In regards to blogging, I'm a little weird.
Ahem.
While other bloggers rate success by page views or followers, I'm the "crazy comment character" who basically does a fist pump at her computer every time someone comments.
I love my words of encouragement, okay?
And I'm here today to say that I don't think that's wrong. Why? Because, to be blunt:
BLOGGING IS FLIP-FLAP-PADDY-WACK FREAKIN HARD WORK!!
It requires + time + guts + lots of late nights + plates of peanut butter sandwiches + some sort of photography skills + a truck-load of patience for glitching computers, and everything in between.
You have to be willing to share yourself with the world, in the hopes that someone out there understands you and can relate to having too-many-gifs syndrome or stiff fingers from typing.
(Like he's one to complain, with a plateful of bacon!!! Gawrsh.)
A year or so ago, I think the highest amount of comments I would get per post was, on average, four. YES FOUR. All four comments from all four of my sweet IRL friends.
Somewhere along the line I finally realized that hey, the more people's blogs I comment on, the more people will be likely to comment on mine! I started slow, but soon my strategy began to work.
While my numbers aren't anywhere close to the pro bloggers (*cough* CAIT *cough*), each comment is valued and special to me.
So my question is this:
And by this I mean is it okay to blog and sure, do it because you love it and because you love writing, but is it okay that 92% of the motivation is because of the comments you know you will get? To that I say YES!!!! It's TOTALLY OKAY! You love your comments, you love your followers, and you love the idea of people reading what you write!
Of course, while you shouldn't go hide in your basement and eat Ben&Jerry's ice cream until midnight because you didn't get as many comments as you hoped, I think that community and conversation plays a really big part in being a blogger.
Aaaah, but here's the kicker- if you want to get comments, the golden rule (OF COURSE) applies here too; you have to be dishing them out yourself! And not those lousy "great post" comments:
You have to do it right! (see here for how to craft the perfect blog comment) Sooo.....
There's a reason this post was a question; I need you all to start dishing out the opinions! What do you think of this topic? Do you blog because you love to get comments?
33 comments
Originally I began to blog because I needed a way to speak out, but once more people started reading my blog and actually did comment back, I'm like, "YAASSS!" But I always blog for the first reason why I started because if I did otherwise, it would make no sense. XDDD
ReplyDeletexoxo Morning
I was the same way! I started because I loved to write, and I still do. I just love to write and read what others are writing now too! Like your awesome latest post, for example :-)
DeleteI TOTALLY AGREE!!! At first, I started blogging just because I thought that it looked like fun and I wanted to be able to share my opinions. But then I started to get comments and IT WAS SO FLIPPING EXCITING!!!! I've been blogging for around ten months now, and I still get SO excited when I get comments XD So while it's not like, the REASON that I blog, it sure makes things a lot more fun!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Grace Anne
http://totallygraced.blogspot.com/
Haha, sounds familiar!! I had the same "beginning" so to speak because I don't think I ever realized that there were other blogs to read besides the ones run by my close friends! Aaaahhh, sweet naive little me. :3
DeleteTen months is AWESOME, and I'm so glad you left a link to your blog because I've been trying to find it for awhile now, since you're so good about commenting regularly :) you rock!
I agree! I think getting comments is the best ever. I love that you talk about stuff like this on your blog! Your posts are so relateable and useful.
ReplyDeleteHehe, you're sweet. I do so love to be relatable 😋
DeleteAnd IKR?! Getting comments is cause for a dance party and Oreos all around. I vividly remember the first time a stranger commented on my blog; I was in stitches. :D blogging is awesomesauce, there's no denying.
I totally agree with you. I think it's perfectly fine to blog for comments. As long as you enjoy what you're doing, it's great. To me, comments matter more than views. I have this really dumb, wide, all-teeth smile on my face every time someone comments.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy sharing my views and listening to the views of other people. Blogging is a two-way process. There should be give and take. And, comments make that possible! :D
Love,
Saee
Wonderland
Nice destinction, Saee! I like how you pointed out that it's good just so long as you still blog for fun and because you love it. Yes YES. What's the fun of getting comments if there's no joy in writing anymore?
