An Untended Blog

~ beetleypete

People who enjoy their gardens might well tell you that untended plants are doomed to die. Some can be left to their own devices, and will come back miraculously every year. But most of those that really adorn a garden need regular attention, and a little love too.

Much the same applies to your blog. Put up a few random articles, ignore the likes and comments, and you will soon discover that it will not flourish. Don’t bother to reply to people, fail to read their blogs, and don’t invest in being part of the community, and you can be sure to see your blog wither away on the screen, until you might just as well delete it.

If you want to get the most out of blogging, you have to regularly add relevant content to attract readers and followers. Then you have to engage with them, show them that you value their involvement and input. Ignore this advice, and you will soon be posting everything for just one reader. You.

If that is what you intended, that’s fine. It is not compulsory to bother with anyone else. Just blog for yourself if you want to. But is that really why you started? Didn’t you want to connect with people, maybe some like minded bloggers from all around the world? To express your thoughts or opinions, promote your writing, tell strangers what you were feeling, or where you had been? If so, you really do have to tend that blog, just as a dedicated gardener will care for their cherished rose beds.

Many of you will know that I have another blog. Some of you even follow it, and I thank you for that.
https://redflagflying.wordpress.com/

This was always intended to be an ‘occasional’ blog. Something different, and a change from what I write about here on beetleypete. I deliberately only post now and again, as the mood takes me, or an issue makes me angry or interested enough to comment. It is very much an ‘untended’ blog. Only 153 posts in six years, and just 237 followers listed. Most days, it is lucky to receive four views. The average daily viewing figure is just one. (1!)
During July, it had no views at all on ten days of that month, and archive posts older than one year are almost never explored, read, or commented on.

That’s fine with me. I have my main blog, and this other one is just a ‘toy’ at best, and rarely played with. But it stands as a good example of an ‘untended’ blog.

So if you want to get the best out of blogging, and to find it rewarding, fulfilling, and most of all, enjoyable, learn from the gardeners.

69 thoughts on “An Untended Blog”

  4. Well said, Pete. I am constantly astounded by bloggers who only want me to read their blog. More importantly, where is blog etiquette? You write about it, thank goodness. When I tell my husband I have to write my thank you notes, he understands that I need and want to answer my blogger’s comments.

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  6. Do you have a kind reply when you are nominated for an award? I seem to bump into that now and then and don’t quite know what to do. I love the garden analogy here. I also appreciate your other blog, especially at the present time in the world

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    1. Thanks, Elizabeth. What I do with Blog awards is this;
      “Many thanks for nominating me, which is appreciated. I do not pass on nominations for blog awards, but will happily answer your questions here”.
      I then give my answers to the questions in a comment on their award post.
      So, far, it has never caused offence.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  7. Very true words, Pete, blogs require effort to get the best out of them. Luckily for me, I love blogging so it is not hard work but still effort. This gardener is having a 2 week content break while we tour Scotland. I am popping in for quick visits to my friends when I can though.

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  10. Terrific post Pete. When I first started blogging I honestly had no real idea what I was doing. I started it up as just a bit of a joke. I used to write short movie reviews over on Facebook, but then one day decided to just see what I could do with a blog.
    I was surprised to eventually have people read my stuff, and then started checking out other blogs too. I was very shy and it took me a while to start commenting on other people’s blogs. It was however the best decisison I have ever made. I have met so many great people that have become real friends (of course present company included) and never even in my wildest dreams would I have ever though to gain over 1700 followers. That said, I am at my limit when it comes to following other blogs. I have as you know a very busy dayjob, and I also think it’s a bit of a disservice to just follow people and never really read their posts. I am quite happy with where I am now, and of course it’s still great when I get new followers.
    I have also followed bloggers where I left comments and where I never got a response. I honestly think that is also a bit disrespectul. I am always humble when people take the time to read my stuff, and am even more amazed when they leave a comment. Of course not everyone is the same, but really why have a comment section if you are not going to answer the comments left by your readers? Commenting and engaging with other is for me at least the best thing about blogging! That said, this comment has become very long…sorry about that 😅😅 Hope you have a great weekend!

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    1. Long comments are good, Michel!
      Glad you are in agreement. Like you, I have reached a ‘follow limit’, of 100 blogs. That allows for the fact that half of those are not too active. 🙂
      I can only add a new follow when one of my old ones ‘disappears’, or the blogger lets me know they have stopped posting.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Yeah I just about the same limit 😊 And like the blogs that you follow some of those aren’t too active either. I make a few exceptions from time to time when I come across something really cool, but other than that I really am at my limit now. But for now I’m really glad that I am back and able to interact with everyone again! It’s the best part about blogging😊

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  12. All good points Pete. I think most of us blog for our own personal satisfaction but what would we do without readers?? So I agree it takes some consistency and participation in the blogging community to get the best result.

