{"id":8767,"date":"2020-01-09T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8767"},"modified":"2020-01-06T17:39:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T00:39:08","slug":"commenting-on-blogs-good-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/commenting-on-blogs-good-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Commenting on Blogs. Good idea?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anne R. Allen\u2019<\/a>s post about commenting on blogs elicited 100 comments! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne writes about commenting on blogs to build your author\u2019s platform:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen a steep decline in the number of people commenting\non blogs over the past few years. I\u2019m not sure why that is. But commenting on\nblogs is still an easy, painless way to get your name into search engines and\nbuild an \u201cauthor platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realize I\u2019m partly preaching to the choir here<\/a>. We have wonderful commenters on this blog. But I see a lot of great blogs devoid of comments these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are lots of people who seem to prefer to respond\nto the link to a blogpost on Facebook or Twitter rather than on the actual\npost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, sometimes they haven\u2019t read the post, but are\nresponding to the header, which isn\u2019t a good idea. That\u2019s a good way to look\nlike a doofus, especially if the blogger\u2019s title is ironic or it\u2019s a question\nthat\u2019s answered in the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a thoughtful comment on a high-traffic blog is a smart\nway to get your name in the public eye. And it\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on Blogs is a Powerful Tool.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

First of all, commenting on blogs that are already on\nGoogle\u2019s radar will help get your name onto that valuable Google SERP (Search\nEngine Results Page.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comment on our blog can put your name in front of 20,000+\npeople in a week. It could take a long time to reach that many people with a\nbrand new blog or a social media account. Most of my early mentions on Google\ncame from commenting on other writers\u2019 blogs. It\u2019s also how I started\nnetworking in the writing community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, discussions on high-profile blogs can lead to\ndiscussions on your own blog or social media. If you find yourself making a\nlong comment\u2014that\u2019s your next post on your own blog or Facebook author page.\nInvite people over to discuss it further.  Or support somebody\u2019s argument\non a blog and you\u2019ve made a blog friend. That\u2019s how I got my first followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m not just talking about writing blogs like ours. A\ncomment on any blog that interests you\u2014and your potential readership\u2014will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus interacting on blogs is a great way to make friends. In\nthe end, that\u2019s what a platform really is: how many people feel they \u201cknow\u201d you\nwell enough to want to buy one of your books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, my blog first took off because I commented a lot on Nathan Bransford\u2019<\/a>s blog, and that won me a guest blogging spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I know writers new to the world of social media and\nblogging have lots of reasons for not commenting. I hear them a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even find the comments!\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A lot of older writers find the whole concept of blogging\nweird and unfathomable. I remember being frustrated when I first started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I\u2019d find comments, and sometimes I wouldn\u2019t.\nSometimes I\u2019d land on one post with a thread of comments after it, but\nsometimes I\u2019d get a whole string of posts with nothing but a thingy at the end\nsaying \u201c37 comments\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the little trick \u201ceverybody knows\u201d so they don\u2019t\nbother to tell you\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click on the \u201c37 comments\u201d (or whatever number) and that\nwill open the post in a new page where all the comments appear at the end of\nthe post. Some blog formats make you hunt around in the sidebar for the\n\u201ccomments\u201d link, but it\u2019s there. Keep looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some blogs, like ours, will allow you to reply to a\nparticular comment if you hit the \u201creply\u201d button under that comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or you can leave a general comment if you hit \u201cLeave a\nComment\u201d at the bottom of the whole thread. (On some WordPress and Weebly blogs\nthe comment button is at the top of the thread.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI prefer to send the blogger a DM or email.\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sure. That\u2019s fine. Email marketing is the big thing these\ndays. Sometimes a blogger or well-known author will have time to give you a\npersonal answer. I try to answer all our readers\u2019 emails, even though I\nsometimes confront so many emails in the morning that I want to go back to bed\nand cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my e-mailed answer is no more personal than my answer in\na comment thread, and nobody will see it but you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every week, people send me personal emails saying they liked\na post from me or Ruth or one of our guests, and of course we appreciate it. We\nalways like to hear that people are benefiting from our posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many writers mention their own books and pitch them to\nme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s stop a minute and think about this: what\u2019s better\nfor you, the author?