DeleteI bet your wide smile is adorable. I have a pretty ridiculous grin sometimes too *fistbump*
I've always been super fond of comments, although not obsessed (I hope!) so this is GREAT. I occasionally feel bad for it but then I remember that I'm still writing things I enjoy and want people to talk about, and there's nothing wrong with that. Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteNo. Obsession is bad. We just call it high priority, right? =D
DeleteExactly!!! Please keep writing what you enjoy cuz the feeling is mutual, for many people.
I totally feel you on miserable comment numbers when starting out. And also, Cait clearly is a sorceress of some sort.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you on the comments serving as motivation thing -- pageviews spike when I post new stuff, so I could just keep posting weird stuff and still get pageviews. And followers are cool, but so abstract. But COMMENTS. People read your stuff. They liked it enough to talk about it. It's a conversation, not a soap box.
I wouldn't say I blog *solely* for comments -- I mean, I still have important things to say -- but I definitely use comments as a benchmark to decide which post type I should do more.
CLEARLY. We should petition for a magic class from Cait!
DeleteHoly cow, Alyssa, why aren't you writing my posts? Motivation was the word I was looking for this ENTIRE POST, sweet gumdrops. You rock. :D
I do so adore my conversations, and comments are the perfect little window of opportunity in this area. I lurv them so.
I don't really blog for comments in particular (I blog because I am opinionated and I NEED to get my thoughts out there), but I still adore getting comments. I like the validation--I like knowing that people acknowledge the time I spent on a blog post and spend a minute or two of their time to leave me some love. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, leaving meaningful comments on other blogs may take a LOT of time, but like I said, I'm opinionated and I LOVE leaving comments, so I guess I'm hitting two birds with one stone: letting people know that I exist AND sharing my thoughts both at once. :)
Awesome discussion topic, Chloe!
Aimee @ Deadly Darlings
*fistbump* for being opinionated. Yah, you truly get the best of both worlds! Not only do you get to share your opinions in your posts & comments, but you get others opinions right back atcha.
DeleteI think sometimes us bloggers get hung up on what actually motivates us and if we're writing for the right reasons. You've definitely got the right idea when you say it's okay to love comments. It's also okay to want followers. Just because you want some reader response, does not make you untruth to your art. Besides, having a community and commenters is kind of the point of blogging:P
ReplyDelete"Great post" haha. For real though, very interesting topic.
*facepalm* Oh Sunny! You couldn't help yourself, could you? ^_^
DeleteSeriously though! I think we miss so much when we just limit ourselves to posting, period. Community is SO IMPORTANT! Almost as important as ice cream!
You gifs caught my eye from the first time I came across your blog, and with them and your sense of humour, I keep coming back. You honestly have such a clever and fun way of writing, that I look up to and inspire to be like. I'm a lot like you, I get so happy when I see comments on my hard worked on post, it's like phew the hard work is paying off, feedback is always nice, you know?
ReplyDeleteIt'sMyLife
Oh. Wow. I wasn't expecting such a sweet comment on this post but MIRIAM! You dear! Thank you so much for saying that! :)) I kinda love my words of affirmation (hence my topic about commenting!) so you're really sweet to say that.
DeleteFeedback is always nice, especially when it's feedback likes yours lol!!
Comments make my day! And I've discovered that same thing in my three months of blogging, that commenting on other blogs = more comments for your blogs. But this isn't the selfish pattern that I first thought it out to be, because in the process of commenting and getting comments, I make so many friends and get to actually help people even as they help me!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I read the perfect comment post you linked to, and I needed the reminders found there, so thank you very much!
Hannah from Grace in Everything
Preach!!!! Commenting for comments doesn't equal selfish, as long as you truly mean what you're saying on their posts, and not just doing it for comments. I've been guilty of that :p
Deletep.s. Mwhahaha that's one of my all-time favorite posts. Glad you liked it!
