So as a new blogger your told to get traffic give traffic !!! go post nice comments on others blogs and they will because they have good etiquette come back and post a nice comment on your blog. I have been blogging for 4 years now and have been religiously doing this reading, commenting and very often getting no comments back in return. Also i noticed that the more well standing a blogger is i:e up the food chain of bloggers the less comments they give. What does their shit not stink anymore have they forgotten where they come from??
As a noobie, I was confused, i was following all the advice from all those self help blog posts, but i was duped these posts were to get hits not give advise!!!
I am old skool and have traditional manners i would spend time every week visiting blogs reading and commenting often i would visit a blog 4-5 time leaving tuns of comments before giving up on that person who had obviously not understood the manners of blogging as they had not bothered to reciprocate the love of comments back to me. If a person came to comment on my blog i would often go back and write 1 - 3 comments on their blog perhaps going above and beyond what was expected, why, because i am nice like that i am good at commenting and a friendly blogger and i wanted to make friends.
Over the 4 years i can honestly say most of these "friends" would only be there if prompted by me with a visit to their blog and a few comments apart from one lady who has been there off and on through the four years and will pop a comment on from time to time and leave a comment .
2 years later, linkies started up a new and exciting way to come together, as many other bloggers were grumbling from the lack of comments and it all started out well and good. If you place a link your expected to comment on others links, great that seems fair! which did happen in the start great little communities sharing the same interested sprung up on cooking, gardening etc Now these linkies are just a waste of time, most often it will be just the host that pops by with a comment saying how nice your thing is and thank you for visiting their >>>insert advertising to their blog here. There are some linkies that have been going some time, so get about 30 hits for that link, so for me i would visit all 30 leave comments and you would imagine if you followed the rules that 30 people would come back to you and leave you a nice comment...... erm NO most of the time 5-7 ......great i am now more confused than ever, what am i doing wrong, i followed the rules, why is it failing?
Blogger also started taking the piss, they wont comment on your blog unless you comment on theirs ( how bloody selfish...oh lilly lilly dont be so mean share some love) so how the heck is all this commenting supposed to kick off with a crappy attitude like that. There are also the ninjas as i like to call them, people who just plain wont comment on anyone's post but still join the linkies, seriously i am shaking my head right now.... don't blog if you cant dish out some comments.
So fast forward now to today and this has been changing slowly for the last 6 mths more people have mobile devices so will read a post but wont comment. Also bloggers have found loop holes (see why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100, britmums, netmums and klout )
So now these clans are popping up all over where you can get loads of comment on your post, as long as you comment on everyone's else posts in that link day and you really can put any old shit up on your blog and you will get comments. They don't even have to be good comments as long as the person gets the hits for the scores on the doors as in the above link. One day i saw someone just right "COOL POST" on everyone's post ..... lazy, yes. No meaning behind the comment, yes. Did they read your post, prob not. Was it worth your time, again prob not. However this person had also cut and pasted this well meaning thought out comment of "COOL POST" on someone who had written about how they had lost their baby and how they were feeling about bereavement. OUCH!!!
Even now these closed groups are having in moaning about that they comment on people blogs but the Ninja bloggers that i mentioned earlier have become more prolific (ninja bloggers naturally breed more ninja bloggers). So what is the point in joining these closed groups ??? i think bloggers are just grateful for any scrap attention from comments and getting some comments is better than no comments.
NOW If only bloggers did what they said all those years ago with the polite etiquette of sharing the love of comments and traffic!! i wonder would we be in this predicament now???
Other grumbles
Why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100, britmums, netmums and klout
Why i wont beg for your vote
Very heartfelt!!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I think it's a tricky one ... we do all love comments but I guess we're also trying to build our wider audience and reach people other than other bloggers and the best way to do this is by sharing on Pinterest, Twitter and G+. I totally put my hand up to not being the best at commenting but when short on time I always feel the best love I can share another blog is by pinning, featuring, plusing them etc and I try and so as much of that as I possibly can. Alice xx
Thanks Alice it really makes me boggle at people. I also try and Pin, G+ tweet etc etc and i have tried so many different things all which fail. i think people must be out for themselves conning comments for their own blogs and carelessing about the supposed community
ReplyDeletei think blogging and its etiquette is a bit of a minefield to be honest. i do try to comment on a blog when someone had commented on mine but i dont always as i forget !!! i def think commenting in general has depleted since i started blogging and that etiquete you mention does seem to be on the decline sadly. it seems more and more about sharing via other SM channels rather than commenting. I used to join in with more linkies myself but i find it hard to comment as much now due to real life committments and so i dont join in as much as it is hard finding the time to comment.
ReplyDeletegood post though as i think it is a very interesting topic and it is alos good to get it all off your chest x x
Like Jenny, I rarely join in with linkies as I don't have the time to comment, but some people join in regardless of whether they comment on others or not. The same goes for comment rings, I would prefer to comment on a few posts that I actually want to read than a thoughtless comment on many more posts that I'm not really interested in reading but feel I have to because I am in a comment ring. I try to reciprocate the comments I receive on my blog but I don't always manage it unfortunately, but I definitely read more than I comment on, mainly because i read on my phone or ipad & its such a faff to comment from there - sorry, this is rambling a bit! keep up your good work Helen & try not to let it get you down x
ReplyDeleteArgh, just wrote you a really long (and interesting I promise!) comment and then it vanished! Grrr! Essentially I was saying that I can completely understand where you're coming from on this, I've cut back a little lately because I simply don't the have the time to keep up with some of the big linkys. Linkys can be lovely (I run a small one myself) but some of the big ones have just got out of hand. I try to comment on as many as I can, but I do actually read the posts so it's very time consuming! I'm focusing more on writing what I want to write at the moment rather than writing 'for' a linky and this week I've spent more time reading my Bloglovin feed, commenting on blogs that I actually want to read :) I'm sorry you're feeling hacked off, although I can understand why, and I hope that you find a happy medium for you xx
ReplyDeleteYou're right it's a minefield and I still can't work out what gets people to the top of any list! It irritates me if I run a linky and people don't comment on my post - it's like coming into my house and not saying hello! And I always comment back if someone joins up! Like Helen I read way more than I comment on which is a bit rude and I should make more effort to say hi as i visit! you're blog is lovely and I am v jealous of your photography skills - and of course your beautiful babies! x x x
ReplyDelete