Yeah, that didn’t happen. I will admit to failing greatly on this one, mostly because I did not push it hard enough. I probably could have got 25 followers easy if I had posted my link to facebook, but that would have seriously cramped the ‘anonymous’ thing. Then again, I know all of my current followers, but still. I have a lot of family members on my facebook, and not all of them (most of them, really) would approve of this particular ‘experiment.’
It also does not help that I am a pretty passive internet presence. I do not actively participate in a ton of blogs and/or forums anymore. There was a time I did, however, and it would have been simple to just throw the link in my ‘signature’ with a note saying ‘follow me’ and get at least a few curious stray clicks. I do not really do that any more though. Partly because I do not want to spend my time sitting around chatting with people online who I mostly do not know, and mostly do not give a crap about, but also because internet discourse is fairly bland, and flat. As I mentioned in a previous post, people are also callous and cruel online, for no greater reason than they can be. This is not to say I become emotionally distraught when someone online is nasty, I really could not care less most of the time. However, it is a nuisance, and one I have grown sick of dealing with (i.e. trolls, flamers, /b/tards [even just their name is itself offensive], etc). Honestly, they only reason I am even bothering with my own bog is because it was a condition of the experiment in which I had genuine interest.
All that b.s. aside, I could have made more of an effort. Google searched for similar things, especially on “Blogspot” and posted comments “Ooh, I like your blog, you should check mine out!” It is disingenuous crap, but it would get the job done (to some degree). Would I like to have 25 followers? Sure, but if we’re being honest, I don’t think my blog is quite ready for that much of a following. I haven’t got into the rhythm just yet, and I’m (clearly) failing to complete all objectives. Maybe in a month or two I’ll be interesting enough to warrant it, but right now … I’m happy with the ones I’ve got.
Get the word out. Feedback is the best thing for a burgeoning writer (even bad feedback). And there's no such thing as bad publicity.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the trolling/negative (to the point of being offensive) reactions, well... we do have the capabilities to delete those comments.