One HUGE pet peeve of mine is when bloggers leave comments on my posts and the phrase "follow me back if you can" or "follow me, I've followed you" or "stop by and follow me" anything to do with FOLLOW ME needs to go! People, that just turns me off. I am 90% LESS likely to stop by your blog if you have that phrase in your comment. I know this seems mean or rude of me to say this, but it's RUDE to ask for a follow from ANY blogger!!!
Why you need to drop it:
1. Leaving comments shouldn't have to do with building your blogger reader base. Yeah, leaving comments helps get your blog out there, but DON'T use that as a way to try and build your followers. Leaving comments with the "follow me back" curse (as I'm going to call it) makes your comment very non-personal, regardless of how long or how nice of a comment you write. Just drop the phrase all together!
2. It's Rude! I think I already covered that, but JUST IN CASE...people it's RUDE to ask other people to follow your blog!! What are you trying to do, build a fan base of empty follows? (empty follows = numbers in the followers, but few people actually leave comments = might as well not have the numbers!)
3. Don't follow a blog just because you want the person to follow you back. Again, this isn't how growing your readership works! Follow blogs you really care about reading. Right now I've got a HUGE list of blogs that I'm 'following', but I don't read all of them... I probably should go through the list (at some other point!) and remove the blogs I'm not reading at all. No one wants an empty follower base (or if they do, they're one of the few I think...).
4. It's just not cool. This goes along with the being rude point I made above. It's NOT cool to write comments for self gain and it's not cool to ask other people to follow your blog. HOWEVER if you actually have something useful to share that relates to the topic OR if the bloggers post has a question in it which you've answered in a blog post of your own I think it's ok to share the link TO THE DIRECT post, but again...don't do this as a way to gain readers!
I'm sure I could go on and on about this. It aggravates me a great deal. Now I will confess that I think when I FIRST started out I probably left a few comments with the 'follow back curse' in them, but I quickly realized how annoying it was to get those kinds of comments on my OWN blog so I quit using that line.
Hi Helen! I totally agree, except for when you join a blog hop that 'requires' a follow! In which case, I have no problem leaving my website details (although I never say 'follow me back', more like 'stop by if u can') as more often than not, they actually tell you to do so! Like you, I hope people only follow if they want to read. In all honesty, if we require follows for giveaways or anything then we can never really know if our readers are truly interested, but most of us do it. Growing your readership can be done many ways I suppose, its then up to us to keep our content interesting to keep our readers coming back! :-).
ReplyDeleteAh yes... that's a tricky one. I usually don't worry about leaving anything because if they want to follow me all they have to do is click my link from where I left the comment and it will take them to my blogger profile. Just my thought on it.
DeleteAs far as visiting other blogs and leaving the URL I guess it depends on whether the persons name link goes to their blogger profile or Google+ if it goes to plus then yeah PLEASE leave a link because it's so crazy hard to find anything on those stupid profiles lol. At least it is for me, that's one reason I don't have a Google+ account.
Follows for giveaways are tricky, but if I'm going to co-host a giveaway I usually give as many different link options as possible since I know I have followers on some things like Pinterest, but not necessarily on Twitter or Bloglovin..I think it all depends. I don't do them for numbers, I do them for blog exposure and for the chance to meet new people.
Helen
Heh. I'm constantly having to sort through my follows to remove those I had to follow for a giveaway. Now I'm more selective of the give aways I participate or enter in for that reason. What a PITA to unfollow or have your blog roll full of crap you don't read!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever asked someone to follow me.
And I'm a total slacker and only have buttons on one baby sweater...maybe tomorrow? LOL
Yes following for giveaways is something I've wondered about before too...sometimes if it's something I really like I'll just follow the blog for a few months and then if I don't ever read anything on it or find anything interesting then I'll delete the blog from my reading list. It all just depends. I usually try to find giveaways hosted by at least one blogger I know.
DeleteHelen
I agree with you, but then again I'm following your blog because I was required to as part of a blog hop. I think that's kind of another way of asking for followers, personally. I have never been a guest or host of a blog hop because it seems like I'd get a lot of insincere followers that way. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteLol well I think many people who RUN the blog hops it's a good idea to follow them since you're more likely to remember to stop back by and link up again in the future if you're following them somewhere such as on Bloglovin. Now all the co-hosts? Not so much! I will visit some or most of their blogs, but I only follow the ones I'll actually read...so again it could be a way of gaining followers, but I think for the most part hostesses of blog hops are mostly trying to keep people in the loop...or at least that's how it works for me!
DeleteHelen
Another thought on this: I know for me on Bloglovin I have a specific folder for all the blogs who host hops and link parties that I link up with so it's easier for me to pop into that folder and find the latest hops.
DeleteHelen
Girl, I could not agree with you more! It drives me crazy! I want someone to follow my blog because they like what I post about - not because I'm following them!
ReplyDeleteAgreed!! I just had to rant about it because people keep leaving me those comments...sometimes I want so bad to just delete the whole comment! I know that's a terrible thing to say, but it's true.
DeleteHelen
Hi! Found you at the Meet & Greet Blog Hop and linked up here! Following you via Bloglovin'!
ReplyDeleteHello! Thanks for the follow on Bloglovin! I hope you enjoy what I post in the near future!
DeleteHelen
Amen sister! :o)
ReplyDeleteI read the "follow me back" comments...but if the blog has nothing to do with something I like I usually just stop back and leave a comment or two. No point of "following" when I really won't...Now, sometimes when I really like a blog, I add the comment.."I'm now following you on..." but that doesn't mean that person has to follow me back...I never leave a link to my blog or nothing...just mention my love for their blog and move along, is this bad too? :)
ReplyDeleteOh I too like to let a blogger know how I'm following them so they know I'm new to their blog and look forward to their future posts...but if you're not asking for them to come back and follow you (which sounds like you dont!) then you should be perfectly fine! :) I always like to let someone know I'm following them because otherwise they just see numbers growing but don't really know who their readers are or if they're empty numbers or if they're really reading the posts. I think it's a good thing to mention in what ways you're following a blog!
DeleteHelen