Curious Minds Want to Know

In spite of feeling conflicted about self-promotion, I have to say I always feel rather chuffed (it’s British slang for pleased and I’m going to keep using it until I’m sure you all know what it means, because it’s a great word which we should be using on this side of the pond) when I get an email that tells me that “Such-and-Such-Person-I’ve-Never-Heard-Of liked your post” or “is now following your blog. Congratulations! You might want to visit their blog and see if you like it as much as they liked yours.” Or something like that.

I always do go check out your blogs, and I find that, indeed, I do like them.

Lately, although my Readership seems to be dwindling in numbers, I’ve gotten more of these emails than usual, and it’s kind of fun, but since we don’t have mutual friends that I’m aware of, I’m kind of curious to know how you Jenn-Story newbies discovered my blog in the first place. At first I was mostly getting subscribers among other writers and editors whose main schtick, like mine, is personal stories and the broader world of writing. How did you know? And now, ever since I wrote that steampunk post, I’ve gotten readers in the fashion world. Is this because of the steampunk post? Or because of my new activities on eBay? Or . . . what?

Come on lurkers and bold subscribers–how did you end up here? And for the Readership in general–how do you decide which blogs and websites you’re going to keep coming back to?