Why Do You Revisit Some Blogs And Not Others?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 24, 2010

This is a relatively short post, especially coming from me. It’s a simple question; why do you revisit some blogs and not others?

I’ll answer this one first, though I know few people do what I do. I subscribe to around 200 blogs. I’ve been eliminating some over the past month or so because either they weren’t giving me what I needed anymore or their frequency was getting on my nerves. When I talk frequency, I mean posting once every month or longer; I’d already gotten rid of blogs that had 5 to 10 posts a day, as I realized that wasn’t just one person doing all the writing, and there was just no way to keep up with that kind of input.

I’ve also been deleting more blogs that use Disque or Intense Debate, as well as more Blogger blogs. If I’m not going to comment, and your content isn’t compelling enough to keep me reading where I want to comment, it’s time for you to go.

And yet, I’m still around 200. So, what keeps me going to them consistently? Each one of these blogs writes about something that interests me. Each one of these blogs has writers who are giving me something new and different and compelling and educational. They make me feel good, or they make me think, or they give me information I can use. I want that info, and I want to make sure I know where to go so I can receive it. So, I subscribe, and I enjoy.

No one hits a home run every time out; heck, I know I have some posts that get almost no one looking at it. Sometimes I wonder why, but other times I figure I’m just going to continue going for it because, after all, it’s all about writing and sharing and asking questions for me. And I truly am thankful to those of you who come back and check out what I have to say from time to time. I even appreciate those of you who pop in once then leave; at least you gave me a shot.

So, what keeps you going back to certain blogs for more?

Tags: blog comments, Blogging, reading blogs, subscribers

51 Comments »

jan geronimo:

I guess that’s bad news for us who use Disqus and Intense Debate.

Do you have a post about this somewhere in your archives? If there’s none, can you tell us why?
.-= jan geronimo´s last blog ..Here’s Why I Unfriended Darren Rowse in Facebook =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 2:37 AM

I linked to it in my post, Jan. Those burgundy words are links on this blog; if you see one with a blue underline, it’s a link to a product, which I don’t have in this post.

jan geronimo Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 3:37 AM

Oh, you’re juggling other blogs. Okay, I understand how it must be like an imposition for you to reg each one with Disqus.

I visit blogs to learn something new and to be entertained. That’s a basic requirement for me. I don’t even have to learn each new tip and trick every time I visit.

Most times, I go back for a good laugh. Other times just to check what’s up with my friends.

Stories the web author shares about his/her life – now, that’s irresistible for me. Maybe I’m just a natural gossip. LOL
.-= jan geronimo´s last blog ..Here’s Why I Unfriended Darren Rowse in Facebook =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 9:54 AM

That’s good stuff, Jan. I like how you think about the process, and I’m with you all the way.

February 25th, 2010 | 2:30 AM

Holly Jahangiri:

I’m not a huge fan of Disqus or IntenseDebate AS IMPLEMENTED on some blogs, myself. I would never have kept ID on mine, if not for the fact that you don’t HAVE to configure it to require a login. I just want to know that you’re real; I want name, email address, and linky-poo.

IntenseDebate also lets me read comments via GMail on my phone, which I can’t do with native WordPress (I get some sort of “unidentified stack error.”) Ask Jan – having to Twitter me a summary of blog comments while I’m on vacation without a laptop gets old after a while.

I don’t like sites that require me to register – AGAIN – with some new commenting system. Or that make me do MATH problems. (Why don’t they ever ask us to correctly punctuate a sentence, or something?) Why should I waste precious seconds of my life filling out yet another freaking FORM?

Blogger…depends on the comments configuration. I’m sick of the templates that require a captcha code but don’t provide enough room for the damned submit button. I’m not amused. I spent all that time composing a comment, and now it’s eaten by your blog? I don’t THINK so…grrr.

It’s not Blogger or Disqus or IntenseDebate that annoy me, really. It’s bloggers who think they’re so special I’ll jump through all their hoops just to engage – just to save them a little hassle in moderating comments that better tools could have saved them behind the scenes.

