In an effort to be more social, a few months ago, I decided to spend less time futzing in my own virtual back yard and more time commenting on other people’s blogs.
I set as my goal to comment on at least one blog post a day. And, I put no limitations on the kinds of blogs on which I’d comment, save for excluding those authored by A-listers in my industry, (Those folks get hundreds of comments on their posts and don’t need my two cents.)
Here’s what I learned from my little experiment…
1. Technical issues are a problem for many blogs.
I work primarily using a tablet, so that’s what I used to comment on blogs. 
This proved to be a larger barrier to access than I would have thought possible.
Many blogs were not only difficult to read on a mobile device, the act of logging in to their commenting system and actually leaving a comment was often a logistical nightmare.
Those issues, combined with wonky commenting systems in general (Overly complicated login/approval procedures, approval queues which no one seemed to ever approve, or blogs with simply no comment option available, etc.) meant that a large portion of my comments never saw the light of day.
2. Engagement is not a priority for everyone.
While I felt like each comment I left was a little gift out of the blue to a random stranger, they certainly weren’t always perceived that way. Many just sat there for days, with no response.
I’ve run into technical problems with responding to comments on my posts on both of the multi-author blogs to which I contribute, so I recognize that this might not always be intentional. For the smaller blogs though, the lack of any acknowledgement (much less actual engagement) did seem odd.
3. When it comes to comments, bland is best.
A great blog comment is something like, “I thought this post was interesting,” because it is boring as hell and hard for anyone to disagree with.
For many blogs I encountered, (Especially ones where I wasn’t part of the usual audience), I found that showing any sort of opinion in my blog comment just opened me up to a lot of drama.
For example, a comment like, “I thought this post was amazing and spot on!” would get a response from some troll in the thread like, “You’re stupid! This post sucks, and so do you!” And, a comment like, “I haven’t always found that to be true,” would get a response like, “Well, who asked you?”
4. There are a lot of interesting blogs (and people) out there.
I read a lot of content each day — both what makes sense for me personally and professionally, and also whatever looks just plain interesting. So, this meant that I left comments on blogs about all sorts of topics: science, politics, religion, health and wellness, parenting…you name it.
While some of my encounters on those blogs weren’t great (see above), most enabled me to make connections with a whole host of exciting, original and inventive thinkers and writers from around the world. This has been, hands-down, the most rewarding part of my “once a day” commenting experiment.
5. At the end of the day, comments matter.
While I have had my share of bad experiences commenting on other people’s blogs, the experiment did reaffirm something that I’ve always felt to be true: for most of us, getting a comment on your blog is a BIG DEAL and highly appreciated (Especially when it’s from someone you don’t already know.)
So, while it’s easier for all of us to discover and explore posts, and then go about our business; I’d encourage you to take the extra step to give feedback to the author.
Trust me, that little comment can make a big impact.
Fun idea. I especially like that you weren’t just commenting on industry stuff. I get so tired of the advice to go talk it up in your industry. It comes across like forced, awkward networking.
I will say your comment on bland comments is a little surprising. Bland, generic comments usually look like spam in my book. If you like the post, that’s what the like button is for. Commenting is when you have something to contribute to the conversation. (Though I’d expect a good blogger to clear out the loser trolls responding like jerks.)
Finally, it’s always entertaining (and scary) to visit and use your own site like a newbie. Try leaving a comment and see how wonky the experience is. It’s always more eye opening than it should be.
I get so tired of READING industry stuff, too. It was fun to just hang out in different places.
So the bland thing was really kind of a cop out on my part. I got kind of burned out on wondering if my feedback was going to be well-received, that I just started to shoot for the neutral, “I am saying something that’s not quite anything,” route. I think what is interesting is that I really started out approaching it like I was contributing to the conversation, and, like I said, was often surprised that a conversation was not really what the author was looking for. So I’m not sure if this is the case for most bloggers or that it’s because I was hanging out in places where I didn’t know the law of the land, or what.
Also, great advice on visiting your own site. I think this is very true with commenting systems. We tend to maaaaaaybe check how our site looks on a mobile device, but don’t really have a sense of what it’s like to log into it to engage. That process can be an eye opener.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your feedback. Hope all is well with you!
“I thought this post was interesting!”
Oh, sorry. That was my bland self talking . . . What I really meant to say was ‘Thank you!’ for this comprehensive slant on the underappreciated subject of comments.
One thing I learned recently from a comment left on my blog was that my choice of font colour (used only for quotes) was difficult to read on mobile devices. Bingo! Corrected! Never would have guessed that, since I work on a laptop – on which the font looks perfectly fine. Who knew?
cheers,
C.
You’re right. Half the stuff people point out to me about my blog, is stuff that never occurred to me to think about. Kind of nice to have an audience of eyes and ears who can give you constructive advice (especially when you’re a small shop.)
Thanks for reading the post and sharing your feedback. I appreciate it. 🙂
Exactly. Got this error trying to authenticate via Twitter: “The server at sopresto.mailchimp.com can’t be found, because the DNS lookup failed.”
Funny how you point out that many comments go without response or recognition. So, bloggers know being open for comments is a good thing, but they don’t follow up on engagement? Hmm…
What I typically look for is getting an email alert on comment updates, once I’ve signed up with my email address making a comment, but that followup rarely happens. Seems like I need to Google myself to dig for where I’ve been commenting.
I usually look for an email too. And sometimes I get subscribed to the thread (or have the option to subscribe), but mostly not. I usually just bookmark the post and come back and visit it later in the day, but that means that I miss a lot of the conversations while they’re in process. It seems like a terribly old school way of staying in the loop, but I’ve yet to figure something better out.
Sorry if you got a goofy message logging in. No clue why that’s happening, but I’ll put it on my list of things to do some homework on. Thanks for leaving a comment in spite of it being kind of a pain to do so.