Have you Folowed a Follower today?

Osiyo~

And the WINNER is- (drumroll please)… Brittney!!!!! Congratulations Brittney, you win a copy of Chloe Cole’s December Ellora’s Cave Quickies release, Unwrapping Lily! You'll need to make sure you have the free Adobe Reader installed before you download your book. Email Christine/Chloe at rcbell64@yahoo.com so Chloe can send your book to you.

I thank each and every one of you who stopped by and participated and commented in Chloe’s Naughty Godmother release party.

Now to new business. I want to address my FOLLOWERS. Not just my followers, but ALL followers everywhere. What is a FOLLOWER? It’s those tiny little avatars under that multi-colored Google Follow symbol so many blogs sport. Yep, that’s you. How many of us actually take the time to go through and see how many we have? Who they are? They are not ‘followers’ because it’s the cool thing to do (well maybe some are). Those icons are people who like what we write, and want to hear more from us, their favorite bloggers. BUT- they also ‘follow’ us (usually) in the hope that we will return the favor and follow them.

I started thinking about this the other day when I noticed that many new people who left comments during the contest were now following me, my blog. How cool is that? They didn’t follow me before then, but now they are. Am I following all of them? Sadly, not at the time of this blog creation- that’s what made me blog about it. I am however rectifying that as I speak, or post. I’m trying to visit each one and follow back.

So, why is FOLLOWING important enough to spend a whole blog on? Because it’s those avatar people who help get our names out there. They are the ones that see who we follow, and who follow us. Remember, curiosity killed the cat- well, maybe that doesn’t apply here. But when they see us following someone they like, or someone they like follows us- it makes them curious to know why. They visit us, follow, pass the word on to their followers about the ‘new blog I found today’…

Traffic people! That’s how we writers get around the crazy, confusing shamrock of internet hell! Especially for e-authors whose main form of sales is word of mouth, but also for the traditional paper book writers, as well. 

I can’t tell you how many new sites that are a well of hidden info, that I’ve discovered through those blogs I follow and visit regularly. Blog sites I didn’t know existed even a month ago. It’s how we grow our Brand, promote books (for ourselves and others), reach the public. Word of mouth!

If you surf the sites, read the blogs, like what you read- don’t be shy! Follow, oh, and leave a nice comment! Even if you don’t know what to say-- who cares what I think anyway, right? WRONG! Just a “Hi, I did (or didn’t- because we want to know this too) enjoyed this blog” is great. It tells us you were here, liked it and maybe you’ll return with your friends. You aren’t just a face on a square to us! We can say “Hi! Thanks for stopping in. Glad you liked it (or didn’t),” or maybe even “sorry you didn’t, why not?”  You have a voice to help us improve on our topics, let us know what we can do better to improve, and thereby, help us increase readership- which could also increase your own. 

If you haven't thanked a 'follower' today, why not do it now? If you haven't followed someone new today, why not do that too?

So this blog is dedicated to FOLLOWERS. I tip my hat, curtsy, bow, whatever the appropriate form of acknowledgement is- I do that to you. Most of all, I thank you for FOLLOWING me. If you're not following me- DO IT NOW! So I can return the favor.

WORD OF MOUTH

Dodadagovhi~