I suppose I should have called this ten top tips to successful blog posts or recommended crap like that. Or maybe ten top tips to pissing people off. That’s more like it.
Anyway, back to note to all bloggers.
1) If you are flogging property, art, some silly scam, and you follow me, don’t expect me to follow you back.
2) If you don’t do those things and follow me, don’t expect me to follow you back unless I think your blog is interesting.
3) Equally, just because I follow your blog doesn’t mean you have to return the favour. If you do, thanks.
4) Please don’t write things like this: My husband and I are both vegetarians (he eats fish still though). Factually inaccurate. Your fish-eating husband is NOT vegetarian. Yawn.
5) Oh, I have to get to ten don’t I? Ok, please don’t write up your latest personal revelation whatever it may be, as though it is the discovery of the decade, century, millennium. Some of us have been around through two centuries and millennia and find that shite boring.
6) This is for the attention of WordPress, not just bloggers. How on earth do you choose your freshly pressed (FP) blogs? I read a seriously ill-informed and no more than aerated fluffy post that was FP, while another excellent one on the same topic (no, not mine), just disappeared into the ether. Move up a gear WP.
7) Back to bloggers. Just ‘cos you click on my like thing, doesn’t mean I will do the same if I don’t like your post. Actually I would rather comment. I would rather you do the same. Mindless clicking of ‘likes’ is not particularly satisfying. I mean thanks to those of you who take the time to click ‘like’ cos it’s better than nothing. Bigger thanks to those of you who take time to write.
8) Getting there, ie to ten. Please check out the blogs without comments, that aren’t on other blogrolls, don’t have accolades and all the rest. There are some great ones out there that aren’t visited enough. Stop hanging onto people’s apron strings and have the conviction to visit and comment on decent sites, not just FP ones, or allegedly popular ones to try and boost your own rankings. Everyone has to start somewhere. (Loses a few more followers here).
9) Back to followers. When I get to 2304847294 followers no doubt I will post that one up on my blog. Otherwise? Who gives a toss how many followers you have?
10) Don’t follow the top ten tips. Mine or anyone else’s. Do you really have to be such a lemming that you need to do what everyone else tells you all the time? If you need prompts, instructions, and the security net of hundreds of followers – you should probably be tweeting. Oh wait, you are. Even if you might be thinking about deleting your FB account.
* I forgot the boring memes. Seriously. Unless you are within a given circle of cliquey pals, they are boring as hell.
** Even worse, are those questions that you ask at the end of your blog post to try and draw people in. Don’t. It looks so contrived, and as though you have been on the WordPress A to Z course of blogging. If you have raised interesting points that resonate with people they will comment. Maybe.
*** Awards? I won’t even go there.
roughseasinthemed
Clouds moving in 
I for one hate the ‘Follower’ thing, I have a blog roll, which keeps me in touch re new posts like yours here. I generally read my friends utterings but don’t find it necessary to comment every time, unless they hit a cord/nerve, or I have something to say. No flattery intended, yours is the only one that maybe makes me think!
Apart from the ‘Followers’ point, I guess your mention of boring memes got to me today 🙂
You know, I do, do them as find them a useful prompt re daily blogging – sad I guess, but I do try to personalise them so they reflect me, not just the meme’s quest [no offence was taken!]
I’ve recently taken to hitting the ‘Next Blog’ button on Blogger, as that was how I initially found many friends, since when I started blogging in 2007, I only had one [Wilma of Death Bed Moment, who was my inspiration to start] – have to say my latest findings have been slim, too many pourings re babies/happy family life, but will keep looking.
That’s it. 🙂
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Yeah, I do like blogger’s blogroll and never got into the blogger following thing. Because WP doesn’t work the same way, I’ve had to ‘follow’ interesting blogs for ease of reading. 😦
I think I am just a non-meme person. I never understood the term and thought it was meant to be all about me – hence ME!ME! as Pippa would no doubt bark. But the origins are nothing like that. Even more reason for not bothering with it. 😀
I don’t mind reading the odd one or two, just I don’t want to keep reading the same ones everywhere or on every day of the week. And it’s ok, if someone adds a bit of something else into it. There I think I have excused myself sufficiently.
I’ve never used the next blogger thing. Guess most blogger pals came via Pippa. Babies/happy family life would drive me up the wall (says she who wrote about her silver wed ann today 😀 albeit 18 months later). The wordpress topic thing is quite good, found a few decent blogs via that 🙂 Seriously, you should consider trying it.