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Getting your book title in front of me, the world\u2019s\nslowest reader, who has over 500 unread books in my TBR list, and probably\ndoesn\u2019t read your genre?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Getting your book title in front of the thousands of\npeople who read our blog?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you seeing why it\u2019s better to put your feedback (and\nname) into a comment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, if you have a question, you can be pretty sure other\nreaders have it too. If I answer in the comments, rather than in a personal\nemail, that\u2019s helping all our readers, not just you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t figure out how to post a comment.\u201d <\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Okay: this is a biggie. Tech can be daunting. Nobody likes\nto be rejected, especially by some stupid machine. If you don\u2019t have a blog or\nwebsite of your own, sometimes a blog won\u2019t accept your comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or if you have a blog on the Blogger platform, you may not be allowed to comment on other Blogger blogs. Blogger has been developing lots of glitches lately that they have no desire to fix. That has happened to Ruth. She has a Blogger book blog and that means she can\u2019t comment on my Blogger book blog. (Go figure.) Blogger may also not let you respond to comments on your own blog. That happened to audiobook narrator C.S. Perryess, who had to move his Wordmonger blog <\/a>to Weebly, since Blogger has no tech support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A solution to all this is sign up for Gravatar.<\/a> That\u2019s a \u201cGlobally Recognized Avatar\u201d and ID. It\u2019s owned by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, but you don\u2019t need a WordPress blog to sign up. In fact, signing up will automatically give you a WordPress ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have no idea what to say.\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I understand. Writers are shy persons. I lurked for about a\nyear before I started commenting on blogs. Do lurk for a while if you\u2019re just\nstarting in the blogosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But eventually you\u2019ll feel moved to say something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most bloggers will put some questions at the bottom of\nthe post to invite comments. Good questions will invite you to share your own\nopinions or experiences with the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the comments. You may want to respond to one of them.\nThat\u2019s a good place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t have to heap praise on the blogger. Bloggers\nlike praise as much as anybody, but it\u2019s best to say something that adds to the\ndiscussion and shows something about yourself and your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be confrontational or put the blogger down, either.\n(That\u2019s a good way to get deleted.) But say something like, \u201cLove these 3 tips\nfor getting your cat to eat dry food, and I\u2019d like to add #4\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, \u201cI understand what you\u2019re saying about only\nblogging nonfiction \u2026but I blog daily cat haikus, and I have 400 followers\nwho love them.\u201d  You can even include a link to the blog. One link is\nusually acceptable in a blog comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can even say something like, \u201cI\u2019m glad you say it\u2019s\nokay to be a slow writer. It took me ten years to write Love is a Cat\nfrom Hell, but I finally launched it last week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t put in a link to your retail buy page\u2014you\u2019ll be\nblocked for spam\u2014but a mention of your book and a single link to your website\nis fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blog Comments That Get Results.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The most useful comments add something to your \u201cauthority.\u201d\nSo if you can say stuff like, \u201cI was in law enforcement for twenty years and\nthis is what really happens when somebody reports a missing cat\u2026\u201d  Or \u201cI\u2019m\na health practitioner who also writes cat haiku\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then that little fragment of text will come up in a search\nof your name. It will show your name and \u201cI was in law enforcement for 20\nyears\u2026\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m a health practitioner\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a huge help to agents, reviewers, and other people\nwho are trying to find out if you\u2019re a reliable person they want to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also say something like, \u201cI love what ScribblerSally\nsaid about Maine Coon cats in her comment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then ScribblerSally might click on your name to find out\nabout you and your cat. If you\u2019ve joined Gravatar, that will take her to a\nprofile with an address for your blog and an email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Sally may follow your blog or even buy your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guidelines for Blog Comments<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A good blog comment can be anything from 10 to 300 words. If\nyou feel the need to go longer, you probably have a blogpost of your own there.