February 8: Why Lead When You Can Follow?

I have a friend who writes a blog and a few weeks ago, she wrote an entry about wanting her readers to become "followers." A follower on Blogger is nothing more than a reader that has attached his or her name and/or picture to a particular blog. (You can see my list of followers on the left-hand side of this page beneath the titles of my recent posts.) At first, I thought it was a silly and pointless request. In her post she had said that it was her goal to have at least one hundred followers by the end of the year. She pointed out that there were a lot of people that approached her about her entries and that they were constantly praising her for her creative writing skills. She was, and still is very receptive to any comments that people give her in regards to her blog, but she wanted these people to show their support by clicking the "Follow" button on her page. This was the part that I thought was frivolous and unavailing. I even left a comment letting her know my feelings on the topic.

She called me the next day and chewed me out for leaving such a rude comment. At the time, I didn't realize that what I was saying was very rude at all. I told her that I just didn't understand her fascination with getting people to sign up and follow her blog. I thought that a person that wanted as many followers as possible was just as bad as a person that wanted as many friends on Myspace or Facebook. I thought it was a superficial way to feel more popular and better about herself.

She made some pretty strong arguments though as to why she wanted the followers. Apparently, the more followers a particular blog has, the better chances it has to be featured on the Blogger website. She said that a lot of the time when random people search for blogs to read or join, they base their opinions solely on how many followers that blog has. Because of her desire to become a professional writer, she wanted to increase her ways of being discovered and noticed. One way to do that, she thought, was to gain more followers.

After apologizing for being such a "rudey" and trying to convince her that I had no intention of being inconsiderate at all, I changed my view on the matter. I've thought a lot about that conversation since. I've always enjoyed writing, but I have really gained a new appreciation for the craft and the people that do it for a living since starting this blog. I feel like I've accomplished something after every entry I write. There are a few posts that I'm not wild about, but for the most part, I really like the topics that I've come up with. I know I'm mostly doing this project for myself, but I also really want people to read what I write. I understand that it's difficult to follow a blog every single day, but sometimes I feel like I'm just writing for my three followers.

Just like my friend, I've been approached quite a few times about different posts. I've received a lot of random (and sometimes anonymous) comments and I've even had friends of friends mention my blog to me. I love getting comments from all of these new people, but it's still very difficult to get over the idea that Lizz, Max, and Steve are my only readers. I know my parents and my sister read each post, but there are still so many others that read them too and I want to know about them and you.

My request is the same as my friend's. If you read my blog, please follow it. It's so simple to become a follower and you won't even get an email after every post. The only thing that will happen is that your name will show up on my list of followers. You can use just your first name so there aren't any privacy issues either. If you already have a Google account, it's that much easier. I know that if I have more followers, it will inspire me to continue to come up with creative topics and I also think it would be very cool to be a featured blog on the website.

So, although this makes me a look like a hypocrite in every sense of the word, please let me know that you've been reading my blog by becoming a follower. Having to come up with a new topic every day of the year is going to be difficult enough, but if I see your name on that list of followers, you will really help me achieve my goal. Thank you.