Now though, it's time to tidy up. Make room and create a clean page from which to work. So what am I talking about? Right here, right now, I'm talking about blogging. I had a great year on my blog this year. I took part in several blogging challenges and blogfests and built myself up a huge reading list of blogs. I can now see that the reading list is too noisy and unlike Twitter, there is no way to siphon the blogs into lists, so it is just a noise of words. I don't look at it often enough, so find I'm missing posts I'd have liked to have participated in and seeing posts that I do respond to but the blogger has no idea who I am or why I suddenly popped up and there's no return comment. This I'm afraid annoys me. I take the time to comment on someones blog, I'd like to be acknowledged, either by a responsive comment on the same thread or a look over Life in Clarity and a comment left here. Often there's neither.
So what is my plan and how will I create a clean page? I'm unfollowing. It may sound harsh, but I read something on a blog this week, and I apologise because I can't link to the blog because my list is so big I can't remember where I saw it, but the gist was about blogging and community. The blog talked about blogging being a community and not worrying about the size of readership, the interactions are what are important. It's no good having hundreds or thousands of readers if they don't read or interact. This struck a chord with me.
I believe that the blogosphere is a community and I want to know that community and not just blend in with the noise. So by unfollowing blogs I probably followed during a massive blog hop and neither they or I have visited the respective blogs again, and blogs I feel have too many followers and they no longer have the capacity to respond, I make that space for people I can talk with and share things with. So if you're here now, reading this, it's likely you are still being followed by me and we do know each others blogs. I still have a large list of blogs I follow, but I have managed to cut some of it down. There will still be blogs I don't have chance to visit on a regular basis, but when I checked them out, I liked their content and voice of the blog so they stayed.
I want to visit your blog and I want to interact with your blog. It's not a numbers game. It's a place to talk and share and I hope by having a bit of a clear out, I can become a better blogger. If you are reading this and believe I have unfollowed you by mistake, then please let me know.
What are your thoughts, idea's and expectations of blogging and where do you want to take your blog in 2012?
