A Bloggy Survey

I haven’t done a meme in ages!! Well, a real meme; not a weekly thing. So here you go. Started by Ms. Mazzola, I stole it from Nymeth and Daphne.

1. How long have you been blogging?
Since January 2007.

2. Why did you start blogging?
I wanted to join in reading challenges!

3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
I’ve made some really, really close friends. And what I love is that these friends are all spread out geographically, and some lead such different lives from me, that I doubt we ever would have met without the internet. My bloggy friends are definitely more diverse in terms of background/life experience/etc. than my face to face friends. I also have discovered so many great books and authors thanks to bloggers. And thanks to reading challenges, I’ve expanded my reading so much…I’m much prouder of how I read now!

4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
This varies. For a good time, I was posting almost every day. Then no internet and life got in the way for a couple months. Now I’m hoping to get back to 5-7 posts a week.

5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
A lot. In addition to the book blogging community, which I’m an active part of, I also lurk at some fashion and travel blogs. I refuse to count them all, because it would horrify me.

6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
All the time on book blogs! :)

7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?WordPress used to have the stats graph in the dashboard, so I saw it every time I signed in. Now it isn’t there, and I check it maybe once a week. I’m not too concerned about my numbers, although when I was a ‘younger’ blogger, I checked them religiously. I’m much more into comments and bloggy friends! That being said, I’m exactly where I want to be; I have enough visitors/feed readers to feel like people care what I say, but any more and I’d just be overwhelmed.

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
No, but I try to avoid controversial things. Sometimes I’ll write a controversial post, sit on it for a couple days, and then decide it isn’t worth it.

9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
When I did my first vlog, several people told me I was exactly who they expected me to be. :) So in that sense, yes. But at the same time, my blog plays up my bookish tendencies and downplays my other ones. For instance, I’m not sure people know that I love watching movies and documentaries. And TV on DVD. Or that I’m a total clothes horse; clothes shopping calms me down faster than anything, and just like my TBR list, I have an ‘ideal closet’ list. There’s no way I’d leave the house without minimal make-up, and at least a bit of a hairstyle; I don’t think people who just know me from A Striped Armchair would realise that.

10. Do you blog under your real name?
I blog under my middle name. There are several reasons for that, the main one being that I love my middle name, and I’m thinking about going by it in non-internet life. (I would have switched over already, but I’m uncertain if it would cause confusion when my family and old friends know me by a different name than my new friends!) The other one being that I don’t tell my friends and family about my blog (except my mom and sister), and my first name has a pretty unusual spelling. Obviously, if anyone who knows me stumbles across the blog, they’ll immediately know who it is from the pictures and videos! hehe

11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
My niece. I’ll never say her name, or include pictures or videos (I had to re-do my latest Library Loot vlog because she kept popping in!). My sister and I have discussed this, and we’re both just too nervous about her being on the internet, open to possibly creepy people (obviously not my regular readers!). Which is too bad, because she’s seriously one of the cutest kids ever. (As in, when we take her out, we get told she should go into modelling!) As I mentioned earlier, I also don’t blog about controversial stuff like religion, politics, etc. I just don’t think it’s worth it.

12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
LOL: Bibliophilia

13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
Nope. But this isn’t my first blog; I kept one when I studied abroad in Russia for my friends and family. I’ve since made it private, since I don’t like the idea of strangers reading it.