Comments on: When Is It Time To Stop Talking To Yourself?

By: Casey

Casey — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 05:45:00 +0000

I think comments are great. What turned me off about open-line comments are the constant spammage from folks giving me false jollies while they worked up their spiel about not finding credit card loan processing data in my totally unrelated bits of writing.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:12:41 +0000

My comment is similar to Sapphire’s. Maybe we don’t have to take a whole month to comment on EVERYONE’S blog, but maybe if we notice that a blogger we like is really getting into a slump we could pop by and give them the “I love your blog” thing. This way if our faves all read the same blogs we do, they don’t think it’s a strange sort of spam!

By: Sapphire

Sapphire — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:42:39 +0000

And if you just comment “Good article”, that’s a spammer technique, so it might be mistaken for that.

I try to assume people are reading (based on stats and all that) even without the comments, but I do love comments. Like you, I just don’t have time to comment on every useful entry I read. I barely have time to read.

Maybe we could take a slow month of the year to make sure we comment on every blog we love, “This is off-topic, but I just wanted to say I love your blog, even though I rarely/never comment.”

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:13:56 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone ! I’ve decided for me it’s just not going to work commenting on every blog post where I find something useful/informative/entertaining or whatever it is I got from a post. Too many great bloggers I’m following, there’s just not enough time in the day!

I am going to make more of an effort for links and comments though. It hit me with your post Scott how important it is to keep encouraging bloggers I find worthwhile. I hate seeing good blogs dry up due to lack of encouragement.

If bloggers aren’t getting any kind of feedback (or very little), at some point they do have to wonder “When is it time to stop talking to yourself?”. Heck I would. Traffic stats and subscriptions don’t tell you if people are getting something worthwhile from your efforts, or if they’re simply checking out how big of an asshat you’re making of yourself or if they’re just using you as a muse for their own blog–without hat tips of course ;P.

Unique visitors and subscribers are fun, but don’t quite do it for me. That’s just me.

I’m the same way, links are what I find most encouraging. Comments are low here on SuperAff, but I always accepted that as partly due to me not participating more on other blogs.

By: Scott Jangro

Scott Jangro — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:14:04 +0000

I’m guilty too!

Unique visitors and subscribers are fun, but don’t quite do it for me. That’s just me.

Since I wrote that, I’ve been trying to make sense of why some blogs get tons of comments and some never get any.

The biggest factor seems to be volume of traffic. if you have 1000 readers, chances are that someone’s going to comment. (Just like affiliate marketng, you can’t complain about zero sales until you start to drive thousands of clicks).

Then beyond the traffic, it seems to have a lot to do with personality of the blogger. The more the blogger engages the reader with questions and critical thinking, the more people comment (as long as there are no barriers like a required login). Then it just feeds on itself.

Thanks for the link, Terry, a blog post talking about another’s blog post is worth a dozen comments, easy.

By: Empress

Empress — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:29:59 +0000

I think we’re all a bit guilty of that one. I’ve often read blogs and thought that’s a great idea or awesome article or cool links and then never made mention of that on their comments. Because I felt it would be a bit lame to say “oh good one”… it’s a comment – but not a very good one.

I don’t know if we’re ever going to get past that sort of thing. I suppose if the blogger loves what they’re writing about they’ll carry on… and one day we’ll be able to have something to say

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:29:05 +0000

I always try to make comments if I’ve got anything useful to add.

So to that end: interesting blog

By: webprofessor

webprofessor — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 04:20:24 +0000

I don’t agree that it matters where the conversation occurs. If people talk about the topic on my site, elsewhere, or in their living room it doesn’t matter to me.

I do care about subscription numbers & unique visitors. That to me is a better measure of reach.