I just went through my list of followers and deleted a bunch of them. GASP!! Why? Because they’re fake!!
Has anyone else noticed this? I did a post sometime back about how bad Internet dating is. Oh boy, you should see some of the racey followers I got from that! I got followers from exotic girl dating sites, all different countries and I got followers from Hookup sites.
My recent posts about me buying my house has resulted in followers from several Real Estate companies.
These, of course, are spam.
It’s disheartening!
Do you remember when you reached your first significant benchmark of followers? Maybe it was 100 or 500. For me, the first time I got really blown away was when I reached 300 followers! I was thrilled!!
I still feel that thrill when I see the numbers grow. But now, I question it.
It would be nice to have an accurate number.
*What’s your take on this? You get spammy followers? Is your follower count accurate?
Penny Wilson Writes 
How do you tell they are fake?
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Well, I guess it’s a matter of opinion. But why would a Dating site, that is advertising women for hookups want to follow my blog? I kinda think they are fake. I get followers like that. 🙂
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Ok, thanks!
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Looks like I need to clean house, because, yes, we all get these non-real followers. Sigh.
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Some people don’t care and I guess they do no harm, but it just upsets me that they are not real and the # of “followers” I have is not real. 😦
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It’s frustrating and disheartening for sure, but worth it to find those few you end up truly connectng with. At least for me. 🙂
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I agree. I’ve made some wonderful friends here. 🙂
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Penny, I would like to sell you some home maintenance products for your new home. Ok ok, I can’t even pretend to be a spammer… I clean out my spammy followers when they first follow. I check each new follower as they come in and just delete the ones trying to sell me something. Doing it that way, the process doesn’t take long and it’s not so devastating to the numbers.
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You are on top of it!! Thanks for the visit, Linda! ❤
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I have fair few followers… a huge proportion of them are as fake as the spam comments. I don’t worry about the numbers these days… only he peopel who to come, read, like or comment… and am glad if others read via email without leaving a trace. Blogging should not be about the numbers, exciting though those milestones are at first. It is aways the people who matter.
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You are so right, Sue. Well said! 🙂
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I agree Penny, there are so many false followers, I used to wonder if people said they were following just so they could say they follow so many people. But the reality is there are only a handful I see regularly and they are folk who comment regularly on what I might have to post. Most of the spammers get caught in the spam section and occasionally for fun I go and have a look. Most of them are nonsense. Good post by the way, something to think about.
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Thanks Michael!
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I have had some commercial followers. It’s really crazy out there. Askimet usually catches my fake comments. I had over 800 last time I cleared my spam.
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wow! I get a fair amount of spam, but I check it often enough that it doesn’t get too far out of hand. Thanks for the visit!
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I’ve gotten lazy with that lately. I used to ck it often. This was the longest time I’d gone it took me quite awhile to clear my spam box. I won’t let that go so long again. 🌺
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🙂
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Sadly, it is the story of our lives! Spammers are everywhere!😣😣
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So true!
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Wow, I never thought of going through my followers.
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I really hated to see the number of followers decline, but if they aren’t real, then, what’s the point!?
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I don’t get spammy followers much, I don’t think. However, it’s painfully clear to me that I have about 35 or so followers who check out my site on any kind of regular basis. I keep hoping I’ll reel in some of the others with a special post someday. But then, 35 true follower is more than I had before I started blogging, so there’s that!
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I know what you mean. I have the same average number of likes and comments all the time. That hasn’t grown very much at all. Thanks for the visit, Rebecca!
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Wow, is the ability to remove followers new? I just looked and see that little trash can, but I don’t remember seeing it before. I can see how it could be useful, but for now I’ll just let all of those pretend people follow me…
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I do think it’s new. I just happened to stumble upon it recently myself. I sure wish WordPress would have done it a long time ago! Thanks for the visit, Trent!
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great info
risky out there. yes you have courage
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thank you!
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