Deutsch: Screenshot vom Blog-System WordPress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you are not a WordPress blogger, you can skip this first part. I put it up in case someone is searching for some help with the WordPress Blogs I Follow tool.
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As I was tinkering with this blog, I noticed a number of things:
I realised that I had quite a number of blogs listed in the Blogs I Follow widget in the right hand side column, but when I went to my Dashboard and clicked Blogs I Follow, there were only eight blogs listed. These seemed to be recently followed blogs.
Secondly, I realised that I usually receive notifications about new posts from these eight blogs only.
Third, I had clicked Follow on my own blog. I removed it from the Dashboard, but it still appeared in the widget.
So it seems either there was a disconnect between the Dashboard settings and the widget, or there was something I was missing. My suspicion is that the disconnect came about for blogs I chose to Follow a while back, such that these were not recognised in the Dashboard. Anyway, I seem to have fixed it by going to the blogs listed in the widget and clicking Unfollow, then clicking Follow afresh for those I still wished to follow (Yes, I stopped following some, particularly those that did not have recent (2012) updates).
I have submitted this information to the WordPress Support http://en.support.wordpress.com community.
[Update: I got a reply that the Widget and the Dashboard lists are actually supposed to be different. Only those to which you are subscribed to receive new post notifications by email show up in the Dashboard.]
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Anyway, the exercise above gave me a chance to briefly look at some of the blogs I follow. I also followed links in comments to other blogs, followed some of those and so on. It (again) dawned on me that there are a number of published authors among those I follow (and some that I don’t). In other words, there are many ‘regular people’ out there who are published authors. Some of them have published ebooks and/or printed books. I think I really should consider pursuing this ebook option. Getting published now seems more easily attainable.
Many of the blogs are very good (hence my following them đŸ™‚ ) The variety of bloggers and content is wide – from flash fiction, to longer stories, to daily events, memories, commentaries, interviews, tips, poetry, … One blogger was born in 1990 and lives in Romania, one is a lady who writes about Biblical nutritional principles, another writes poems exclusively(?), one writes as inanimate objects, one is my sister. (I was going to put links here, but you will need to do the work yourself and click the links on the right :-). Go on, discover.) There are many interesting blogs out there (You already knew that? Oh. Ok).
Bottom line is, I think, everyone has something to say, each from their own perspective. I recently realised that many of the things that may seem normal to me and to others around me, may actually be quite strange fascinating to others living elsewhere. (For example, taking a bath using water from a basin, as opposed to a running tap or shower). I think one of the key things is to say it as well as many of these and other bloggers do. I hope to actively collect worthwhile content, and to develop my skills in delivering this content.
Go ahead and share your story. Someone will be happy to read it. Or at least, if you read a blog you like, let the author know.
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You may want to see this post, which I found after I posted this one.
Related articles
- How to Create a Blog (answers.com)
- Some very cool WordPress plugins (halfblog.net)
Baba Amor's Thoughts 