Happy Saturday, friends! Today I want to talk about a topic that I haven’t discussed here before, but that is near and dear to my heart. (Possibly dramatic, just roll with it.)
One of the best feelings in the world is waking up to an inbox full of blog comments. Literally (and maybe sadly) the first thing I do when I wake up, before I even get out of bed, is check my email and look for “Disqus” in the subject line!
Although I did originally start my blog for my own enjoyment, a big (HUGE) part of it is interacting with the book community! Without the amazing discussions I get to have here each week, I probably wouldn’t have been blogging for two and a half years and I certainly wouldn’t have had this much fun!
I realized very early on in my blogging experience that I couldn’t (and wouldn’t want to) do this without all of you and the unique opinions that everyone brings to each discussion post. I found Bloggers Commenting Back, which is basically a group of bloggers committing to not only comment back to comments on their own blogs, but also to visit those blogs and find something fun to talk about on them! After two years of participating, I honestly can’t imagine doing things any other way! (Seriously, everyone go join!) Sure, sometimes I get busy and have to put it off until tomorrow, but I try!
Because this was something I adopted early on, I’m always surprised when I find that there are bloggers who never comment back and rarely visit other blogs.
- » Discussion – Obviously. Like I said, this is really my number one reason for blogging! If it got to the point where I was literally just talking to myself, I’d probably have to throw in the towel.
- » Traffic – Let’s face it. Part of the reason we do this is to gain readers! We all want people to read our reviews and show interest in what we have to say.
- » Fun – I have such a good time talking with people on my blog and on others! I love it when we agree and I love it when we disagree! FREE HUGS!
- » Consistency – Here’s the thing: If you never, ever comment back, people will stop visiting your blog. I can confirm this based on weeks when I was away and unable to reply and my comments suffered greatly. If you want people to continue engaging with your content, you have to engage with them!
Okay, so something I’ve heard from fellow bloggers is, “No one ever comments so I have nothing to comment back to!” Well friends, sometimes you have to give to receive! There are bloggers who write posts, sit back, and wait for the readers to roll in. Unfortunately, that method is not always successful. If you want to get some good discussion rolling, you have to go out and make friends! Browse Bloglovin’ or Twitter! Click links in comments on other blogs! If you comment, the comments will eventually come back to you.
I speak for myself and probably some others when I say… PLEASE leave a link to your own blog in your comment! There are occasionally comments that are devoid of a link in the comment itself or on the Disqus profile and it makes me so sad! It’s almost impossible to track them down, especially when their profiles are private or they only use their first name. Please give me a way to find your blog!
