Friday, December 28, 2007

Unrequited Blog Love


By now I’m sure most of you know, or have heard about, Entrecard; I think it’s a good way to bring folks to your blog who may not have discovered you otherwise.

Many people are coming by to drop cards so they’re only at your blog for a microsecond; but there are others like me who, as they’re whipping by, see something of interest and stop to read and comment. I’ve seen posts on some blogs lamenting the fact that the traffic from Entrecard is comprised of people who only stop by to drop cards and don’t stay to comment, well what about the people who do?

When I was a sophomore in high school, there was a boy who I was madly in love with, let’s call him Doug. Doug was a year older than I, tall with curly hair, and when he got his driver’s license, he got a motorcycle which enabled him to wear a sexy, black leather jacket every day to school.

I watched the parking lot every day and when he’d roar into the yard I’d feel lightheaded. I went into the student counseling office and looked up his complete class schedule so that I could nonchalantly walk by some of his classes during the day. I believe that kind of activity is called stalking these days, but I digress.

Anyway, all this energy brought me nothing. I won’t say Doug didn’t know I was alive because he’d have had to be missing all of his senses not to. If something or someone shows up in your peripheral vision often enough you notice. No, Doug knew I was alive, he just didn’t care. Now, I’ll admit that I imitated a helicopter where Doug was concerned for awhile; but eventually with no reciprocity I lost interest.

So, here I am years later, with the Entrecard version of my high school crush. I visit some blogs, like them, comment, come back, comment again. It is rather interesting that some of these blogs are the very ones complaining about the traffic from Entrecard. I have been to some of them a couple of times, without reciprocity. I know that because we all have that blinking Blog Catalog widget that rats us out.

I’m not really saying that everyone who visits you, you will like their blog as well and a beautiful blog relationship will develop; but it certainly won’t happen if you never visit their blogs at all. It’s rather like the girl who turns down the sweet-hearted boy for a date because she’s waiting for the football player to ask her out, all the while complaining about how superficial that football player is. I would say I'm not that girl anymore...but I never was that girl.