You want engagement? Don’t create animosity right out the starting gate.

Now, having said that – most bloggers try to provide the kind of content you describe, Mitch (not counting the obvious sploggers and teens who just think it’s “kewl” to have a blog and blurt their bad spelling to all and sundry). What SPECIFICALLY keeps you interested and engaged? Between two well-written blogs with solid content, what are you most interested in reading? When you say “educational,” what kinds of things do you want to learn? When you say “makes me feel good” what kinds of things do that? (You know, it’s easy to tell, on a Goth blog, that feeling bad makes the blogger feel good. It’s not as obvious on one that’s more mainstream or tech oriented.) What I’m getting at is this: We could all say what you’ve said here, and mean a thousand different things. If I were looking to attract MITCH, specifically, to my blog – how would I go about that?
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Wordy Wednesday =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:00 AM

Wow Holly, all that and you didn’t answer the question yourself! lol

I can’t say specifically because I have tons of different interests. I can give you 10; you’ll have to guess at the rest: affiliate marketing, astronomy, technology, finance, leadership, SEO, poker, cartoons, writing, and blogging. There’s more, but now it’s your turn.

I absolutely hate registering to comment on a blog, and refuse to. My big gripe with Blogger is that you either have to sign in with one of their accounts or you leave a message another way knowing that you’re never going to know if anyone responds to you or not. That just doesn’t cut it for me. I hate the math, as you do, and I also hate captcha because I can rarely read the stuff. So, I don’t bother. Now, if something really engages me, I’ll write a blog post about it and trackback to it, and that’ll just have to do.

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:11 AM

Oh, you caught me! Okay, what I think attracts and holds me is writing style. I don’t see much of a pattern in the topics of the blogs I follow, and can’t seem to pin myself down to writing within a defined niche, either. Some people can make the most dull and ordinary seem fascinating and entertaining – and its their use of the language that really keeps me coming back. Others have a way of engaging readers, really making it seem that they’re genuinely interested in turning the whole thing into a conversation. That makes it fun. (This is why blogs are better than TV – they’re interactive entertainment.) I like to read about language, education, parenting and kids, technology (but mostly the fun, quirky, and mass-market educational stuff – I don’t want to learn how to program a remote controlled rocket in Assembly language, even though I appreciate the intelligence of anyone who’d attempt to explain it in a blog). I like reading about interesting places and people. Opinions and rants, particularly on topics I might also have opinions on, or want to rant about. You won’t find me reading those finance blogs, Mitch – numbers give me brain freeze. Poker? Not so much. Cartoons are fun. Especially Dilbert. Which reminds me… I’d better get to work.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Bring It, Brian! =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:17 AM

Good stuff, Holly. As you’ve seen on this blog, I can go from talking about websites to talking about colorectal health and diabetes to politics, but in my own way. That’s what this blog was for, to have opinions about stuff and to talk about whatever I wanted to talk about. But it does have a concentration on web stuff, though I’m not sure at which point I decided to go that way. I just want to have fun; and I’m not a girl! lol

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 11:33 AM

Mitch, the whole point of that song is that no one’s ever doubted GUYS just wanna have fun…

And no one’s going to mistake you for a girl.

“I can go from talking about websites to talking about colorectal health and diabetes to politics, but in my own way.” That’s the attraction, right there. Not the colorectal cancer topic, per se, but the ability to seque from one to the other without getting all OCD about “staying on topic.” (You ever notice how the “stay on topic” folks are like the ones who “reply all” just to tell everyone to stop hitting “reply all”? Is there anything more annoying, really?)
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Jellyfish Tentacles, Trotters, and Eyeballs =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 2:03 PM

Well Holly, I kind of understand their point. They’re saying that you can build up an audience that’s looking for only one thing, and that audience, if your main purpose is making money, will be qualified buyers. I think it doesn’t quite work out that way as often as the marketers believe it does, but I know where they’re going with it.

