Hello fabulous readers,

I’ve been mulling over the idea of requiring following Stuff Parents Need via Google Friend Connect for several months, now. It seems that my readership level has hit a wall, and I need to switch it up a bit in order to try to keep growing. I’ve noticed that this is a growing trend for review and giveaway bloggers to require readers to follow via GFC, and I’ve also noticed those bloggers experience very nice gains in their follower numbers after making this requirement.

I’ll be honest with you; I’m not yet convinced that this is an excellent idea. But I also think it is worth a shot, which is why for the month of May, to enter a giveaway on my site you must follow me via Google Friend Connect. I’ll assess how it went at the end of the month, and make a judgment call at the time about whether or not to leave that requirement or remove it.

Why am I doing this? Well, in order to keep bringing you very cool products that you can win, I have to have a good number of followers. Typically, when I only get to review a product and not also give it away, it is because the company I worked with didn’t find my following high enough to warrant the extra investment in product. This always makes me sad, because I get a lot of joy out of giving away cool stuff! So I want to have the type of blog where companies consistently want to offer a free product to my readers! But to do that, I must keep growing.

If you are wondering, “What is Google Friend Connect, anyway?” Wikipedia has a very detailed answer to this question that you are welcome to peruse, but for all intents and purposes on my site (and most others) it is a very public way to show the readership of your blog. It can be much more than that, but that’s all I’m currently using it for. Just being honest, here.

Please know that I’m open to your feedback on this issue. This blog is for me, but it is also for you!