Pointless Followers on Tumblr!?

[Alex]

I signed up on Tumblr over a month ago, and I like it and all, but I have some questions about followers.

Firstly, it seems like it takes me forever to get any, and you almost have to 'whore' your Tumblr around to get a few. I hate the whole "follow me and I'll follow back" approach, because in all honesty, I might not give a crap about your Tumblr, so I don't want to follow you just for you to follow me. Make sense? I don't want my dashboard filled up with a bunch of stuff that I don't relate to, or enjoy in some way.

Is there another way to promote your Tumblr, or gain new followers, without doing the following:

1) reblogging a crap load of people's posts (I rarely reblog because when people view my Tumblr page, I want them to see my stuff, and not other people's stuff I've reblogged.)

2) Begging people to follow me and having to follow them back. (I want you to follow me because you want to, because you enjoy my posts, not because you hope to gain me as a follower)

3) Posting a crap load of things that mean nothing to me. (some people seem to take the approach of posting a ton of cute pics, or a ton of quotes, just so others will say, "Ohhhh cute pics.. I'll follow! I don't want to have to change the types of messages I present on my Tumblr, just to gain new followers.)

I don't know if I'm the only one having a hard time getting followers, or if other people face this issue. I mean, I'd like to think someone reads some of what I post, because otherwise I feel as if I'm sending everything into a big black hole of the internet, and that's sort of pointless. I know tagging posts help people to come across your stuff when they search something you've tagged, but other than that, I have no idea how to get more people to see my blog, and then get them to follow.

So, are there any tricks I can use? Or, will I eventually having to resort to 'whoring' my Tumblr around? For example, plugging my Tumblr into these types of posts, like this: http://let-the-flames-begin.tumblr.com << I figure I better start practicing shameless promoting it now if I'm ever going to get good at it LOL

[Susan]

I wouldn't resort to "tricks" or the like. Blog promotion is hard work, even harder then writing and maintaining a blog. But promoting one's blog through social networking is a great way to go.

Are you on Facebook? If so, post a link to your blog there.

Do you tweet? Twitter is a great way to promote your blog (as long as you don't overdo it).

You can always Digg your own blog post, submit it to StumbleUpon, or use any of the other bookmarking-meets-social-media types of sites.

It helps if you're blogging about something that will interest others in a way that will make them interested in coming back to your blog. Also, regarding social networks, unless you're a celebrity, people will only be as interested in you as you are in them.

Network online, outside of Tumblr, and you'll reap the rewards of your work.