Ouch! UnFollow, a necessary thing?
February 25, 2010 Uncategorized
I think so. And so does one of my favorite bloggers Deb @ Menopausal New Mom. Even though I have had some very good blogger friends get hurt when they tried to figure out why they lost a follower. In my Google reader there are currently over 115 blogs that I am following. But just because I follow it doesn’t mean I read it. Of course not! How can a girl maintain her blog, take care of her family and read 115 blogs a day? Not possible. I have to admit that as I peruse my google reader I skim through the names of the blogs, mentally noting which ones reciprocate my comment love or have posts that I either relate to or thoroughly enjoy.
That is what keeps me returning to a blog – content that I find enjoyable and an author that does not make me feel like they are the star and I merely a fan. Blogging is about friendships and community. As moms we share our struggles, triumphs and otherwise minute details of our lives with other moms. All of a sudden we don’t feel so alone – amazingly we discover other moms are at home with dirty floors, kids with sticky fingers and a toy room in a constant state of disorganization. It brings a huge smile to my heart when I open my email and see comments on my blog posts. Hearing “I know! Mine is the same way” just makes me feel relieved, comforted.
And in the big ‘ol blogosphere there are a lot of moms living lives a million percent different from mine. I really enjoy reading their points of view too. Different religions, world views and value systems make for educational reads.
So why would I unfollow a blog? Here are my top reasons:
- Inability to interact
- lack of updated posts without reason being given
- my own lack of interest in the content
Over the Christmas season I tried so hard to win as many Christmas gifts as I could. This meant following a lot of blogs I never would have otherwise. I found them through Prizey.Net and actually won quite a bit of things. Looking over my list I have unfollowed some of them because of #3 above. I just wasn’t interested in their reviews and giveaways anymore. Granted I could have just left them on my google reader, but I feel like keeping it clean enough so that browsing my favorite blogs is easier.
I try so hard to comment on almost every single person’s blog that comments on mine. If I am pressed for time I will at least shoot a quick personal email in response to their comment. I love making new friends and this helps me to make some great ones.
I know this is a hot topic – one that can be debated over quite a bit. I mean, why un-follow at all? Stats are so important to bloggers! Well, have you ever unfollowed someone? Why?
Comments (42)
so far, I have only unfollowed one…for excessive cursing. Really unnecessary! But I am unable to read all the bogs I follow, I get them delivered by email (Thank God for that, or I could never keep track) then skim through if there is a post that interests me…I go look =)
Oh the cursing. I don’t follow blogs that have that either. There is one that I still go to even though she uses way too much fowl language in a few posts but as long as the good outweighs the bad I might be back. There is another blog where almost every single post has a bunch of cuss words and I just can’t stand that.
I agree. I’ve been entering a lot giveaways lately and have started following a ton of blogs. At some point I’ll have to weed through them a bit. For now I’m new to the blogging world and am trying to make connections and get to know as many bloggers as I can so I try to read as many posts as I can. I still can’t read them all though! Thank goodness for being able to sub by email!
I am in the same boat. I am a newbie and am checking out the scene to see what blogs I really relate to and such.
I have not UnFollowed anyone at this time, but I wont rule it out if there is no interest at all in the bog.
I have have unfollowed blogs several times, mainly because I wanted to clean up my reader. I really enjoy reading the blogs of the people I follow and if there gets to be too many, I just won’t be able to keep up.
I originally followed quite a few blogs so that I could try to win giveaways, but I’ve found that I’m not really interested in strictly giveaway sites anymore, so I just quit following them.
On the flip side though, I have only 29 people following my blog, so I would probably be upset if one of them dropped, especially b/c most are family and friends:)
This really helps me out cause I was considering doing a separate site for my reviews and giveaways, but I don’t think I will anymore. People want to get to know me, not what I like to buy!
Thanks so much for this post! I’m always interested in what other bloggers are doing in that area. I share the same views as you. Right now I have “You follow me I’ll follow you” above my Followers but I’ve discovered that just doesn’t work!
I haven’t unfolloweed anyone on purpose yet…but just the other day I noticed I had duplicates in my google reader…so I started deleting them…then I realized it was unsubscribing me from them even though the duplicate was still listed…it wasn’t updating
So..I’m not sure if that made me unfollow anyone..I hope not..
I have a lot in my google reader too. I am trying to organize them but there are still a bunch that are unorganized so I need to sort them out one of these days.
Hoping I can win a lot of Christmas/birthday gifts throughout the year also
Good luck! I should send you the list of things I won last year! The best thing to do is really watch for contests with low entries and enter those a bunch! I won an Epson Artisan printer because the blogger made it unlimited entries and I went a tad crazy…..(like 20something entries….wow)
I have unfollowed for #s 2 and 3. I have also unfollowed when I had a question about a giveaway and sent the hostess an email. She never responded. I don’t even think the contact me email address was one she used any more, but she also never responded to me on twitter either.
I am new to blogging and following people, but I can already see how easily my email inbox gets clogged after only a day. If I go out of town for a weekend, I am swamped with things when I check it 2 days later. lol. I can see this becoming a problem in the future. I would probably do the same as you, though- weed through them and delete those whose content does not interest me or that I find irrelevant to my life.
I only have time to read over yours and maybe one other each week, though. lol.
I did. She posted 3-4 times a day about NOTHING and talked about herself in the 3rd person andit drove me nuts!
As I am just beginning to blog after lots and lots of thinking about it this past year, I’ve got a lot to figure out. And seeing as I just entered a contest that required me to google friend them, I found your post here so useful. I don’t think I would hesitate to unsubscribe or unfriend someone if the content is purely not helpful or I’m not enjoying it. I’m not really into clutter and excess, and as you mentioned, it’s hard to keep up with all the details when you’re ‘following’ (but not really) sooo many different blogs. Thanks for sharing this post.
I actually am very selective of the blogs I follow. I normally read them extensively prior to following so I rarely ever have a reason to unfollow. I follow out of genuine interest and that typically doesn’t change
I don’t like heavy posting clogging up my reader, and if I’m not interested in whatever they’re posting 3+ times a day about, I’ll take them off the reader so I can see the other posts I *do* want to read. It’s nothing personal… but I have to be selective or the good stuff gets buried.