OKAY. I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS POST. (And I kind of smiled like a deluded Cheshire when you coughed at me. BAHAHAH>) But really! Blogging is hard work. I've been commenting EVERYWHERE like a fiend for over 12 months to get the comments that I get...and I haven't been as on the ball lately and comments have been dropping off. Which does sadden me a little, but gawsh, one can only do what they can do. *nods*
ReplyDeleteI think it's totally okay to blog for comments. It's not the main reason I blog but HECK YEAH I want the comments because I do so much work to get them!! And people say such awesome and interesting things! I adore reading comments and having conversations with so many different perspectives. Comments = the life of blogging.
Well it's true!! You're tremendous in this area- Every comment I've left you not only respond to, but visit my blog and share in return! You are truly the queen of the comment/gif world. I should bring you cake sometime.
DeleteCait's last sentence= truth. I hide my comments away in little brown boxes on my shelves and sometimes take them out to look at them. They are very special around here :D
such a great post! while i love getting and reading comments, as interaction is important to me (more so than gaining followers), i also don't think it's the end of the world if i don't get as many. i think life is too short to worry about trivial things like that in a way! i'll still keep postin' regardless of comment number, as i blog (and have done for three years) for me first and everyone else second :)
ReplyDeletefrom helen at thelovecatsinc.com
ps. there's a USA beauty giveaway inc lorac, tarte etc on my blog! click here.
Interaction over followers any day; I'm with you all the way! But that's such a great point, Helen- at the end of the day, four comments or forty aside, it's just blogging and not the end of the world. That's a reminder that I *cough* need on a regular basis ^_^
DeleteAMEN TO THIS POST.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started blogging, it was mainly because I wanted to just, well, write. And that's what I did. With you know, the occasional 1 commenter in a blue moon. But you're right, I love comments, and I think basically every blogger out there loves their comments to some extent at least. But if the people are still more important, then I'm still in the right track.
Okay now that probably made no sense. Ugh.... I really should go eat some breakfast,
AMEN TO YOUR COMMENT.
DeleteOh honey. My first ten posts had a max of one comment each, and I treasured them each anyway :-) I was such a cute little blogger, now that I think of it. So new and so innocent. I kinda flipped out the day I got a comment from someone I didn't know. I think I went and stalked their blog for an hour, come to think of it... o_0
NO IT DOES MAKE SENSE, although go eat breakfast anyway because breakfast is WONDERFUL. :D
I LOOOVVEEE this post and I'm so glad that I can really relate to it! I'm a newbie blogger of three months-ish and being an introverted person starting out, gosh, was just SO HARD. But then once I got out there and started talking to people, I immediately saw the difference it made. I'm SD I ran across this post because it really helped me so I won't be so down all the time about not receiving as many comments. Because like you said, you kind of have to give more to get more in the end. :)
ReplyDeleteYou rock, Keionda! Already commenting on other people's blogs at three months! You're WAY ahead of me in the game then I was at the beginning :) Keep it up!!!!!
DeleteThe golden rule of blogging, I spose.... It even applies here! Somehow I'm not surprised.
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ReplyDeleteWowza, great post, Chloe! Interesting to think about. Like you, I love getting comments so much. It's so fun to see what people think about the posts we write. Comments are not why I blog, but they are one of my favorite things about blogging.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fascinating? It's almost like the science of blogging, if you think about it... actually don't think about that. :D bad comparison haha!
DeleteI don't think blogging for comments is a bad thing, but blogging because you actually enjoy it is much better. I don't blog for the comments, but when people do comment on my posts, it makes my day.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is very hard work, but totally worth it! :)
Yes, I think it's perfect if you have a good blend; loving and working hard for the comments, but also being equally as hardworking and passionate about your writing! It's a tricksy balance, truly.
DeleteHey! Person commenting! Yes, you. Wanna know something?
You're kinda awesome.