Blogging and dating are essentially the same thing.
There, I said it. Maybe it is clear to me because I am so new at this. Or maybe I am just plain wrong. I hope I am.
There you are, a young, vulnerable, lonely new blog, putting yourself out there. Cruisin’ the single’s scene. Lookin’ for a little action.
You send out your message; that you are available, that you might be interested in a relationship.
You put on some fancy artwork that makes you look hot. Not too hot, you don’t want to send the wrong message.
You put out a few posts, displaying your charms and wit.
You get your first hits. You are intrigued. You are touched.
Then you start hanging out in various blog topic lists, just sort of checking for potential suitors.
Someone catches your eye. They seem funny, friendly. Their graphics are impressive.
You click, and start to explore their point of view. Learn more about them.
Hey, you realize, I like what this person has to say. We have stuff in common. You make a few comments.
You hope they will notice you, but there are a lot of other people that like this person. And some of them are better commenters than you are.
You bring out some of your best commenting. Hey, you have been noticed.
Is it too early to ask this person over to your place to check out some of your stuff? But you really do like them. You pushed their button twice.
What if they come over and don’t like you as much as you like them?
That would suck, because you are ready to follow this person anywhere.
Ooh, they do like your stuff. Your words are brilliant, your colors vibrant.
But did they really listen when you wrote? How many posts did they really go back to?
You begin to have your doubts, but before you know it, you are both following each other. You were just sort of swept up in the emotions of the moment.
Weeks go by, and the things that you thought were so clever now begin to grate on your nerves.
Turns out that the jokes they were making were funny when they were talking about the other political party, but now, not so much.
Besides, you have started to become interested in other blogs. There has been a little harmless flirting with other sites.
You find yourself faking it now and then, pretending you were paying more attention than you really were.
Worst of all, what if you follow someone and they don’t follow you back.
Oh, no, blogging and dating have absolutely nothing in common. It was all in my head.
The funny part to me is that we could all end up ‘following’ everybody. It would be like Days Of Our Lives. We all end up together for at least one night.
Pouring My Art Out 
This is the answer to the WPLongform tag question;
“In general, you can edit older posts and add tags, including “WPlongform.” At the moment, the Reader displays the most recently published posts first within any topic stream, which means older posts will indeed appear at the bottom. I’m sure there are readers who will sift deep down into this topic’s archives — our editorial team included — but they may be overlooked otherwise.
Feel free to tell these bloggers to tag their longer posts with “WPlongform” from now on, if they’re interested.”
I wonder if you may be interested in making another blog to highlight some of your longer posts?
That sounds like a lot of work… what is the payoff?
The potential payoff is your work might be recognized for its creativity and great writing and you might get more visibility. Ask Jessica what she thinks.
She doesn’t know about blogs. She reads mine now and then. That’s it.
But she knows about writing and she knows about marketing so she may be able to advise you whether or not the energy you expend will be worth it. I would do it. You want to be published and you’d like your writing to have some exposure. I read somewhere the WP generates 39 million posts a month. The longreads tag is recognized throughout the web. The potential for exposure is there. You are the only one who can decide whether or not you want to spend the time to do it.
I have already done about thirty posts. I will keep it up.
Yay! This is what I did (I think I have a repetitive motion injury from doing it.), I made a new tab titled Fiction and I copied all of the fiction posts to that tab. I’ll get the Driving Miss Crazy post and put it up on Stumble to see if that generates more traffic for the longreads tag for you.
Have I told you lately how much I like you? Feel free to copy or repost any of my stuff… ha!
I am the PMAO volunteer. When you receive the acclaim and accolades you deserve, in your acceptance speech for a prized prize you’ll thank lots of people and at the end you’ll say “Oh yes, and I ‘d like to acknowledge the PMAO volunteer”; I’ll know who you mean.
I can do better than that.
I’m glad that poly-blogous relationships are still legal in my state.
You can even follow your own family members… ummm… eeewwwww…
ewwww. blogs and family members are an explosive combination….I’ve seen families torn apart because one of the spouses had more followers than the other.
My wife has no interest in my blog at all. So I should be safe.
Mine too. Unless I count her interest that I spend less time on my blog.
Ain’t that the truth.
Are you trying to break up with me?
Perish the thought.
Good, I thought you were tired of me.
That is just plain silly.
I’m glad you recycled this! What about the ones that like and like everything you post then disappear! I always wonder what happens to them… it’s like a break up without a reason 😦
It is better to have blogged and lost than never to have blogged at all.
OK, you made me honestly lol… hlol! On a serious, yeah I do do serious every now and then. I am glad I read this because I always wonder if I should just follow everyone that follows me. But seriously, I don’t have time to read all those blogs! Phew! Thanks. My daughter just read your blog name and said how great it is. You can add ten year olds to your demographic!
She can read most of my stuff… except maybe ten percent… but kids are my people. I relate to them way more than adults. I am thrilled.
Me too! Kids just get me, I think they know when an adult genuinely likes being around them, they haven’t had their intuition ground out of them yet.
And other things.
Haha so very very true…
I always shoot for true… or funny…
If this is true, I’m afraid many bloggers are quite promiscuous. Then again, don’t we all miss the ’80s?
There are only a few things I miss about the 80s…