I have also become twitter followers of bloggers to enter their giveaways but I draw the line at email subscriptions just because I am terrible at consistently checking my email and the updates would pile up in my inbox. After saying that I wish there was a way you could customize your subscriptions so followers could have the option of getting bulk updates once a week instead of every time an update happens because I have people who have subscribed to my blog by email and I sometimes update two or three times in one day and I could imagine what their inbox must look like.

What makes you unfollow a blog?
I have a rule, if you haven’t left a message to your followers saying that you are taking a break and have not updated in 3 months I unfollow you, because what’s the point of following a blogger that is no longer maintaining their blog? If the majority of your posts are giveaways/contests or memes I unfollow you. Seeing nothing but giveaways/contests on a blog makes me think of spam, seeing nothing but memes on a blog gives me the impression that the blogger has nothing individualistic or personal to contribute. I haven’t had to do this for blogs yet but I have unfriended/unfollowed at least two people on goodreads because their updates were hate-filled, flaming rants that they have written or they have liked and I didn’t feel comfortable being associated with someone that is so mean.

Read More