I look at my blog as a microcosm of that type of thing. I write about whatever I want to write about, and I put up products that can go either way with visitors, but they’re all over the place as well. Will anyone ever buy? Some have bought here and there, but I’ll never have a consistent visitor looking for just the thing I’m marketing. Still, that’s not really the purpose of this particular blog, so I’ll take what I can get. lol

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 11:37 AM

Don’t get me wrong: If you have a passion for a particular topic, love to blog about it, want to run targeted ads or related affiliate marketing programs on it, or have related products of your own to sell, then a niche is great. If you’re going about it with some vague idea of “blogging for money” then you end up coming across as painfully, obviously, blogging for money. It’s soulless and not really interesting to anybody. I think that’s what a lot of bloggers don’t realize, and I think that’s why it’s not working for them.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Monday News & Views =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 11:55 AM

First, since you know I don’t comment on Disqus or Intense Debate blogs, I want to say that I feel our most important president was Lincoln because, even though it took a war, he pulled the country back together, instead of allowing two separate entities to exist; that would have been ugly.

Second, I almost fully agree with you on the blogging for money concept. I don’t know that it’s all soulless. For instance, I know someone who has a passion for one particular thing that we’d consider as a niche that also wanted to make money. That person writes with feeling on the topic because they like that topic, but also want to make money. It works out fairly well, because that person was smart about it. But for some people, they end up writing on something they know nothing about, or aren’t interested in, and that’s where problems occur.

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:11 PM

Exactly. That’s not soulless. Soulless is blogging only to make money – on whatever topic you think is apt to do that for you, whether you have any interest in the topic, yourself, or not.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Jellyfish Tentacles, Trotters, and Eyeballs =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:20 AM

Oh yeah; I also don’t subscribe to activate comments either; man…

February 25th, 2010 | 8:42 AM

Scott Thomas:

Besides liking and enjoying the blogs content, the blogs I enjoy most are the ones where the blogger interacts with the people who take the time to comment. I really try to do that though I understand sometimes that is hard to keep up with. If they try, I usually will re-visit them. If they come to my blog and join in, that’s when I list them on my blogroll.

Blogs that go dark (stop adding content) I drop.
.-= Scott Thomas´s last blog ..GPOYW =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:02 AM

Yeah, that’s the freaky one, when blogs go dark. With a reader, sometimes it takes awhile before I know it’s gone dark, because I have my reader set up to clear all posts once I’ve marked them read.

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 10:12 AM

Oh, the detritus of darkened blogs abandoned along the way…

I have a few of those.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..Bring It, Brian! =-.

Sire Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 4:52 PM

Going dark? That’s the first time I’ve heard of that term. Makes you wonder why people bother leaving them up, may as well just pull the plug as they’re gonna die a slow death anyway.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Perception Is Important To Your Blogging Career =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 12:55 AM

People leave them up, Sire, because they just stop thinking about them in the first place. We both tell people if they don’t believe they’ll stick with it not to even start, but we also both know how hard it is to give all of our blogs enough attention.

February 25th, 2010 | 9:58 AM

Klaus @ TechPatio:

I started using Google Reader and now I have their “gadget” on my iGoogle page, so I can always see updated blog posts from the ones I subscribe to.

However, I also subscribe to so many that I can’t possible keep it up. To be honest, it only shows me “commentluv-enabled & do follow blogs”. The rest, I’ll have to open up Google Reader to see.

In my “global”-list, so to speak, your site is definitely among the top 10 blogs I visit every now and then, without necessarily going through the RSS feed (I came here tonight through your twitter feed, for instance).
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Twitter: 50 Million Tweets Per Day =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:03 AM

Why thanks Klaus; I appreciate that. I almost never use my iGoogle page, probably because I like messing with how my Google page looks via Stylish.