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    1. Thanks, Susanne. I started this as a ‘personal diary’, but it soon became so much more. Then I met so many lovely people from all around the world, and became entranced with being able to engage with them almost every day. The wonder of blogging! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. I definitely agreed with what you say here, pete; I think blogging epitomises both the blessing and the curse of the internet: it’s so easy to, literally, talk to the whole world, but it also comes with virtually no discrimination, other that that possessed by the user. Perhaps the best attitude to take, which if you will permit me to precis what you say here, is that what you get out of it is a direct result of what you put into it. Thank you for the link to your other blog, as well, which I am now following. I think there is a lot to be said for separating the ‘political’ topics from the more general ones; I always feel with mine, given that its primary purpose was to help promote my biography whose subject was a very political person, that I have to walk a fine line between being overtly & overly political (and fascism, albeit British and now 80 years in the past, is still a very sensitive subject: rightly so, of course) and more general, to encourage traffic to the blog. I’m not sure if I have the stamina now to create a new, non-political blog (although I do feel that politics does pervade our daily lives in many ways), but as I said, I can definitely see the advantage of doing so. Anyway, sorry for the epistle, but keep up the good work! 🙂

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    1. Thanks, WB. My motivation to start my other blog came from lack of interest in early ‘political’ posts on this one. I realised that I could only fit in so many categories, without alienating too many good followers and readers.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  14. Pete, as you know it takes time to create material for a blog, so adding another certainly is difficult, unless you have a point of view that is so distinct you need a separate place to share…that’s what happened with me, and my “second” blog is for cult movie fans – who are open to a look at the “wilder” side of cinema…works for me because the expectations, like you have, are measured…

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  16. hi Pete. I’m always impressed by how much work you put into your blog. Looking back, I guess I really started blogging for my kids; I wrote a lot about family history, meeting their mother, their grandparents, our lives when I was a child. I had a poetry period for quite awhile. The poetry efforts actually got quite a few readers. Politics was also a theme but I got tired of writing about it after Trump’s election. Didn’t seem to be any point. Lately its been history – a love of mine; especially those little known tidbits that had such an enormous affect. Readership has been steady but never great. That’s ok. I do it for my pleasure. Thanks for reading and best regards.

    Frank

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    1. Thanks, Frank. You know I am a huge fan of your blog. Few people do family history with such eloquence and emotion.
      And I have bought some of your books too, even though I already read the poems on your blog. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. I love blogging, Pete. I like engaging on different issues, so forth. As it is, I spend too much time on it. I’ve had to pull back some; I have a business to run and paying the bills supersedes my hobbies. Sad but true.

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    1. I appreciate that Pam. I am lucky to be retired, and have free time. This was mainly about bloggers who do not engage, then complain that nobody reads their blogs. You engage. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. Good advice Pete, one of my marital relatives does a blog on WP but doesn’t acknowledge comments (not even mine 🙄) or read other peoples blogs. He shares it to Facebook though and gets comments there, mostly from his Missis about his atrocious spelling. I’ve never bothered helping him out as I don’t wish to unleash his appalling grammar on the world either. 🤣

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  21. Great Post, Pete. I did a post much like yours for forum owners some years back. Too many would build a forum, get discouraged and build another. Leaving their followers hanging in the air. Then they wondered why it never grew. My explanation, was a garden theme as well, it just seemed to fit.

    I know my garden has been neglected by me the last few months. I hope to get back in the swing of things, before it’s too late.

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  22. Tis true. I love blogging and would post daily, like you, if I had the time. I’m sure that’s the issue for many folks. Family, jobs, relationships, and other passions pull one away from the garden. I wrestle with the “real-time vs. “virtual-time”. While I value my blogging buddies, the relationships with my real family and friends always come first. Conversely, my “real” friends and family don’t listen to or care much for my inner thoughts and feelings regarding the posts I create. In other words, my blogging buddies satisfy an emotional need that isn’t satisfied in the “real” world. I don’t know if that makes sense. Probably too deep for 6:15 in the morning before I head off to work…

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    1. It makes a lot of sense to me, Cindy. My wife has little or no interest in my blog, though some of my relatives are followers. Most of the community are comparative ‘strangers’, though many have become genuine online friends. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  24. I’m impressed by how much work some put into their blogs. I only manage 3-4 posts a month but visitors still go up when I post someting new. Not in the garden, thankfully. Imagine having hundreds of people traipsing through every time you put in a new plant.

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  25. Spot on, Pete. Even leaving the blog untended for a few days away has an effect… and yet I get emails from frustrated bloggers wanting to know why they have no followers when they have posted two or three times in the last year and read no-one else’s work…

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      1. Thw whole ‘other blog’ this is tricky… unless you have separate gravatars and logins for them, the main blog will always get the most traffic as that is where peope are led when hey click to see who you are.

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