Voting on Indiblogger

I have the EXACT same question at times.

The best of my posts have all got 2 and 3 votes and some of my own not so great have got slightly more. I never understood this, be it the machine, or the human mind.

I shall check your blog out. I don't get it either, plus I don't have many friends who are bloggers and/or are on this so in terms of that too it's tough to get voted. Brands these days seem to only look at social media followers (can be bought) and ratings which I'm not sure how they work. As a person who's worked on both sides (I work with bloggers too as part of my full-time job) I feel like content and quality needs to be more in focus than the apparent number of votes/followers.

Srikanth, Many of us here are busy scanning the forum, posting our blogpost in Indivine and checking out new contests, happyhours. When I have more time then I do check out my network posts and the one that has a catchy title gets a visit. And if I love the content, I promote and head on to subscribe if I feel the content is interesting. So naturally when I get a mail of a new post, i visit and pass my comment when time permits. Also many of us are connected in social networks too and hence connect there too. Just initiate the first contact and you get people visiting, commenting, liking your post either here or in your blog. This is as far as my thought goes.

Nandinim Katie, thank you for your feedback. It makes a little more sense to me now.

This is all about having a wide network of followers/friends/back-scratchers. The main idea behind indivine (supposedly) was to let members share their blogposts, to give them more exposure. This noble idea seems to have been overwhelmed by the ill effects of backscratching that came in as a side effect of this prominently give-and-take way of gaining exposure. This explains the reason for some mediocre and poor posts getting votes in 70's and 80's and 100's while some of the well deserving ones staying somewhere down not to be found by most indivine voters. This is not to say that all the top voted posts are bad, but a lot of them are.

Usually what happens while indivine voting is when guy A votes for guy B's blogpost, (either a genuine vote or just to get a vote back), guy B now has an undeclared obligation to vote back for guy A's blogpost, and in most cases, whether they like it or not, guy B normally upvotes guy A's indivine post, because of that obligation. So, the number of people you vote for in IndiVine is almost directly (and positively) proportional to the number of votes you will get for your indivine posts. And this includes even blogposts that clearly state that "THIS IS A DELETED POST. PLEASE DO NOT VOTE", as tested by Ranjith some time back, and still people blindly voted for this post.

Absolutely...you hit the nail on the head...more of thanksgiving than genuiness!

I guess I can be a good nail gun. 

Couldn't have said it better myself. I first saw this in a fashion contest years ago (not on Indiblogger but on some website) where it was all about votes. The winner, needless to say did not have any fashion sense but had 400+ votes while the rest who had actually worked hard on putting an outfit together didn't. Having said that, I do visit people's blogs and leave comments/vote. If you check out my blog, you'd see I work hard to put out quality content. Is it also to do with SEO, because I haven't done a lot on that front apart from using the Yoast plugin.

I don't think this (voting on IndiVine) has anything to do with the SEO of your blog, rather it is dependent on your SEQ (Social Engineering Quotient).

I have had this concern on many occasions and felt frustrated at times too at the haphazard voting pattern and system. On one occasion, I had the good fortune of getting votes for a post that was deleted and had no content! Yes there is absolutely no co relation with votes and quality of content and I can say this for sure from the votes on my blog posts!!!

For companies, it's ROI. Only way they can judge ROI is based on likes, followers, etc. We as bloggers may know that those with such numbers may not be quality bloggers, but for them its marketing. That's a different issue altogether. 

Voting in Indiblogger has become nothing more than back scratching. Which was exactly why it was once suggested for anonymous voting. When people wouldn't know who voted for who, they wouldn't bother. Even when Indiblogger has the best intention for voting, it was the bloggers themselves who ruined the essence and importance of voting. 

Completely agree. I work on the other side as well (I'm a social media/digital marketing person, started the blog a few months ago) but in our company we look at the photography and content and then take a call rather than only work with blogs that have the highest followers, and that leads to us being associated with quality than numbers. It actually worked for us :) Agreed about the back-scratching. Also, Facebook is kinda dead now, unless you spend there's hardly any engagement unless you're a huge brand. 

I think it's all about marketing, promotion and your relation with other bloggers.

It all depends on your blogging network. I guess if you have too many followers as compared to others on IB, you're going to get more votes on your Indivines. Better work on the quality of your posts so that you can improve your Google Search Rankings. 

