Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that allows book bloggers to discuss issues unique to what we encounter in the blogging world. Every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month we will post a question and invite you to answer, comment and discuss opinions and different views.
Please keep the dialogue courteous. No bashing!
If you would like to participate in this meme please feel free to to grab the button to include in your post with a link to For What It’s Worth Reviews or at Midnyte Reader.
Question: Following: 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?
I use Net News Wire in conjunction with Google Reader. New News Wire is nice because if I read it on my phone it also marks it read on my mac so I don’t have to go through it again on my computer. I have all my blogs organized into folders so that I can easily find my favorites and remember things (i.e. people I met at BEA). That has been incredibly helpful.
I will not follow any blogs through email. I get enough email as it is, I don’t want to add more.
As someone who doesn’t have a ton of followers I am definitely more likely to follow people who have less followers, but I also have to like what they have on their blog.
I pretty much don’t enter any contests, on the few I do enter I am usually a follower already anyway.
I haven’t had anything pop up that makes me immediately want me to unfollow a blog but when I clean out my reader I will unfollow anyone who has stopped blogging, I will look at the post history on my reader (usually 20-25 posts) and see how many I have starred, if I haven’t starred any than I look through the posts to see if anything still appeals to me, if not then I will unfollow, I will also unfollow if all I see are contest after contest with no content.
Wow! You are hard core! I haven’t unfollowed anyone since I started in the whole blogging world! But even though I follow a lot of people, I do tend to click right past them in my googlereader. There are only 4 blogs I will read every post on and a few others that I will glance at from time to time, but the rest I only stop on when the books they are review jump out at me.
Seeing a ton of unread posts stresses me out because I feel a responsibility for it. I do skip around, I just hate seeing it get out of control.
I am going to have to check Net News Wire. It sounds very efficient. I can’t remember the last time I entered a contest.
It’s really good. I make the folders in google and they go right to NNW, plus the app is free for the phone and the mac and free is always good.
I usually use Google Reader, which I have organized into folders. I used to follow people to enter contests but stopped once my Reader started exploding out of control. Now I only follow blogs if I like them. I have unfollowed a few, but usually because they no longer blog or have made some radical changes (one went from a book blog to a shopping blog).
That’s crazy to go from a book blog to a shopping blog! I know it’s your blog and you can do what you want but I think if I was going to completely switch the focus of my blog like that I would just start a new one.
Dang, you really do take following a lot more serious than I do… I might have to give your method a try though!
You know I’m like totally OCD right? This should not surprise you!
I follow if available by RSS feed into my personal Netvibes browser. If the blog isn’t set up for RSS and I want to follow them I sign up for their email.
Steve
I’ll have to check out Netvibes. Thanks for stoppign by!
The only time I’ve unfollowed someone is when they went out of their way to stir up blogger drama. I was having none of it. Then I followed them again accidentally.
Lol. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of who I unfollow and I will follow them again too.
I too refuse to follow people by email. I have no interest at ALL.
Also, I’ve totally never used the starring, but I definitely will be now. Awesome idea.
Thanks, I know it’s not the intended purpose but it works for me :)
And ditto on email. Between 2 jobs, the blog and my personal email I get more than enough.
I need to start unfollowing more. I’ve gone through my list a few times and unfollowed some that were inactive, but I probably should stop following them if I’m not actually reading their content. Although, if everyone did that, everyone would have like 5 followers! But yes, my commenting gets so backed up because I have too many blogs that I follow. I did just recently put all my blogs into folders in my Google reader and that seems to help, because I can mark all the other blogs as read and keep my favorite blogs (like yours!) saved until I can get around to commenting.
Lol I think some people might have 10 followers ;)
I have a system. Everyone starts in the “Newbies” folder. This is where my staring comes in. When I go through and read the Newbies folder I will star posts I like.
Then if I like a lot of posts I will move it into the appropriate folder, which are separted by how often I plan on commenting (favorites, really good, good and when I have time).
I also have folders for people I’ve met at BEA or during readathon or wherever I met them.
As I said… I have a system lol.
Very nice system! I might have to do the starring thing! ;)
The starring works out well, but I know that I’m kind of OCD so it’s not for everyone!