Ennui and a Little Love
I have been offered the Liebster Blog award from two fellow bloggers: McKenzie at The Ubiquitous Perspective and TJ at They Won't Get Us. If I recall my seventh grade teacher, Frau Cathcart, correctly, "Liebster" means something like "Sweetheart" in German. That's sweet, right?Apparently the Liebster Blog award is to be passed on to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. Perhaps this is what's stoking my ennui this evening because the fact that I fall into that category makes me a tad sad. I've been at this for more than a year now, and it seems like any momentum I might have had has stalled. And every time I look over and see that Networked Blogs widget with my own little icon as my one follower, I get a little more glum. I only decided a couple of weeks ago to put that on my blog space, and I don't know what else to do but have it sit there waiting for some action, but it still reeks of desperation, doesn't it?
I know it's mostly my own fault. In Blogoland, you get what you give, and I've had little time in my life to spread my wings and visit other new places, let alone the places I've been before.
I'm also probably feeling a mite sorry for myself since, even with the prize of a free book, the only person in the whole big blogosphere to take me up on my offer to meme the interweb with my apposite Facebooking was my wife, and she didn't even do it right. Oh, well.
So is anyone else getting the sense that the bloggo fires are down to embers? Is blogging just so two-thousand-and-eleven that people can't be bothered any more? I say this despite the two rounds of bloggy love given this week. Perhaps it's really just me.
Sorry for being negative. Is "The Nearing-One-Hundred-Posts Blues" a thing?
Here's something cool:
Listen to a little bit of the song "Flare." The video doesn't play the whole song, but it's visual at least. Nifty stuff.
I think it's more of a tit-for-tat sort of thing. You follow and comment on other blogs and they respond. You might also consider getting in on the AZ Challenge blogfest, a good opportunity to hook up with like-minded folk (I assume there are people with minds like yours).
ReplyDeleteregards,
mood
Moody Writing
@mooderino
The Funnily Enough
Congratulations on your award. I feel partially responsible because I gave it to TJ. :) I've been working hard on building my followers, and really I've found the best way is by participating in blogfests. Blogfests are a definite time commitment, but every time I join one, I add about 5 followers--sometimes more if its a big fest.
ReplyDeleteIt's a slow process. Hopefully I'll have managed a fairly decent following by the time my book comes out. Hang in there.
Ahh..yep, it has been slow in the bloggy world of late. I think a lot of folks took a break over the end/start of the year. You are one up on me because I've been at this almost a year and I have no idea what your networked blog thingie is or how to use one. I see them all of the time and just figure that they are for the cool kids.
ReplyDeleteHey, I just passed three years and a thousand posts and still only have seventy six followers, so don't feel bad. I'm grateful I have the followers I have and am constantly startled that people are reading the nonsense I put out there. I'm thinking about doing that big A to Z Challenge that's coming up. It'll be some work, but I might snatch a few more followers out of the deal. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteIt has been slow as of late, but that has also been due to my own lack of steam. I used to read a dozen or so blogs a day and I just can't keep that momentum up while writing three books and marketing two.
ReplyDeleteMy books are YA, so I've also been racking my brain, trying to come up with ideas to market to teens. Blogs aren't really it.
Networked Blogs used to have a community message board that was quite useful for spreading the word about your blog. I met wacky characters like Scott and Doug on there. Unfortunately it turned into some sort of third world spam factory and the admins ended up shutting it down. That doesn't leave much means of promotion through their service, rendering it someone pointless. It still provides an alternative way for people to follow you, but quite honestly, I have a hard time keeping up with the blogs I follow through that, as you have to work your way through some Facebook labyrinth to get to your feed. Much easier with the blogs I follow through the built-in Google widget that shows up in the feed on my dashboard.
ReplyDelete*sigh* that should be "somewhat pointless"
ReplyDelete@ Moody: I've been thinking about the A-Z blogfest, but I really don't have the time to post something every day, or even nearly. I'll have to settle for the smaller fests.
ReplyDelete@ Julie: Thanks for being a cool, effective link in the chain.
@ laughingmom: I don't know what it is, but I also realized that several of the first blogs that I ever followed are mostly defunct. Some post just once every couple of months now. Perhaps they're taking a break, but they could let a guy know, ya know?
@ darev: You're right. I should be grateful that any of you are reading this at all. Thanks. Really.
@ Charlie: I sometimes ask my students if they ever read blogs, and they mostly answer with something like, "What's a computer?"
And thanks for getting the ball rolling on my widget. You, too, Natalie, if you're listening.
@ Bryan: Thanks a ton. That clears it up a bunch. I couldn't really even figure out how to navigate the Facebook labyrinth anyway. And thanks for your support, too, especially since you're one of those who are "on a break."
You are one follower stronger : Me. I followed over from Alex's blog. Those of us with jobs that will not allow us to blog have a hard time. My hat's off to you for your great blog, Roland
DeleteNo worries. I think we've all been going through a pretty rough patch blog-wise lately.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I haven't even posted in a month. (Of course, that's mostly due to the fact that I somehow got roped into promising a freaking VIDEO blog for my 100th blog post celebration, and guess whose last post was number 99!?!? Yep. I've been putting off the video blog. I may just say "Forget it" and do a regular post, just so people know I'm alive. We'll see...)
I've been blogging for a few years now and I find it's more of an ebb and flow. When I get less and less comments, the first thing I do is run around to other blogs I'm familiar with and see how they're commenting is going. Sometimes blogland in general is slow going- especially around the hoildays but lately I've noticed a week by week change in activity. However, if I notice other bloggers are getting far more feedback- I know the problem is either 1-my content or 2-lack of networking: meaning I'm not commenting enough or getting my smiling face out there enought to meet and greet and draw others in. Lately I've seen a lot of blogs with over 1500 members only getting three or four comments a day because they just aren't participating anymore. It's a give and take. Looking forward to your post for the origins blogfest!
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