My apologies to Gwen Stefani.
This Sunday, I will participate in Relax and Surf Sunday, as I have every week for the past month or so. LeeAnn and Colleen host an amazing weekly blog hop to make new friends and find new blogs. The great thing? There are no rules – you’re not required to follow 18 people from the list or everyone above you or even the hostesses if you don’t want to; you can just link up and walk away, if that is your inclination. For me, that kind of defeats the purpose of finding other bloggers with similar interests and ideas, but you *could.*
So, anyway. Every week, I link up – and honestly? I hop to a few blogs. I do not make it through the whole list, but I usually travel the interwebz and make a new friend or two on the way. I’m a busy guy; between Music for Aardvarks and playground visits and “babies who lunch dates,” never mind bloggy baby adventures, I don’t have time to follow everyone. I read every single blog that I add to my reader and many times, I leave a comment.
Therefore, I don’t expect everyone to follow me. IF you happen to stop by and like what you see (Mommy thinks I’m really cute), I’d love for you to add me to your reader or blogroll or whatever. But if you don’t? No biggie.
IF you hang out here and something in one of my posts strikes you? I love comments! And I can guarantee that if you comment here, I will visit your blog and check you out.
But I have a teensy pet peeve: pretty please? Don’t leave a fly-by nothing comment – you know what I mean…
“Hi! Here’s my link, follow me back.” <--- That, right there? Tells me you couldn't be bothered to read my post or look at any of my pictures, but you expect me to take time to visit you. We've already established that I've got a pretty busy schedule - my interwebz attention span is reserved for people who care to take 3 seconds to formulate a meaningful response or who I talk to on Twitter. These bleeps (bloggy peeps, you know?) don’t necessarily comment on every post (I’m not the only busy one), but they check in every once in a while.
So, to recap:
- I have some great interwebz friends and YOU could be one of them.
- Please don’t leave me a generic, cut-and-pasted comment and expect me to blindly follow you.
- If you think I’m cute, let me know – I will come and visit your corner of the web!
Oh man, comments like that are truly worse than no comments at all. I even get mad at the ones that say something nice and then “suggest” I check out their blog. DUDE, unless you're an idiot, your name can link back to your blog and/or Google account and if you say something worthwhile I WILL follow that link back to you. I realize commenting on lots of blogs is a good way to gain readers but making it ALL ABOUT gaining readers is stupid.
Whew. Obviously I needed to get that out. Sorry for the novel, Cole!
I couldn't have said it better myself, Cole. And I've tried!!!
And by the way? You are VERY VERY CUTE!!
I am a new follower, very cute blog and he is adorable. Stop by any time
http://thisnthatboutiqueblog.blogspot.com/
Cute blog!I'm a new follower from Relax and Surf Sundays! Hope you'll check out my blog.
http://mylifeinjenga.blogpsot.com
Very cute! Very well said. I'm a GFC Follower
http://www.mommiesplayground.com
Have a great weekend…take a look at my giveaways if you stop by.
Dear Cole,
I just want to say from experience, that you really mean what you say in this post. Your comments on my blog are always meaningful and I feel like we have an ongoing “conversation” because we visit back and forth on each other's blogs. It's what blogging is all about! Community!
I love this post and I want to start doing Relax and Surf Sunday too!
xooxxo
Tiny Reader
You are so awesome for posting this! Thank you so much for talking about our hop. I'm so glad you like it, and that you continue to participate.
I totally agree with you about the comment thing. Now, if someone comments on my R&S Sunday post that they are following and didn't bother to read any more of my blog, I will let that slide. But if you come over from another hop on another day and comment on a post with pictures of my cute kids and can't even be bothered to say how cute they are? Yeah, I won't be visiting back. Followers are great, but READERS are even better! This was a great post.
Your blog is awesome and Cole you're adorable, but you really got my follow with this post. I am in total agreement with you and I find it absolutely hilarious that a couple of people left the type of comments you were railing against in response to THIS post…guess they didn't bother to read the whole thing, but I am glad that I did.