I recently wrote a blog post for Bloggertone entitled Do Blog Comments Matter? and having just read a post by Annabel Candy arguing their importance, I thought I’d revisit the topic here.
Candy argues that a blog without comments is something akin to a hotel without guests, that it looks lonely and unloved and that each blogger should be trying to get comments, even by asking blogger friends to reciprocate by writing comments on each others blogs.
To each blogger starting out, it can be easy to feel that your blog is being ignored if you aren’t getting comments, you may wonder if your content is being read properly or if people are enjoying it. However, I would argue that while comments are wonderful and I’m not suggesting that they aren’t appreciated and valued, they are not the marker of a blog’s success or failure.
Candy is right – one way to get comments is to ask friends to comment or to forge friendships by commenting on lots of other blogs with engaging comments. When I first started my blog at Garrendenny Lane four years ago, I was reading a significant number of blogs within my niche and before too long, I was part of a community and we were commenting on each other’s blogs. However, my readership has increased vastly since then and I don’t have the time to comment on as many blogs as I used to. What has happened as a result? Yes, the number of comments I receive has decreased drastically. Is my content still as good? I think so. Has my readership declined? No, it has increased.
Why am I getting fewer blog comments?
- I’m not commenting on other blogs as much, therefore I’m not part of a community.
- I’m getting feedback in other ways
- Feedback to my blog posts now comes more via twitter and facebook.
- I started a personal blog some time ago, I’m not putting as much personal information into this blog as a result, perhaps that is affecting the response rate.
It would be nice to get the blog comments though. Does it matter that I’m not?
- I’m still getting feedback in other ways which is reassuring.
- I occasionally meet people who tell me they read my blog yet I know they have never commented. What is even nicer is they tell me they love it.
- I know the blog is driving traffic to my website and is also resulting in sales. After all, that is the main aim of my blog.
I would agree with Candy that each blogger should be attempting to get feedback, by asking questions at the end of a blog post, by posing questions within the facebook or twitter link to the blog post (I find this to be the most successful means of getting feedback), by writing great content that people can learn from or empathise with, and by writing engaging comments on other blogs.
Getting lots of comments on your blog is wonderful and yes, it is important. However, if you are a business blogger that is starting out and you don’t have time to comment on hundreds of other blogs or become part of a community, I want you to take heart from your statistics (number of visits and sales) and not from the blog comments.
I started two new blogs last September (and I will discuss these in more detail in my next blog post). One is a personal blog that is read by friends. I am not using the google keyword tool to drive traffic to it. I am writing it for my own enjoyment. Of 36 posts, it has 120 comments and 1700 views. The other is an ‘experiment’ – it focuses on wallpaper and I want to see what traffic I can drive to my online shop from it. I use the google keyword research tool to drive traffic to it, no other means. Of 46 posts, it has 9 comments and 4,000 views.
In my opinion, the number of blog comments is not the only indication of a blog’s success. The real indication of success must be the sales / leads and the unique visits to the site will also be a key indicator.
Image: Free Digital Photos
What do you think? How important is it to get those blog comments?
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