February 25th, 2010 | 4:50 PM

Klaus @ TechPatio:

Oh and I forgot – the reason I revisit some blogs and not others (in addition to commentluv/dofollow), well, the content just appeals to me. I’m rarely interested in reading 2000+ word blog posts or something that’s so advanced I need to read it three times to get it.

It’s like friends. Even though we WANT to like somebody, sometimes it’s just not possible because we don’t “connect well”.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Twitter: 50 Million Tweets Per Day =-.

February 25th, 2010 | 4:51 PM

Sire:

I tend to follow the blogger more than the blog. I don’t use my feed reader at all.

I do subscribe to comments on posts that I find interesting and these will normally drag me back to a post I’m interested in.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Where Bloggers Meet, A Forum For Bloggers =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:05 AM

Sire, you’re just all over the place. Often I think I’ve discovered an out of the way blogger, only to find out you’ve been there first.

Sire Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:15 AM

And I reckon that most of the time they’ve commented on my blog first and I just returned the favor.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Perception Is Important To Your Blogging Career =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:19 AM

Could be, but man, you’re a prolific commenter.

Sire Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:25 AM

Not as much as I used to, but I reckon I still hold my own
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Perception Is Important To Your Blogging Career =-.

February 25th, 2010 | 9:57 PM

Rose:

Aww you like my blog, you really really do. I visit your blog, because I enjoy the things you blog about. Simple enough?
.-= Rose´s last blog ..How to Create Twitter Layouts with twitlay =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 12:07 AM

That works for me, and I assume it’s the same for other blogs you visit as well.

February 25th, 2010 | 10:46 PM

Karl Foxley:

I revisit blogs for a few reasons:

Some blogs I visit because I learn from the content or, at the least, find information that supports what I’ve already learned.

Some blogs I visit again and again because the author has a great writing style and always gets great feedback from their community (sometimes the comments are just as entertaining, insightful etc as the blog post itself).

Another reason is because the bloggers themselves are people I consider to be online friends and it’s nice to drop in and show my support.

That’s pretty much the core reasons of my visits. I use a mixture of RSS subscription and commenter following when visiting blogs and commenting.

Karl
.-= Karl Foxley´s last blog ..How A Small Business Built An Email Subscriber List Without A Website =-.

Mitch Reply:
February 26th, 2010 at 11:33 AM

Great stuff, Karl. I also love the sense of community.

February 26th, 2010 | 6:18 AM

Glen:

I actually need to build up my RSS list. I just deleted about 1/2 the sites because the authors never responded to comments.
While I get why big name bloggers don’t have time to respond to all the comments it still bugs me. Especially if they waste my time asking a question on each post and then ignore my response.

I’ve had webhost problems for the past week or so and have been working on that. I’ve missed your posts..

Mitch Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 1:06 AM

Yup, you need to get a feedreader of some kind to keep up with that stuff for sure.

And I’m with you on the comments. I check out a few posts to see if the writer comments back to people before I decide to follow these days, but I haven’t always done that.

February 26th, 2010 | 8:54 PM

Anne:

I read blogs about saving money because I need to and about making money – because I have to. I read Holly’s blog to learn words and to find out how little I actually know. I come here because I never know what I’m going to find. Writing, interesting anecdotes, history, learning, money matters, opinion, it’s really a mixed bag. I would have to say the number reason I visit a blog is for the community that gathers there. Extreme John is the best example.
.-= Anne´s last blog ..How to Add Your Google Reader Feeds as a Blogroll on Your Site =-.

Mitch Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 1:27 AM

Yes, I love the sense of community in visiting some of the blogs I do, and I find it fascinating since most of us don’t live anywhere near each other. And I hope to keep intriguing you. lol

February 28th, 2010 | 10:59 PM

Ching Ya:

It proves that we all have reasons why to revisit, for me, connections are valuable. Especially for commenters who are willing to share thoughts, feedback will always have my priority. (So you know why I keep coming back when I had the chance, Mitch) As what others have shared here, quality content is another reason. Each blog is special, there will always be something to learn about if we are observant enough.

