Along the lower right side of this page, you will see thumbnail images of the blogs that I follow. There are less of those than ones that follow me. Why is that? Doesn’t blogging etiquette require that you follow every blogger that follows you? I don’t agree with that.
If you’re one of my followers and don’t see your image on my blog, please don’t hate me. Like most of you, I work a full-time job and have family obligations once I arrive home. I also need time to write all those wonderful blog posts everyone enjoys. Therefore, my reading time is very limited, and I like to use some of it for reading actual *gasp* books (fewer and fewer of us are doing that these days).
I pretty much only follow blogs that appeal to me for whatever reason. I tend to like blogs that are similar to mine – honestly written, sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-wrenching. I tend to avoid blogs whose sole purpose appears to be telling me how to write or market my blog (with the exception of Harsh Realty – Opinionated Man may be out only for the numbers, or so he says, but he really does write honestly and humorously).
In addition, the WordPress theme I use only allows me to list 50 blogs that I follow, so I need to be selective. There are a bunch of blogs I read without having become a follower. In at least one case (and I won’t tell you which blog), I really wanted to follow – but the subject matter of the blog, although side-splittingly funny, simply was inappropriate to be shown as having any connection whatever with sweet old Cordelia’s Mom.
I generally don’t censor comments, however, so if you really feel a need to be shown somewhere on Cordelia’s Mom, Still, you can always comment on one of my posts. Plus comments make me feel special, almost as if I’m a real writer.
As I add to the list of blogs I follow, at some point I will be forced to delete some in order to keep to the 50-blog limit. Again, please don’t hate me if your blog is one I delete. It won’t mean I don’t love you any more – maybe I’ve just moved away for a little while. Unless something you’ve written has really ticked me off, or bored me to tears, I will likely continue to read you and who knows, I may come crawling back some day.
I understand how hard it is to be un-followed. It has happened to me, even with my current minimal readership. In each case, I’ve tried to determine which follower has defected, but fortunately I actually have enough readers that I don’t have the entire list memorized so if one disappears from my stats, I generally can’t figure out which one it was. Unless, of course, it’s a family member – I know who you are and where you live, so don’t dare leave me!
And when a follower leaves, I usually try to figure out which post caused it and why.
Being me, I’m simply not able to accept that maybe someone has grown away from my blog, or maybe someone is simply reducing their follow list for the same reasons I occasionally have to reduce mine. I always assume I have done something bad to make a reader leave.
Was the subject matter of my last post too risqué, too bland, too grandmotherly, too sad, not politically correct? Or maybe it was the image I chose (if you don’t want your image used, don’t put it on Flickr.com under Creative Commons).
Maybe my readers just don’t love me any more! Why, why, why did you leave me? And will you ever come back? What can I do to make you come back to me?
Oh, wait, I’m getting a little off-track – must’ve been thinking about that first boyfriend so many years ago.
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Here’s a question for my readers:
Is there a particular blog you think I should follow but which is not already shown on the right side of this page? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me, and I’ll take a look. I know what a treat it is to see your gravatar image on someone else’s blog. Imagine telling all your relatives and friends: “Woo-hoo! CookieCakes is reading my blog!”
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook page, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com.
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Images by: jaci Lopes dos Santos, and Maia C, and Valerie Everett, respectively.
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
Good post. I have more than 1200 followers (yay me!) but I can’t possibly follow them all (and I wouldn’t want to follow some of them), so I follow, as you do, those that grab me, that entertain or inform me. I have the same kind of graphic with thumbnail images as you do on my side bar and, while I do follow more than 50, only 50 images show up.
The order in which they show is most recent at the top, oldest at the bottom. And that means if I add a new blog to follow, then one of the blogs I’ve been following for a long time will drop off. So what I sometimes have to do, to make sure it displays the 50 images I want to show up on my sidebar, is take the older ones, the blogs I’ve been following the longest, stop following them, and then start following then again an instant later. Then they show up at the top of my images. So my side bar reflects the “top 50” blogs I follow, even though I do follow about a dozen or so more than that.
Bottom line, you’re not limited to following 50 and you don’t have to unfollow a blog in order to add a new one. It’s just that only 50 will show in your sidebar. It would be a whole lot easier if WordPress would just show slightly smaller images but not limit them to 50!
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You and I think alike. Following more than 50 and then removing and re-adding the oldest ones as needed did occur to me. I just haven’t found more than 50 blogs I want to follow as yet.
I must say that I am especially honored that with 1200 followers of your own, you’ve chosen to follow me. And I so love your comments – you keep making me feel like my blog is actually worthwhile. (Currently going through one of my “*F* this, no one cares anyway” moods – you’ve made it better today.)
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Don’t get discouraged. I enjoy the topics you write about and the way you write. Your posts are always well written and entertaining, and that’s why I chose to follow you. The honor is all mine!
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Aw, I owe you a big hug if we ever meet in person. You’ve made my day so much better.
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I’m low maintenance – no blog yet for you to follow.
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Ah, but I so enjoy your comments, both on my blog and on others that I’ve seen. I think maybe you should start your own blog.
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Yeah, I will. The problem is that I’m running an old laptop with XP. It does not have the power or memory to run a blog.I’ve tried numeous times and it just freezes up. I will upgrade, just saving my pennies!
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Beautifully and graciously put – and I love that cat with the keyboard!
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Thank you. I’m a dog person (lots of posts about Puppy Cody – check them out, hint hint), but the keyboard cat was just too cute to pass up.
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aw, I love ’em both so I will definitely check out your other posts. we have two dogs but I grew up with cats and dogs
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I follow myself. Does that count? lol… 😉
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Sure. I actually followed myself for a day or so, but I thought it looked silly having my own gravatar listed on the right side of my blog with the rest of the blogs I follow. Now I just follow myself anonymously, and I always add a 1 to my daily view count. (And sadly, sometimes that makes a huge difference.)
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We can’t apologize like that, though I’ve been awfully close to it at times. Takes me a few hrs to get through the comments after publishing. I am so behind in getting back to readers.
Keep shining.
Xxxx
Diana
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Thanks, Diana. I actually meant to be more sarcastic than apologetic, but I guess everyone views me as such a sweet old lady they just can’t envision me being sarcastic (well, except for the spam response posts).
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LoL
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And it’s even funnier that your “LoL” for some reason went into the spam folder. Good thing I do check the spam comments!
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Ha ha ha ha. Thanks for the follow. Welcome aboard.
Xxxx
Diana
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