June 2016 Blog Project Postmortem

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Today is July 1. Happy Canada Day, and happy June 2016 blog project postmortem day!

I always wondered how people find blogs that they like, and how the friendship chain of blogging goes. Because I am a huge nerd, I launched an experiment: follow 6 new blogs a day, every day, for June 2016. I started off with six randomly chosen blogs, and saw how far I could go in making connections and new blog friends. I kept a flow chart, or “family tree” of how I found each blog – usually clicking through commenters or the blogger’s blogroll.

I had a few self-imposed rules:

Rule #1: Only follow friends of bloggers who have replied to my comment and/or followed me back.

Rule #2: Only follow blogs that have updated within the past month. 

Rule #3: Only follow blogs that are on topics that I would conceivably enjoy reading about. I have a wide range of interests so it isn’t hard. As long as it wasn’t just photos with no words, long and lugubrious poetry, or something that I found questionable, it was OK by me.

Rule #4: Try to vary between male/female bloggers, geographical locations, interests, age of blogs, and age of bloggers. Some bloggers I followed were just starting out, others had been around for a while. I could follow 180 post-a-day mommy blogs, and nothing against mommy bloggers, but there’s only so much mom talk I can relate to.

Rule #5: Try to follow people who I’d be friends with in real life. I have friends from all walks of life, so this was not hard, but I’ve read a few blogs in the past by people who I just felt were…a little off, in a bad way, and who posted some very questionable things, in different directions.

Here are the results, and the 6 family trees. I started with:

1 – Aishwarya Sivakumar

2 – I Accidently Ate The Whole Thing

3 – Amrita Kinne

4 – Divya Deepak Rao

5 – The Analyzed Life

6 – Big and Pinky Toes

Three of the families ended up having quite a lineage, and the other three kinda flamed out, when I wasn’t getting a response from any of the “family” members, so I focused my efforts elsewhere.

The three smaller families:

Family 4: Divya Deepak Rao

IMG_6391

1st Generation:

I didn’t end up getting any further bites, so I kind of gave up on that one pretty early on.

Family 2: I Accidently Ate The Whole Thing

IMG_6393

1st Generation:

2nd Generation:

Again, not a huge measure of success with this family, although I did try.

Family 6: Big and Pinky Toes

IMG_6394

1st Generation:

2nd Generation:

3rd Generation:

This family kind of ended a little prematurely, but at least the tree looks cute and even.

Next, the three BIG families (which all ended up being the odd numbers):

Family 1: Aishwarya Sivakumar

IMG_6395

1st Generation:

2nd Generation:

3rd Generation:

4th Generation:

5th Generation:

6th Generation:

7th Generation:

This blog family tree somehow ended in a lot of blogs about runners and running.

Now, for the two biggest ones:

Family 3: Amrita Kinne

IMG_6389

1st Generation:

2nd Generation:

3rd Generation:

4th Generation:

5th Generation:

6th Generation:

7th Generation:

8th Generation:

9th Generation:

10th Generation:

11th Generation:

12th Generation:

This family took on a lot of different directions, including two paths that led to a series of African bloggers, oddly enough.

And finally, Family 5: The Analyzed Life AKA the Mega Family

IMG_6387

1st Generation:

2nd Generation:

3rd Generation:

4th Generation:

5th Generation:

6th Generation:

7th Generation:

8th Generation:

9th Generation:

10th Generation:

11th Generation:

12th Generation:

13th Generation:

I enjoyed meandering down this path the most, and ended up finding blogs about travel, cuisine, writing, education, art, and an array of different countries and cities.

If you’re in this post, say hey and find your own place in the family tree.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as my other posts (and as much as I enjoyed this nerdy project), and come back and visit often, and link your friends. Another great effect was the increased traffic: I had my busiest month this year, with around 2500 visits, and am halfway to 1500 subscribers!

Now, for my next blogging experiment…it might have to wait until August or September because I have way too much work to do on my prelims.

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129 thoughts on “June 2016 Blog Project Postmortem”

  1. Wow! Amazing job !
    You were held in my spam for awhile 😦
    Funny to find the Laziest Turtle on Earth and Sea among the tree where you encountered so many running bloggers 🙂 .
    Looking forward to find out what will be your next project .
    Turtle Hugs

    Reply

  2. This is awesome! Sorry for the delay in responding but I just found your comment in my spam folder along with someone else. Wonder why that happened. Anyway, good job! It was fun to read this.

    Reply

  6. wow, dedicated this one…I periodically go through a few hours worth of blog -to-blog-to-blog reading… and then if I don’t follow or save a post I like I end up forgetting where I read it… I suppose I could take a lesson from you here LOL

    Reply

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