Blog Boggled (Part 2)

              I am essentially a computer dunce.  I'm learning, but still I get so confused by different computer things that it sometimes leaves me in a daze.  As I told my wife the other day, when I get rich I'm going to hire somebody to just take care of my computers and my web pages and all that stuff that gets me so confused.  But through reading other blogs, receiving helpful comments, and just studying what's in front of me I'm starting to slowly catch on.

              Take the widgets for example--before blogging I had no idea what a "widget" was.  Then I started studying the layout page and looking at all the widgets.  I experimented and added some and started dressing up my page.   Things were coming together.  But there are so many more little doo-dads I've yet to explore.

            Just recently I started noticing the Tossing It Out blog listed on the blog lists of other blog pages.  I started wondering how they did that and so I explored those widgets.  Now I've gotten it figured out and I have one of those nifty Blog Lists on my page.  After finding the list set-up I went through all of the blogs I was following to see which ones had my blog on their list so I could reciprocally add theirs to my list.  If my blog is listed on your list and I don't have yours on mine, let me know so I can fix that.

            Networking is what I'm really trying to make a special effort to achieve.  But also the encouragement of other bloggers that are new.  There have been several blogs where I have become the first or among the first to follow.  I try to encourage these new bloggers so they don't give up right away.  Of course with each blog I join I hope to gain a follower.  That's why I, and I suspect many of you, add blogs to the ones that you follow.

            Now tell me if I'm wrong in this next point.  When I was setting up my blog list, I went through every blog that I was following.  If they  had been on my list for some time and had never reciprocated by adding my blog to their list, and they weren't a particularly informational blog, and they never commented on mine, I slashed them off my list.  After all, there are so many blogs a person can follow before that is all they do.

           Then, of course, there are some of the biggies, agents for example, who are probably not going to add me, but their blog is not only a source of solid information, it is also a source of other bloggers I check up on and occasionally comment on. 

            In November I had said I was trying to reach 100 followers by the end of the month.  When I saw that was not happening I extended the goal to the end of December, which I have a good chance of achieving.  Trying to build up a list of followers is a job that takes time and effort.  It is my reasoning that the more followers a blog has, the more potential readers your blog posts have.  Gaining readers is my goal.

            How important is to you to add to your list of followers?  Are you merely writing for your own amusement, or that of a limited circle of readers, or do you truly write with the intent of saying something to others?  Is my blog on your blog list?   Should your blog be on my blog list?  Are blog lists just a bunch of hooey?