It's the comments, stupid!
Ok, I admit it. I haven't been walking my own talk. I say how important it is to comment on others' blogs, that a blogger should spend as much time commenting on others' blogs as posting on their own blog. You might have read my (hopefully compelling) case for this here or here. Yet, ashamedly, I have been terribly lax in commenting in the blogosphere. I've been, for the most part, a lurker. My excuse -- "I'm busy enough as it is just trying to keep up with my blog" -- isn't going to wash any more. It's about time I get out more.
As of the past few days, I've made a conscious effort to start chiming in. For example, I commented on the personal blog of a well-respected WordPress code contributor and plugin author. I commented on Google engineer Adam Lasnik's blog to inform him of a typo in one of his links that was sending link juice to a domain squatter. Why bother you ask? Because it helps build relationships! Being successful in the blogosphere is as much about relationships as it is about content. Heck, being successful in LIFE is about relationships. For instance... what SEO in his/her right mind WOULDN'T want to nurture a great relationship with "Mini-Matt"?! (Mini-Matt is the nickname affectionately used by some SEOs to refer to Adam Lasnik. Matt being Matt Cutts.)
Another thing I'm going to do RIGHT NOW (as soon as I hit the "Publish" button on this post), is turn off moderation. Yep, that's right. Call me crazy, but I'm going to risk having some comment spams (those that sneak past the excellent Akismet plugin) showing up temporarily (until I discover 'em and nuke 'em) on my blog. The reason being: I want this blog to give instant gratification to commenters. Having to wait a day for the blog author (me) to approve your comment is a let-down. It's not conducive to an intensively participatory blog. I'm going to remove that barrier.
Care to comment? :-)
20 comments, 2 pingbacks
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Stephan, I'll take you up on the comment, and let you know I'll be curious to see the results of your experiment :)
Comment by Josh Greene [Visitor]
· http://www.joshgreene.com —
11/26/06 @ 08:50
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You are brave, turning off moderation!?
Well, anyway. Nice posting.
I do agree that life is about relationships. All of the social networking "tools" that we have, as well as blogging cannot replace face-to-face talks, especially over a good Milwaukee beer, however, the tools do facilitate new connections, and deeper relationships, especially over long distances.Comment by Gene A. Wright [Visitor]
· http://www.em800.blogspot.com —
11/26/06 @ 09:20
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Well, let me be the first to say.. well done, you're a brave man! I have moderation on my blogs, except my personal one which is still running Movable Type 3 (I know, I know.. it's sooo out of date). I find if you turn off commenting on posts that are more than, say, 30 days old, then you don't run into many problems, even with no Akismet.
Comment by Peter Cooper [Visitor]
· http://www.petercooper.co.uk/ —
11/26/06 @ 10:11
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Uh oh.. it still says "Your comment is awaiting moderation". I loaded up this post with another browser, and it seems moderation is still on :)
Comment by Peter Cooper [Visitor]
· http://www.petercooper.co.uk/ —
11/26/06 @ 10:12
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I use Spam Karma 2 and moderate the first comment from every person, then they're on their own to be good.
It's definitely more advantageous to comment than it is just to write good posts.Comment by Mike [Visitor]
· http://www.simplenomics.com —
11/26/06 @ 16:15
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Hi Peter,
That's very strange. I had unchecked the "Comment author must have a previously approved comment" checkbox, and the "An administrator must approve the comment" checkbox was already unchecked. Perhaps the Akismet plugin is overriding my choice to run around 'unprotected'. I haven't disabled that plugin, and hope I don't have to. Hmm. Thanks for the heads-up.
StephanComment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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11/26/06 @ 19:45
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Nice experiment. I admit, that carrot helped encourage this comment. Is the general premise here that by commenting on other blogs you are building repoire and building a relationship with those bloggers, such that this relationship may be leveraged at some point in the future?
Not to cheapen it, but essentially I believe that is how most people view traditional networking - making contacts and relationships with the idea in the future these can be leveraged.
In that sense, I guess blog comments are the Web 2.0 version of networking, in much the same way that hyperlinks are the Web 1.0 version of endorsements.Comment by Jon Payne [Visitor]
· http://www.ephricon.com/about/jon/ —
11/28/06 @ 06:35
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[...] I’ve read a few of Stephen Spencer’s posts lately about the importance of commenting on blogs for bloggers and other online marketers. In a nutshell, he argues that (legitimate, thoughtful) comments are as important as posting one’s own blog posts, in that they help build relationships. I wanted to share my comment on his post: [...]
Pingback by » Blog Comments = Networking in Web 2.0 - Jon Payne (.net) Web Marketing Blog [Visitor] — 11/28/06 @ 06:42
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absolutely agree, commeting to others website to contribute building the relationship.
Comment by Techboo [Visitor]
· http://seo.techboo.com/ —
12/04/06 @ 02:34
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And I've been sitting in the dark naked and alone waiting all thia time for you to comment on my site, Stephen.
Comment by shel israel [Visitor]
· http://nakedconversations.com —
12/09/06 @ 18:44
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You shouldn't scare Stephan like that Shel!!!
Comment by David Dalka [Visitor]
· http://www.daviddalka.com/createvalue —
12/09/06 @ 20:21
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OK, David. I put my clothes back on.
Comment by shel israel [Visitor]
· http://nakedconversations.com —
12/09/06 @ 21:55
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I totally agree with making commenting as easy as possible and also about the importance of comments to a blog's success. I have my blog set to moderate only the first comment from a person, too. This seems to work out pretty well as long as I stay on top of it. Thank God for Akismet! Without it, I would be deleting about a hundred spam comments a day.
Comment by Ray Dotson [Visitor]
· http://freshblogger.com —
12/13/06 @ 05:41
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[...] Stephan Spencer has a great reminder about the importance of commenting: It’s the comments, stupid! I couldn’t agree more with what he’s saying. If you want to have an open discussion with your readers, obviously, you have to make commenting as easy as possible. [...]
Pingback by Another Post on the Importance of Commenting at FreshBlogger [Visitor] — 12/13/06 @ 05:52
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I too have been failing to comment on other blogs - and in return I'm getting bad comment karma on my blog. (Meaning I get no comments!)
Most of the time I just feel like I have nothing to add to the conversation.. Thanks for the commenting opportunity!Comment by Kelly [Visitor]
· http://www.cardcommunications.com/blog —
12/13/06 @ 10:31
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Shel, ha ha! Are you using reverse psychology to mess with my head?
Comment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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12/14/06 @ 04:42
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Heh. I guess I've been foiled again.
Comment by shel israel [Visitor]
· http://nakedconversations.com —
12/14/06 @ 09:30
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What about commenting on posts that are 6 months old ? Any good ?
Comment by The Old Vic [Visitor]
· http://www.sharescity.com —
07/31/07 @ 08:01
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Hey Old Vic, you got my attention. You must have a really ugly back up in your feed reader.
Comment by shel israel [Visitor]
· http://globalneighbourhoods.net —
07/31/07 @ 17:54
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Hi Shel,
Yup I really should do one of those speed reading courses - these blog posts are appearing faster than I can read 'em !Comment by The Old Vic [Visitor]
· http://www.sharescity.com —
07/31/07 @ 20:19
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CEO, not SEO, Stephan
Comment by Some Name [Visitor]
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08/24/07 @ 14:26
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No, I meant SEO. As in search engine optimizer.
Comment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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09/25/07 @ 14:55
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