Is There Value in a Blog Without Comments

The V-2 · Aug 20, 2013

I format Books said:
I don't understand why the comments that I get are all from spammers. Is it because I share them to social media?

That's an wonderfully informative blog.

I don't see where you even need to receive comments in a public format. Anyone with questions would probably prefer to contact you privately.

As to the spammers, there's enough software out there that scans for blogs and forums so they can post robo-messages. I'm impressed -- and not in a positive way -- that they even find the Contact Us section of our sports website and drop messages into our inbox.

Fortunately, our back end software takes note and then bans the IP address, but that's still not a total eradicator.

aimeestates · Aug 20, 2013

Not having read the whole thread--blog posts are expression, comments are attention. Know what you're in it for. I don't believe in blogging solely for platform. If you aren't enjoying it at least a little, I think the energy can be spent in better ways. But it sounds like you have a good thing going and know what direction to take your blog. There's always value in creating--whether it's for you or for a collective audience.

ap123 · Aug 21, 2013

I enjoy blogging, and the comments/conversations prompted by posts (mine or others) are probably my favorite part.

I do have many more followers than commenters, but a good number who comment, some more likely to comment on certain subjects than others.

Ros_Jackson · Aug 21, 2013

To an extent, Twitter and Facebook have cannibalised comments, so a lot of blogs are seeing fewer comments for the same traffic. Plus, everyone seems to have a blog. I don't know whether there's been a recent explosion, or if it's always been that way and I've only just noticed, but the barrier to entry is very low so there are thousands of voices on every conceivable subject. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it does mean that the average blog can't have many comments, or even many visitors.

I have one blog with comments enabled, and one without, and I'm a bit ambivalent about it. You need a certain threshold of visitors to make it worth the effort of setting up and moderating comments, because spam will always arrive no matter how popular or obscure your blog. As long as people have some way to communicate with you, whether that's through social networks, email, or comments, then I think the decision to enable comments or not is a matter of personal preference.

laurasbadideas · Sep 3, 2013

Liosse de Velishaf said:
I've noticed a lot of blogs, including mine and even those of published writers, don't get a lot of comments. The really big popular blogs obviously tend to get a lot of comments, and I figure that there's something of a feedback loop there.

Some blogs just seem more conversational than others. If someone posts a personal anecdote about an embarrassing situation, many readers will identify with that, and some percentage of those will write comments that essentially say "hey! me too! here's my story!". Your blog strikes me as being very informative but not very conversational. I've read a couple of your posts, and I'd probably only comment on them a) if I found an error and wanted to point it out or b) if I had a specific question to ask.

You might want to try this experiment: end your next "subgenre of the week" post by asking readers what their favorite books/stories are in that genre.

(BTW, I love your avatar).

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 3, 2013

laurasbadideas said:
Some blogs just seem more conversational than others. If someone posts a personal anecdote about an embarrassing situation, many readers will identify with that, and some percentage of those will write comments that essentially say "hey! me too! here's my story!". Your blog strikes me as being very informative but not very conversational. I've read a couple of your posts, and I'd probably only comment on them a) if I found an error and wanted to point it out or b) if I had a specific question to ask.

You might want to try this experiment: end your next "subgenre of the week" post by asking readers what their favorite books/stories are in that genre.

(BTW, I love your avatar).

Yeah, I've always been aware I had a bit of a weakness as far as conversational tone on the blog. I'm probably also a bit used to AW, where I could copy-paste one of those blog posts as a thread, and then a lively debate would spring up on its own.

I'll give your suggestion a shot, although my expectations are pretty low.

One of the reasons I've been focused on comments lately is that even with all the fancy stats tricks of wordpress, it's hard to really say whether a read found something useful and likes the blog in general, or followed a link and zoomed off immediately after finishing the post or even before.

(I've gotten a lot more positive feedback on the avatar than I expected. It's really interesting.)

Brutal Mustang · Sep 3, 2013

The thing I enjoy most about blog posts and Cracked.com type articles are reading the comments.

asnys · Sep 4, 2013

Ros_Jackson said:
To an extent, Twitter and Facebook have cannibalised comments, so a lot of blogs are seeing fewer comments for the same traffic.

I have definitely noticed that. I don't get much traffic (probably because I don't post that often), but some of my articles do occasionally get tweeted or put up on Google plus by others, and the tweets and posts about my post get way, way more comments than my blog does. There was one occasion when one tweet about my blog post had more replies than there are comments on my entire blog, even counting my own replies.

Liosse de Velishaf · Sep 15, 2013

asnys said:
I have definitely noticed that. I don't get much traffic (probably because I don't post that often), but some of my articles do occasionally get tweeted or put up on Google plus by others, and the tweets and posts about my post get way, way more comments than my blog does. There was one occasion when one tweet about my blog post had more replies than there are comments on my entire blog, even counting my own replies.

The logic of social networking is arcane and twisted...

Having recently received an e-mail from someone reading my blog about how much they liked it and some of the ideas on it, I guess I can now consider my question answered materially in the affirmative.

Literateparakeet · Sep 15, 2013

Liosse de Velishaf said:
Having recently received an e-mail from someone reading my blog about how much they liked it and some of the ideas on it,

Congrats! I'm glad to hear it!

You know something similar happens to me...whenever I start thinking, should I keep blogging? Is anyone reading this? Then someone will comment to me privately about how something on my blog helped them. Since I blog about overcoming abuse, my readers seem much more reticent to comment, but as long as I know someone is reading, I'll continue.

Wishing you continued success!

amber_grosjean · Sep 21, 2013

I can totally understand the frustration of not getting comments in blogs. I don't get any either, and when I do, they are usually spam which totally sucks.

I think your blog is rather cool though. Its very informative and straight to the point. I tried wordpress before but didn't care for it. I like using Blogger through Google, esp now since you can add other pages to it. But I like how you have yours set up. Its easy to follow and the colors are easy on the eyes, so is the format.

When someone is ready to post, I'm sure they will. I have to keep reminding myself about that on my own blog as well. Good luck on it.

Is There Value in a Blog Without Comments

The V-2

About to go off, any moment now

aimeestates

MADNESS

ap123

Twitching

Ros_Jackson

laurasbadideas

Liosse de Velishaf

Brutal Mustang

Loves interplanetary chaos.

asnys

Do Not Fear the Future

Liosse de Velishaf

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie

amber_grosjean

AW Addict