Skip to main content

Following - How Do I Get Started?

One challenging question, that we see from time to time in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, is about one of the neatest Blogger social networking features, Following.
How do I find blogs to Follow?
And that is a simple question, with not such a simple answer. What came first - the chicken, or the egg?

Following is one technique, for surfing the Blogosphere.

If you focus your surfing, you'll find a few blogs and people, to check out. Besides surfing other blogs and people, one of the best ways to find blogs to Follow, is to check out people who Follow you, and who Follow your blog.

Start with content - then add a Followers gadget, and advertise the blog.

Start by publishing a blog, with informative, interesting, and unique content. You need a blog that people will want to read, and Follow.

When you have content, add a Followers gadget, to your blog - then advertise the blog.

The Blogger Followers gadget (aka "Google Friend Connect") is usable by everybody with a Blogger account. Google+ Followers is more useful for people who use Google+. Both are worth adding to your blog.

When people Follow you or your blog, check them out.

When you see people adding themselves to your Followers gadget (Following your blog), you will have people to check out.

Besides the people who Follow your blog, you can check out the other blogs and people who they Follow - and the other people who Follow their blog, and who Follow them. Once you have one or two Followers, you will have an endless sequence of people who you will want to check out - and some of those, you will Follow.

When you Follow other blogs and people, other people will check you out.

Once you start Following others, other people will check you out. Some of them will decide to Follow you and / or your blog. And you'll have more blogs and people to check out.

Don't Follow every blog - and don't spend all of your free time Following.

Just remember one limitation of Following. You can be Followed by any number of people - but you can Follow a maximum of 300 blogs, with Blogger - and a maximum of 5,000 members, with Google+.

So don't just Follow every blog, or person, that you see - or every person who Follows you. You will reach a maximum, sooner than you expect.

And don't just Follow people - spend some time on your blog. That's what will make other people want to Follow your blog.

Comments

sobe23 said…
How do I add a blog to my "Reading List?" Because it seems like it is easier to add a blog to be followed if it is in your "Reading List."
Nitecruzr said…
Hi Sobe,

Thanks for the question.

The "Add" button is at the top of the Reading List, just above "All blogs". Having clicked "Add", give it one or more URLs, and select either "Follow publicly" or "Follow anonymously". And, you're following.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".