Blog authors love comments so much that they may lose focus of other important measures of the value of their work. If you are a blogger stuck in the destructive thought pattern that your blog is less important or less heard without comments, read on my friend. I have some good news for you.
I want to address the concern that a lot of bloggers have and carry with them like a big monkey on their back. The monkey I refer to is blog comments or a lack thereof, and it is time to look at some additional metrics. Of course, blog comments can have huge benefits such as bringing together other points of view and growing a sense of community, so don’t get me wrong. What I have to tell you, though, may ease some of that pressure and give you some encouragement.
I kind of like the way Seth Godin stated it in his massively read, respected, and circulated blog. In a blog post titled “Why I Don’t Have Comments“, Seth Godin said “… it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.”
Blogging is Concentrated Social Media
Blogging is social media at perhaps the most focused and personal level. A blog post provides the opportunity for discussion of a narrowly focused topic, and it is personalized by the originating author who often wants to hear from readers. The great news is that sometimes fewer but more meaningful comments can be a really good thing. This blog is focused on social media and SEO, so I do not expect a lot of input from bean farmers and rock and roll bands. They may come here to read and gather new ideas, but they are far less likely to add commentary than a know it all SEO or social media practitioner. This can be a good thing, because I have a lot of readers who do not know it all, but want to.
In any case, many blog owners are frantic about the curse of non-commenting readers. It gets them all stirred up and concerned that nobody is paying attention, that they have lost their readers’ interest, or that their blog has a lower perceived value. Buck up my friends, and consider another point of view.
Is There Something Wrong With My Blog?
One of the first things you may imagine when comments are sparse is that something is wrong with your comment system. So you check it by responding to a post. No, that is not it … commenting is working fine. So it must be that the quality is suffering, right? No, that is not it … you have written some of your best work. Has something else changed? Here are a couple questions I asked myself recently when considering the topic. I have included my conclusions as well. Perhaps these are also useful considerations for your blogging efforts.
Is it your reader-base? No. I still have thousands of the same regular readers as before. The server logs and statistics reporting from FeedBurner, Google Analytics, and Clicky do not lie. These are the same people who left hundreds of comments on previous posts.
Are your articles actually being read? Yes. The average time on page is way up, and the bounce rate is way down, meaning that readers spend more time on each article and also visit more pages of my blog.
Is your writing quality or public interest of chosen topics suffering? No. My statistics logs show that they receive more attention than ever. Although some recent posts are longer than usual, readers’ time on page is up … way up.
Have you asked for readers to add their opinions, and are you really asking questions in your material? Yes. I always ask a question for readers to address with their opinion and to start a dialogue. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know this to be true. I practically reach out and smack you silly to hear your comments.
Are your readers disengaged? No, but this was actually my biggest concern. I receive many comments on my work at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, and by telephone … actually more than ever. So people are engaged and reading, but just not commenting where everybody else can benefit. This brings up an important consideration of how people are using the Internet.
Have people changed and their usage patterns changed? Yes! Ding ding ding … we have a winner! This is true here at aWebGuy.com and I have found it to be true in many other blogs as well.
Blog Comments Are Down While Readership is Up
It can seem strange that although blog readership is up that commenting could be down. How could it be that more people are spending more time on a blog, yet fewer of them are taking the interest or care to add their comments? It is a sign of the times? Yes, Internet users are behaving differently, and that is fine. The results are different for everybody, and it requires a closer look at some other important measurements.
Important Measurements of Blog Quality
Instead of beating yourself up (the way I sometimes do), consider these other metrics of the success in your blog’s reach and impact.
1.) Are people still linking to your blog in social bookmarking sites, from other blogs, and other social media venues? For this, you may want to see my recent article titled “SEO Backlinks: Why Most SEO Fail at Link Building” to clarify the matter of linking. I pretty well kick some butt in link-building, so you may want to settle in and read this one.
2.) Are your readers still spending the same or more time on each article? A look at your statistics will tell you the answer to this question.
3.) Are people still responding in other social media or other desired calls to action including offline methods of response?
4.) Are you still producing content that has a clear and obvious public appeal by meeting a need of your readers?
If you answered yes to these questions, the answer is likely that you are simply so damn correct in your materials that others feel no means to criticize your work, no perceived means to accentuate your work, and the conclusion may just be that no comment sometimes means you’re right!
I am sure you are just dying to comment on this, but if you got this far and have nothing whatsoever to say, it just means I am right and I have given you something of value. You’re welcome to it, and I thank you for reading!
You have given me the means to accumulate a whole lot of nice little badges like the one below showing what is what on this Internet. I thank each of my bean farmer, rock and roll band, and SEO/social media know-it-all friends for being a part of this blog. Even if you are a bit coy from time to time.
