I was a little encouraged when my last post garnered 10 likes and follows. Wow, I thought, at least ten people read that post!. However, when I logged into WordPress and looked at the stite stats, only three views. How can that be, I wondered?

As always, I turned to Google, and found, (how naive I was) that it is possible to like a blog post, or even follow the blog, without even reading it. What is the point in that? I did wonder at the outset what some of these other bloggers had in common with me, since it was often not in the least apparent, and now I realise that the answer is probably absolutely nothing. They were just liking random posts.

I had already figured out that a large proportion of the people liking my posts were doing so in order to get me to go look at their own blogs, where they were likely either selling something, or trying to build their own following. But I did think that they would have to read my post, or at least click on the page, before they could like it. Apparently not!

I have also found out some of the tags to use if you just want to get likes etc. If I post about sewing, and use appropriate tags, there is very little response. Add tags like ‘writing’, blogging, and photography, and the reaction rate goes up significantly. I am going to add no tags to this post, and see what happens

Still, this revelation actually has a positive. I had been feeling that I really owed it to these people who were liking my posts to at least visit their blogs, and preferably leave comments too. Now I realise that in most cases there is no need, since they haven’t actually read what I wrote. In future I shall only respond to those who have posted appropriate comments, so I can be sure that they are real people who have actually read what I have written. Sound harsh? Maybe, but my reading time is limited, and I’d prefer to use it reading posts by those who respond in kind.