Blog Etiquette

Just something that I've been wondering about...

This is my first public blog, so I'm not too clear on some things. My personal blog is over at LiveJournal, and it's all locked down. Because of that, in order for someone to read my entries, they have to be on my friends list. When someone adds you, they generally leave you a comment to let you know, and if you want them to be able to read your entries, you friend them back. How does that work here? What do you do for etsy-related blogs? They're all public, obviously, so you don't have to add people so that they can your posts. I'm wondering specifically the etiquette when you follow someone. Do you comment and let them know? Do they really care, or are they just interested in having as many followers, and reaching as many people as possible? I ask because there are many threads with people asking for others to follow their blog. I went through a few of them, followed a lot of people, and posted my link. Maybe it's just me, but I go back to those threads and add new people who have posted their link if their blog interests me. (I need to make sure that I've got everyone following added!) I just feel that if you're going to ask for people to follow you, you should return the gesture, you know? Maybe it's just me, I don't know. I'm not complaining, by any means, I'm just wondering. Honestly, I'd rather have a small group that I can interact with instead of hundreds that I can't keep track of!

It does make me wonder though, if people aren't interested because this is a new blog. If it's because the two posts that I have are just not interesting, which I can understand. Or if people are just after numbers and just don't care. It's just something that crossed my mind in all of this following madness. What do you think? I'd love to hear what you think about this. What the generally accepted rules to following people are, because I've got no idea and am honestly interested!

Pondering out of the way, I need to go and read up on all of the blogs that I'm now following! I've got A LOT of reading ahead of me!