reasons I’d follow your blog

Hi loves,

First of all a massive apology for how absent I’ve been lately!! I know it’s only been a few days but it feels like forever, I’ve just been so busy I’ve had no spare time to come on here at all, at the moment I’m just trying to catch up with everyone’s blogs so bare with me! But anyway – on with today’s post!

I’ve seen a few people do this post lately and it’s inspired me to write my own – I found it really helpful and it gives you a good idea of what other people do and don’t like to see on your blog. Here are 8 reasons I would (or probably already do) follow yours!

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1). It’s similar to mine
I don’t mean this as in you’ve copied my blog and changed a few words around, but if your blog has a similar style to mine and you talk about the same sort of things as I do, of course I’m going to follow you. I always love seeing posts on my reader that I read and think wow, it’s almost like I wrote that myself. One of my main reasons for starting a blog was to connect with likeminded people and it’s always so nice to interact with people with the same sort of style and mindset as you.

2). You interact with your followers
This is probably the biggest one for me, I think it’s so, so important to interact with your followers and to support other blogs. I’m constantly on the lookout for new people to follow, I’m always on my reader liking and commenting on posts because I want to let people know how much I’ve enjoyed it or to share my thoughts on the topic. If I’m looking through your blog posts and can see that people have taken the time to comment on them but you haven’t responded, that instantly puts me off wanting to follow you. A) because I don’t think it’s very nice, B) because it shows that you don’t really care and C) if I did end up following you, I’d be hesitant to comment on your posts or interact with you because I’d know there was a good chance I’d get ignored.

3). You update regularly
Nobody wants to follow a blog that’s inactive for months at a time, if you post infrequently here and there then there’s a good chance I won’t follow you, as what would be the point? I would never see your posts on my reader and we would never end up interacting since you would hardly be on the website.

4). You switch up topics
This might sound like an odd thing to say – everyone’s blog is different and some blogs are dedicated to certain topics e.g. books, fashion, lifestyle etc. so when I say switch up topics I don’t mean that a fashion blog has to suddenly start posting cake recipes in order for me to follow them, I’m just saying I think variety is good. For example, if you were a beauty blog and every single one of your posts was about a different mascara you’d tried out – would that be interesting? If you were a fashion blog and all of your posts were about one particular store that you’d bought from, would that keep the reader engaged? No, it’s predictable. If you’re a beauty blog then to me, that means you talk about all aspects of beauty – if you’re a fashion blog you cover all aspects of fashion. Get what I’m saying? I want to be continuously interested and read about different topics, I have actually had to unfollow a couple of blogs recently because I found that every single one of their posts was about the same thing – to the point where I thought my reader was playing up and I thought it was just displaying the same post twice.

5). Your blog is visually captivating
If I click on your blog and I’m presented with no colour or imagery but instead, a bunch of lengthy text, chances are I won’t follow you. The second I see this my brain switches off and I become uninterested – you could have the best written content in the world but if it’s not presented in a way that catches my interest, I’ll only end up skim reading it rather than clicking into the post itself.

6). You include a feature image in your posts
I know not every blog post we make requires photos, sometimes you just want to have a good old chat and put your thoughts out on the page – I have a few posts like this where I’m just writing down my thoughts and sharing them however, I always include a feature image in my posts. For me, a post isn’t complete without one and sometimes it can get a bit much just seeing post after post with no (feature) image, because it then ends up becoming lengthy text that I probably won’t read. Your blog could be the most colourful, eccentric thing out there but 99% of the time I read posts in my reader and not on someone’s actual blog (unless I’m checking it out for the first time) so you get the idea. When I read something from the reader I’m only seeing the post by itself and not on that person’s actual blog, so it’s always important to make each individual post look good.

7). Your blog is easy to navigate
There’s nothing worse than clicking on a blog and feeling like you’ve entered a maze. If I can’t make my way around your blog properly e.g. you have no menus or categories then instantly I’m lost and thinking…what is this blog about? By putting things into categories I’m instantly able to see what kind of posts you make and easily work my way around your blog, if there’s an ‘About Me’ page I can see who you are and the reasons you blog – same for a ‘Contact Me’ page etc. If your blog is difficult to navigate I see this as unprofessional and I know not everyone is here for the business side of blogging but if your blog looks a bit messy then to me it seems you’re not taking it seriously, as it literally takes 2 seconds to install a simple theme.

8). It gives off a blogger vibe
This blog is a personal little project for myself but also a way for me to work on becoming a good blogger – not a full time or a professional one, just one where I feel like I know completely what I’m doing. I love following other bloggers as I become inspired and motivated and it’s always great to interact with people who are aiming for the same thing as you, so if I see your blog and it doesn’t really give off that blogging vibe, I probably won’t follow you. For instance, if you post 3 times a day and each post contains a couple of lines – that isn’t very bloggerish (did I just make that word up?) to me and I’d be put off from following you, or if your posts are laid out messily with incorrect spelling, punctuation and grammar etc. I won’t follow you as I don’t feel like an actual blogger would do that. (I’ve never seen it myself, anyway). I’ve also clicked on a few blogs before where their html and WordPress templates are still displayed on their blog – you know the “This is your first WordPress post” type of things, aaah!

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I might make another one of these posts at some point but these are the main reasons that I can think of at the moment for why I’d follow your blog, please let me know if you have any more to add!

I’ll see you all in my next post ❀

All my love,

Chloe .xx