\n(Write it down and save it!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than that, almost anything goes in a blog comment,\nwith a few caveats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Skip the spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t talk up your book or blog in a comment unless\nit\u2019s relevant to the conversation. That\u2019s considered spamming:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI respect your opinion on prologues, but I\u2019ve got\ntestimonials from readers who love prologues\u2014the longer the better\u2014over at my\nblog today\u201d is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis discussion of Marcel Proust reminds me of my\nbook, Fangs for the Memories, a zombipocolyptic vampire erotic romance,\n$3.99 at Smashwords.\u201d Not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditto links to your website or buy pages if they don\u2019t\nillustrate a relevant point. If you have more than one link in a post, spambots\nwill dump you into spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Don\u2019t drink and post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seriously.  DON\u2019T WRITE ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET WHEN\nYOU\u2019RE DRUNK OR HIGH. Authors should not go online when impaired. Unless your\npersona is \u201crude, moronic lout\u201d don\u2019t drink and post. You could erase years of\nwork building that platform with one idiotic comment. That\u2019s a rule I follow\nmyself. If I have wine with dinner, I don\u2019t go on social media in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be professional and polite. And do make sure your brain is\nin gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Read the whole post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get so many comments from people who have only read the\nheaders, that I wonder if half the people online are reading-impaired. It only\nmakes you look like a moron when you tell the blogger, \u201cyou should have said\nthis, that and the other thing\u201d \u2026when they said exactly those things in the\nsecond paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Read other comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be aware of what other people are saying so you don\u2019t repeat\nwhat somebody else has said. Comments are meant for discussion, so remember\nyou\u2019re talking to everybody who\u2019s reading and commenting, not just the host\nblogger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) No emotional blackmail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t say, \u201cI just followed this blog, so now you have to\nfollow my five blogs, like my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter and get me a\ndouble decaf latte while you pick up my dry cleaning.\u201d  If you demand any\nkind of quid pro quo for a comment you\u2019ll look like a jerk to the\nwhole community. As I\u2019m saying here: the comment benefits YOU more than the\nblogger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6) Don\u2019t whine or throw shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissing Amazon, agents, the publishing business, or\ntrash-talking a bestselling author will not work in your favor. Ditto\ncomplaining about how nobody buys your book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to unload about what a crazy, unfair, insane business this is, get that bottle of wine and invite over a couple of friends. Kvetch all you want. You\u2019re not wrong. T<\/a>his business is a roller coaster<\/a>, as Ruth told us last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here <\/a>to read the comments on Anne R. Allen\u2019s Blog . . . with Ruth Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note from Marlene:<\/strong> You may notice I don’t have a place for comments on my blog. I used to, but sadly received too much spam. It got filtered (comments didn’t get posted, but I had to go through and delete each one = too time consuming).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne\u2019s book: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors: Named one\nof the \u201c99 BEST BLOGGING BOOK OF ALL TIME\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And an Amazon #1 Bestseller<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$9.99 in paperback at Amazon <\/a>and Barnes and Noble<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the ebook is only $2.99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne R. Allen\u2019s post about commenting on blogs elicited 100 comments! Anne writes about commenting on blogs to build your author\u2019s platform: I\u2019ve seen a steep decline in the number of people commenting on blogs over the past few years. I\u2019m not sure why that is. But commenting on blogs is still an easy, painless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1049,1254,1293,1292,1235],"class_list":["post-8767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-anne-r-allen","tag-anne-r-allens-blog-with-ruth-harris","tag-commenting-on-blogs","tag-nathan-bransford","tag-the-author-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2hp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8767"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8832,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767\/revisions\/8832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}