Hello dear friends ~ Have you noticed a decline in your blog followers lately?
I was going to post this next week but when I saw how upset one of my blog friends was, I decided to post it today. {My other post that I had on earlier will go back on tomorrow.}
I remember when I first began blogging, how excited I was when I reached 20 followers. I felt like I had made twenty new friends. Then over time, the number climbed. I was so happy that folks were enjoying my blog. When I reached 100, 200, then 500, I was over the moon. I know most of you bloggers can relate to me.
Which brings me to this post today....
Just before Christmas my followers started to disappear. And since Christmas, I have lost well over one hundred and fifty followers. I have also lost ten or more on my Christmas Pudding blog.
Every day I logged on, I discovered that the number had dropped again significantly. I watched as little by little, the numbers continued to drop. I felt like I was losing my friends and I didn't know why. I thought that people didn't like my blog any longer or maybe they found it boring. It wasn't a very nice feeling.
I was alarmed and thought maybe someone had hacked into my account so I emailed my son who has designed a few web sites for people. He wasn't sure what the problem was.
Over the holidays I was busy so I forgot about it. Then the other day I logged on and discovered that the number had dropped significantly again over night. I checked a few of my blogger friends' blogs and their numbers were down too and I wondered if I had missed something. I am not very computer savvy, I'm afraid.
Then I noticed an announcement on my blog. This is what it said....
"We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow."
I was going to post this next week but when I saw how upset one of my blog friends was, I decided to post it today. {My other post that I had on earlier will go back on tomorrow.}
I remember when I first began blogging, how excited I was when I reached 20 followers. I felt like I had made twenty new friends. Then over time, the number climbed. I was so happy that folks were enjoying my blog. When I reached 100, 200, then 500, I was over the moon. I know most of you bloggers can relate to me.
Which brings me to this post today....
Just before Christmas my followers started to disappear. And since Christmas, I have lost well over one hundred and fifty followers. I have also lost ten or more on my Christmas Pudding blog.
Every day I logged on, I discovered that the number had dropped again significantly. I watched as little by little, the numbers continued to drop. I felt like I was losing my friends and I didn't know why. I thought that people didn't like my blog any longer or maybe they found it boring. It wasn't a very nice feeling.
I was alarmed and thought maybe someone had hacked into my account so I emailed my son who has designed a few web sites for people. He wasn't sure what the problem was.
Over the holidays I was busy so I forgot about it. Then the other day I logged on and discovered that the number had dropped significantly again over night. I checked a few of my blogger friends' blogs and their numbers were down too and I wondered if I had missed something. I am not very computer savvy, I'm afraid.
Then I noticed an announcement on my blog. This is what it said....
December 21, 2015
"In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.
As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.
Now perhaps you all knew about this and I'm the last to find out.
This makes me sad! Being my own blog administrator, I want folks to be able to read and follow along if they wish. Now, they have to have a Google account in order to follow a blog.
So, dear friends, if you use a non-Google account to follow my blog or any blog, you will have to sign up for a Google account and re-follow my blog and any others that you were following.
Did anybody else out there know about this?
If you would like to have a Google account you may click here to make one.
A blogger friend of mine once compared Blogland to a friendly village and when some of our blogger friends go missing, we feel it deeply. I hope that very soon this will all work itself out. In the meantime, let's stick together and be there for one another. We are after all, a friendly village in this big land of Blog.
Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi
I did know of this Sandi and noticed 5 followers disappear this week. I have added my email address as a way for people that aren't on GFC to follow me if they wish to receive my blog in their email inbox. I wrote about this at the end of my blog post today. It's very frustrating isn't it? I'm not even sure if I set up the email follow thing correctly but hope I did. I hope our blog friends find us again. Blessings, Pam
ReplyDeleteI did not know about the extent of this. Would you mind if I use your wording to let my readers know? Thanks for researching and finding out the details.
ReplyDeleteJocelyn
By all means, Jocelyn. I am happy to help. Blessings to you.
DeleteDear Sandi, Finally someone has shed truth of this situation-so thank you!
ReplyDeleteI just was complaining and whining the other day about my numbers dropping and now I know why. I have never had the number of followers you have, but still it's hard when people drop off and you don't know why.
Thanks for sharing-I'll copy and post this on my blog too.
Have a great weekend.
Noreen
Hi Sandy, Yes I have noticed since I'm a new blogger so I have to open a G+ account. I'm not good with computers either and seems to be a bit complicated sometimes. I still love to read and follow your blog. Blessings
ReplyDeleteOfelia
I have a google account and can't sign into some blogs yetyes I see my little counts going down also on my blog
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I almost cried and thought... I'm just not gonna blog anymore, maybe most people don't like what I do and that's it for me! YES! I just had less 14 followers in one shot! Before that I was so excited I got 451 followers, I said to myself. How generous they are and I always reciprocate and follow back. I mean, I didn't know what had happened!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much dear Sandi, although I'm not computer savvy either, so I don't know how to change to a google account way.
Have a great weekend and hope no more desert our blog, lol..
FABBY
I follow your blog via Bloglovin'. I have no idea what that means in terms of your counts, but I wanted you to know that there is more than one way to follow your blog.
ReplyDeleteOh My Goodness Sandi!
ReplyDeleteI cannot tell you HOW MUCH I appreciate your clarification on this issue!!!
Every single day I notice a decline in my followers and I have to admit that I truly thought it was because people had decided they DID NOT LIKE ME! :-(
I was feeling bad about it.
I've change the name and look of my blog because I had taken a big break from blogging and when I came back I decide to "freshen" things up and I really thought people didn't like it!
You have MADE MY DAY.
