Anyone for Comments?

I have often been asked why Gone Away gets so many comments to most of its posts. Mark Cross of I'm Here So I Blog and I had a brief email discussion about this recently and then ProBlogger included a link to Digital Doorway's article on the subject (posted August 4). Marti Lawrence (Digital Doorway) asked which of the following responses was correct:

a) Smile to yourself and be glad someone is taking the time to reply

b) Respond via e-mail

c) Respond in your own comments

d) Respond in the comments section of the commenter's blog?

e) All of the above

None of the 22 comments on this article seemed to me to put forward a coherent and logical strategy on the matter, so I decided that it was time to write a bit about it myself. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject but I think Gone Away's record speaks for itself (have a look in the Contents - comments totals are included after the names of the posts).

The first factor to consider is that I came to blogging from chat. I knew nothing of marketing of blogs in those days and so I just hit the market I knew - the chatrooms. A few of my chat friends came to look and became interested in blogging themselves. Quite unconsciously, I was building a small community of bloggers and this became the core of my commenters; we would comment extensively upon each other's posts.

So we have a first principle: try to build a community of bloggers who comment regularly.

Another result of beginning with a group of chatters was that it was natural for us to use the comments systems as a place to chat; conversations would be sparked by the initial post and these would often wander off into completely unrelated subjects. You might think that this defeats the objects of commenting but consider how it inflates the number of comments! Even more importantly, matters arising in these discussions were often the starting point for new posts. Many of my posts are the result of ideas born in the comments to previous posts (this one, for instance).

Two more principles become apparent: encourage conversations and don't ignore comments that wander off the point.

Of course, I'm greedy when it comes to the blog, and so it wasn't long before I hungered for commenters beyond our small circle of friends. That was when I stumbled upon another principle of good comment policy. Sheer old fashioned politeness insisted that I answer comments but I also found that this encouraged return visits and helped to turn visitors into regulars. So I've made it a rule that I answer all comments unless they really don't need an answer. There's nothing worse than spending some time on a thoughtful comment on someone's
blog, then going back a day or so later and finding that he or she hasn't bothered to reply. Even a brief comment such as "Nice blog" deserves a "Thank you" at least.

I know several bloggers who respond to comments by email. This satisfies the politeness requirement but is not an option for me because other potential commenters don't see the response and so are not encouraged to have their say; it prevents conversations developing. I can see that, just occasionally, it might be more appropriate to respond by email rather than in the comments system (where personal matters might be mentioned, for instance). But I can't think of a single instance of this happening in my own blog.

The possibility of replying to a comment by responding in the commenter's blog seems to me to have disadvantages. It is an opportunity to spread the old URL through the blogosphere but stands a good chance of being taken as spam. The relevance of your comment would be lost on other commenters and so might be regarded as "fishing in another's pond". Plus, of course, you stop any chances of conversation developing in your own comments system.

Using all of the possible methods looks like overkill to me, apart from the amount of work it would entail. Imagine how strange it would be to comment on a blog and then get a response in that blog, an email and a reply in your own blog. I'd be tempted to think the blogger was desperate for company!

My answer to Marti's question must be, therefore: Always reply to comments if at all possible and do it in your comments system. It works for me!

After all this, you might be wondering why we should be concerned about comments at all. They are not a valid indicator of traffic and involve considerable extra work for the blogger (if responses are considered and not just a standard "thanks for commenting" message). Ultimately, it all depends on the purpose of your blog. If you blog for yourself and don't care whether it's read or not, comments are not going to matter at all. But if the purpose is to be read, comments are very important as they are a factor in creating regular readers. Quality content is paramount in this quest but, if you remain doggedly unresponsive to comments, most readers will wander off sooner or later.