A Follower Question for Fellow Bloggers

This afternoon I decided to glance at my stats for the first time in a good while. I noticed something curious with some new followers.

In the last 10 days or so, I have a handful of new followers that piqued my curiosity. These followers all have different blog names, different user names, different Gravatar profiles, and guess what? They have the same profile photos.

I poked around a little on each one and they appear to be aggregate sort of blogs but they each share a few things in common.

1. Each blog carries ads.
2. Each blog has an affiliate disclosure statement (they make money off the site and off the ads if you click through them).
3. Each blog writes on various topics unrelated to each other.
4. Each blog was designed by the same person who happens to be an IT-type possibly from Russia.

I know a lot of my followers are not real. Many of us have fake followers. This one bugs me though. This is definitely black-hat SEO and it bugs me that they follow my blog, pepper their photos and links in my likes and follows which could lead one of my followers to inadvertently click through on their bait.

I followed this all the way through to the web designer’s LinkedIn page. I do not wish to interact with unscrupulous people so I am teetering on deleting the followers and blocking them.

How did I catch this? I show my followers Gravatar photos on my blog. It is easy to see the duplicate photos of ‘fake’ people. I even did an image search on the photos but received no hits. I am guessing these photos were taken from someone’s social media account unbeknownst to them.

It is a sad situation when people must take the low road.

What would you do?

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Thank You Followers

Today I noticed my followers rolled over the 800 mark. While I know not all those followers are ‘real’ there are many who are faithful readers and commenters. It is humbling to share my thoughts and be heard and responded to in this great void of silence brought on by the pandemic we are living through. Never in my lifetime has the entire world experienced such a devastating event simultaneously. I hope it might reflect a deeper understanding of our shared humanity.

I thank you. For your readership, your comments, and your engaging and thoughtful posts as well. I am proud to be a part of a community that enriches my life in so many ways.

 

Quiet Changes

Day 327, an addendum

Artist: Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) Engraver:

Edmund Evans (1826–1905)   Alternative names Edmund William Evans Description English engraver and printer Date of birth/death 23 February 1826 21 August 1905 Location of birth/death London Isle of Wight Work location London Authority control : Q4529602 VIAF: 71519059 ISNI: 0000 0000 8392 8947 ULAN: 500023437 LCCN: n81059993 NLA: 35071074 WorldCat creator QS:P170,Q4529602, Pied Piper2, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons

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Today I noticed I quietly reached 300 blog followers. There was no fanfare or any false notion on my part that I truly have 300 followers. I can see by likes and comments and statistics how many people really read what I write.

Some followers are trying to up the ante on their own website’s ranking. Some people are trying to sell products or real estate or any other number of thing I am not in the market for. I follow people who write from their heart and have something to share. I read more than I like and comment, though. Sometimes I agree and sometimes I disagree but I never feel the need to try to argue someone else’s opinion or win them over to my way of thinking.

A long ago I took a statistics class. I still remember the first lesson in the class.

Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.

To those who truly follow and read and like and comment — I thank you. We are nothing without each other.

Blog Followers

Day 222

I had not been paying much attention of late, but last night I noticed my blog rolled over 200 followers. I started this blog 222 days ago — that’s a little less than one follower per day! Thank you all!

I appreciate it so much when people find interest in what I write. I appreciate the likes and the comments that turn into dialogue that turn into blogging friends.

The next few days are going to be busy and difficult for our family, so my blog may be short and sweet over the next few days.

In the interim, I plan to visit all my followers, check out their blogs, especially those I have not yet followed. I know among the followers I will find some advertisers that really aren’t interested in my content. I am always pleasantly surprised, however, to discover new content that I enjoy reading regularly.

My blogging adventure has really curbed my time on FaceBook which is an unexpected benefit of this blogging journey.

One piece of advice I appreciate from longtime blogger Pete ( beetleypete.com ) is the importance of having your Gravatar profile complete. It is one of the easiest ways to learn about other legitimate bloggers. I just checked my own and see it needs a little tweaking as well.

So, for those of you that follow and read and comment, I thank you. This exchange has made my life richer in so many ways.

As one of my dear friends always says…Go Easy.