Posts Tagged ‘getting blog comments’

Many of my blog management posts are written around the struggles that I have had and have overcome in the blogging world – but this post isn’t about me.

It is all about you…and your blog struggles you shared with me today on twitter!

Earlier today, I asked my followers what their biggest blogging struggles were. Many shared the same frustrations, and these were the 4 most common that I found (credit given to the first who tweeted it):

jeffespo: @kirstenwright Sticking to the content schedule
DesireeW: @kirstenwright My blog challenge is “creating the content ideas”. I feel like I’m repeating my topics a lot.
TellingKids: @kirstenwright biggest struggle for me is getting other people excited about what I’m blogging. Looking for growth.
studionashvegas: @kirstenwright time to write in it.

Now, onto the solutions!

@jeffespo: The easiest  way to stick to a content schedule is to create it in a place that it is always looking at you, but that you can also move things around easily. I use an outlook calendar to manage this blog (and my clients blogs) so that when I come up with ideas I simply add it as an appointment. If I want to make changes, add notes, or even work on the post, I can do so in there. Also, if I decide to move things around, it is as simple as dragging and dropping. This allows me to know what is coming and still feel comfortable with changing the future.

@desureew: Repeating topics can be frustrating – the good news is that even the best bloggers do it! We repeat topics because we understand them well, and we have a lot to say about them, which is perfectly fine. The way to keep it from being redundant is to share the message in a different way, using different ideas or different lines of thought. We all learn differently which means that having more than one way to say the same thing can actually make it easier to understand for a wider audience. If you still feel like you are struggling with new topics, try taking a week (or two) where you write nothing about your usual topics – go in a completely different direction or area of focus.

@tellingkids: This is one that we all face, and can be very disheartening. We all want readers, comments and participation. The big questions is how do you get it? Unfortunately, I am no problogger or Chris Brogan, so I don’t quite have the secret to thousands of readers. What I do know is that delivering good content, sharing it with your followers and providing consistency will work. It takes time to build an audience, but even the top bloggers had zero comments once! Remember why you started your blog, why you enjoy doing it and write with heart. The audience will come. One other trick I have? Call out your readers! Ask them good questions and give them a reason to want to start commenting. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

@studionashvegas: Time, the one thing we all wish we had more of (well, that and money). Time is always going to be a struggle unless you can start thinking of your blog the way you think of anything you do everyday. You never run out of time to use the restroom, and even if it’s late, you always eat, right? Blogging needs to be in those categories if you want it to work. Just put it into your schedule like you would a workout, a phone call or a party and then do not let yourself skip it. If you schedule it and then force yourself to do it, you will. It is tough at first, but over time it will get easier (just like going to the gym) and then it will become second nature (like eating) and you will want to do it more often!

Do you have other blog struggles that I didn’t cover? Share it in the comments and I will answer!

I follow my stats every day, from both google analytics and stat press (although stat press is becoming less and less trustworthy, so I have been using Google analytics more.) Anyway, while I have still been writing every week day (going on 9 weeks!) I have found that over the last 2, while readership has actually gone up, the comments have gone down. And I am not sure why. I have scratched my head, wondered if it was my writing (nah, readership is up!), wonder if all my commenters have gone into hiding (have you?), maybe I’m not controversial enough (since my OCRegister ‘controversial’ blog got tons of comments) or if all of a sudden, people have stopped caring about responding (say it isn’t so!).

Rather than try and guess what it is – I want to get the straight answers.

Hopefully the comments will bring light to why or why not people comment, and this will help you to keep your comments consistent on your blog as well. After all, without comments, I’m just talking to myself here.

What makes you comment on a post? Or why don’t you comment on certain posts?

** This post was originally posted this morning, and had a bunch of fabulous comments – but then something happened to my blog and I couldn’t figure out what. Thinking this posts may have had issues, I deleted it. That means your comments were deleted as well. I’m sorry. Please re-comment if you would like and hopefully I can figure out what is wrong with my blog!!!**

A twitter friend of mine, Ari Herzog, posted an experiment in January, asking all his readers to de-lurk . I had saved it in my ‘come back to it’ file and was thinking about it again today. I have to admit, I am a bit of a lurker. I read approximately 15 blogs every day, and another 15-20 posts that my twitter followers recommend throughout the day. I comment on 1 or 2. Sorry. I just do. I usually tweet about it if it is good, but no comment. Sometimes, I will even send the writer an email about the post rather than posting a comment – not sure why, but tweeting or emailing has always been less scary than commenting. Maybe because I always think my comment will be silly, or no one will care (worst, I think the writer won’t care!).

When I think about it now, my logic is really silly for two reasons.

One, I know how much I passionately care when my readers post a comment. And two, I have never once thought a comment someone posted on my blog was silly or worthless. So, I am taking the challenge with you – the challenge to de-lurk. I am going to make it my goal (if you’ll make it yours) to post a comment on at least 3 more blog posts daily, and hopefully mine will be one you chose!

To get us started, lets try something easy: Add a comment to this post. Even easier: add a comment to this post that is about you! Introduce yourself, how you found this site, what some of your favorite things are, your twitter url, your blog url, whatever url you love, and let us get to know you.

I’ll start:

I am Kirsten Wright, a 24 yr old conservative from Northern Cali (Los Gatos) now living in Orange County (Mission Viejo) with my husband of almost 2 years. I was a communications major at CSULB, am passionate about writing, speaking and creative anything. I started this blog because I love the feeling of being creative and wanted to share it with anyone who would listen. You can follow me on twitter @kirstenwright. It has taken me 5 years to finally realize that I need to bee 100% freelance to be happy. My favorite blog to read has nothing to do with business, but I think it’s hysterical (FAIL Blog) and you can always learn more about me by finding me on Facebook (if you add me as a friend, send a message with it!).

Now it’s your turn! C’mon…de-lurk!