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Sparkle (8)
I think about commenting a lot; more, I would hazard a guess, than the average person. First and foremost, I run the monthly IComLeavWe, which is the commenting version of NaBloWriMo. It is about honing your talent as a commenter. Yes, most of the 120 to 180 monthly participants also find that their traffic goes up and they receive more comments in return, but at its core, it is about honouring the almighty comment and giving the comment its due (yes, everyone is welcome to join along and the January list just opened).
I think the large amount of traffic I have on my personal blog is directly tied to my love of the comment. Commenting well and often means that people notice you, and by extension, they notice your blog. It is the only sure-fire way to build traffic. And beyond building traffic, I think comment writing is just as much an art and requires just as much skill as blog post writing.
So what does it mean to be a good commenter? I've given a lot of thought to this over the last 4 years. I'm certainly grateful when someone takes the time to write, "that was really funny" -- just four simple words. But I'm more likely to sit up and notice a blogger who leaves a long, thoughtful comment. More likely to click over to their blog and read.
There is actually a six-facet approach to writing a good comment, which sounds like a great big ball of stress, but is actually quite simple. There is nothing wrong with writing a brief, "congratulations!" comment to a blog post about a new pregnancy, and there is nothing wrong with writing a brief, "I am so sorry" comment to a blog post about a death in the family. But blog posts that contains a lot of meat, that begs for follow-up questions, that obviously took a great deal of thought to construct requires the reader to use a different approach.
The six elements correspond to the six chief harbingers of questions.
WHO
Too many times people think that they need to be friends with the person or a regular reader to comment. But how does one ever get started if they go in with this attitude? So assume an open comment box is an invitation to comment as long as you're actually reading the post, somewhat understand the situation, and being thoughtful.
WHAT
I think I said this best in a post I wrote about leaving good comments.
What is pretty straightforward: it’s the definition of a comment. I’d define the comment as a verbal hug. A written head-nod. Comments can be critical, when the criticism is used to address a point with the purpose of coming to new understanding. In other words, just as you’d point out something in a person’s line of reasoning if you were having a conversation with them, you’d do so in the comment box.
What comments are not: bait to reel someone towards a different space, real estate on another person’s blog to talk about the commenter, or a hate speech receptacle (whether it is directed at the author or a larger group of people).
I think if you go in knowing what a comment actually is, you stand a better chance of doing it well. And not acting like a troll or a spammer.
WHERE
Comment boxes are no longer solely at the bottom of the post. Sometimes you need to poke around a bit to find the comment box. Don't click away without leaving a comment just because the comment box wasn't evident.
WHEN
Most comments come in within a day or two of putting up the post, but that shouldn't stop you from commenting on older posts if the comment box is still open (some people close commenting on old posts to deter spam). I don't think there is ever an expiration date on comments. Again, I addressed the one exception to the rule in another old blog post on commenting:
The only time I don’t think this is helpful
