Commenting is such an important part of blogging. It’s what often separates the blogosphere and other more traditional forms of media. And while we all set out in the blogosphere to receive visitors to our blogs, it’s comments, or the lack of them, that really worries us in those early months. “Why is nobody commenting on my blog?” is a frequently asked question in any blogosphere circle. Far more frequent than “How do I get more visitors?” and other such questions. Blogging is, after all, community based and connecting with other people and seeing them connect with us is what often drives blog authors.

I’ve always prided myself on the amount of interaction I’ve been able to attract from you, my readers. Each morning your comments are a fantastic source of new information and motivation. That’s why I’ve often spoke about what it takes to help us comment. But today I want to do something different. I want to share my reasons for why I won’t comment on your blog.

Why I Won’t Comment On Your Blog

1. I Reach the Conversation Too Late

Have you ever seen a post hit your feed reader only for it to already be five hours old? You read the post and really enjoy it. You want to comment, if only to pay back the author for the fantastic content they wrote. But as you click through to the post from your feed reader, you find there are already 15 or 20 comments on the post. Suddenly, your motivation to comment is lost. Suddenly, you feel everything you want to say has already been said and if you comment now, you’ll be lost in a sea of other words. There are other reasons this may be a problem. As much as I hate to admit it, many people comment on blogs just for the sake of getting traffic. These people like to be at the top of the comments list to maximise their click-through rate. If they get to a post and see 20 comments already in place, they’re far less motivated to write.

So How Do You Ensure People Arrive at the Right Time?

It’s impossible to ensure all your readers arrive at your post in a timely fashion. But you can maximise the amount of people who see your post straight away.

Write Your Posts at a Good Hour

Test and measure to see when the best time of day is to publish your posts. Check your stats to find out what time zones your visitors are in and what hours of the day your blog gets the most visitors. Publish your posts during this time.

Send Out RSS Emails Straight Away

I recently made a change to the publish time of posts on all my blogs, and with that I also made a change in time that the RSS email is sent. I made this change after testing the waters for six months, publishing posts at different times of the day. 7pm GMT eventually proved to be the optimum time for me to publish, and now my RSS emails go out between 7pm-9pm.

Once you have decided what hour of the day you’ll be publishing your posts, you can alter your RSS settings so those subscribed via email receive the email within an hour or two of the post been published. If you’re using Feedburner, here is how to change the time your RSS emails are sent.

Change Your RSS Email Send Time in Feedburner

1. Login to your Feedburner account

2. Click the name of your feed

3. Click the ‘Publicize’ tab

4. Click the ‘Email Subscriptions’ tab

5. Click ‘Delivery Options’

Then simply choose your time zone and time and click ‘Save’.

2. You Possess All The Knowledge In the World

Or so you like to think.

As much as blogging is about sharing your opinion and teaching others, a large part is about being open minded and learning new things. If you approach your post with your big ego and “I know everything” attitude, I’m going to leave your blog in an instant (but not before vomiting outside your virtual doorway. Hey, you asked for it!).

Don’t lecture me. Express your opinion. Share your experiences. And accept your opinion can be challenged.

3. You Don’t Give Me Direction

It’s often hard to know what to comment about. You may have answered so many of the questions I had that I don’t know what to write. Or you may have taken so many directions in your writing, I’m not sure which area I should focus on with my comment.

The solution to this is to always ask two or three questions at the end of your blog post. Simple questions that can be answered with a paragraph, yet complex enough to spark thought and discussion.

In the past, when I’ve asked my subscribers what helps them write a comment on my blogs, 90% always say it’s the questions at the end of my posts that spark their typing fingers.

4. You Make Me Register

Over the years, I’ve seen countless studies that show the percentage of customers lost when an online store requires a user to register in order to buy a product. The numbers are staggering, and they’re no different with blog comments.

If you make me register either via a 3rd party commenting system or through your own system, I won’t comment. Simple.

Don’t make me register. There’s no need.

5. You Fill Your Comment Area With Trackbacks

I hold my hands up and say “I’m Guilty!”. I’m guilty of not separating my trackbacks from my comments. There’s nothing worse than reading a blog post and then seeing a comment area filled with trackbacks from other blogs. Sure, it’s nice to see the post is popular, but it breaks the comment conversation and detracts from the community.

If you’re using WordPress, you can use the Separate Comments & Pings Plugin to enhance the flow of conversation in your comment area.

6. Your Comments Are Full of Spam

There’s not much to say on this one other than ensure you keep on top of your comment spam.

In my early days as a blogger, I suffered from a lot of comment spam that got through the cracks of my spam detection software.

Today, some still get through the cracks that I swiftly delete, but by using a combination of the Akismet and Bad Behaviour WordPress plugins, I’m able to automatically catch most of it.

7. The Atmosphere Is One Sided

It’s rare I’ll comment on a small to medium sized blog whose author doesn’t reply to comments. Over the years, many of my subscribers have said the one thing that made them subscribe and kept them writing comments was my replies.

