Commentary on Commenting
Comments are pretty important to those-who-blog. As I’ve mentioned before, I crave them.
And it’s not an ego thing. If it were about ego, then I’d be most excited days my blog gets the most hits. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely satisfying knowing that someone too the time to stop by. But I am far more excited when I get one comment, than I am for every 100 visitors here. I’ve even been known to dance a little jig when I see I have a new comment, truth be told.
this is way more fun if you know someone's listening
Comments are like the difference between someone hearing what you have to say and someone actually listening to what you said.
Comments are what turn a blog into a conversation.
Chris Brogan wrote a quick post about comments the other day. In it he says
It’s hard to keep writing when you feel like no one’s watching, or that they’re not engaged . . . Keep trying. Persist. Try new things. Experiment . . . And don’t give up. Blogging is more fun when there are comments, but your ideas are still just as valuable just being out there.
Later, Chris sent out a tweet suggesting people choose three people who commented on that post, visit their blogs, and leave a comment. Never one to give up an excuse to make new connections, I clicked on a few commentors and in the process found three new blogs to subscribe to; new conversations to engage in.
I loved it.
Why stop there?
Tonight I made a new blog-o-lution for 2009 (or at least for the first month – I’ll give it a try and see how it goes!): Each day, I am going to pick one person I encounter online whose blog I’ve not yet visited, visit their blog and find something to comment on.
I’m just one person, commenting on one blog a day. But I’m going to dream big and hope this post motivates more people to do the same. For those who aren’t into exploring the web, I’ll be tweeting my daily selection and posting a weekly summary of which blogs I’ve visited – piggyback on my list and comment there as well!
What do you think?
Would you do this?
Will you do this?
Do you think we can start a movement, spread the word?
Share your thoughts and commenting experiences, well, in the comments below!
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What a great idea! I'll take up the challenge – consider this my day one comment ;-)
Caroline's Recent post…Cabinet of Curiosities
I will try doing that, its going to be really hard since I'm too picky when it comes to commenting on something, first I've to do my research about what I'm commenting on ;) .
Ahmed Naguib's Recent post…Let’s kick politics out of social media
This is good :). I love comments too. I've been going on a clip of about 10 comments/day for the past two weeks. 10 takes up quite a bit of time, but I'm really trying to get involved and finding a community
KyNam Doan's Recent post…Cause Marketing: Increase your Profits while Doin…
Sounds like a great idea!
craftisan's Recent post…null
I love comments too but they hardly come by these days :(
Gotta change my strategies >;) aka 4 ideas…
Thanks for choosing me as "day one"! Let me know how it goes!!
I get like that too. I think the key is to remember it's about being heard, not being judged. I think that shifting the perception to "this shows I care about what the blogger said" from "does the blogger care about what I say" motivates me to comment more too.
Community is what it's all about! I'm thinking of taking advantage of the "tweet" option when it's available on comments now. It becomes a way of sharing posts I feel are "comment worthy" with people on Twitter. What do you think?
It's definitely a challenge – I try not to get too hung up on getting comments, but it just feels so good knowing I wrote or posted something comment-worthy.
One thought – I see your website is on blogger. I'm not sure what blogger's various comment settings are, but I've found the process to feel a bit cumbersome at times. I've been working to streamline the commenting here (hopefully it's fairly easy) – might be something to check into on yours? Just a thought . . .
Hi Faryl – excellent challenge ;) thanks for visiting on my blog…it's my pleasure to return the favour. And I'll be back. That was a great post by Chris in many ways. It prompted me to respond to it, to blog about it, to check out more new blogs, meet new folks and get new ideas. You are spot on about the listening.
What you write is comment worthy (regardless of whether anyone comments). I have to agree with you about BlogSpot – 8 times out of 10 I give up on commenting on Blogger blogs because the process is so cumbersome. I actually asked a blogger if they'd include the simple login so i could leave a comment… they did. But most people would give up and move on.
Nicky Jameson's Recent post…<a set="yes" linkindex="410" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/Nickyjameson/%7E...I Went From 4 Comments to Almost 4,000 In 2 Years
Hi Nicky! Thanks for returning the favor by visiting my corner of the blog-o-sphere! :-) I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Track what I click on for a week and mine your data for what other sites you think I would like. ,
They will remain in the violent backwardness of the Third World throughout the balance of the 21st century. ,