I think that one of my major failings whilst having a stab at this blogging lark has been around responding to comments that people have left on my posts. This is before I even consider commenting elsewhere.
And I do feel rather guilty about that. If some one takes the time to visit, read and then comment on something that you have cobbled together it seems, at the very least, to be good manners by acknowledging the fact with some level of response. As mitigation I would say that time is not something I have in abundance. Get home from work for the real job of the day in discharging ones duty to the family and then time and sports fixtures permitting hitting the computer much later on in the evening.
I do tend to find the writing of posts somewhat laborious and time consuming. How it takes so much time to put together posts of such ineptitude is beyond me. And then there is the visiting of other blogs. Every time that I am on I will go through my entire blogroll. It’s no accolade of distinction but if you do get onto my list of links I will be coming to read your latest missives to the world on a regular basis. Which is why my roll isn’t as big as some peoples. I also find that this is invariably the most time consuming element of the process.
It occurred to me though that many don’t update on a daily basis. And that visiting some of these less frequently may free up time for better interaction with those kind enough to leave comments here.
Hence I have now split my links list into’ daily reads’ and ‘weekly reads’. This isn’t in anyway to suggest that the weekly reads are any less important than the daily ones. It’s just an attempt to be slightly more sophisticated with the use of my time by making it relative to the frequency of the posting to the blogs I enjoy reading.
I suspect that I will also use the ‘weekly’ section to introduce a few more links. There are several blogs which are new to me that I would like to visit in a regular basis. But not too many though as it may undermine the whole point of the exercise.
Dull post this to be sure but no one visits on a Saturday anyway. Well they don’t come here. 15 visits today by 23.00hrs. Perhaps that’s because I never seem to reply to anyone’s comments!
I think that one of my major failings whilst having a stab at this blogging lark has been around responding to comments that people have left on my posts. This is before I even consider commenting elsewhere.
13 comments:
"Hence I have now split my links list into’ daily reads’ and ‘weekly reads’."
Makes sense to me; I know that sometimes I do several posts in one day, and then may go a week or more without posting.
Commenting seems to be a thing that men are just not as good at as women. We seem to consider it part of the process I guess.
I know when I started out as a reader of blogs, at least four or five months before I started to blog myself, I really appreciated when my comment was answered so I always answer each and every one, even though I know hardly any one comes back to read them.
I also try to comment if I visit although quite often I can't think of anything specific to say and don't wish to just say Good post.
I use Bloglines myself so can see who has updated and who has not. That said I have 240 blogs there although I don't check them all out obviously. Some are techie blogs that I check only intermittently. I must prune some of them out.
I thought Colin Campbell's idea in the mailing list was a very good one, reading blogs using Firefox. He has BP divided into groups, as bookmarks in folders. So you open one folder (say it has ten blogs)as open all tabs and all ten blogs open across the top of the page as tabs and you just hop from one to another, closing each one as you finish.
The one disadvantage is that you could be visiting a blog which has not updated. But after the initial set-up, it is very quick.
I tried it with the first 10-12 in BP and set it up in a few minutes using the BP blogroll at DTB in another tab.
I hope I have not confused you. It is a good idea. If you don't use Firefox as a browser you should look into it. It's great. because the tabs are wonderful.
Oh I see I am in the Sunday stats now as it is after midnight there.
Now I must be a bit of a sado, mmm early Sunday morning and still up (I do have an excuse)!
I agree time is always precious, I have added all my links to google reader where you can separate them into categories too. The advantage is you can see which links are updated and just visit those.
You need to click onto the persons page so they know you have visited though!
We all have this time problem, e.g. today. I finally just lsited blogs alphabetically because it was just too difficult maintaining them in categories and people would get upset.
The Reader does help but robs blogs of stats.
It's the stats its the mean reason I don't use Google Reader. I keep thinking about doing it, but then I think, I prefer to know who's read what posts myself, and it's only fair to return the favour.
I do need to sort out my own visiting system, it's a nightmare, really. I think it's best done by writing posts in advance at the wekends, and trying to keep weekdays freer for visiting, because in weekdays, I really only get a couple of hour- posting AND visiting.
Bob – Hope so.
JMB / Cherie / James / Crushed.
I’m sure that these reader things are a good idea in one sense but as James and Crushed point out they do reduce the stats of the visitee. Whilst I don’t do this for the mere vanity of counting people who come here a good day is still a bit of a moral booster and I assume that others feel the same. Which is why I have never pursued this option. That and the fact that I would probably get confused.
I do rather like the idea of preparing posts in advance. But that said I often don’t have a clear plan of what the next post is going to be about when I sit down at the computer. There may be a germ of an idea n place but most of it tends to be on the hoof.
I do always click on to the persons page so they know I have visited. I just use it so I can see who has made a new post, so I don't miss them out if I am busy :-)
Grendel that's the beauty of Colin Campbell's system, you are always visiting the blog itself and adding to the stats. Plus it's really quick.
Although I use a reader I always click over to my favourites.
Grendel, I appreciate your daily visits.
I have come across, but not used, an idea being trialled by Blogger. They decribe the item as follows: "Our latest page element, Blog List, helps you do just that, but we’ve mixed it in with Google Reader to make it even more powerful and useful.
At its most basic, Blog List displays a list of links to your favorite blogs, with an optional icon. If you link to a blog with an Atom or RSS feed, however, the Blog List can show the date of the blog’s last update or even the title and snippet of its most recent post.
You can set the number of blogs to show in the list and whether they should be sorted by update time or alphabetically by blog title.
You add blogs to your Blog List by entering blog or feed URLs directly, or by importing subscriptions from Google Reader. When you add by URL, Blogger will attempt to detect an Atom or RSS feed for it in order to show post and update information. If none is found, the blog will still be added to the Blog List, just as a simple link.
Please try this out! Add a Blog List (Or two! Or more!) to your blog and let us know what you think in the comments. We value your feedback, and will try to incorporate as much as we can before the Blog List goes big-time on www.blogger.com.
Remember: Like all features mentioned on this blog, you must log in to http://draft.blogger.com/ to add a Blog List."
Sounds good.
Weekly eh?
Weekly!
There are plenty of blogs on my BP links list which I publish - but almost never visit as theyare so uninteresting to me ... I mean that one about Welsh politics... blimey!!
Excuse me, why do you specify WELSH politics, mutley?!
Anyway, ignoring the dog, I do struggle even with words like feeders and RSS. I have set up google Reader but seem to have lost it again.
As for stats, I have accepted that I am a low attraction, and my numbers aren't going to increase hugely - unless I start dabbling in porn - and I'm more interested in comments. Mybloglog is good as it shows people who've visited who might not have left a comment (like you, grendel).
I wouldn't worry about it - I'm pretty sure not many people check back to see if their comment got any response. Not every comment requires any response, anyway - I don't expect any response or very often check back to see if there was one. The blog format just isn't very conducive to developing conversation.
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