Book Blogger Confessions: Comments
May 6th, 2012 | 
Author:
Question: Comments. The holy grail of blogging success! What type of posts do you leave comments on? How do you try to encourage more comments on your own blog? Do you respond to people who leave comments on your posts? How do you handle negative/spam comments? Do you use captcha?
I don’t always have the time to visit as many blogs as I would like to in a week (these last few weeks have been hopeless for me!), but I try to comment every time that I do visit a blog. I know how long it takes to write a review, or put down your thoughts and I try to take the time to leave that small comment as a way of saying I appreciate what you do! What kind of posts do I leave comments on? Um… everything. J A review that I loved or a review of a book that I really enjoyed. I absolutely love discussion posts (even though I don’t always write as many as I would like) and always try to comment on the ones that I read.
I, like just about every blogger out there, of course love getting comments. I don’t know if I do anything special to encourage comments except for making it easy to leave a comment on my blog. That means no hiding the comment widget, no captcha and no jumping through hoops or having to log in to do so. There is nothing more irritating that wanting to leave a comment but not actually being able to! I also reply to every comment in the comments section and try to visit back each blogger that takes the time out of their busy schedule to read my thoughts. Sometimes it takes me a few days (Blogging is hobby, in my real life I have a job, husband, two kids and all that comes along with it), but I always do reply.
As far as spam goes, I use the Akismet plug in for WordPress and as for negative comments, I don’t really get any. I love when people take the time to express a different opinion than mine and further the discussion and don’t consider those to be negative comments, but if I had to deal with downright hateful or trolling comments I think I would just delete them.
What about you? What are you thoughts on comments in the book blogging world?
Posted in Memes
I seriously do not leave enough comments! Before it was because our internet was too slow, so I'd just read everything in Google Reader and not even bother to load the actual blog post. Now I'm trying hard to comment on at least a few posts per day. I do mostly comment on discussion posts like this, and any time a new book is brought to my attention that I've added to my to-read.
I don't do anything to encourage comments. I am happy when I get some, but I'm perfectly fine when I don't, too. It'd be a bit hypocritical of me to expect comments on all of the posts that I get views on when I don't even comment on every post I read.
I know what you mean, some days it takes me so long to load each blog just to be able to leave a comment that I don’t. And other times (like this week *ahem*) life just gets in the way too much and I’m replying to comments days after they were left! – Sorry!
Like you I try to comment on as many blogs as possible but usually don't get to read as many blogs as I'd like. My one thing I really want to vent about is how you now have to log in to comment on WordPress blogs (totally not the fault of the bloggers). I don't have a WordPress account and don't see why I should have to set one up just to comment so I usually log in via Teitter. But sometimes while trying to log on the comment disappears. So frustrating. I feel some Worspress blogs must be losing comments due to this.
I’ve noticed that sometimes too – does it happen on Words at Home? Gosh I hope not, that would be a complete pain! Is is just wordpress.com blogs or also self-hosted wordpress.org blogs? I’ll have to look into that!
I like you do the same thing…busy but love comments and try to them on blogs. I hate jumping through hoops to leave a comment.
I agree if I have to work too hard to leave a comment I will usually give up.
I don't use captcha either but I also don't have the huge loathing for it most people do. Since I know I'm not a good commenter if I want to comment on a post it means I really want to comment so captcha won't hinder me. I'm in th minority though. I don't use it on my blog and don't have a problem with spam not being caught.
There does seem to be two very different camps when it comes to captcha!
I try and visit and comment on as many blogs as I can, but I sometimes get very behind and then it's reaaaaally tempted to just 'mark all as read' on my Google reader….
But comments are part of what makes blogging fun, and I've met some awesome bloggers and readers through comments!
Captcha doesn't actually bother me personally, but I can see how it can annoy other people!
Absolutely! I have met some great friends simply through commenting on each other’s blogs. It is, in my opinion, the easiest way to get involved in the community!
I try to have some discussions and I try to comment on other ones that catch my attention – especially if it's a review on a book I've been wanting to read.
I hate Captcha. I find it really annoying. So I don't have it on mine. I might have to fix the 'hide comments thing' I'm not sure I have that turned off or on.
Jumping through hoops to leave comments just takes more time that I have! Thanks for stopping by!
Now that blogger has threaded comments, it is so much easier to reply to all the comments left on my blog and I generally do reply to them all. One of the things I started doing with my reviews is to end them with a question – I find that this is leading to more comments being left.
One of the goals I made for myself this year is to comment more often on other blogs. I try to leave a meaningful comment on at least 5 blogs a day. Some days that is easier than others – especially when participating in the different memes.