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I started my blog a little over two years ago when I was pregnant and sent the link to my office mates so they could follow what was happening with me and the baby while I was on maternity leave.
I didn't really expect to stick with it as long as I have and some of my co-workers turned into regular readers. Some of them would read regularly, send me occasional email comments but would never post comments directly to the blog. For some reason having my co-workers read the blog seemed creepy and voyeuristic because many of the people who read it barely said one word to me during the work day.
I ended up moving my blog earlier this year and only notified a few people where I had moved (none of them co-workers). I was so paranoid my co-workers would find me that I combed my stats for the workplace IP address.
My regular readers now are few and far between; a fellow mother I met in cyberspace, a few random relatives and a couple of FORMER co-workers. As far as I know, no one currently working in this office knows I have a blog.
My readers are mostly close friends and family. Well, I should strike that. My commenter's are friends and family. I think I have more lurkers than I'd like; people that know me but don't want to know they read my blog.
I kept my blog hidden for a while and since I blog anonymously, I couldn't be googled, but then I just wanted to be able to trust people and hope there is good in some, so I posted my link on my MySpace page and on my Facebook page. Most of my Facebook contacts are colleagues. I'm very careful not to write about work at all unless in a very positive light. The one post I did write about work was about one of my favorite colleagues departures. My boss' boss did tell me that the link had found its way to him. He said it with a smile and he also said he likes my blog. He wouldn't reveal who gave him the link, but it could've been anyone. It didn't bother me because I'm so careful about what I say. I did warn him that it's a personal journal and that he might not want to know me that well. Fair, right? :-)
my blog is for the bar that my husband and i co-own, so most of the readers are either our friends or regular bar customers. but we do get a lot of random hits from people who do google searches for various things and end up at our blog- i don't know if any of them actually turn into regular readers. i have a small group of loyal friends/patrons who regularly leave comments, and then a larger group of readers who never comment. anyone close to the bar knows that i'm the one who writes it, but my real name isn't associated with it. it's been fun, and it's a great way to chronicle the daily happenings of the bar, and i also throw in random links to news articles about things that the readers might find interesting.
My readers are totally random people. Honestly, I don't really know where most of them came from but they're pretty much regulars now which surprises me. My best friends off the computer are the only ones who know where it calls home.
I've only told 5 people that I know offline about my blog, and given them permission to read it. But I have a feeling there are others who are just lurkers. And I know about 10-15 other fellow-bloggers that have me on their blogroll/comment regularly. But somehow I have 80-100 hits a day, and maybe 5 comments per entry, so I guess we never really know who is reading!
This month however, it could be anyone from this site! I'm trying to plow through as many blogs as I can. Hopefully I'll become regular readers of at least one or two by the time NaBloPoMo is up!
I have no idea! I've only been writing for just over a week and I'm still perplexed as to how one builds up readers. I told my friends/family but I don't think anyone cares. Sad!
I have my blog listed in the signature of one of my e-mail accounts, as well as on myspace and various forums I'm a member of. But to the best of my knowledge, only one person in my office knows that I have a blog, and I don't think she reads it much. Based on who comments, most of the people that read my blog have trickled in from other blogs I've commented on. But I have more readers than commenters, so I'm not exactly sure where they're coming from. I only have around 10 hits a day, or so, so it's not like I've got a well built readership yet!