Bless You. I will pass this along. Thank You So Much,
Danette
I heard about this change but only recently. Thanks so much for the detailed heads up. It's helpful to know why the numbers keep going down. Just had a few disappear again this morning.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a beautiful weekend...
Brenda
xox
Yes, Sandi, I heard about this and did a blog post about it. I have noticed my followers have decreased also. I had hoped they would get a google account and refollow.
ReplyDeleteWhen we last chatted about this Sandi I had not noticed a drop in followers but I sure have now. To make matters worse, PhotoBucket that my blog designer uses has had a problem and my blog, along with all the others she has designed are missing icons, photos, etc. and it's rather embarrassing to see a page full of question marks. :-(
ReplyDeleteHi Sandi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up.....I did notice but thought it would straighten itself out.
Hopefully everyone gets back on track with a google account.
Seems like we might get off easy with our weather here again!
Enjoy your weekend,
Carolyn
Sandi This just stinks. I read this today too. My fear is that some people won't find their way back to us and we'll lose followers permanently.
ReplyDeleteI have just recently learned of this, too, Sandi. One day my followers went down by nearly 60. Ah well - we will all find a way to find one another, and new blogs too.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I read your blog today...now I know what's going on with my followers too. I didn't know that at all and I too am not computer savvy. What is a Google account? I notice people have been changing over to Google+ and I don't get it. lol....I did say I was not computer savvy. I only have a few followers so when mine started to drop off I was pretty sad too.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Anita.
One of my blogging friends once told me that Google is a bully, and I can now see that it is really true. I had such troubles awhile back because I didn't have a gmail account. Once I opened one, a lot of my troubles with comments and other problems went away. I'm not very computer savvy, so I just plunder along.
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend, sweet friend! xo
Hello Sandi,
ReplyDeleteI did a post about this yesterday. It is so frustrating when we bloggers work so hard on their blogs and then have the followers dropped. I have had a drop in followers 3 different times and hopefully that is it. I do hope that they don't drop GFC because I was on google plus and I dropped it because it just started getting too weird for me. Oh well we will all see what happens. Take care and have a wonderful weekend.
Hugs, Julie xo
Yes I to posted this in my post today to just give bloggers a heads up as I have noticed my followers diminution and that others had mentioned it but didn't really know why . Aren't blogger awesome to help and pass the word on about things ? Thanks for sharing the info . Have a good weekend !
ReplyDeleteHi Sandi...
ReplyDeleteI was SO GLAD to read your post today. The exact same thing happened to me and my Followers have been cut way back. I'm going to post the notice from Google on my blog soon, too. Whew! What a relief it was to realize that people didn't drop because of lack of interest in my posts. I'm sure you felt the same. Thanks for today's post. Sincerely, Susan
So sorry you gals are going through this nonsense! We should all be able to watch and respond through our email and NOT have to have a google account!
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame to lose this ability, but as someone else said, there are other ways to follow blogs. I've been using Feedly for a couple of years and like it very much. Bloglovin is another popular one. I, for one, don't really want Google to control my life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, I didn't know about it. How sad that they go in and change so much and then we, the normal people, have to figure it out, time and time again. I am sure that is why some people have left blogging altogether.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this information! I didn't know about this either.
ReplyDeleteHello Sandi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the valuable information. I did not know but did notice a drop on my followers and was very upset. I even said to my husband that I was going to stop blogging. I blamed my content and the fact that I do not have too much free time to reply to all but this explains a lot.
I guess things will be worked out eventually.
Janet
wow i had no idea! it should be a matter of choice - ours - if we want a google account or not!
ReplyDeleteDear Sandi, what a very helpful psot you made. I didn't know that before. I realised that blogging is not anymore the same. Only few readers comment anymore. I thougth the reason is because I am not so busy on the blogs anymore. But maybe the missing followers are the second reason. Thank you for this information.
ReplyDeleteBest greetings, Johanna
Thanks for the heads up, Sandy. I noticed it on my blog, too. I don't have many followers, so to lose some is noticeable. I do my blog mostly for myself, as a journal. It helps me to know what the heck I am doing with my time. haha
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, Sandi! I thought it was because I hadn't posted, and the irony is I now remember reading the email! Thank you for jogging my memory! I think it's just terrible.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting, Sandi. I am happy to join in again this week. I missed your post on why followers were falling by the way side. Then I looked at mine and saw that I have about 10 or so missing. What a shame. I, too, am technically challenged, so I tend to ignore things when they come up, hoping they will just go away. I do have a google account but Debbie Dabble said I disappeared from her side bar, so don't know what that is about. I did read someplace that if you follow a blog by e-mail (which means getting each new post in your in-box) it wouldn't affect you. Most of the ones I follow I do get by e-mail because I usually forget to watch for them every time they post. Everyone should have a set up where your followers can reach you by e-mail. That being said, I CAN'T figure out how to set mine up so even though I have a place for ones to sign up on my blog, it doesn't work. I have been trying to figure it out but there seems to be one little thing I am missing and if anyone has suggestions, I would sure appreciate it..Happy Tuesday..Judy
ReplyDeleteYou are not the last to learn of these changes as I have been wondering why my followers have gone down too. Then today someone emailed saying she had to unfollow my blog because she couldn't stand the "huge black bloglovin band" across my blog. The Charm of Home left a comment that sent me to you so thank for for the info! I might copy and paste a little of your info if that's okay with you. Also, a nice thing that came of this, I discovered your blog! You now have one new follower!
ReplyDeleteI was just stopping over to tell you that you for visiting my blog last week and leaving a kind comment and being my latest follower--I'm following you, now, as well. I had noticed, too, that I had lost a few followers...I've never made it to 100 even, so I was sad that I lost several precious followers overnight. Thank you, Sandi, for the information to you included in the post...I too, thought that people didn't like my blog. I feel better, now.
ReplyDelete