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I like how you tell it like it is. I think the more honest the blog the better. I also agree that some great posts do not get the attention they deserve. I am somewhat new to WordPress so I am still figuring things out. I don’t know how they pick their posts to be Freshly Pressed but it seems as though they could include more variety of writing styles and topics.
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Thanks for your comment TBT. I’m relatively new to WP too, although I’ve been on blogger some five years or so. I think the idea of having blogs under categories and highlighting them is a good one, makes it easy to choose your preference/interest for browsing. I guess they can never suit everyone with the ones they highlight, just to me, that some of them don’t seem remotely special/clever/well-written or anything. I did wonder if it had anything to do with a) how long you had been with WP and b) how often you posted, as they do push people towards more frequent posting.
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Pingback: Once a blogger, forever a blogger. « Since you asked…
Thank you for the pingback.
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Lol, love your cranky style! Feel like smacking people when they tell me they are vegetarian ..but eat fish.. and chicken. WTF, morons??!
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Cranky style? Me? Hey, this is my normal style. Wait till I get cranky.
And don’t forget the vegetarians who eat bacon sandwiches too! It’s not as though a couple of rashers makes any difference to the odd dead pig is it?
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Lol, now I’m scared! Yeah, exactly, pig won’t know the difference anyways.
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Since it’s dead already, you might as well make some shoes from it while you’re at it. I mean, it didn’t get killed for the leather, right?! (I suppose cows would be a better example here, but you get my drift.)
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yeah, I do. In fact I remember reading ages ago (don’t know if it is still true) that the only way the meat industry was sustainable was because of the so-called by-products, ie using the skins, and anything else they could, gelatin I guess etc etc
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I doubt it. Although you may wish to think about it. You will be a bit nearer soon. No huge continents and sea between us – just a couple of countries 😀
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This got me worried, coz that’s what i do. lol 😀 “Even worse, are those questions that you ask at the end of your blog post to try and draw people in.”
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Yup, I noticed you hadn’t taken my criticism to heart as there were Qs at the end of today’s post 😀
I never answer them 😀 Yours or anyones.
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Yeah, sometimes I like to hear how other people do things, so I ask. You know, like how to cook stuff or what remedies they use. But you are right, sometimes it can be contrived.
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Oh well if I think I have anything useful to say, I say it anyway. You may have noticed 😀
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oh……..I am kinda wordless after reading this …..I just write my blog posts as I feel them. Nothing more. In fact if I was speaking to you face to face, it would be the same conversation probably, just with blogging I write it down. And at least with blogging you can walk away and not have to endure any more of my blah de blah if you get bored!! I never thought in a million years about drawing people in via questions or such like, my views have always been, just to write as I feel, honestly (kinda like you do) but I don’t have any desire for lots of followers. Hence my private blog which has I think by now about three people actually invited. Others have either fallen off their perches with boredom at my tales, or blogger has had a hissy fit and cancelled them, I don’t know. I don’t like the “like” button, not sure if I have it set on any of mine. But on Marvin’s I do have followers, right on the top, mainly because sometimes I really did feel in the past I was howling in the wilderness, so it is strangely comforting for Marvin to have lots of howlings. However, followers really are meaningless, there are so far 82 on his blog, and to be honest I have no idea who the majority are, or if their blogs still exist.
I know several people who say they are vegetarian but they eat fish and chicken, always makes me smile at their kind of duplicity with the whole vegetarian thing. I admire true vegetarians like you (or Vegans?) because you keep to your principles, I could never be vegetarian, although i am seriously not a big meat eater…….however I have to be honest I would totally miss meat from my diet. Ok, I have now written the most boring comment of all time, so will finish………… ;oD
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I think the like button works two ways. One of my newer blog contacts said they did like it, because sometimes they don’t have anything to say, but at least they can show they have been and (maybe) read the post. Saves writing something meaningless I guess. Lazy blogging? Maybe. Better than nothing? Maybe. I’m not sure you can disable it on wordpress so there it is and there it stays. I did get rid of the star rankings as I thought that was verging on the beauty parade 😀
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oh and I hate, totally hate, memes, and also tagging games. The Dog Blog world used to be full of those. Also, facebook has lots of them too. A Meme is a very, very dangerous thing. Anyone reading a blog where a meme is featured, can find out so much about the blogger, passwords and confidential stuff on line can be compromised by trolls and stalkers. Trust me , I seriously know where I am coming from on this one.
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Yes, that’s a very valid point. Thanks for making it.
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