I was so pleased to get the first comments posted to my blog, and I emailed Tish that I'd like to hear more of her review of Liza Dalby's book Geisha. Tish wrote back:

"I'll definitely go back and post comments on your blog again!

I'd like to add a link to your blog blogroll--so, let's exchange links (cross-linking is good).
Linking is important. I think there are several women on my blogroll who would enjoy reading yours.
:-)"

That's cool! I read this on Tish's blog:

"But what about those of us who are not in a particular niche? As I said, if I hunted around for blogs of single women over 40 with no kids, I'd be pretty out of luck, and every blog entry I made would be like the sound of a tree falling in a forest with no one around to hear it. What would be the point and purpose of blogging?"

I'm not single, but I am over 40 with no kids, and I do feel that my blog posts are kind of like the tree falling with no one to hear it.

Part of my purpose is to just let off steam here and say things I can't say to friends and family, but I agree there's not much point if no one reads the blog. It's discouraging to see no page visits on the web counter or click-throughs on the ads or search bar.

Btw, top bloggers can easily disparage those who are just starting out and looking for cross-links, but I don't think it makes someone a "blog-ho" to want those things.

I am steamed that the two blog listing sites I signed up with "way back when" I started this blog haven't listed me yet. I just emailed them that I put up their links in good faith, and now it's time for them to list me. Link back "or else!" Hah. The thing is if you've got no readers, what do they care if you delete your link to them?

Would you believe, I have maintained a private web site since 2003 for extended family, and with all my blog entries there, plus over 50 pages of content, they hardly ever visit the site? (Ditto with my new Flickr photo-sharing page!) So if friends and family hardly ever read a web site made especially for them, how much harder is it to get "perfect strangers" to read a blog?

At least with cross-linking we all have at least one thing in common -- we all blog!

I wanted to reference a post I made at BlogHer under the topic "Does the Current Link-based power structure matter" and found I had started the post by referencing a comment Tish had made -- not so coincidental as it turns out, since we are thinking along similar lines about links.

I was all ready to put the entire BlogHerRoll of links up here until I found that it doesn't fit into my Blogger sidebar. So to anyone who thinks their blog would be good to cross-link with mine, leave a comment as I'll be putting them up manually. Hopefully I'll get so many readers that I'll have to qualify that statement with, "as time permits!" :-)