Since I spend all day sitting at my computer writing, answering e-mail, researching, and doing promo work, I’m not much inclined to spend my evenings at my desk as well. It’s bad enough that my e-mail often spills into my evenings, so the idea of staying in my office, surfing through the web, looking for juicy websites simply doesn’t occur to me when I’m done work for the day. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I seldom read any blogs except the wenches or visit any website, including my own. <G>
Which means I’m fairly clueless as to what people look for in a blog or a website. I know when someone tells me to check out so-and-so’s site for a particular piece of information, I'll jump out of my chair if it blares music at me, and I go cross-eyed if flickering things start flying across my screen. So I firmly voted with the other wenches not to have things that go bump in the night here, and I don’t have them on my own website.
That doesn’t mean I’m not aware that a lot of people like excitement from their online reading. I’m not entirely certain if they’re looking for TV entertainment, music to rock by, a constant stream of information, or chatter, but I catch enough gossip to know some sites are reader magnets. I assume some of the better ones are like a familiar reading group where one chats with friends about books or people they know or would like to know. I would love to join communities of booklovers, but after a day at the computer, I’d rather join them in a nice lounge chair at the bookstore where I can see actual faces.
I dislike being selfish. I know hundreds of people stop by to visit us here from other blogs and websites. I’d love to return the favor. I'm sure there are lots of sites out there that I’d enjoy visiting, but I can’t figure out where to find the time! Right now I’m posting a draft of this message online because I’ll be flying out of here shortly for a brainstorming session with some of the other wenches. I’m hoping I’ll find a few minutes to get online and post by my Tuesday deadline, but I doubt that I’ll even have a chance to read our other postings until I return home. (and I'm at Mary Jo's with Susan King right now as I hit Publish on this blog, before I rush downstairs to get to work, so no, I have no idea what's happening on the blog right now, and I won't have time to read comments for days.)
So tell me, please, how do you squeeze time out of your busy days to cruise the net for interesting sites? What is the best way of finding them? And what most catches your interest in the sites that you enjoy? And please, where do other bloggers steal pictures?