@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..Art Of Communicating in Social Networks =-.

Mitch Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 12:53 PM

Great stuff Ching Ya; thanks! Quality content and entertainment here and there; nothing wrong with that.

March 1st, 2010 | 10:20 AM

Dennis Edell:

A real live chattering social human behind the wheel, that’s what keeps me going back first and foremost.

THEN content.

Sounds weird to put content 2nd? I tell ya what, uniqueness is quite rare. No matter what the topic, I can probably find it on multiple blogs; different voices perhaps, but the same info.

Sooooo if your a dead fish and want me to come back again, oh you best have something real special for me.

Also, I try to connect with each and every blogger who’s blog I read on more levels then just subscriber.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..DEDC Updates – What the (Near) Future Holds for You and I! =-.

Mitch Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 PM

Good stuff, Dennis. You’re another person I seem to end up visiting a new blog and see you’ve commented there. Hard to keep up with you and Sire, that’s for sure.

March 2nd, 2010 | 2:06 PM

Val:

I ask myself this same question quite often, Mitch. What keeps me coming back to some blogs and not others. Like you I have about 200+ blogs in my feed reader and I go through waves of deleting and then find I’m adding more. As far as I can tell, the ones that I keep returning to, fall into one or more of these categories:

They are blogs that have tips and ideas to do with topics I am interested in or want to know more about. I’m an info junkie so often I can’t get enough of these. Then again, sometimes I get so tired of them posting the same stuff over and over that I just delete them.

There is something in the blogging that I can identify with, often on an emotional level. But if it gets excessive or too whiney, I’m out of there, and it’s out of my reader.

When I comment, my comments are mostly answered. If I post comments and they are never answered, unless there’s something else that keeps me reading (like the info blogs), I see no point in staying.

I think the major thing that makes me return to blogs is the attitude of the blog’s author – to his/her readers particularly. If readers are regarded as human beings, as individuals, I’m more likely to return. If they’re just number, just fodder for the statcounters, then I pick up on that very quickly and I leave.
.-= Val´s last blog ..Life goes on =-.

Mitch Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 1:21 PM

Good stuff, Val. I have categorized the majority of blogs I follow so that I know what I’m reading and what I’m interested in at the time. I have some blogs that just don’t fit those categories, but they entertain me so I stick around. But I’m finding a lot of blogs suddenly have gone dark, so I’m going to have to find some time to kill those in my reader.

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 2:06 PM

Mine didn’t “go dark.” I just killed it a little. Jaypee resuscitated it, so it’s all good now.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..The Literary Death Match Marches On =-.

Mitch Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 3:13 PM

Holly, I consider “going dark” 3 months or more. I saw your issue, so I knew what was going on there.

June 25th, 2010 | 10:12 AM

Val:

I love ‘killing’ dead blogs. Hope there aren’t any zombie ones out there that come back…
.-= Val´s last blog ..Life goes on =-.

June 25th, 2010 | 4:51 PM

Holly Jahangiri:

It’s just you.

Mitch, you let it in. NO ONE is named after an antibiotic, man. This is one of the shambling undead!

Mitch Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 8:33 AM

Thanks Holly. Those sometimes slip in while I’m sleeping. lol

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 8:35 AM

::hands you a bottle of 151 and a Bic lighter::

Mitch Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 8:39 AM

LOL! Thanks!

Holly Jahangiri Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 8:56 AM

Oh, hey, what are friends for? (Check out the post in my CommentLuv link. It must be the Zombie Revolution this week. Gotta be alert. Wouldn’t want to be mistaken for one!)

September 9th, 2010 | 7:31 AM

ifsr:

Since my blog is about entertainment, i used to subscribe lots of blogs, around 300 blogs i have subscribed. Daily will get new information.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
February 9th, 2011 at 6:07 AM

That’s a lot of blogs, Alvin; I hope you have a plan for keeping up with all that, as I had to create.

February 9th, 2011 | 2:09 AM

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