We all interact with the blogging world a little differently. In yesterday’s post, How do you follow, I asked people to answer a a few survey questions about how they follow other blogs.
Here are the results, based on 24 responses:
Question 1: How many blogs do you follow?
- <100: 25%
- 100-499: 50%
- 500-1000: 8.3%
- >1000: 16.7%
Question 2: Do you have more followers or blogs you’re following?
- more followers: 62.5%
- more following: 25%
- around the same: 12.5%
Question 3: How do you usually find other bloggers’ posts?
- WordPress reader: 70.8%
- email notifications: 4.3%
- visiting the blogger’s website: 8.3%
- other: 16.8%, including a mix of the above methods, and checking out other bloggers who’ve interact with their own blog
Comments:
About 27% of people (including me) follow 500 or more blogs. Most people who’ve been blogging for quite a while have seen other bloggers come and go, but unless those bloggers delete their accounts, they’re still sitting around on our list of blogs we’re following. I follow more than 1000, but there’s no way I could actively follow that many at a time.
I suspect that one of the reasons that the majority of respondents have a greater number of followers than blogs they’re following is the tendency to accumulate spammy followers over time. If I were to remove all my spammy followers and the accounts that appeared to follow me only because they hoped for a follow back, then my follower and following numbers would be a much closer match. One respondent commented that that they had a lot more blogs they were following compared to followers because they’ve been reading on WordPress for much longer than they’ve been writing.
I found it interesting that most people use the WordPress Reader to find posts. That’s always been my approach, but I wasn’t sure what other people did. Several people responded that they use a combination of different ways to find posts.
What I take away from this is that following other blogs matters to people. Sure, it’s easy to get caught up in what’s happening on our own blogs, but an essential part of being an active member of the blogging community is supporting other bloggers. So get out there and read some blogs! 😃
You can find more posts about blogging on the Blogging & Writing Tips page and in A New Blogger’s Guide to the WordPress Community.
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The results are interesting. I think it boils down to how long someone has been blogging. I’m fairly new so I think most new bloggers will be following more people than having their own followers.
I agree.
Interesting statistics! Great job!
🙂
Wow, now I understand how I can have 300 blog followers, but, judging by likes and interactions, only about 20 or 30 people seem to read my blog with any regularity.
I’m at about the same ratio too.
I also have about the same ratio. I’m nearing 500 followers, and I usually have 30-50 who read my posts the day a post comes out. It seems to be about right to have a follower engagement rate in the 8-12% range.
Yeah I think I read somewhere that’s about average.
Those are some great pie charts!! What fun!!
🙂
I missed the survey, but here are my responses:
How many blogs do you follow? (i.e. blogs you follow, not people who follow you)
500-1000
Do you have more followers or blogs you’re following?
more following
How do you usually find other bloggers’ posts?
WordPress reader, email notifications, visiting the blogger’s website, or other – All of the above.
Thanks for your input!
You are welcome.
I notice that most of my readers come from the WordPress reader than twitter. I follow less blogs than follow mine. But I’m just starting to blogging seriously so that most likely will change
Yeah I think it’s the kind of thing that continues to evolve the longer you’ve been blogging.
Excellent results. Yes following other blogs is a way to support other bloggers and that’s important. 😃
🙂
Such interesting results! 💗👏 Great post! I also follow people because of the WordPress Reader and also because of reading other blog posts. I think I follow more people than who follow me. I don’t know how you can see how many you follow
Just below the search bar on the WordPress reader screen, there’s a box that says “followed sites” and there’s a button “manage”. If you click on that it will tell you how many you’re following.
I’m starting to think I’m not getting the balance right. The community and other bloggers are hugely important to me. I’m always falling behind but I’m trying to read so many blogs, and comment on those by bloggers I love and want to support, that I’ve no time to actually work on my own blog 😂
It gets like that for me too sometimes.
Difficult, isn’t it?
Interesting results from your survey though! xx
Yeah for sure.