This is one of my wife's beautiful photos, untouched. No reason for it, I just like to pick favorites and show them off :)
I have a question for everyone. Let me set it all up first. I read 26 blogs. Let me say actually that I have 26 bookmarked in my blog folder. The majority I bookmarked purely out of interest that had been sparked from a link in someone elses blog. A couple of them, I really dont read at all, I just give them a quick look to make sure I havent missed anything interesting, and then move on to my favorites. I love to read, so I do love looking around and seeing what people have to say and what others are blogging about. However, it can become quite the cumbersome task.
I think that for the most part, the people whose blogs I really love, know it. I try to actively leave comments, and not because I want to be on the list, but because I have a genuine interest and love reading their blogs and seeing how their lives are going. Being a new blog ourselves is interesting. We have moments where we're glad that we dont have one of those 10,000 comment blogs. And then at times, it seems that it would be interesting. However, the more I read, the more I find, I think that I enjoy being where we're at. We have just enough interaction with just enough people, that we find ourselves in a place where we can easily keep up without becoming disengenuine.
So, my question is many fold, and I'll try to put as best as I can.
*Do you like the volume of people your blog attracts?
*Did you ever find yourself starting to try to read an overwhelming number of blogs?
*Do you enjoy your blog when more people visit, or do you like a closer circle of readers?
*What kinds of things did you experience during your first year blogging?
(ie; did you change to a different arena fairly soon (we switched from LiveJournal to here within a month), were you looking to advertise, attract more people, less? etc)
I could probably go on and on with this, but I think that you get the idea. I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's experiences. :) M-
* i do enjoy the number of people this blog attracts. it's a good balance of ivp, friends, family, and misc. so far, no trolls, so i feel lucky.
ReplyDelete*YES. i've had to unsubscribe to a few blogs that post way too much, and it feels manageable now, provided i don't miss a day. google reader helps.
* ironically, i feel more liberated to speak my mind with a larger audience. the close circle feels more like i'll experience personal confrontation, and i don't do confrontation very well. with strangers, i feel a bit more anonymous.
* w/ wearefambly, i've always been w/ wp. i went from no readers to a lot of lesbian women who were ttc. it was a blast! and then i got pregnant within 6 months of starting the blog. i've toyed w/ the idea of advertising but with my traffic level, it would be more nuisance than revenue. at this point, i'm looking forward to maybe trying to grow my readership, and continuing the conversation wherever it leads. :)
*I'd like a few more readers than I have, but I think that like you said, I like that the ones that do read I get to have meaningful interaction with.
ReplyDelete*YES
*I definitely enjoy my blog when more people read.
*I've been with Blogger, typepad, and now wordpress. I've gone password protected to relatively anonymous due to some writing I've done about my family (of origin). I stopped posting pictures of the kids out of fear of creeps.
*I love the idea that ANYONE reads our blog. We definitely have regulars and passers by/infrequent visitors and I think the mix of perspectives is great. Sometimes someone who doesn't read often is more free to be straight with you without worrying about upsetting the applecart. I've noticed our readership change a little since we got pregnant. I know from experience how hard it can be to read of someone elses pregnancy when you're still stuck in the TTC mire, so expected a few readers to need some distance, but I've been thrilled to realise we seem to have new readers and commenters from amongst the ranks of the pregnant/partenting.
ReplyDelete*I DO read an overwhelming number of blogs!! 103 to be precise! The vast majority are lesbian TTC/pregnant/parenting and most are fairly active. I've lost a few along the way for various reasons and had to stop myself gaining any/many more, though if someone comments regularly on our blog, I do tend to find myself following them back home and becoming hooked. When we started blogging, I think I looked up and read practically every lesbian TTC blog there was out there, but the numbers have ballooned so much over the last year or so that I've had to accept defeat and just stop seeking out new ones!
*We started off at Blogger and moved to Wordpress after a while. We like it better here. We started the blog as a personal outlet and as a means of trying to seek advice, support and friendship from people in a similar situation. That's exactly what we've got - the IVP have have been and continue to be an amazing, wonderful group of friends (and that's from someone who thought the whole idea of online friendship was a bit weird)!
Really, I think I should stop now!
i second vee, and i think you may need a bloglines account? email me if you need info! xxxx
ReplyDeleteI've been blogging for 18 months, ttc for 13 and not pregnant ever. I've noticed that I attract a steadily increasing readership each season. I mostly attribute this to not being pregnant yet. As others graduate, newbies come on board and gravitate towards those still trying. In some senses, it is fun to have a lot of readers. But, I do read an overwhelming number of blogs now and do not have time to comment and support people who are commenting and supporting me. So, that's a tough balance.
ReplyDelete