Whether your a first time blogger or veteran journalist it is feedback that your strive for. The rawest way to find what you need to improve on come from your user. True that a writer is his own worst critic, you still want to know who and what you are writing to. There should be no doubt that the comment is a bloggers greatest tool to prolific writing.
You have just moved into your new blog. You’re happy with the design and convinced that it is ready to be walked and read all over by the whole world. The framework is finished, plug-ins activated and customized. Hey you even recoded a bunch of the theme you choose. Great!
You had better have some interesting ideas to blog about! Oh you do? Well done then.
So what are you expectations? High traffic is nice. I’m sure having social media sites and bloggers pick up on your discoveries would be peachy. But how you expect your blog to come across? Well that depends on your comments, sir. It is the key to you blogs success.
They are called users, communities, commenters. Sometimes they are spammers, mults or trolls. But they decide exactly what you just showed the world
really is. Perhaps it is a goofy image you submitted to Digg that went over like a lead balloon. Maybe you are asking everyone on Reddit “who likes pie?“, only to realize that although most people do like pie, they don’t like you. Spending weeks on a blog post about teaching neuroscience to your iguana, then realizing that you are out of the realm of most people is a terrible feeling I wish on no one (sorry, I couldn’t find an example on that one). But let the comments be heard. Or else how can you expect to improve. And improve you must!
Now what gets people talking?
Well provocative writing for one should entice others to weigh in. By leaving a little question mark in your post you can get the discussion rolling. Make someone leave a comment like “but, you said…” then swiftly enlighten them and let them know who’s the boss of you blog. Getting an organic discussion started is what’s tough. Do what you can to make me want to blab to you!
You have to be a good commenter yourself you know!
Yes it’s true. I thrive on comments. I love leaving one liners in your blog or submission. Sometimes I make a real critique that people value.
The problem is that I’m not in the majority. Most people scan through blogs in their RSS readers, hardly even reading the post. Let alone seeing any comments. You have to observe and join in on the discussions when necessary. How else are you to know exactly what kind of writing evokes conversation on your site?
But you need practice to be great. Visit lots of blogs in your niche and get on Pownce (contact me for an invite) or Twitter then go nuts. Just start leaving your thoughts on the mindless postings of others. But stay on topic. Hey it can be fun! Commenting properly is an art and it’s easy to get sidetracked. What is important is you can get out of people something that you had not touched on. That goes for blogging and blogging. As a blogger it’s those first three comments that are the hardest to get. Once you’re over that hill it’s a fast little ride down to tomorrows post.
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You are so right. Sometimes I get more from reading the comments for a post than the actual post.
Good luck with your new adventure.
Beau