Do you give what you want? I heard a blogger say a couple of years ago that every time she got a comment, it was like getting a $20 bill.
Bloggers love feedback. It keeps us going.
The thing in blogging, no matter if you are a journalist, a knitter or a political writer, every one loves a little bit of comment and/or link love.
Reciprocation is of the good, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer would say.
Reciprocation needs to work both ways. When people do good things for you, show you have recognized what they have done and reward them.
At the very least if people do something for you then they need to be acknowledged.
So answer comments, thank people who send you feedback, link or vote up your articles, re-tweet your twitter messages, and so on. If someone subscribes to my blog they get free ebooks (more coming), as well as all the lovely regular content you would expect.
And Jim Voorhies has a few words of advice as well and some practical advice:
In a lot of ways, the Internet is like Christmas. It’s better to give than receive. Comments are like that too. To get any, you’ve got to give them too.
You see, when you comment somewhere, your commentee starts wondering if you’re an axe murderer or a serial killer or something and so they go to your site to find out more about you. (Hint: it’s better if you don’t have a list of your convictions or something kinky in the About page. Well, if you do, you’ll get a different class of reader. Remember, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a poodle.
Once they figure out you’re not really a spammer, they tend to return the comment favor, so to speak. However, if you’re boring as hell (or, sadly, if you post something really long (* stops to count words and cries) you will have other problems. Sad but true. People read shorter posts on the Internet.
And speaking of boring as hell, if you’ve been sweating bullets to write about something or other topic and time and time again nobody comments on your posts, they’ve all been visiting, but the no comments thing is a hint. Write about something else. If it ain’t working, fix it.
So the question is, are you commenting? Are you wondering why people don’t comment on your posts?
Blogging is somewhat like starting a relationship. You have to build your online viewers but you also need to be reading what other people are saying.
And if you like it, or want to debate a point, it’s starts with a comment.
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