The Things We Do for Followers

A couple weeks ago, I received a note from a fellow blogger on 20 Something Bloggers. This person complimented me on my blog, telling me how much she liked it, and included a link to her own blog. I was flattered by the compliment, but then I started thinking. If she liked the blog so much, why didn't she become a follower?

I checked the blogger's profile, and looked at the comments she had left on other people's profiles. As it turns out, she had left the exact same compliment on dozens of other blogs; many of the people were flattered and became her followers.

Somehow, it made me think of this guy who was one of the matches that eharmony thought would be compatible with me. He only had one picture up on his profile; it was a picture of Daniel Craig. I mean, really? It's bad enough when guys don't put up any pictures at all on their profiles (and a significant number of the matches I've been sent don't post any pictures). But if you're going to put up a fake picture to attract people, DON'T put up one of an A-list movie star; everyone's going to know IMMEDIATELY that it's a fake. The guy took down the fake picture a few hours later, but I had to wonder if any women actually responded to him.

I recently entered my blog on blogged and blogcatalog, which are two blog directories that people use to publicize their blogs and promote their own writing. One blogger from blogcatalog posted a thread in one of the discussion forums; it went something like this:

Stay AWAY from the blogger who writes about Beanie Babies; she is a LIAR. She said she would follow my blog if I followed hers, but she DIDN'T and now she's going to HELL because she LIED and even though all 5 of my followers think that I am simply FASCINATING, this person is a LIAR and she should be banned from the blogosphere FOREVER and...

Ok, so the blogger didn't actually write that. But his message was pretty much the same. He was very angry that the person whose blog he was following didn't return the favor; incidentally, this angry blogger happens to be from my hometown.

I've gotten several messages from fellow bloggers on blogged.com and blogcatalog who leave messages like, "Check out my blog; follow my blog and I'll follow yours." But the people who have contacted me through these directories have blogs about stuff like technology and politics, neither of which interest me very much.

There have been several discussion threads about this on 20sb, about bloggers who are trying to figure out how to get more followers; there was a discussion thread recently about whether people followed other people's blogs in order to get them to follow theirs. Although the discussion forums on 20sb are meant to promote discussion topics on everything from grad school to dating to jobs, many people will simply create a discussion thread to promote their own blogs. Although I have met many awesome bloggers through 20sb, I have to admit that the self-promotion that other bloggers (not the ones that I think are awesome) do on this community does get a little annoying sometimes.

I follow several blogs, but not as many as some people do. The number one reason is that I don't have a lot of time to read everyone's blogs. I found the blogs I'm following now from other people's blog rolls. They stood out because they were funny, interesting, and the bloggers wrote about stuff that I could relate to. But if I choose not to follow someone's blog, it's nothing personal. I can't explain why I don't follow someone's blog, because there isn't always just one reason. And I don't think I really owe an explanation anyway. If someone reads my blog and likes it enough to be a follower, then great. If not, oh well. And either way, I'm not willing to follow someone's blog just so they'll follow mine, you know?

What about you? What makes you decide to follow someone's blog? Have you ever unfollowed anyone? How do you get more people to follow your blog?