Press Studded

*Press studded: (verb) (pronunciation: “press studded” ) Past tense of being “Freshly Pressed”, but only applicable if the Freshly Pressed post was about clothing. This quirky law of grammar applies even if the item of clothing in question was socks, which, so far in the history of socks, have never contained press studs.

Press Studs –  they’ve never been needed on any socks so far recorded.

Sorry to harp on about it,  but being Freshly Pressed a few weeks ago made me feel the need to confess some things to those generous people who “liked”,  commented and/or subscribed to my blog as a result.

Up until 3 weeks ago, I had assumed that my blog would never make the honor of being Freshly Pressed, because – well, it only seemed fair, really. Why? Well, because I don’t follow a lot of the WordPress tips for being Freshly Pressed – such as writing about a specific area of interest. I’ve written posts about unrelated topics ranging from The Beastie Boys to moustaches, to the mysteries of the universe. I didn’t make a habit of frequently commenting on other blogs in order to promote my own blog. My posts are usually way too long – just look at this one! As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, the tone of my blog went from humorous and light-hearted to sombre and heart-broken in late 2011 when I couldn’t write about anything other than the death of my little brother.

So by that time I’d pretty much accepted that the only ongoing readers I could expect to follow my blog regularly were my imaginary readers. As loyal as they were, they were unable to help to promote my blog. Thus, I fully expected NOT to be Freshly Pressed any time soon.

But having been Freshly Pressed, the cards are on the table and I’ll have to confess my worst blogging sin of all.  I’m unworthy of having lots of new (real) subscribers, because so far, I haven’t even subscribed to other blogs!

Ok, so if you didn’t close this page in disgust after reading the above line, please let me try to explain. I do read other blogs, of course. It’s other people’s blogs that inspired me to start blogging, and I’m still inspired, and often blown away, by how honest, entertaining, or insightful, some blogs are.

It’s just the whole notifications-in-your-inbox thing!  I just can’t bring myself to sign up to receive more emails on a large scale!

My personal and work email (for 2 different jobs!) inboxes are full of new emails every time I check them. I already delete a lot of the other “subscription” style emails I receive regularly, without even opening them. I can’t bear the thought of multiple notifications of multiple new posts I won’t have time to read on the spot, arriving on a daily basis.

If I could sign up to a blog, just to signal to the author that I like and read their blog, without having to receive notifications each time they post, then I would take up that option.

Perhaps I’m missing some crucial point about how to manage notifications, because I’m sure I’m no busier than most people. Some people told me they just use an email account that they never check….but that means setting up more freakin’ email accounts, and more passwords that I’ll have to write somewhere, just to ignore everything that comes into them.

I’m reaching oversaturation with online accounts – the thought of more creates anxiety!

Too many emails. (Admittedly, my computer is pretty old.)

Image: http://www.toprankblog.com/

For this reason, my preferred course of action is to BOOKMARK (remember that old chestnut?) blogs I like . That way, when I have time, I can sit back with a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, and luxuriously read a few posts at a time on a given blog – a nice way to do it.

Unfortunately, though, this means that the writers of those blogs can’t count me in their subscribers, even though I do enjoy and follow their blog, even if it’s in intermittent bursts.

So I have to say how generous it seemed to me, way back in the days of  imaginary readers, when, after I did finally post a comment on a blog that I’d been following (without subscribing) for a while, the writer of that blog commented and followed my blog!

Now, I’m not generalising here, I’m referring specifically to the one total stranger who commented and followed, back then! I was thrilled, because unbeknown to her, her blog was one of the inspirations that got me started. There is a link to her blog across to the right – Fish Of Gold. Hers is a great example of a blog that is personal, has no particular theme, and is not always upbeat, nor always funny, but it contains such strong, engaging writing that readers want to come back and hear more. When starting out, that was all I knew about my own intentions – that I didn’t want to be committed to a theme or even to a particular style (eg, humorous), and it wasn’t until I found her blog I felt hopeful that it was possible for that approach to garner interest from a complete stranger.

For more than a year, my I could count my (real) subscribers on one hand, and all of those were known to me personally except for Fish Of Gold, so a big thanks to her!

Receiving so many likes, comments and subscribers after being Freshly Pressed has been humbling and eye-opening to me, as it seems generous of all of you who “liked”,  commented and followed. It has made me feel like I’m part of a blogging community. So I’m trying to be a bit less “reserved” about making comments and liking posts. I’ve been slowly trying to check out the blogs of those who commented, followed or liked a post. It’s a slow process, I’m afraid. You can see from the rate that I post (less than once a fortnight usually) that I don’t have heaps of time to spend blogging. I wish I had more! But I hope that over the holidays (15 days left to go!) I’ll post more frequently, AND catch up on reading lots of other good blogs.

But, so far, I still haven’t been brave enough to hit any subscribe buttons! So any advice as to how others manage the “email notification” problem would be gratefully accepted.