Yeah, I'm doing that. The quality of the content I post has been rated as excellent both by brands that have reached out to me so far and blogger friends but I'd love some ideas on improving search rankings, since I don't get to spend a lot of time on the blog (I have a demanding full-time job too) :(

This is disturbing. I just found a blog post that's been completely plagiarised. Not only is this bad, it's bad for the blogger's SEO too. How does one check these things :/

Please report the blog post as spam, there is an option to do that in IB. IB Team will look into it and remove the blogger from IB if the blogger has plagiarized

Sorry to disappoint you, NSV, even in cases of proved plagiarism, Indiblogger merely warns the blogger, and if the blogger apologizes, does not ban the blogger the first time. I've evidence of this. 

So this means even if Nandini complains and her complaint is the first for the offending blogger, Indiblogger will call the blogger and warn them. If they promise never to do all this again, Indiblogger will keep them on their site

U never disappoint me TC...u may be right...what do you get even if IB bans the blogger? Hollow Moral Victory?

As I see it, it's a victory for all bloggers if the blogger is warned and consequently never plagiarizes again. It is better for an ex-plagiarizer to keep on being part of IB and never plagiarizing again, than being thrown out, and promptly resuming his habits from outside IB.

Additionally, a person may genuinely feel picking up four sentences in a 100 sentence blog is not plagiarism. In that case, a ban would be too harsh.

Nandhini, there is nothing to feel discouraged about. It is all about who has time to see your post in Indivine and has got nothing to do with the quality of your blog post. I have added you to my network. will certainly visit your blog. :)

Thanks Katie. Just was wondering how the system works :)

Let voting be there. This too is a motivator. Just make voting anonymous .  This will eliminate backscratching. People will vote only when they are impressed with the post.

I agree wholeheartedly, Saket. Many others have been repeatedly asking for this. I am sure it will work. After all, so many people vote for my Indispire posts without any backscratching. Honest appreciators do exist, and your idea will ensure we get votes only from true lovers of writing. Can you believe it, one of my contest posts, which does not have content in it due to error actually got 5 votes?

Yes..let the voter be made incognito and this way, there is the possibility of the content getting the votes and not the blogger per se. 

Writing epic shit won't be of any use if you have no reader however writing fluff and getting readers is a crime. Conclusion: You have to have a blog that talks beyond cliches and produce original content. Getting votes is a motivator however voting responsibly is also important to promote the bestest of posts. Indiblogger is a great platform but most quality bloggers get lost amid the sea of networkers. Survival of the fittest and I have seen only bloggers with wide networking skills get the most visits. There's nothing like famous bloggers or popular bloggers in the blogging world, there are only good writers vs marketeers and definitely everyone like the combination of both. I know the Purist will dislike it but writing an epic shit won't necessarily makes you the most popular blogger here. This is my opinion. I hope I am somewhere right. 

That's very true, it's the right mix of who you know & marketing plus great content. What I was talking about is for example if for a food review someone has written things like 'the food was good' in a review and still is considered among 'top bloggers'. That's very strange and discouraging to those who actually write. Or blogs that are full of only sponsored content from every brand under the sun and little to no original thoughts.

This happens all over the world in blogging arena ever since it was born

No, not really. Initial stages during Geocities days were pretty cool. There was actually a fishing blog back in the mid-90s too. 

I shall say absolutely nothing on this topic. Except for this comment, that is.  

You sure? There's always a lot to say, ya know!

I'm not really looking to be asked to go to Pakistan ( again ) .... I don't mind Europe, though.

whoa, that happened with you? 

Sort of -  "How dare you remain here on IB and still choose to criticize it?" about sums it up. I see it as equivalent to telling people you disagree with to "go to Pakistan."  

@Sloword I'm the last person to ask anyone to do that, lol. Dunno about the others.

Not aimed at you..... I have a long and checkered history here, built up in a surprisingly short time. 

Interesting :D 

very.... the gist of it may be summarized thusly "How dare you ask for improvements and yet remain on the platform?" Apparently, IB is 1000% perfect, thus rendering any cause for complaint and / or request for improvement irrelevant, unncessary and impudent.

Incidently, I stopped posting to Indivine a few months ago. I've left the account be for now and check in once a month to see if anything has sprouted. 

Ouch. That's the worst kind of attitude to have. Faced this with another blogger platform recently too, and it irked me. I was looking through your blog - I've never done a tech review as a blogger myself but I always love reading about new tech, and judging by your blog I don't think you need to post to Indivine. The content is very well put-together and I'm sure you have a sizeable audience. p.s. have you tried the Jawbone UP? 

I'm at the point where blogging is no longer necessary. It was necessary to get me into writing after a 40 year lapse. That was it's primary purpose. Making money off my blogging skills was never the objective. I would have liked a wider audience - only to get more feedback. However, none of that is required now, so over 2016 SloWord as a blog will slowly fade away, I have a feeling.

