I like to consider myself a pretty good blogger and one of the reasons I am one is because I take the time to read other peoples and learn from them. The one thing though that really pisses me off is the amount of bullshit comments some people leave on these blogs. Therefore, I would like to take the time to post this, in the hope that there will be some who learn from it and that it will in the end improve their and our blogging experience.
I would say that every blogger has heard many times over how important content is to ones post, how it is the number one factor that will bring return visitors and the all important high PR factor. The thing is how do people find your blog and all that good content? There is no point taking the time to write fantastic posts and then sitting on your rear end waiting for visitors to come and visit. Sure if you use the right keywords and stuff search engines may send you someone every now and again but it’s going to take you a hell of a long time to get a decent readership.
Let’s face it, nothing in life is easy and blogging is no different. You have to work at getting you ‘Blogging Name’ out there. One of the best ways is by socializing with other bloggers and you can do this by joining many of the communal blogging sites, by using places like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter etc, but I would say the most important way is by commenting on other peoples blogs.
A lot of bloggers also realize this, but where they fail is in their content. They feel that all they need do is to leave boring inane comments like ‘good post’, ‘nice blog’, ‘good job’ and other crap thinking that this will bring them the ‘hits’ that they require. How wrong they are, and for three main reasons. The first is that most blogs use the ‘nofollow’ attribute and so search engines ignore these comments. The second is that other bloggers hate these moronic responses and are now immune to them switching them off subconsciously and completely ignoring them. The last one is that the blog’s owner will more likely than not delete them and so the whole effort of the useless comment was wasted.
Now, if on the other hand the comment was relevant to the post and contained good content, you are showing others that you are knowledgeable on the subject and this will intrigue many a reader of your comment, which will have a huge potential for gaining those readers that you are pining for.
I want to direct you to a particular post on the popular Rambling Thoughts Blog! Neerav Bhatt, the owner of the blog, places such an importance on comments that he actually gives out prizes to people who write helpful comments on his blog. He does this for a reason, and that is because of the knowledge that good comments actually increase the value of his blog, and this is important to him, because although he is earning thousands of dollars via his blog, he is a little short of the Problogger whose earning potential has reached the six figure mark! Yep that is over $100,000 dollars a year. Now if that isn’t enough incentive to only put out good content comments, I don’t know what is.
Edit: June 1st 2008. Just to show that leaving good quality comments and participating in other peoples blogs is rewarding, I was just included in the Top May Commentators competition and was awarded with a bit of Link Love! :clap_tb:
You are so right. It means so much to find real comments on your posts. I usually delete the “pre-written” comments, but I love finding real comments.
Also, I always try to answer the comments on my own blogs, so those who do leave real comments know that I do appreciate them.
And just so you know, this really is a:
“great post”
Christines last blog post..Wake Up Writing
Gee, Christine, I can’t believe I totally forgot to mention how it is essential to reply to all good comments. Thanks for bringing up that point.
Oh, thanks for the compliment :blush_tb:
Absolutely correct, Sire, and it’s something I’ve been working on more and more as I’ve increased the number of blogs I respond to.
Another thing I do, however, is sometimes write about a post on another blog and send them a trackback, which also helps their blog and yours because the content on both blogs is similar, and hey, if getting ideas to write about means I have to visit someone else’s blog, it’s a good thing.
Mitchs last blog post..Sean Branagan Talks About Marketing
i totally agree with you.
if you take an idea for a post on another blog, it is a good idea and a correct attitude to give credit for the original post…
That’s right Mitch, it’s all part of the growing social network we partake in as we comment on each others blog. It adds a sort of personalization to the way we interact on the net, something you don’t get from visiting websites.
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Lovely post. Good content is very important for a blog. I also consider comments as a valuable part of my blog. I encourage every one to comment on my blog.
Agent 001s last blog post..10 Must read Articles this Week
Yup … if someone leaves a junk comment at night, they shouldn’t expect to find it in the morning.
I moderate the first comment.
If someone has something reasonably relevant to say and can do so politely I am only too happy to let them have their say … and they are welcome back with even less supervision in the future.
But if all someone is doing is scraping technorati tags and leaving a ‘great post bow-wow yadda yadda’ comment, I’m entirely willing to delete their comment without a second thought. If they keep that sort of commenting up, I am just as ready to block their IP address completely. I’m 56 years old. I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I just don’t care what people think of me anymore. Certainly not enough to tolerate intolerable behavior out of them.
I am not so desperate for a hit or a ‘unique’ that I am willing to coddle people who are simply gaming the system.
BillinDetroits last blog post..A good calculator for weight control
Way to go BD. I’m pushing 50 myself this year and I’ve notice my tolerance for slack behavior is certainly on the decline.
Well, I’ll admit that I don’t delete any posts like that, mainly because I believe it doesn’t do the poster any good posting something inane, but it may show others that people are visiting my site. After all, I figure I’m in the game to try to increase posters, and therefore I don’t want to alienate anyone who’s not being abusive, even if their post is somewhat useless to them in the long run.
Mitchs last blog post..A Bag Full Of Stuff? I Love Stuff!
Sorry Mitch, but I’m still going to delete useless comments. I figure I took the time to work on the post the least they can do is spend a little bit of thought on the comment.