I Challenge You to Comment

An offhand comment at ProBlogger Event got me thinking.

 

In one session, it was mentioned that while page views and bloggers are going up, comments are going down. (My apologies, I need to re-listen to the entire conference, I’ve forgotten who said what now!)

 

I Challenge You To Comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first I thought, “Oh, that’s a shame. I love getting comments.” -Don’t we all love comments?

 

Then I thought – what a great opportunity!

 

My immediate ideas were that commenting increases:

  • visibility for my blog
  • my relationship with the blog writer(s)
  • happy feelings for the blogger who receives a comment

 

There’s really no reason not to comment! I just email myself blog posts if I’m on my phone, that way I’m sure to read them later when I’m on my laptop and can be assured commenting will work.

 

But now, a challenge! Go forth and comment on other blogs! Talk to the writer(s). Make them see a comment notification and get all warm and fuzzy.

 

Tell me how often you comment? 

25 Replies to “I Challenge You to Comment”

  1. I love commenting – it’s how I show appreciation for a blog post – I’m not sure why comments are down… it would be interesting to hear why some people don’t comment on blogs anymore…

    1. I just had a long comment typed out on about how commenting from a mobile device is difficult, then my phone lost it. So, uh, that’s probably one of the reasons!

      1. That happens to me, too! It’s SO annoying!

        1. Very annoying.

  2. I often comment, but have a (ridiculous, I know) need to know that the writer cares about what I said. I know it’s tiresome for them to read all the comments but sometimes I feel as though I’m whistling in the wind when I comment. I’m probably even more irritated when they just “like-tick” my comment, as though they are running through a shopping list and ticking ticking ticking just to get the job done. Perhaps it’s my need for validation that’s the problem… 🙁

    1. I try and reply to all my comments – but then again, I’m lucky to get any comments on my posts, so it’s not that difficult for me to reply!

      😉

      But, yes, I don’t see the point of having a comments system on your blog if you’re not going to interact with your readers. If you’re getting 100s of comments, fair enough – but if you have a small number of comments, connect with your readers!

      1. Should I comment on your comment, JJ? I’d feel hypocritical if I didn’t… :-/

        1. Comment on a comment about commenting…wait, where did this circle begin? 🙂

    2. That’s the worst as well – put the effort into a comment and no one replies! Then again, sometimes when a writer does reply, I miss the email notification (ok, accidentally delete it in my desire for an empty inbox) and don’t reply to their reply.

  3. People don’t have as much time, now there’s so many different social platforms? If you’re looking at something on a mobile device & it’s fiddly to comment, you don’t always have time to do it later. I was planning to comment on your post yesterday but delayed for that reason & then by the time I was home, I didn’t get around to opening the laptop.

    Also it’s so much easier just to ‘Like’ something, or share, and make your comments on FB or twitter, or even ignore and just move to the next thing that grabs your attention, on FB, twitter, instagram, G+, blog, etc, etc.

    My comment, by the way, was that comments are also what I value most; and now you’ve shared this info I don’t feel so bad about not getting so many – just means I’ve been trying to rebuild my blog after a few years hiatus at a time when comments are decreasing. (as well as having sometimes obscure content that hasn’t quite reached the right audience.

    1. Sounds like my blog! 😉

      1. Niche marketing John 🙂

        And yes, oh to have so many comments that you don’t have time to interact with them all …

        1. A dream first world bloggers problem? 🙂

    2. I also reply on twitter or facebook instead of on the post – but since I heard this at ProBlogger, I’ve done my best to go back to commenting only on the blog post.
      I tend to either get zero comments or lots…I’m not sure what that means! I guess it’s one way of learning which post are popular/relevant.

  4. I love comments but I find my comments end up at the bottom of a big string, I try to reply to all of mine but I understand the bloggers who get heaps of comments may not have that much to say, I appreciate when they are replied to though! It keeps the conversation going but agree, mobile devices let us all down a lot don’t they?

    1. Oh totally, I see some with 400+ comments and go woah, of course you can’t reply! I’m finding a handful of bloggers are getting commenting systems that work well on mobile, but this seems to be confined to those where the blog is their full time job, and therefore they have the time/money to invest in good systems.

  5. I posted this on fb & asked if people commented and one person said that having to sign up to comment puts her off. I hadn’t thought of that but it makes sense. As a result she’s more likely to comment on a fb link to blog.

    1. When I wrote this post I had one of John’s posts in my head, Why I Won’t Comment on Your Site and that was also one of the reasons given.

  6. 99% of the time I don’t comment because I’m reading on my phone, and it’s a pain the ass to log in. However, I try to leave the post unread in my reader so the next time I’m on my PC I can go and leave one.
    That said, I read a lot of blogs that I just don’t feel the need to leave a comment on – as in, I literally have nothing to say about the topic, OR I just don’t know what to say about the post!

    1. Phones seem to be universally acknowledged as a hinderance! And the bloggers leaving you with nothing to say…hmm…blogging 101 tells you to ask a question 🙂

  7. Whenever I get an email saying New Comment I jump for joy.. probably not literally but my insides do a bit (I should probably get that checked..)
    I rush to my blog to reply to my commenters! I don’t get many and I take every single one as a blessing.
    Thanks for inspiring us to make sure we don’t just read and move along to the next article without leaving a comment.

    1. Haha I think it’s great to be excited when comment notifications come! I love to reply right away, but it’s usually not possible because I need to be at my computer.

  8. I’m relatively new to blogging and love to leave comments on posts that really inspire me. I feel I should tell someone that their views/writing have touched me. One thing I am really enjoying about blogging is finding other kindred spirits out there and striking up a conversation with comments.

    BTW – found your blog through the Blog Carnival.

    Dani.

    1. I’ve had lots of websites and only in the past few years worked out that what I always did was this thing called ‘blogging’. The community and the new friends I’ve made are the wonderful parts!

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