Thank you very much for those kind words. I'm not quire sure how to take the "tech" thing, since my blog is not a tech review blog.... 

Ahh. Doohickey Ninja will be a big challenge for me. Its needs to attract a much wider audience compared to a very tech-specific PC crowd, even though it's more of a DIY-consumer PC rather than enterprise level...for now. Looks, battery life, etc. is something that stays more as a preference. There was a software that can analyse photos from cameras (from laptops to DSLRs) but it's in BETA and has its set of issues. Most handy/portable tech reviews I've seen are subjective and it's tough for creating reviews when you draw a conclusion after running through batteries of benchmarks and comparisons. I have absolutely no expectations for it. It's just that when I test PC components, I am usually idle. So I am using the time to make gadget reviews. I don't mind testing anything, but one of the PC companies vouched for me while giving an introduction to Fitbit. If jawbone wants to send review sample, I don't mind. Problem is that most gadget bloggers don't make an effort, and tech companies basically do timepass with them. 

Hardware BBQ is doing brilliantly! The site had 6,28,897 page views in 2015 with 7.70% bounce rate and 377,649 in 2014 with 5.74% bounce rate- touchwood. I really would like to push Youtube content for this site now. If both sites grow well and start generating serious money enough to hire people, I would like to start a pvt. ltd. and be an online publishing company. It's just that I wish I started all of this when I was much younger like how people in US and Australia did it. 

It may have been TS you had in mind.... he's the tech. I think you visited his blog not mine...

I am, therefore, taking back my thanks... : 

I visited yours too though, and it's refreshing, to say the least, to see a blog where something's actually being written, originally, and wittily at that. (as part of my job I occasionally have to go through several blogs and what I see there makes me sigh a lot) Ooh and I just saw the thread I assume started the debate you mentioned earlier and...*doffs hat* holy hell, you have SO MUCH PATIENCE. I'd have been raging by that point because NO ONE seemed to have understood your point there. Then again blogging has devolved into reviews, contests and sponsorships.

Orl righty then! Thanks are in order. Oodles of them..... 

reviews are not THAT bad unless it's reduced to doctored write-up to pucker up with the companies. You get see a rare glimpse of smart write-up for contests at times, too. 

I went through a blog once to decide if my company would want to work with them because they'd mailed us asking for a partnership. I went through 6 pages and there was nothing other than reviews and events for brands. NO original content. That begs the question about how the readers benefit in any way.

I am still trying to understand why the suggestion 'keep voting anonymous' hasn't found favour with Indiblogger. What does Indiblogger loose with the modified system?Any clues?

A simple anonymous 5-star rating has not found favour with the power bloggers. Simple folk like me don't understand the complexity and effort that goes into keeping IB safe from simple folk like me.

That's a good question, Saket. Maybe it is because of the following reasons:

• Ultimately, Indiblogger, as a business is benefited more by very regular bloggers associated with Indivotes as opposed to merely high-quality bloggers
• Many of the top bloggers on IB such as Saru and Indrani are really high quality as well, although some are not. Why punish them when they're doing well due to merit.
• The very regular bloggers form a vibrant, thriving community even if some are backscratchers, and this is like a niche-based social media that advertises IB well to the external world
• The entire view of the front page gives an exciting picture that Indiblogger is a place where blogging is thriving and exciting and happening. Imagine if Blogadda looked like this. Get the picture?

So then, any solution we need to think of needs to fulfil the above IB business goals, and maybe, despite wanting their best to eliminate backscratching, which IB has definitely achieved partly through Indispire, IB probably has not come up with something that gives equivalent business benefits...

TC, your comments make a lot of sense.

IB is the only blogging community in the world that goes through each and every blog manually before approving them. I am not talking about other blogging communities here because some of them are headed by pompous people. I found other communities mundane but Indiblogger as a platform surely understands the mind and soul of bloggers. They are constantly upgrading their technologies to make the blogging scene thrive and go beyond the Social Media hype. 

There's too much thought involved behind every move they take. Blogging is not about producing viral content, it is also about establishing connect between likeminded people. Many bloggers give up after trying hard however only few continue. Many great blogs died in oblivion, many so-called top bloggers discontinued writing because they are discouraged by the number of visitors. Visitors and comments are the lifeblood of a blog. Hence voting is undoubtedly healthy because it gives exposure to your blogs. Vote responsibly and let the best content win. People who blogs are the people who thinks aloud. They are the people who will be the future writers, change agents and visionaries. So, let's give more power to all content producers here and let's continue to churn out brilliant content. 

I agree with "Vote responsibly and let the best content win"

Only I am not sure how it can be made to happen