Thursday 20 September 2012

Penguins & Blog Followers: Come Showcase Your Work!

Blog followers are like penguins… aka, totally awesome. On the other hand, follow-for-a-follow-back systems can be a different story. See the trouble is if a potential follower happens to land on a page where the most recent post is “Why I love plain toast: an essay”, there’s no reason for them to keep reading. They’ll complete the obligatory follow and then move on to other blogs without properly exploring the one they’ve landed on. They may even form a mental note – subconsciously or otherwise – that the blog itself isn’t worth reading, and so when they do start receiving the emailed posts they’re highly likely to delete without even looking. And if the next post was, for example, “The Life and Habitat of Penguins”, then everybody misses out.
  
To make things worse, let’s say they stumble upon an interesting post from that blog in the future, maybe via twitter and so on. They might read it, even enjoy it, but it could still be perceived as an unusually interesting post from ‘that boring blog’. In other words, it won’t necessarily be enough to change that delete-without-reading habit.

So how do we, as bloggers, fix such a thing? Content! It seems obvious, but I’m sure we’ve all seen some ridiculously boring posts out there. What we need to ensure is that no one lands on our blogs without being entertained – informed – mystified – whatever, about our content. And in light of that, I’ve got an idea.

Everyone, get your best posts ready for... The Follow-Swap Blog Hop!


Grab the badge! (Link below).

The aim is simple: you can link to whatever page of your blog you like, but be sure to make it your best content so we can‘t resist following you. This is your chance to show off; to teach your potential new followers that when you email them a post, they sure as anything better open it up. And while you’re here, check out the other blogs, follow the ones you like, and even post them a comment to let them know what they’re doing right.

The blog hop will run all week, so you’ve got plenty of time to continually polish your posts and build a wow-worthy website. And with new blogs signing up as we go along, don’t forget to check back whenever you can to find more potential followers to interact with. 

Sound good?

NO.

It sounds like penguins.

UPDATE: Now check out The Follow Swap Blog Hop: Effective Content and Defective Stamp Collections, and The Follow-Swap Blog Hop: Twitter Profiles That Don't Make Me Facepalm - a special FSBH post just for FSBH-ers!






P.S. To add the badge to your blog, go through your blog's design options to add a gadget, select the HTML/Javascript option, and paste in this code:


<div align="left">
<a href="http://beyondthehourglassbridge.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/penguins-and-blog-followers-study.html" title="Beyond The Hourglass Bridge" target="_blank"><img src=" http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/katherineamabel/Follow-SwapBlogHopLogo_zps2e182e09.png" alt="Beyond The Hourglass Bridge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

25 comments:

  1. Sounds good, I love hanging out with other penguins... er I mean writing bloggers!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You had me at penguins. If more people blogged about them we wouldn't have this issue...

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Heather - Haha exactly. I think we need to get David Attenborough involved.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maybe this is where I should take the plunge and actually start a blog. I need to get over my angst at the thought of speaking to an empty room.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Definitely! I recently wrote a stack of tips etc for someone starting a blog and they found it really helpful - email me katherineamabel (gmail) if you want it. We'll support you every step of the way.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://bloggingaboutbook.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry.html?spref=tw

    Here's a link to my review of "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry."
    Please follow my blog. I will be regularly reviewing books both new and old and I am hoping to gain a wide range of loyal followers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey! Well, I'm at a lost for following you. I don't have FaceBook, and you don't have Google Friend Connect. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Katherine, I was going to say the same ad Ink in the Book. I link to your blog,but I can't follow you because you don't put up the followers blogger app.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've been blogging for three years and am finding I've gotten a bit lazy about meeting new people. Thanks for hosting this! Looking forward to meeting new faces!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well what do you know, I didn't realise the blog followers gadget in blogger template WAS Google Friend Connect, in fact that's why I got networked blogs lol. I hope I don't have too many options now though: there's follow by email, RSS, Networked Blogs and Google Friend Connect!

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Laurel. Welcome, thanks for stopping by! Off to check out your link now and as you can see, thanks to Donna and Ink In The Book I now have a buffet of follow options to choose from if you like what you've found here. :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Katherine. Okay, I'm all followed up now:) I have the Google Friend Connect on my blog, too:) Thanks for this amazing idea. I think everyone could benefit with something like this!

      Delete
  12. penguins have never sounded so good :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ha ha so true. I've wanted one ever since I heard that a kid smuggled a fairy penguin home from the zoo in his bag. So awesome. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is such a fabulous idea!!!! I hope you all make awesome connections:) I wish I could join in, but alas GUTGAA calls for now. I hope you do another in the future and let me know about it:)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I agree with Deana - this is a great idea! Thanks for putting this together.

    Also? Penguins. Right up there with kitties. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. So much fun! And, as said many times above, this is a great idea! So glad you invited me along!

    Can't wait to read other fabulous blogs!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Haha Kay, very true. Glad I'm not the only one who appreciates the awesome-ness of the common penguin. :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fun post and I love penguins. Funny, I just wrote a blog post I rather enjoyed and wished I could share it. Thanks for giving me the chance: http://apeekatthemoon.blogspot.com/2012/09/double-tap.html.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm glad a couple of my readers decided to join in the fun but I've been too busy to read the other entrants. Off to catch up with a few before the night is out. Great blog hop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Donna, I've just done the same thing and completely blown my internet limit for the month. Yay for the (almost) web-less blogger!

      Delete