I’ve been seeing many fellow bloggers listing their ‘criteria’ about what they liked in a blog and that inspired me to make my own! Most of my ‘rules’ are quite simple, and I’m sure most of you would agree with me. If not, I’m happy for a discussion, as always!

Disclaimer: I know I’m not a blogging professional and I don’t have the right to tell you how to keep your blog, but that’s just my thoughts.

1. Blog topic and style of writing – that’s the most obvious thing. I have to be into what you offer and you need to spell it properly. However, if I like your topic, the rest of my list are just some things I would definitely consider before following you.
2. Regular posting – I’m not saying I need brand new content every single day, but at least one or two times per week, I think is acceptable. If today is 7th May and your last post is from 17th January… chances are I won’t follow.
3. Good quality photos – or any photos at all – if you take photos with your 7 years old phone, in the dark… what am I actually supposed to see? Some people don’t feature pictures at all! I mean, most often I read about a product, perhaps I want to see what it looks like? On the other hand, I love bright and pretty arranged photos! Even if I don’t like your writing, I might still follow you to enjoy your photography!
4. Using stock photos of a product – that’s just ugly. If you can review it, then you can take photos of it. Go back to the third point.
5. Too much of the same photo over and over again. Okay, I realise I’m too picky about this photos topic, but I really don’t like when someone puts the same photo after literally every sentence. Okay, I got it – you love that photo. But one at the beginning, and one at the end is enough. Try to diversify in the middle.
6.  Awards after awards – that’s really good for you, because it means someone appreciates your work. However, if there are 20 awards and not a single actual post – you’ve definitely lost me.
7. Blog theme – if it’s messy, heavy, difficult to navigate through, with screaming colour and not appealing to my eye in general – nope. But if it’s nice and clean, and with a good logo and photos – count me in!
8. Follow button – I’m really happy to see an easy accessible follow button. If I need to spend 10 minutes in search of it, I most likely won’t – no matter how much I liked your blog.
9. Annoying comments – if you came to my blog only to put ‘you need to follow me on ….’ under any of my posts – trust me, I won’t. I will also delete your comment. If you left a meaningful comment and simply included your blog link at the end – that’s fine, I will surely check it out – I love discovering new blogs (however, I only tolerate this the first few times). If you do it under every single post of mine – you risk getting a bit annoying.
10. Lack of comments – so I’ve left a nice comment on your post and you don’t even bother to respond… I’ve liked a few posts, I followed you… and you don’t even bother to check my blog back. I will still follow you for a while, as long as I like your content. However, if I see a tendency of ignoring me – I will definitely unfollow, no matter how much I enjoyed reading your stuff. I really don’t like rude people (if they have less than 2000 followers, if they are a busy business persona, of course I can’t require that much of attention).
11. Following and Unfollowing – you came to my blog, gave me a follow, I check your blog back, give you a follow, and you disappear half an hour after that. I mean, yeah, statistics are sometimes important, but not when you are acting that cheeky.
12. Positivism – I know people can’t be happy all the time, but I’m really looking for blogs with positive and inspiring vibes. I generally tend to stay away from depressive people who pity themselves all the time. Of course, I can always offer support when needed, but avoid engaging with negative or offensive individuals.
13. If you seem to be a nice person, put some thought and effort into your work, and love to make friends from all around the world – I’m happy to be your greater supporter!

Okay, quite a long list, isn’t it! Don’t think that I spend half an hour to check every single factor before deciding would I follow you or not. It definitely depends on the overall impression I get from your blog. I’m also happy to promote your blog if you are struggling, but I prefer to do it in a more gentle way – through interviews, post collaborations, awards, etc. It’s just not pretty to literally stick your blog in one’s eyes.

I realise I’m not perfect myself, but try to improve with every post. Please tell me what you think about my blog and the things that I annoy you with the most! And at the end, I’m nobody to dictate how to care after your blog baby. Thank you for reading anyway 🙂

Post update:

For the past few days I’ve ben constantly getingt notifications about people who followed my blog. Yet my nubmer of followers remains unchanged. I don’t know if there is some kind of a glitch in WP, or nasty people who follow and unfollow, but please don’t follow me if you don’t genuinely feel like to. Thank you!