Well I’ll be. At some point last night whilst I lay sleeping, one of you clicked “Follow” and became number 500. When I started blogging a little over four months ago, my expectations lay somewhere on the continuum between “international fame” and “hopefully one or two people other than my mother will want to read this stuff.” OK perhaps a little closer to the latter. But seriously, if you had really pressed me for a prediction back in September, I don’t think I would have anticipated over 500 followers in just a few months.
I know I didn’t anticipate the flurry of attention that my blog garnered from being Fresh Pressed. I know I didn’t anticipate all the countries that would be represented by my readers. (Not quite “international fame,” but international nonetheless!) And I really didn’t anticipate that I would actually make a few friends out here on the interweb.
I’m kind of curious about the rest of you. I get that many of you only clicked “follow” because you have something to sell. If that’s you, then you should know that I’m going to be a disappointment; that’s not why I’m here. On the other hand, some of you are obviously here for the same reasons I’m here– to hone your writing, and to share that writing with an audience. In between there’s a whole gamut of blogs of all shapes and sizes. I’m especially curious about the number of bloggers who are writing in languages other than English but who have opted to follow my English-language blog.
Mostly I’m curious about what brought you here. What did you see in my writing that made you think it might be worth sticking around? What motivates you to follow a blog? Do you have a favourite post on my blog?
I really appreciate those of you who have taken the time to comment on what you have read here. Now I’d like to invite the rest of you to speak up (well, at least those of you who aren’t spam-bots!) and tell me something about who you are and why you’re here. Please say hi, either by leaving a comment here, or if you’d like, by going back to another post you liked and commenting there.
Muddy River Muse 
Congratulations! I know I was thrilled with that particular benchmark. Your blog and mine have progressed similarly. I put the power of positive thinking to work at the end of 2013 and decided that I would be freshly pressed and end the year with at least 500 readers. Both of those milestones occurred. I’m a believer! 🙂
I follow blogs that are well written, interesting, and challenge my thinking. I also enjoy blogs that contain humor and topics of interest to me such as education and quilting. Keep writing good material, and I’ll keep reading!
BB
Thanks! Your blog is one of the first ones that I started following.I taught school for 18 years (I’m in the adult education field now) and I find your blog consistently resonates with the way I think.
I feel honored. 🙂
Nice milestone! What brought me here and why do I follow your blog? Well, you apparently liked one of my posts at one time and I try, time permitting, to take a look at the bloggers who took the time to read and like one of my posts. If I like what I see when I get there (i.e., the posts are interesting and well-written), I follow the blog. That’s why I am following yours, along with, it looks like, 629 others.
Thanks! I’m enjoying your blog for your sense of humour 🙂
The 629 includes the people who automatically get a link to my posts via Facebook. For some reason those don’t get counted in the official WordPress count of “500.”
Great congrats
I just started writing here up this week only and was just going through some random posts n i saw this one and don’t know what emphasized me i took your post out of some good work i must say n I’m just an amateur in this field
http://akansha0210site.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/thats-how-it-started/
Go through my link and suggest what could I do further to improve this