Reply to all your comments with something meaningful. Even if you’re just agreeing with what the reader had to say, it’s better than “Thanks for the comment”. If responding to all comments is too much work, respond to all comments that come in within the first 12 hours of the post. By doing this, you’re likely to respond to most of your regular readers without straining under the pressure.

Those are my seven reasons that stop me writing comments on your blog. Now it’s your turn. What turns you off? What stops you writing comments and connecting with the author? Maybe it’s the ‘Mr Know-It-All’, or something I haven’t mentioned here. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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Looking down my list of feeds, I seem to have some sort of connection with each and every blogger. For some of the blogs, I speak with the blogger on a more personal connection during blogger meetups, conferences and email/instant message.

For others, I can simply relate to their story. The story they so eloquently write on their about page.

For some, they just stood out which forced the connection with me. Maybe they welcomed me with a video or audio on their Web site, or maybe they handed me a quirky business card. Either way, they stood out and forced the connection.

But the one thing it all boils down to is connections. I’m connected in some way to each and every blogger.

If I write a comment on a blog for the first time and 12 hours later the blogger writes a comment on my blog, then emails me to tell me about a broken link or image on my blog, I’m connected. And away I go back to their blog to subscribe.

First impressions count too. Make a good first impression via communication, relationship building and connections, and I’ll subscribe. Give me excellent writing with no face (metaphorically. Doesn’t have to actually be a photo) and I won’t subscribe. Give me a hard working, passionate person who is going to build a good relationship with me, but only has half-decent writing, and I’ll subscribe.

Relationships. Connections. It’s what makes the world tick, and makes a far bigger impact than any piece of unique content.

So why do you subscribe to a blog? Why did you subscribe to my blog? Please let us know in the comments.

Thanks to Carl Ocab guest blogging at John Chow Dot Com for inspiring this post.

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How often do you say or think, “I hope this new blog post brings in some new readers”?

Now, how often do you say or think, “I hope this new blog post helps and inspires my current readers”?

It was Sid Savara who first got me thinking about this. He wrote an excellent guest post on Michael Martine’s Remarkablogger, titled, What’s Your Blogging Creed?. In the post, as a part of his blogging creed, Sid says:

“I will write for those few people who come across my site, are truly moved by something I wrote and improve their lives.”

When We Have Something, We Want More

On day one of this blog, I would have loved 160 subscribers. In fact, I would have loved 10 subscribers. But then I got 10. So I wanted 20. And I got 20, and I wanted 40. Then 50. Then 100. And now I have 160 subscribers, I want 200. Suddenly 160 seems low. Yet when I started blogging, I looked up to and was inspired by bloggers who had 160 fresh faced, motivated, active readers. 160 real humans in their homes wanting to read what the blogger writes. Wow. If I had 160 people sat in a room in front of me while I stand at the front with a microphone, would I be too far from what my current position is with this blog? I don’t think so. 160 people in a room, listening to what I have to say. Suddenly that seems like a big number.

Imagine that. All your readers sat in one room while you stand at the front and talk. Some male. Some female. Some young. Some old. Some American. Some British. Some Australian. Some Indian. Do you think you could stand there and talk and spark discussion within your niche?

Valuing Today’s Readers, for Tomorrow

As bloggers, we seem to put so much focus on new readers. Then those new readers arrive, and just as fast as they came, we say “Bye” and move on to finding the next readers. Of course, those first readers don’t leave. They’re still stood there behind our turned backs, patiently waiting for our attention while we seek out new people. We say Hi. We say Bye. And then we find somebody else to meet. Before pushing them behind us and seeking out others.

Sometimes, it’s like we have this big room that follows us around. We tempt people with our knowledge, give them five minutes of our time, then throw them in the room. We do this until the room becomes full and suddenly, at that point, the people realise they’re being forgotten. That’s when they leave. It’s too uncomfortable inside the room for them to stay.

Taking Them to the Party

So what would happen if the room that followed us contained a party, and grew in size as we put more people in? What would happen if, by some miracle, 200 clones of you were formed and you were able to give each party attendee equal attention? What would happen if we stopped standing out on the street looking for new people for our party, and instead focused on the people inside in the hope they would spread the word and get more people?

I’ll tell you what will happen. Rather than lonely you standing on the street attracting one or two people an hour, 200 people will phone, email and text their friends and attract 400 people an hour.

Let’s write a great post to impress our current readers, rather than writing a great post to gain new readers. Let’s publish our posting schedules for the convenience of our current readers, and not to attract new readers. Let’s provide more blog interactivity to better the experience of our current readers, and not to entice new readers. Because it’s our current readers that will ultimately make us attractive to new readers.

Focus on the readers you have today, and tomorrows readers will soon be on the horizon.

Are you guilty of writing too much for tomorrow, and not enough for today? Are you guilty of letting your current readers see nothing but your back? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments.

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